Biology

“The questions I’m asking in this CAREER grant set the stage,” she says, for discovering how arachnid species that can reproduce both sexually (with a mate) and asexually (without a mate) “control whether it’s going to be one reproductive mode or the other,” Mercedes Burns says. “Ultimately we want to understand what allows for this kind of reproductive strategy in these systems, which we don’t see commonly in animals.” Continue Reading Mercedes Burns to study arachnid evolution in Japan through prestigious NSF CAREER Award

A virus’s ability to sense its environment, including elements produced by its host, adds “another layer of complexity to the viral-host interaction,” says Ivan Erill. Right now, viruses are exploiting that ability to their benefit. But in the future, he says, “we could exploit it to their detriment.” Continue Reading New UMBC research finds that viruses may have “eyes and ears” on us

Drug resistance is a growing problem in treating fungal disease. Jeffrey Gardner is searching for a new way to treat these infections with bacterial enzymes. It’s a new area of research for him, but “if you can find an interesting bug, with some interesting physiology,” he says, “the types of questions can really span major different areas.” Continue Reading UMBC’s Jeffrey Gardner receives $1.3M from NIH to discover new treatments for fungal disease