More severe and frequent fires in the Alaskan boreal forest are releasing vast stores of carbon and nitrogen from burned trees and soil into the atmosphere, a trend that could accelerate climate warming. But new research published this week in the journal Science shows that the deciduous trees replacing burned spruce forests… Read more
Department of Biological Sciences
Seven new Regents’ professors showcase NAU’s research and scholarly excellence
At President Rita Cheng’s recommendation, the Arizona Board of Regents on Friday approved seven Northern Arizona University professors to be promoted to the rank of Regents’ professor, the highest rank a faculty member can achieve.
The professors are Scott Goetz, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber… Read more
For second consecutive year, NAU ranks in top 200 in NSF research rankings
Northern Arizona University moved up five spots in the most recent National Science Foundation’s (NSF) national research rankings, moving to No. 191 with a fiscal year 2019 performance of $58.91 million.
Year after year, NAU has risen in these rankings, which takes research expenditures into account. NAU also rose… Read more
NAU’s Pathogen and Microbiome Institute to test Allarity Therapeutics drug as potential therapy for new, highly infectious Coronavirus Variant B117
Allarity Therapeutics of Hørsholm, Denmark, today announced plans to further test the antiviral activity of stenoparib, its PARP inhibitor, against SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7, also known as B.1.1.7(the “British variant”), at the COVID-19 Testing Service Center (CTSC) of Northern Arizona University’s Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI), a leading U.S. infectious disease testing center.
The virus variant was labelled “Variant of Concern 202012/01” by Public Health England (PHE), an agency of the UK Department of Health and Social Care, in a publication… Read more
NAU-TGen study results show COVID-19 virus triggers antibodies from previous coronavirus infections
The results of a study led by Northern Arizona University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggest the immune systems of people infected with COVID-19 may rely on antibodies created during infections from earlier coronaviruses to help fight the disease.
COVID-19 isn’t humanity’s first encounter with a coronavirus, so named because of… Read more
NAU biologist collaborates on computational modeling tools to help predict efficacy of cancer drugs
One of the most promising areas of human cancer research is the study of signal transduction, or cell signaling. Communication between and within cells in the body is accomplished through signal transduction, as stimuli generated in one part of an organism travels through the circulatory system and initiates a response in specific target cells. As cells… Read more