To request a media interview, please reach out to School of Biological Sciences experts using our faculty directory, or contact Jess Hunt-Ralston, College of Sciences communications director. A list of faculty experts and research areas across the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech is also available to journalists upon request.
Isabella Muratore at the New Jersey Institute of Technology says studying army ants comes with certain occupational hazards, like their very aggressive nature. But what's truly remarkable is when the ants encounter obstacles — such as a gap between leaves or branches — they build living bridges out of their bodies, hooking themselves together like a barrel of monkeys. This story includes comments from David Hu, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, with an adjunct appointment in the School of Physics. Hu has studied how fire ants use their bodies to build rafts. He says this type of work reveals how ants make collective decisions, which could have implications for controlling swarms of robots. (This story was also covered on Houston Public Media, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and National Public Radio.)
Alabama Public Radio | 2023-11-14T00:00:00-05:00
The transferability and clinical value of genetic risk scores (GRSs) across populations remain limited due to an imbalance in genetic studies across ancestrally diverse populations. The researchers here conducted a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of 156,319 prostate cancer cases and 788,443 controls of European, African, Asian and Hispanic men, reflecting a 57% increase in the number of non-European cases over previous prostate cancer genome-wide association studies. School of Biological Sciences researchers involved in the study include Joe Lachance, associate professor, and Rohini Janivara, Ph.D. Bioinformatics student.
Nature Genetics | 2023-11-09T00:00:00-05:00
A team of infectious disease researchers at the Emory University School of Medicine, working with colleagues from the Georgia Institute of Technology, has found via clinical trial that fecal transplants after kidney transplantation reduce the susceptibility of patients to infections by multi-drug-resistant organisms (MDROs). In their study, reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the group tested the impact of fecal microbiota transfer (FMT) on kidney transplant patients receiving care at Emory Transplant Center, in Atlanta. One of the researchers involved in the study is Roth E. Conrad, an Ocean Science and Engineering Ph.D. scholar in the School of Biological Sciences.
Medical Xpress | 2023-11-02T00:00:00-04:00
Bacteria form colonies on many natural surfaces, from tree bark to our own teeth. Now, a team of evolutionary biologists in Switzerland has identified genetic mutations that enable some bacterial colonies to expand rapidly. The findings, recently reported in PLoS Biology, suggest that mutations in just a few key genes can have widespread impacts on gene expression as bacteria replicate and move into new territory. “It’s really creative work,” says evolutionary biologist William Ratcliff, Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences in the School of Biological Sciences, who was not involved in the study. “Understanding the way that [bacteria] might evolve in nature, the complex life cycles that they possess, and how they respond to different kinds of environments can be really hard.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2023-10-27T00:00:00-04:00
In fulfillment of Georgia Tech's Strategic Plan for Expanding Access, the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) has established the first cohort of the Georgia Tech STEM Educators' Network (GTSEN). The goal of this initiative is to give teachers and administrators the tools and information to help them prepare the youth in their communities to become college and career ready. The group attended a two-day kick-off event held at Georgia Tech in late September. The visit included a trip to Zoo Atlanta for some educational activities related to bio-inspired design led by Marc Weissburg, professor in the School of Biological Sciences.
Savannah-Chatham County Public School System | 2023-10-23T00:00:00-04:00
Researchers at Georgia Tech have received funding to study the concept of using modified strains of probiotic bacteria – that are already part of the human gut microbiome – to stimulate the formation of antibodies against the flu virus in the body’s mucosal membranes. The research, supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), will study whether or not the harmless bacteria can be successfully modified to carry snippets of a viral coat protein that could stimulate the desired response in mucosal membranes lining the gut. “We’re using some well-established probiotic bacteria that have been utilized for dozens of years, are well vetted and safe for humans,” said Brian Hammer, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences who specializes in bacterial genetics.
India Education Diary | 2023-10-23T00:00:00-04:00
This fall, the Institute will launch a foundational, interdisciplinary program to lead in research related to neuroscience, neurotechnology, and society. The Neuro Next Initiative is the result of the growth of GTNeuro, a grassroots effort over many years that has led in the hiring of faculty studying the brain and the creation of the B.S. in neuroscience in the College of Sciences, and contributed to exciting neuro-related research and education at Georgia Tech. Guided by faculty members Christopher Rozell, professor and Julian T. Hightower Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Simon Sponberg, Dunn Family Associate Professor of Physics and Biological Sciences; and Jennifer S. Singh, associate professor in the School of History and Sociology, the Neuro Next Initiative at Georgia Tech will lead the development of a community that supports collaborative research, unique educational initiatives, and public engagement in this critical field.
India Education Diary | 2023-10-23T00:00:00-04:00
Godzilla first tore across screens in the 1954 Japanese movie Godzilla. Since then, he’s had many different forms in films and books. But most Godzilla forms feature his signature power move: atomic breath. This powerful beam of radiation shoots from his mouth as he roars. Maybe Godzilla’s awe-inspiring atomic breath could be possible. But it would take some special tricks of biology. No matter the shape of the emitted breath, Godzilla would need a source of radiation. Perhaps the radioactivity is coming from some truly awful breath. “If I was going to think about what’s the most noxious breath and lizards, it would probably be a large meat-eating lizard, like a Komodo dragon,” says James Stroud. an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences.
Science News Explores | 2023-10-16T00:00:00-04:00
Metagenomes encode an enormous diversity of proteins, reflecting a multiplicity of functions and activities. Exploration of this vast sequence space has been limited to a comparative analysis against reference microbial genomes and protein families derived from those genomes. Here, to examine the scale of yet untapped functional diversity beyond what is currently possible through the lens of reference genomes, a team of scientists has developed a computational approach to generate reference-free protein families from the sequence space in metagenomes. The researchers include Joel Kostka, professor and Associate Chair of Research in the School of Biological Sciences (part of the Novel Metagenome Protein Families Consortium), and Kostas T. Konstantinidis, Richard C. Tucker Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. (This research was also covered at Berkeley Lab.)
Nature | 2023-10-11T00:00:00-04:00
Animals under managed care in zoos and aquariums are ideal surrogate study subjects for endangered species that are difficult to obtain in the wild. A team including School of Biological Sciences researchers compared the fecal and oral microbiomes of healthy, managed African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) to those of other domestic and wild vertebrate hosts to determine how host identity, diet, and environment shape the penguin microbiome. Future studies should link these results to microbial functional capacity and host health, which will help inform conservation efforts. The researchers include Ph.D. scholar Ana G. Clavere Graciette, Adjunct Associate Professor Frank J. Stewart, and Zoe Pratte, postdoctorate scholar.
Nature Scientific Reports | 2023-10-04T00:00:00-04:00
