Faculty Highlights 2021-2022

We extend our cheers to Robert de Bruijn, who has just completed his first year with the Biology Department Faculty! Robert received his Ph.D. from Tufts in 2013, then spent time as a postdoctoral fellow and as a lecturer at universities both overseas and in the US before returning to join the Tufts Biology Faculty in September 2021 as a physiology lecturer.  His research interests include stress physiology, animal behavior, wildlife endocrinology, and conservation physiology.  We are delighted to have Robert de Bruijn as part of our Tufts community once more!

In January 2022, Catherine Freudenreich was awarded an NIH R35 grant, entitled “Replication through DNA Structures and Consequences for Genome Stability”. This is a 5 year award for established investigators, to provide stability and flexibility of funding, thereby enhancing scientific productivity and the chances for important breakthroughs.

The Biology Department welcomes our new faculty, Lawrence Uricchio. Lawrence graduated from UCSF with a PhD in bioinformatics in 2014, where he was supervised by Ryan Hernandez. He followed this up with a highly stimulating but nearly interminable postdoc at Stanford and UC Berkeley. He is interested in the ecological and evolutionary processes that drive adaptation. Why are some species (apparently) fast-adapting and why are some slow-adapting? How will adaptation affect loss of biodiversity and community composition in our rapidly changing world? The lab is currently pursuing a number of research projects related to these questions, including studies of local adaptation in butterflies, the effects of disease transmission on host genomic variation, and the role of rare genetic variation in evolutionary processes. Lawrence currently teaches Computational Biology, an introductory course that covers the application of computer science methods to DNA sequence analysis, as well as the work of contemporary scientists in this field. Lawrence's favorite hobbies include kayaking, biking, and hiking, usually with his family. Visit Lawrence's profile for more information!

Adult frogs can’t usually regrow a lost leg, but they can after treatment with a regenerative cocktail – read more about this exciting new research "Frogs Without Legs Regrow Leglike Limbs in New Experiment" out of the Levin lab.

In June 2021, the McVey lab received an R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging, as a co-investigator with Dr. Jimmy Crott from the HNRCA; the grant is titled "Strengthening gut barrier integrity with beneficial microbes to increase lifespan and healthspan".

In 2021, there were two notable publications from the Kao lab: a collaboration with Aniruddh Patel in the Psychology Dept. and a new direction for the lab, and the first paper from postdoc Jaerong Ahn.

• Rouse, AA, Patel, AD, Kao, MH. (2021) Vocal learning and flexible rhythm pattern perception are linked: evidence from songbirds. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA; 118: e2026130118.
• Moorman, S, Ahn, J-R, Kao, MH. (2021) Plasticity of stereotyped birdsong driven by chronic manipulation of cortical-basal ganglia circuitry. Current Biology; 31: 2619-2632.

In August 2021, Michael Romero was Keynote Speaker at the International Society for Wildlife Endocrinology, and Plenary Speaker at the Animal Behavior Society (both talks were given via zoom).

The Wolfe Lab's sourdough paper, "The diversity and function of sourdough starter microbiomes," published in eLife in 2021 was a big highlight for the lab, receiving some press coverage.

Congratulations to Kate Mirkin, who was promoted to Senior Lecturer as of September 1st 2021!!

The Tufts Biology Department began the Fall 2021 semester by welcoming two new faculty members in September, fulltime biology lecturer Robert de Bruijn and tenure-track full-time lecturer in computational biology Lawrence Uricchio.

Lawrence Uricchio co-authored two papers, published in the summer of 2021: "How will mosquitoes adapt to climate warming?" and "Understanding the emergence of contingent and deterministic exclusion in multispecies communities"

Sara Lewis led an international team to evaluate global firefly tourism and provide guidelines for greater sustainability - this was published in Conservation Science & Practice.

Mimi Kao was featured in Tufts Now for her article Birds Got Rhythm, Telling Us Something About How We Form Speech and Movement. Read the story on Tufts Now.

New hire to the Biology Faculty Lawrence Uricchio appears in Faculty Focus: Fall 2021 | School of Arts and Sciences. Learn more about Tufts' excellent new hires this Fall!