featured
Four awarded pilot grants from Evolutionary Studies
Aug. 16, 2022—By Andy Flick Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator Evolutionary Studies at Vanderbilt selected four exciting, new proposals for pilot grants. Graduate students Samantha Schaffner (BSCI, Patel Lab), Taiye Winful (ANTHRO, Benn Torres Lab), and Katie McCormack (ANTHRO, Benn Torres Lab) have all been awarded funding, along with new professor in EES, Lin Meng who will be...
Associate professor Larisa DeSantis to give prestigious scientific talk in Ireland
Jul. 13, 2022—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator Larisa DeSantis – associate professor of the biological sciences & Earth and environmental sciences departments – will be giving the Royal Irish Academy Discourse Lecture on Monday, July 18th at 2pm central time. The Royal Irish Academy is good company to keep – including famous evolutionist Charles Darwin....
Ben Bratton Faculty Profile
May. 25, 2022—Benjamin Bratton is a new assistant professor at VUMC in the pathology, microbiology, and immunology department. He studies single cell microbial biology. “I’m really excited about how bacteria thrive. Most people want to kill the bacteria, but I want to know why they don’t die,” he explained. “Bacteria grow so fast they’re a great place...
Researchers suggest that complex bird songs might require large populations
Apr. 28, 2022—By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Growing up in a small community has its advantages, but if you want to learn from world experts, you may have better luck in a big city. This is the case in the world of birds as well. Large populations of birds might be better able to...
Trainees of ESI receive high praise
Apr. 8, 2022—By: Andy Flick Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator We congratulate all trainees who applied for grants this cycle regardless of the result. Putting together major grants is hard work and a feat in and of itself. So, for those that didn’t get funded, keep your heads up, we still think you’re awesome! For the NSF...
Vanderbilt researchers use new method to target potentially undiscovered beneficial therapeutic chemicals
Apr. 5, 2022—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator A team of researchers from the Eichman lab and associated with the Evolutionary Studies Initiative led a project that was recently published in mBio. Graduate student Noah Bradley and undergraduate student Katie Wahl (BA21, BCB) were co-first authors on the work studying chemical compounds produced by bacteria....
Researchers aim to define host-parasite interactions by modeling the effects of coinfection on community dynamics
Feb. 14, 2022—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Research conducted at Vanderbilt has been published in a new study in The American Naturalist that models how parasites interact to affect their host’s behavior. The results of the research, conducted by Faith Rovenolt, BA’20, and Ann Tate, assistant professor of biological sciences, reinforce an understanding of the influence...
Microbiologists collaborate on new interdisciplinary research program
Feb. 13, 2022—By: Dr. Andy Flick, scientific coordinator Evolutionary Studies Initiative Big surprises can come from the smallest packages, for example, microbes. Assistant professors Drs. Megan Behringer and Benjamin Bratton have formed a collaboration to study the evolution of E. coli – funded by a pilot grant from the Evolutionary Studies Initiative (ESI). The pair use a...
Graduate student studies lifestyle-associated diseases as evolutionary mismatch
Feb. 1, 2022—By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Audrey Arner, a first-year Ph.D. student in Dr. Amanda Lea’s lab, recently earned a pilot research grant from the Evolutionary Studies Initiative (ESI) to study the evolutionary mismatch hypothesis. Arner described evolutionary mismatch as, “the same allele that was beneficial in the ancestral environment could be detrimental...
Seven awards given in inaugural Evolutionary Studies Initiative pilot grant program
Jan. 24, 2022—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator The Evolutionary Studies Initiative (ESI) has awarded seven grants to researchers in the initiative. These grants will seed new projects and collaborations. We highlight a quick snapshot of the variable and exciting projects below – with links to full stories on three individual projects. ESI director, Cornelius...