About the Department of Biology

Research in the Washington University Department of Biology addresses a wide range of biological questions, across and between the sub-disciplines of biology: from single molecules to systems, and from steady state equilibria to dynamic remodeling over milliseconds to millions of generations. Intellectually, the department draws its strength from an exceptionally interactive and collaborative faculty who possess a wide range of interests at all levels of biological organization and who utilize many different biological systems and model organisms. ...Read More

May 17
Tyson Summer Seminar Series
Sarah Emery - University of Louisville
"Do symbiotic fungi play a role in the success of a dominant sand dune grass species?"
May 24
Tyson Summer Seminar Series
Robin Warne - Southern Illinois University
"Physiological responses to resource variation and emerging disease in reptiles and amphibians"
May 31
Tyson Summer Seminar Series
Sean McMahon - Smithsonian Institution
"Building forecasts of forests through observations and simulations"

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Two Graduate Students in the Biology Department have been Awarded 2012 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships!

Boahemaa Adu-Oppong - Evolution, Ecology & Population Biology
Ashley Muehler - Plant Biology

Spector Prize 2012

Every year the Department of Biology awards a prize in memory of Marion Smith Spector, a 1938 graduate of Washington University who studied Zoology under the late Professor Viktor Hamburger. 

Research Spotlight

Can behavior be controlled by genes? The case of honeybee work assignments.

Research shows several micro-RNAs - noncoding RNAs that control gene expression - are down-regulated in nurse bees

What worker bees do depends on how old they are. A worker a few days old will become a nurse bee that devotes herself to feeding larvae (brood), secreting beeswax to seal the cells that contain brood and attending to the queen. .......more.