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Faculty Research

The Biology Department believes that the undergraduate research experience is an important aspect of a student's education. The Biology faculty at Iona College maintains active research programs in neurobiology, cell-signaling, plant molecular biology, and population ecology, studying organisms from baker's yeast to the common reed plant to human brain cells. For brief descriptions of the research performed by each of the faculty members, please refer to the "Faculty" section of the webpage and click on an individual faculty member.

We encourage our students to perform research during their undergraduate careers, where they learn important skills (technical and intellectual) that will benefit them as they pursue careers in medicine, education, basic and applied science, as well as any other career they choose. The Biology students are not only given opportunities to perform research, they also present their research at national and regional conferences (see below) and have been authors in peer-reviewed journals.

Students Work Hard in the Lab
Daniel Lipus ('13)

Diana Nunes ('11)
Nichole Walker ('11)

 
Students presenting their research at the Northeast Regional Conference of Tri-Beta held on April 9, 2011 at Manhattan College, New York

Ivelisse Izaguirre ('12).  Ms. Izaguirre was awarded the Johnson C. Johnson Award for best poster presentation at the Tri-Beta conference.  Under the mentorship of Dr. Teresa D'Aversa, she investigated the effects of myelin basic protein on chemokine secretion in human brain cells.

Nichole Walker ('11). Ms. Walker, under the mentorship of Dr. Yourha Kang, was awarded third place for her poster presentation of the identification of putative genes involved in metal ion transport in Phragmites australis, the common reed.

From left, Matthew Joslyn ('12) and Daniel Lipus ('13).  Under the mentorship of Dr. Joseph Stabile, the Mr. Joslyn and Mr. Lipus presented a poster on the molecular genetic variation of Phragmites australis, the common reed, from different sediments along the Hudson River.  Mr. Lipus was awarded the prestigious Tibor T. Polgar Fellowship (unrelated to the conference) from the Hudson River Foundation to pursue this research.

Garner Soltes ('11).  Garner Soltes, under the mentorship of Dr. Eric Muller, gave an oral presentation on his research investigating calcium cell signaling in baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  Mr. Soltes also presented his research at the national conference of the American Society of Cell Biologists held in Philadelphia, PA in December 2010.