Biology

Topic Feel the heat? How social behaviour affects thermal sensitivity: lessons from an amphibious fish. Speaker Dr. Suzie Currie Vice-Principal and Associate Vice-President Research and Innovation Professor of Biology About Dr. Suzie Currie Dr. Suzie Currie is the Vice-Principal and Associate Vice-President, Research and Innovation. In her role, she leads the strategic direction of UBC […]

In his upcoming lecture, "Grand Challenges in Restoring Boreal Populations of Threatened Bison," Dr. Thomas Jung—Adjunct Professor from the University of Alberta and Senior Wildlife Biologist from the Government of the Yukon—will discuss challenges facing the largest mammals in the boreal forest. Once widespread, boreal bison populations are now small, isolated, and represent the only […]

Attend an engaging lecture with Dr. Melissa Caza, Laboratory Scientist with Interior Health Authority and Adjunct Professor at UBC. In her presentation, “How Molecular Biology Powers Modern Clinical Diagnostics,” Dr. Caza will highlight key technologies shaping today’s clinical testing—such as multiplex real-time PCR and the development and validation of laboratory-developed tests. Dr. Caza will share […]

The Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science presents this seminar as part of the Department of Biology Seminar Series. About the Talk Invasive plant management using living organisms (biological control) has a successful history of more than 70 years in Canada. However, increasing globalization, the continued introduction of non-native species and climate-driven shifts such as […]

The Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science presents this seminar as part of the Department of Biology Seminar Series. About the Talk The grape and wine industry contributes more than $11 billion annually to the Canadian economy, with wine ranking as the country’s highest value‑added agricultural product. However, grapevines host more plant pathogens than any other […]

The Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science presents this talk as part of the Department of Biology Seminar Series About the talk Developing accurate, physics‑based computational models of nucleic acids, proteins and lipids requires fitting many unknown parameters across diverse experimental datasets. Conventional modelling approaches are often opaque and difficult to reproduce, creating barriers to […]

The Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science presents this talk as part of the Department of Biology Seminar Series. About the talk Selfish genetic elements bend the rules of Mendelian inheritance to increase their own transmission—often at a cost to the organism. Although widespread and evolutionarily significant, these elements have historically been difficult to study […]

The Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science presents this talk as part of the Department of Biology Seminar Series. About the talk How can science educators meaningfully engage with Indigenization in ways that are collaborative, sustained, and impactful? In this session, Dr. Welsh will explore approaches for beginning and nurturing engagement with Goal 4: Indigenizing […]

The Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science presents this talk as part of the Department of Biology Seminar Series. About the talk This work explores how early-life gut inflammation and the microbiome shape brain immune cells (microglia), with lasting consequences for neural development and behaviour. Using models of inflammatory bowel disease, findings show that disrupted […]

The Plant Bioactive Compounds Research (PlantBioCoRe/Dang) Laboratory at UBC Okanagan is hosting a mini-symposium that brings together researchers from Canada and Asia working at the intersection of plant specialized metabolism, natural product biosynthesis, enzymology and synthetic biology. The symposium will feature researchers from the University of British Columbia, University of Northern British Columbia and the […]

About the Talk Do animals actually seek each other out, or do they just end up together at the same resource hotspots? Drawing on theoretical models and field data from caribou, this talk unpacks the critical overlap between spatial ecology and social networks—and why studying either in isolation may misread animal fitness. Speaker Dr. Eric […]

About the Talk Identifying climate-resilient coral reefs demands both precise ecological field data and unprecedented global coordination. Leveraging MERMAID, the largest open-access coral monitoring platform, this talk connects frontline marine science to global climate and biodiversity frameworks. Expect a candid, science-to-action perspective on what it takes to translate ecological data into durable conservation wins. About […]

About the Talk Populations locally adapted to specific environmental conditions are especially at risk as climate shifts may outpace their capacity to adapt to new conditions. This talk introduces genomic vulnerability, an approach for identifying populations most vulnerable to climate change and how we use population and landscape genomics to estimate genomic vulnerability in the […]