Biology News

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  Biology Honors its Senior Graduates!

  Every Spring, the Biology Department hosts a Spring Picnic honoring its Biology and Animal Behavior Senior Graduates. Faculty sign up for some potluck items and we order sandwich trays for a great picnic. We set-up this year’s’ picnic in the shadow of construction on FJS, but had such a nice day and some shade from the trees as well. Each graduate also got their own personalized graduate hat cookie thanks to Lab Director Dr. Stacie Brown.
  
  Below are photos highlighting the event!

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  Alumna Researches the Screening of Hepatitis C in Babies

  Alumna Dr. Catherine Chappell ’03 finds that fewer than a third of infants exposed to hepatitis C are later screened to monitor and treat the potentially fatal virus.

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  Biology Capstone Presentations

  Biology students presented the findings from their review papers or independent research in the first stand-alone Capstone seminar. Biology Capstone is a course for senior biology students in which you investigate advanced topics in biology thereby integrating the concepts and knowledge you have gained from previous courses taken in the major. In the first Capstone seminar, students explored the topic of epigenetics with Dr. Pierce. Epigenetics has been defined as inheritance above and beyond differences in DNA sequences. Epigenetic effects usually result from other changes in DNA, such as traits and processes that are transmitted to cells and sometimes across generations that are not the result of differences in DNA base sequences, usually involving other changes to DNA such as methylation and chromatin structure that affect gene expression. Epigenetics has been called “inheritance, but not as we know it.” Over the past several years, much research has demonstrated that epigenetic effects are important in behavior, cancer, nutrition, response to pollutants, and evolution. After a semester of research, students will present their Capstone papers.

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  Alumna heads to MIT for graduate study in city planning

  A biology and environmental studies graduate, Vanessa Toro Barragan ’12 seeks to tackle climate change at the intersections of science and social justice. The flexible and interdisciplinary Master in City Planning (MCP) program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will allow her to do just that.

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  Alumna heads to MIT for graduate study in city planning

  A biology and environmental studies graduate, Vanessa Toro Barragan ’12 seeks to tackle climate change at the intersections of science and social justice. The flexible and interdisciplinary Master in City Planning (MCP) program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will allow her to do just that.

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  Department News: BioScope

  BioScope provides news, updates and descriptions of the activities of the Biology Department at Southwestern. We routinely feature faculty and student achievements, include snippets of Biology lives outside SU and provide contacts for student involvement in departmental projects. Issues of BioScope come out once or twice a year.
  
  Check out our current issue 

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  Book Display: Flight Behavior

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  The Wonders of Chocolate

  Professor of Biology and chocolate expert Romi Burks talks chocolate with Bloomberg Radio.

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  Start Ups

  The ability to conceive, create, launch, and nurture a new venture is a monumental achievement. Thanks in part to their Southwestern Experience, these four alumni have done just that.

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  Southwestern Officially Breaks Ground on Phase II of Fondren-Jones Science Center

  On February 2, 2018, Southwestern University officially broke ground on the second phase of a $37 million-dollar expansion to the Fondren-Jones Science Center. The project is expected to be completed and ready to welcome students in the fall of 2019.