2018

Mansi Srivastava

Mansi Srivastava Awarded NIH MIRA for Early Stage Investigators

September 5, 2018

Congratulations to Mansi Srivastava, recipient of the National Institutes of Health, Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators for her proposal, "Using a new regenerative model system to elucidate mechanisms for stem cell regulation." 

The MIRA award is a unique funding opportunity that supports research that increases understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Andrew Knoll Awarded The International Prize for Biology

Andrew Knoll Awarded The International Prize for Biology

August 30, 2018

Congratulations to Andrew Knoll, awarded the International Prize for Biology of Japan Society. Created in 1985 to honor the 60-year reign of Emperor Shōwa of Japan and his support of biology, the annual award is considered one of the most prestigious honors a natural scientist can receive. 

The Committee on the International Prize for Biology (chaired by Dr. Hiroo Imura, Acting Vice...

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Leonora Bittleston traveled to Borneo to collect pitcher plant liquid for her studies, like those from the Veitch’s pitcher-plant here. PHOTO COURTESY OF LEONORA BITTLESTON

An Ocean Apart, Carnivorous Pitcher Plants Create Similar Communities

August 28, 2018

As a graduate student in Naomi Pierce's lab, Leonora Bittleston (PhD '17) traveled to Nepenthes Camp in the Maliau Basin, an elevated conservation area in Malaysian Borneo with a rich, isolated rainforest ecosystem, to collect pitcher plants. The carnivorous pitcher plants trap, drown and digest their animal prey to supplement nutrient-poor soils. Bittleston collected samples of the liquid inside the pitchers to compare to pitcher plants in Massachusetts and along the Gulf Coast. Though unrelated, both plant families had similar adaptations for trapping prey and are a perfect...

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These baby echidnas, like their platypus cousins, lick or slurp their milk from their mother's skin.  PHOTO: BEN NOTTIDGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Echidnas Don't Suck - But Their Ancestors Did

July 20, 2018

A new study published in Science by Professor Emeritus Alfred Crompton and his faculty assistant, Catherine Musinsky, suggests suckling was part of the original mammalian package. The ability to suckle milk is a defining characteristic of mammals. Yet, one branch of mammals, egg-laying monotremes, which include the platypus and echidna, do not. Monotreme babies instead lap or slurp milk from patches on the mother'...

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