Biology Seminar Series

Tue, Jan 20

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

PhD Student Orientation

Host: Phil Barden

Tue, Jan 27

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

CANCELLED/postponed until the fall

Amanda Neisch, PhD

Biological Sciences, Rutgers-Newark

On the Highway of Connectivity: The Role of STRIPAK in Axonal Transport Regulation and Neuronal Function

Host: Dirk Bucher

Suggested Reading:

• A STRIPAK complex mediates axonal transport of autophagosomes and dense core vesicles through PP2A regulation

• Dynein-driven regulation of postsynaptic membrane architecture and synaptic function

Tue, Feb 03

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Natasha O'Brown, PhD

Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Rutgers-New Brunswick

Using Zebrafish to Build and Break the Blood-Brain Barrier

Host: Kristen Severi

Suggested Reading:

• The secreted neuronal signal Spock1 promotes blood-brain barrier development

• Zebrafish glial-vascular interactions progressively expand over the course of brain development

Tue, Feb 10

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Akinobu Watanabe, PhD

Dept of Anatomy, New York Institute of Technology

The Curious Case of Crested Chickens, and Other Tales of Bird Brain Evolution

Host: Phil Barden

Suggested Reading:

• Dumbbell-shaped brains of Polish crested chickens as a model system for the evolution of novel brain morphologies

• Neuroanatomical convergence between pterosaurs and non-avian paravians in the evolution of flight

Tue, Feb 17

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Manpreet Kohli, PhD

Dept of Natural Sciences, CUNY Baruch College

Population Genomics and Evolutionary Ecology of Dragonflies

Host: Phil Barden

Suggested Reading:

• Comparative phylogeography uncovers evolutionary past of Holarctic dragonflies

• The blueprint for survival: the blue dasher dragonfly as a model for urban adaptation

Tue, Feb 24

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

CANCELLED/postponed until the fall

Michael Smith, PhD

Biological Sciences, Auburn University

Nest Design, Construction, and Spatial Organization in the Superorganism

Host: Simon Garnier

Suggested Reading:

• Imperfect comb construction reveals the architectural abilities of honeybees

• Manipulating nest architecture reveals three-dimensional building strategies and colony resilience in honeybees

Tue, Mar 03

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Simon Garnier, PhD

NJIT Biological Sciences

Tinbergen’s Missing Question: How to Make Money With Animal Behavior?

Host: Farzan Nadim

Suggested Reading:

• Hysteresis stabilizes dynamic control of self-assembled army ant constructions

• Information Transfer During Food Choice in the Slime Mold Physarum polycephalum

Tue, Mar 10

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Wu-Jung Lee, PhD

Senior Oceanographer, Applied Physics Lab & eScience Institute

University of Washington

Measuring and Modeling Echolocation as an Active Sensing System

Host: Julia Hyland Bruno

Suggested Reading:

• Movement trajectories reflect active information acquisition by an echolocating porpoise in a target discrimination task

• Head-related transfer function predictions reveal dominant sound propagation mechanisms to the dolphin ears

• Modeling echolocation as an active pursuit of information via infotaxis

Tue, Mar 24

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Robert Habig, PhD

School of Health and Natural Sciences, Mercy University

Patterns of Mammalian Diversity and the Detection of Coyotes and Free-Ranging Cats in the New York Metropolitan Area

Host: Simon Garnier

Suggested Reading:

• Patterns of mammalian diversity and the detection of coyotes and free-ranging cats along the highly urbanized Bronx River

• Cats in the city: Urban cat distribution is influenced by habitat characteristics, anthropogenic factors, and the presence of coyotes

• Predictors of coyote occupancy and detection probability in the New York metropolitan area

Tue, Mar 31

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Cassandra Nuñez, PhD

Dept of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis

Go Right to the Source and Ask the Horse: Investigating Contraception Management in the Feral Horse to Better Understand the Linkages Among Behavior, Physiology, and Ecology

Host: Simon Garnier

Suggested Reading:

• Mean mares? Habitat features influence female aggression in response to social instability in the feral horse (Equus caballus)

• Immunocontraception decreases group fidelity in a feral horse population during the non-breeding season

Tue, Apr 07

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Postdoc Showcase

Alexa Aucoin, PhD

"Modeling With Memory: Using Kernels to Capture Non-Markovian Dynamics in Collective Behavior and Microrheology"

Max Comstock, PhD

"Slime Mold-Inspired Pathfinding for Virtual Swarms"

Santiago Meneses, PhD

"Activity Regulation and Task Allocation in Ant Colonies"

Jie Yang, PhD

"Better Together? The Impact of Oscillator Coupling on Stability and Responses to Perturbation"

Host: Horacio Rotstein

Tue, Apr 14

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

CANCELLED/postponed until the fall

Nanette Nascone-Yoder, PhD

Dept of Molecular Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina State University

TBA

Host: Allison Edgar

Tue, Apr 21

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Michael P. Nusbaum, PhD

Neuroscience, UPenn

Hormone Modulation of Neuromodulation

Hosts: Farzan Nadim, Jorge Golowasch, Dirk Bucher

Suggested Reading:

• Feeding state-specific hormonal tuning of neural circuit modulation

• Perturbation-specific responses by two neural circuits generating similar activity patterns

Tue, Apr 28

CKB 303, 1:00 pm
ZOOM

Phil Parker, PhD

Dept of Psychology, Rutgers-New Brunswick

Beyond the Receptive Field: Visual Cortex Coding During Natural Behavior

Hosts: Dirk Bucher, Farzan Nadim

Suggested Reading:

• Distance estimation from monocular cues in an ethological visuomotor task

• Joint coding of visual input and eye/head position in V1 of freely moving mice

Tue, May 12

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

End of Semester Pizza Lunch

Host: Farzan Nadim

Tue, Sep 02

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

PhD Student Orientation

Host: Phil Barden

Tue, Sep 09

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Eric Fortune, PhD

NJIT Biological Sciences

Neurophysiological Mechanisms of Active Sensing

Host: Dirk Bucher

Suggested Reading:

• Mode switching in organisms for solving explore-versus-exploit problems

• Closed-Loop Control of Active Sensing Movements Regulates Sensory Slip

Tue, Sep 16

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Brooke Flammang, PhD

NJIT Biological Sciences

Behavior, Selection, & Performance: Exploring Functional Novelties

Host: Farzan Nadim

Suggested Reading:

• Who Nose What Flows: Shark Narial Denticle Morphology and Hydrodynamic Implications

• An Adaptable Flying Fish Robotic Model for Aero- and Hydrodynamic Experimentation

Tue, Sep 23

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Timothy Jegla, PhD

Dept of Biology, PennState

How did neuronal electrical signaling evolve? Clues from ion channels across the eukaryotic tree of life

Host: Allison Edgar/Dirk Bucher

Suggested Reading:

• A broad survey of choanoflagellates revises the evolutionary history of the Shaker family of voltage-gated K(+) channels in animals.

• Ctenophores and parahoxozoans independently evolved functionally diverse voltage-gated K+ channels.

Tue, Sep 30

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Timothy DuBuc, PhD

Dept of Biology, Queens College, CUNY

Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) in Animals: Evolutionary Origins, Neurogenesis, and Links to Alzheimer’s Disease

Host: Allison Edgar

Suggested Reading:

• Early Animal Origin of BACE1 APP/Aβ Proteolytic Function

• Asynchronous Evolutionary Origins of Aβ and BACE1

Tue, Oct 07

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Maurice Chacron, PhD

Dept of Physiology, McGill University

Population coding of object location in the electrosensory system of weakly electric fish

Host: Eric Fortune

Suggested Reading:

• Nonresponsive Neurons Improve Population Coding of Object Location

• Coding of object location by heterogeneous neural populations with spatially dependent correlations in weakly electric fish

Tue, Oct 14

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Dina Lipkind, PhD

Dept of Biology, York College, CUNY 

"How do learners evaluate their progress and what makes progress feel good? Lessons from songbirds."

Host: Julia Hyland Bruno

Suggested Reading:

• Songbirds work around computational complexity by learning song vocabulary independently of sequence

• Learning the sound inventory of a complex vocal skill via an intrinsic reward

Tue, Oct 21

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Britt Bertolet, PhD

Earth and Environmental Sciences, Rutgers-Newark 

"Through the lens of community ecology: quantifying microbial contributions to ecosystem biogeochemistry"

Host: Phil Barden

Suggested Reading:

• Microbial community composition, and not pH, influences lake sediment function

• The Impact of Microbial Interactions on Ecosystem Function Intensifies Under Stress

Tue, Oct 28

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Xiaonan Tai, PhD

NJIT Biological Sciences

"An ecohydrological perspective on forest mortality, resilience, and management"

Host: Gareth Russell

Suggested Reading:

• Mitigating drought mortality by incorporating topography into variable forest thinning strategies

• Linking remotely sensed ecosystem resilience with forest mortality across the continental United States

Tue, Nov 04

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

David Lahti, PhD

Queens College, CUNY

"Nature is nurtured and vice versa: insights from bird song"

Host: Julia Hyland Bruno

Suggested Reading:

• A Tradeoff Between Performance and Accuracy in Bird Song Learning

• House finches learn canary trills

• Quantitative integration of genetic factors in the learning and production of canary song

Tue, Nov 11

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Scott D. Evans, PhD

Assistant Curator, Invertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History

"The Ediacara Biota: The Fossil Record of Earth’s First Animals."

Host: Allison Edgar

Suggested Reading:

• Environmental drivers of the first major animal extinction across the Ediacaran White Sea-Nama transition

• A new motile animal with implications for the evolution of axial polarity from the Ediacaran of South Australia

Tue, Nov 18

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Lacie Newton, PhD

NJIT Biological Sciences

"Evolution and speciation of cosmopolitan arthropods"

Host: Phil Barden

Suggested Reading:

• Phylogeography and cohesion species delimitation of California endemic trapdoor spiders within the Aptostichus icenoglei sibling species complex (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Euctenizidae)

Tue, Dec 2

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

ZOOM

Jessica Ware, PhD

Curator and Division Chair of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History

"Insect evolution, with a focus on dragonfly systematics"

Host: Dirk Bucher

Suggested Reading:

• Odonata systematics: past, present, and future: a review of the phylogenetic works in Anisoptera (dragonflies)

• Bringing Shadowdragons to light: Neurocordulia (Anisoptera: Corduliidae) systematics

Tue, Dec 9

ONLINE ONLY

ZOOM

Mohini Sengupta, PhD

Dept of Biology, Saint Louis University

"Decoding movement coordination: Insights from spinal networks"

Host: Kristen Severi

Suggested Reading:

• Spinal Interneurons: Diversity and Connectivity in Motor Control

• Spinal V1 neurons inhibit motor targets locally and sensory targets distally

Tue, Dec 16

CKB 303, 1:00 pm

End of Semester Pizza Lunch

Host: Farzan Nadim

Dr. Diego Giraldo, Johns Hopkins University

Biology faculty candidate

"The chemosensory basis of mosquito attraction to humans at high definition".

Suggested reading 1: Human scent guides mosquito thermotaxis and host selection under naturalistic conditions

Suggested reading 2: An expanded neurogenetic toolkit to decode olfaction in the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae

Dr. Cris Jernigan, Johns Hopkins University

"The neural correlates of identity recognition in a wasp"
*Biology faculty candidate

Suggested reading 1: Age and social experience induced plasticity across brain regions of the paper wasp Polistes fuscatus

Suggested reading 2: Neural correlates of individual facial recognition in a social wasp

Suggested reading 3: Paper wasps: A model clade for social cognition

Dr. David Chen, NYU

"Building the Blueprint of the Brain: Genetic and Molecular Strategies for Unraveling Sensory Circuit Development"
*Biology faculty candidate

Suggested reading 1: Coordination between stochastic and deterministic specification in the Drosophila visual system

Suggested reading 2: Using single-cell RNA sequencing to generate predictive cell-type-specific split-GAL4 reagents throughout development

Dr. Andres Bendesky, Columbia University

TBD
Suggested reading 1: Coordination and persistence of aggressive visual communication in Siamese fighting fish

Suggested reading 2: Evolution of a novel adrenal cell type that promotes parental care

Dr. Nathaniel Himmel 
*Biology faculty candidate

From Nose to Testis: A Journey Through the Twilight Zone of Sensory Evolution

 Suggested reading 1:Drosophila menthol sensitivity and the Precambrian origins of transient receptor potential-dependent chemosensation

Suggested reading 2: Remote homolog detection places insect chemoreceptors in a cryptic protein superfamily spanning the tree of life

Dr. Mark Dombrovski, UCLA

*Biology faculty candidate

“Exploring the Principles of Brain Wiring through Visuomotor Transformation”

Suggested reading 1: Gradients of Recognition Molecules Shape Synaptic Specificity of a Visuomotor Transformation

Suggested reading 2: Synaptic gradients transform object location to action

Dr. Bryce LaFoya, U Oregon

*Biology faculty candidate

On the Factory Floor: Building Brains with Stem Cells

Suggested reading 1: Consumption of a polarized membrane reservoir drives asymmetric membrane expansion during the unequal divisions of neural stem cells

Suggested reading 2: The cytokinetic midbody mediates asymmetric fate specification at mitotic exit during neural stem cell division.

Dr. David Schulz, Missouri University

“Feedback mechanisms in adaptive and pathological circuit dynamics: Insights from ganglia in crabs and mice”

Suggested reading 1: Spinal cord injury is associated with changes in synaptic properties of the mouse major pelvic ganglion

Suggested reading 2: Membrane Voltage Is a Direct Feedback Signal That Influences Correlated Ion Channel Expression in Neurons

Dr. Daniel Kronauer, Rockefeller University

“Communication in Ant Societies”

Suggested reading 1: The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies

Suggested reading 2: The pupal moulting fluid has evolved social functions in ants

Dr. Eric Fortune, NJIT

"The Xprize"

Dr. Guillermo Jimenez Aleman, NJIT

"Two conserved omega-3 fatty acid desaturases control jasmonate biosynthesis in Marchantia"

Suggested reading 1: Ligand diversity contributes to the full activation of the jasmonate pathway in Marchantia polymorpha

Suggested reading 2: How Jasmonates Earned their Laurels: Past and Present

Dr. Eric Tytell, Tufts University

“Resilience of Swimming in Fishes: From Fluid Dynamics to Spinal Cord Injury”

Suggested reading 1: Proprioceptive feedback amplification restores effective locomotion in a neuromechanical model of lampreys with spinal injuries

Suggested reading 2: Regulation of the swimming kinematics of lampreys Petromyzon marinus across changes in viscosity

Dr. Kiersten Formoso,  Rutgers

"Ancestral Terrestrial Influence on Land-to-Sea Transformations Across Amniotes"

Suggested reading 1: The Role of Locomotory Ancestry on Secondarily Aquatic Transitions

Suggested reading 2: Ecophysiological steps of marine adaptation in extant and extinct non-avian tetrapods

Dr. Wolfgang Stein, Illinois State University

"Thermal acclimation and mechanisms of temperature resilience in rhythmic motor patterns" 

Suggested reading 1: 

Suggested reading 2:

Dr. Maurice Chacron , McGill University

“Population coding of object location in the electrosensory system of weakly electric fish”

Suggested reading 1:Nonresponsive Neurons Improve Population Coding of Object Location

Suggested reading 2: Coding of object location by heterogeneous neural populations with spatially dependent correlations in weakly electric fish

Dr. Jessica Goodheart, AMNH
Invertebrate Pirates: Mechanism and Evolution of a Stolen Defense

Suggested reading 1: A chromosome-level genome for the nudibranch gastropod Berghia stephanieae helps parse clade-specific gene expression in novel and conserved phenotypes
Suggested reading 2: Sequestration of nematocysts by divergent cnidarian predators: mechanism, function, and evolution

Dr. Thomas Stewart, PSU
Walking and winking: studying the water-to-land transition to understand how new behaviors evolve

Suggested reading 1: The axial skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae
Suggested reading 2: The origin of blinking in both mudskippers and tetrapods is linked to life on land

Dr. Matthew Schuler, MSU
"Salt Pollution and Its Effects on Community Structure and Ecosystem Functioning"

Suggested reading 1: Salt pollution reduces turbidity, dissolved organic matter, and cyanobacteria in experimental vernal pool communities
Suggested reading 2: Regulations are needed to protect freshwater ecosystems from salinization

Dr. Roni Barak Ventura, NJIT
"Modulating human behavior through technology and policy"

Suggested reading 1: A spatiotemporal model of firearm ownership in the United States
Suggested reading 2: A 3D printing approach toward targeted intervention in telerehabilitation

Dr. Meng Zao, UI

Understanding large-scale plant water relations with GRACE/GRACE-FO

Suggested reading 1: Evapotranspiration frequently increases during droughts
Suggested reading 2: Substantial root-zone water storage capacity observed by GRACE and GRACE/FO

Tuesday
Oct 15
1pm

ONLINE

ONLY

Dr. Lidia Szczpak, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Transmission of rhythmic signals along the nerve cord

Suggested reading 1: Motor neural networks in the leech. 
Suggested reading 2: Intersegmental Interactions Give Rise to a Global Network. 

Dr. Julia Hyland Bruno, NJIT

Songbirds learn the rhythms of their songs

Suggested reading 1: Birdsong Learning and Culture: Analogies with Human Spoken Language
Suggested reading 2: Regularities in zebra finch song beyond the repeated motif

Dr. Pabrita Sahoo, Rutgers Newark

Physiological stress granules and their role in axon regeneration. 

Suggested reading 1: Axonal G3BP1 stress granule protein limits axonal mRNA translation and nerve regeneration
Suggested reading 2: A Ca2+-Dependent Switch Activates Axonal Casein Kinase 2α Translation and Drives G3BP1 Granule Disassembly for Axon Regeneration

Tuesday
November 5
1pm

ONLINE

ONLY

Dr. Maristela Camargo University of São Paulo

SWAB (Spontaneous Wildlife Autonomous Biosampler) - An innovative tool for non-invasive contact-free voluntary wildlife health, pathogens, and welfare monitoring at landscape scale

Suggested reading 1: Rigorous wildlife disease surveillance: A decentralized model could address global health risks associated with wildlife exploitation
Suggested reading 2: Epidemiological connectivity between humans and animals across an urban landscape

Dr. Dirk Bucher, NJIT

Trying to make sense of the neuromodulator soup: co-regulation of receptor expression across different neuropeptides

Suggested reading 1: Neuropeptide Receptor Transcript Expression Levels and Magnitude of Ionic Current Responses Show Cell Type-Specific Differences in a Small Motor Circuit
Suggested reading 2: Removal of endogenous neuromodulators in a small motor network enhances responsiveness to neuromodulation

Dr. Gwyneth M. Card, Columbia

From connectome to behavior: What can we predict?

Suggested reading 1: Synaptic gradients transform object location
Suggested reading 2: Transforming descending input into behavior: The organization of premotor circuits in the Drosophila Male Adult Nerve Cord connectome

Dr. Paul Katz, UM Amherst
All neurons great & small

Suggested reading 1: Artificial Synaptic Rewiring Demonstrates that Distinct Neural Circuit Configurations Underlie Homologous Behaviors
Suggested reading 2: Cellular-resolution gene expression mapping reveals organization in the head ganglia of the gastropod, Berghia stephanieae