|
|
Faculty in the School of Life Sciences perform research
encompassing a wide range of biological topics leading to
MS or PhD degrees in Biology:
- Behavior. Reproductive behavior; sexual selection; communication; neural and hormonal mechanisms
of behavior; behavioral ecology; behavioral genetics.
- Biology Education. Student reasoning patterns and alternative conceptual frameworks; the nature
of scientific reasoning; learning styles, instructional techniques, and issues in curriculum development.
- Cell and Molecular Biology. Cytoskeleton assembly; localization of RNA in oocytes and embryos;
regulation of exocytosis and endocytosis; cell-division; cell-cell interaction; recombinant DNA; gene mapping;
regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes; mechanisms of interferon action; signal transduction; confocal and
electron microscopy; cellular bases of vertebrate photoperiodic responses.
- Computational, Statistical, and Mathematical Biology. Functional genomics; population and
statistical genetics; genome computing; computational molecular evolution; population and community ecology,
including extinction risk, spatial dynamics, and the evolution and assembly of communities; spatial modeling
of species richness; environmental monitoring and assessment; environmental statistics.
- Conservation Biology. Conservation genetics; fragmentation effects; extinction dynamics;
patterns and consequences of rarity; design and operation of reserves; urban ecology; conserving desert fishes
and aquatic habitats; desert to rain-forest biodiversity; international dimensions; sustainable development.
- Developmental Biology. Cell and organ differentiation; regulation; development of synapses;
developmental genetics; control of oogenesis; in vitro fertilization; regulation of pattern formation; myogenesis;
morphogens; intercellular signaling pathways.
- Ecology. Life histories, dispersal, and foraging; plant-animal interactions; community structure;
biogeography; physiological ecology; ecosystems structure and functioning; wildlife fisheries management. Research in
terrestrial and aquatic desert habitats reflects the unique location of ASU, metapopulation dynamics.
- Evolution. Population genetics, molecular evolution, systematics, speciation, evolution of
behavior, morphological diversification.
- Genetics. Molecular and developmental genetics; genetic regulatory mechanisms of cellular
differentiation; behavioral genetics; variation in natural populations; molecular evolutionary genetics; functional genomics.
- History and Philosophy of Biology. The nature of biological science and the way science changes;
who does biology and why; what assumptions biologists make and how they influence the research done; questions about
funding, institutions, and the social context for biology; history of ideas about the origin of life; how scientists
decide what kinds of ideas are believable about nature and which ones are unbelievable; how the relationship between
science and religion has changed over the centuries.
- Neuroscience. Behavioral neuroendocrinology; invertebrate and vertebrate neurobiology; control of
locomotion; actions of stress on the brain; mechanisms of hormone action in the brain; action of neuropeptides, neural
basis of behavior; neuroanatomical correlates of behavior; hormonal control of neural plasticity.
- Physiology. Membrane metabolism and function, thermal adaptation, regulation, and ion transport;
tissue, epithelial, and cuticular function; comparative and reproductive endocrinology; neurophysiology; environmental
physiology especially related to desert adaptations; parasites and reproduction; comparative biochemistry; the
physiology of temperature; environmental regulation of gene expression; renal and respiratory physiology; energetics
and physiology of flight.
|
|
