Faculty Highlights

Spotted for the first time: a fish holding its breath underwater

Like us, fish need oxygen to survive. But to breathe, most pull oxygen-containing water into their mouths and pump it through their gill chambers before expelling it out of their gill slits. Now, for the first time, scientists have seen fish “holding” that breath, some for up to 4 minutes at a time.

See video below

Host targeted antiviral (HTA): functional inhibitor compounds of scaffold protein RACK1 inhibit herpes simplex virus proliferation

The Ullah lab has previously developed dozens of RACK1 inhibitor compounds (based on their lab's derived RACK1 crystal structure- with collaboration from Georgetown University). Recently, work has successfully shown anti-viral effects against several human pathogenic viruses and in several cancer cell lines. The recent work was published in OncoTarget

Population genetic evidence for positive and purifying selection acting at the human IFN-γ locus in Africa

Dr. Michael Campbell has published a paper in Genes and Immunity and it made Editor’s Choice of best papers:  "Therefore, we contend that positive and purifying selection have influenced levels of diversity in different regions of IFN-γ, implying that these distinct genic regions are, or have been, functionally important."

Environmental Toxicology 
Title: Assessing the Impacts of Methoxychlor Exposure on the Viability, Reproduction, and Locomotor Behavior of the Seminole Ramshorn Snail (Planorbella duryi)
Tyler E. Frankel  Meredith E. Bohannon  Jack S. Frankel
First published:14 October 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4613

In the present study, the effects of short‐term methoxychlor exposure on the viability, reproduction, and locomotor behavior of adult seminole ramshorn snails (Planorbella duryi) was assessed.

Identification of Trace Metals and Potential Anthropogenic Influences on the Historic New York African Burial Ground Population: A pXRF Technology Approach | Sci Rep, 9 (1), 18976 2019 Dec 12
The New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) is the country's oldest and largest burial site of free and enslaved Africans. Re-discovered in 1991, this site provided evidence of the biological and cultural existence of a 17th and 18th Century historic population viewing their skeletal remains. However, the skeletal remains were reburied in October 2003 and are unavailable for further investigation. The analysis of grave soil samples with modern technology allows for the assessment of trace metal presence.  .....  Click on the link to see the article!

New work by PhD candidate Daniel Koenemann and Principal Investigator Janelle M. Burke, Department of Biology, now presents the first molecular phylogeny of Coccoloba and use the phylogeny to investigate geographic patterns of diversity within the genus. Their work, entitled: "A Molecular Phylogeny for the Genus Coccoloba (Polygonaceae) with an Assessment of Biogeographic Patterns" was recently published in the journal Systematic Botany. 

Collaborations with S. Teng in the Department of Biology and Q. Tang in the Medical School, our researchers have been investigating the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on disease severity to identify important linkages and potential therapeutic drug targets. Collectively, our scientists hypothesize that ACE2 plays a key role in the severity and fatality ofCOVID-19 and viral infection exhausts ACE2 or functionally inhi-bits ACE2 to aggravate the comorbidities of COVID-19 patient. Read more about the exciting work by clicking on the link!

Recent studies in the Eribo Laboratory have been published in the Journal of Food Protection. In this work, the antibiotic resistance of bacterial isolates from twenty-six retail kitfo samples obtained from the Metropolitan Washington area was analyzed. Results of their work revealed that fifty-nine percent of the isolates were resistant to two or more antibiotics. Read more of the study by clicking on the link.