Interested in joining a lab? Read through the various specialties, pick some that look interesting to you, decide which research option is best for you.
NOT OFFERED SPRING or SUMMER 2027
- Field research: Identify how environmental change, stress, or disease impacts microbial communities in aquatic habitats.
- Computational biology: Examine metagenomic “big data” to understand disease ecology in coral reef habitats.
Ornithology
-- Field of molecular ecology--I am particularly interested in the role that past or present geographic barriers play in the evolutionary history of species, emphasizing their phylogeography, genomics and conservation.
-- Song variation between populations of closely related bird species
--Primate Genetics Lab: Determining social kinship, reproductive skew, population genetic structure, and antibiotic resistance genes in mantled howler monkeys.
--Field Site in Costa Rica: Determining factors contributing to primate population decline; implementing conservation management strategies.
-- Compare, via in silico identification, virulence factors which are unique to Chlamydia species and allow for host adaptation
-- Create Chlamydia virulence factors fusion with fluorescent proteins via in vitro moleculer cloning
-- Contrast spatial and temporal regulation of Chlamydia virulence factors via in vivo over expression during infection an
TAKING SUMMER 2027 STUDENTS FOR SALAMANDER STUDY
Animal personality and environment shaping animal movements
-- Lab: personality of dwarf hamsters influencing social and foraging behaviors
-- Field: wildlife personality in urban vs rural landscapes
-- Field: habitat use and movement of mammals and amphibians
-- Understanding protein signaling specificity and how developmental processes evolve.
--Investigate rare genetic diseases using model organisms.
Investigations on plant responses to the environment.
Current focus on:
-- Impacts of introduced species in Puerto Rico
-- Adaptations to seasonal freezing and drought
How animal glues work: guiding the development of bioinspired medical adhesives
-- Characterize the components of a biological secretion that forms an unusually tough glue
-- Determine how different proteins and metal ions create toughness and adhesion in this glue
-- Use this information to synthesize a novel tissue adhesive
NOT OFFERED SUMMER 2027
Research on Puerto Rican Fan Flowers:
- Pollination Biology
- Genetic Diversity
- Impacts of Invasive Species on Islands
Computational & Developmental Bio
-- Computational biology: learn and apply bioinformatics and programming skills to genome-scale analyses in humans and model organisms
-- Developmental biology: analyze the roles of genes acting in sensory neuron development and tissue regeneration.
Also, Learn more about the Woods-Lo Lab on tardigrade collaboration.