On Friday, February 28th, the biology department held their annual Graduate Symposium at Woodland Hall at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. Graduate students from the department showcased their research in various length talks as well as posters which were discussed over refreshments provided by Marigold Catering. A list of talks and poster presentations can be found below:
2:00 PM Introduction
Jean Burns, Director of Graduate Studies
2:10 PM Presentations
12 Minute Talks
Osmary Medina-Báez – Assessing vulnerability of butterflies to climate change in Ohio using their physiological tolerances
Kris Lea – Falling Flies: The role of the Dipteran halteres in gravity perception
Miranda Shetzer – Light response of Rhododendron minus: relevance of pigments and leaf movements
Manish Sarkar – The Distribution of Fungus-Growing Ants and Their Symbiotic Partners Through the Lens of Theory
6 Minute Talks
Jessica LaBella – Mobile Genetic Elements in Soil Incubations: Agents of Open Source Evolution
Saliha Ahmad – Fungal communities driven by Rhododendron species correlate with pathogen protection
Taiwo Mercy Faloni – Beyond the Ice: Viral Community Dynamics Across Permafrost Thaw Gradients
3:30 PM Poster Session
Aruni Kadawatha – Shaping Light, Shaping Life: The Effect of Edge Feathering on Light Dynamics and Understory Plant Diversity.
Logan Kolaske – Does contemporary evolution to urban heat islands lower the heritability (evolvability) available for urban populations to respond to future climate change?
Alicia Matthews – The Intracellular Effects of Anti-polymerizing RNA Aptamers in Sickled Red Blood Cells
Suneeti Madhavan – FASNated by fat: WNT signaling activation causes early decline of de-novo lipogenesis leading to lipid depleted dermal adipocytes.
Rob Evenden – Domain expansion:New occurrences of phorusrhacids and rheiformes (Aves) in the late Middle Miocene of Bolivia
Oscar Bautista – Identifying novel meiotic proteins via proximity labeling in Drosophila
Great work everyone, and thank you to Holden Forests and Gardens for helping us coordinate this event!
