Find details about the achievements below and more faculty and student accomplishments in the News + Events section of the IU Department of Biology website.
Faculty awards and achievements
Scientist awarded $2.2 million to study why cancer cells are addicted to sugar
Associate Professor Jason Tennessen has been awarded a five-year extension of his NIH MIRA to continue research that uses fruit flies as a model to understand why human cancer cells consume large amounts of sugar with an ultimate goal of developing new cancer therapies.
Researchers identify microbe that protects bees from fungal infections
Associate Professor Irene Newton and her lab find addition of Bombella apis to hives could protect bees from fungal pathogens, helping maintain bee populations—thus, protecting the food supply.
NIH awards IU biologist $1.66 million to study chromosome biology
Assistant Professor Xindan Wang receives $1.66 million from the National Institutes of Health's Research Project Grant Program (R01) to study chromosome organization and segregation.
Biologist honored for contributions to the understanding of microbial community ecology and evolution
Professor Jay Lennon has been elected as a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America.
Student awards
Biology students receive esteemed research fellowships
Emma Boehm, Joshua A. Jones, and Abigail McClain were selected by the National Science Foundation to receive awards through its Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based graduate degrees in NSF-supported STEM disciplines. The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support, including an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 to the institution.
Boehm and Jones are pursuing Ph.D.s in the Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior Graduate Program at IU Bloomington. McClain graduated from IU in May with honors in biology (B.S.) and honors in Spanish (B.A.) as well as a minor in anthropology. She will attend George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in the fall as a master's student in human paleobiology.
The College of Arts