In the News

On Oct. 29, CALS celebrated the 16th annual Research & Extension Awards and the 10th annual Core Value Staff Awards. These awards recognize the notable and wide-ranging accomplishments of CALS faculty and staff, who always go above and beyond in their contributions to the college.

This year’s Innovative Teaching and Learning Award winners will give Cornell students a host of new opportunities and experiences, thanks to faculty grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.

Researchers, including Tory Hendry, assistant professor of microbiology, have uncovered new insights into a symbiosis between bioluminescent bacteria and deep-sea anglerfish. 

Eighteen Cornell doctoral students from 13 fields of study have received 2019-20 Engaged Graduate Student Grants to support community-engaged research relevant to their dissertations.

The arc of educational continuity and inspirational teaching was celebrated May 22 at the 31st annual Merrill Presidential Scholars convocation in Willard Straight Hall.

About 2,000 middle and high school students will show their science and engineering acumen at the 35th annual Science Olympiad National Tournament, May 31-June 1 at Cornell.

While sifting through the bacterial genome of salmonella, Cornell food scientists discovered mcr-9, a stealthy jumping gene so diabolical that it resists one of the world’s few last-resort antibiotics.

Active learning teaching techniques are increasingly being used in classrooms across CALS as faculty revamp courses to emphasize creative and innovative thinking.

A new study finds that glyphosate, the active herbicidal ingredient in weed killers, was present at low levels in a variety of dog and cat foods.

Pea aphids – a serious agricultural pest – have the ability to see and avoid a common, aphid-killing bacteria on plant leaves, according to a new Cornell study. 

For the first time, scientists have sequenced and analyzed the genomes of bacteria that live in anglerfish bulbs from fish specimens collected in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Engaged Graduate Student Grants will support 21 Cornell doctoral students, six of which are CALS, and their community partners researching a range of topics. 

Visiting students from the University of Puerto Rico worked in laboratories this past semester thanks to an opportunity from the Cornell Undergraduate Research Board’s (CURB) mentorship program.

Visiting students from hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico honed their science skills by shadowing and working in laboratories across campus this semester.

Assistant professors Ilana Brito, Michael Niemack and Marcos Simoes-Costa are among 50 scientists under the age of 40 named Young Scientists 2018 by the World Economic Forum.

A new study by Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine scientists unveils a novel approach to vaccine development in the fight against tuberculosis, illustrating how certain host cells are able to either control or promote the growth of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) bacterium.

Scientists represented Cornell at the annual USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C., April 7-8.

BacterioFiles
Certain transposons, genetic elements that move around the genome on their own, have co-opted the bacterial immune system, CRISPR, to use for jumping to new hosts!

Cornell CALS scientists are beginning to unravel the complicated connections between viruses, the environment and wasting diseases among sea stars in the waters of the Pacific Northwest.

Madsen was a leading researcher of microbial processes in natural environments whose research and teaching career at Cornell spanned nearly four decades.

A study describes for the first time evidence of "jumping genes" adopting a bacterial immune mechanism for transferring genetic material between bacteria and across bacterial species.

David B. Wilson, professor of molecular biology and genetics and a world leader in the field of enzymology, died April 29. He was 77.

Since the summer of 2013, millions of sea stars have died along the west coast of North America, but are scientist any closer to finding the cause?

Hydrogen peroxide detoxification is a key mechanism for growth of ammonia-oxidizing archaea.

To honor a Cornell researcher who keeps our food supply safe, a recently discovered spoilage bacterium has been named for Martin Wiedmann.

Bacillus cereus can no longer hide. The food safety world now has a new tool to find foodborne illness – the bacteria's own whole genome, reports Cornell food scientists.

A new study of the distribution in North American soils of Streptyomyces, a genus of bacteria is the source of 80 percent of antibiotics, finds it corresponds with latitude.

A Cornell-led study published May 11 in the journal Cell Host Microbe provides the strongest evidence yet that human DNA influences the type and number of bacteria that reside in each person’s gut.

Helmann Lab publish in Molecular Microbiology

Brent Gudenkauf and Ian Hewson publish article in Frontiers in Marine Science "Comparative Metagenomics of Viral Assemblages Inhabiting Four Phyla of Marine Invertebrates.

Sea star wasting disease is the largest marine disease event ever seen

Biology major James Eaglesham '15 is heading to Cambridge University as the Cornell’s newest Churchill scholar. He is one of 14 students nationwide to receive this honor and Cornell’s 21st Churchill scholar since 1975.

Researchers have identified a new virus that as the culprit in a massive die off of sea stars native to the Pacific coast of North America.

Susan Merkel will be presented the 2015 Carski Foundation Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award at the ASM General Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana in May 2015.

Work in Ruth Ley and Anthony Hay laboratories research mentioned in recent PeriodiCALS

A person’s genes can shape the types of microbes that reside in the human gut independent of the environment a person lives in, according to a Cornell-led study.

Ruth Ley's article in November 6 issue of Cell is generating interest in the press.

Ian Hewson and his lab are in the front lines in the fight against sea star wasting disease as described in the May 2, 2014 Science Magazine

Which CALS professor made an important impact on your life? CALS Twitter followers and Facebook friends were asked, and they had some wonderful comments to share.  Our very own Microbiology Professors Esther Angert and Stephen Zinder made the list.

New research reveals how proteins from bacteria tails may lead to inflammation when they come in contact with gut lining cells.

Eight Cornell scientists have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

Associate Professor Ruth Ley was awarded the 2014 ISME (International Society for Microbial Ecology) Young Investigators Award. This will be presented at the 2015 ISME meeting in Seoul, South Korea.

In the November 2013 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Ley Lab graduate student Tyler Cullender and colleagues demonstrate that TLR5-dependent induction of anti-flagellin antibodies prevents commensal association with the intestinal mucosa by limiting bacterial motility.

As disciplines, art and science may seem worlds apart, but a Cornell course bridges the two by using microbiologist Ruth Ley's research as inspiration.

Bacteria have been studied for more than 400 years, but the fact that they routinely function as collectives was missed for 380 years – that is, until Stephen Winans introduced the concept of “quorum sensing.”

Scientists from Cornell's R3 Group and other schools celebrated 10 years of genetic collaboration at the group's 10th anniversary conference on campus, Oct. 3-4.

Researchers have identified a new branch of bacteria, kin to blue-green algae, found in groundwater and in mammalian guts – including those in humans.

Norman C. Dondero, Ph.D. ’52, Cornell professor emeritus of microbiology died, July 10 at Kendal at Ithaca. He was 95.

Three faculty members from the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future briefed Congress and alumni in Washington, D.C., on chemical risks June 18.

The Molecular Genetics of Bacteria was recently released in its Fourth Edition.  Two new co-authors have joined the author team, including Department of Microbiology Professor Joe Peters.

The study's findings indicate that host-microbial interactions that impact host metabolism can occur and may be beneficial in pregnancy potently affecting weight gain and the incidence of Type two diabetes in the child.

A study of twins may lead to better understanding whether genes play a role in what kind of gut microbes a person has, and if this interplay influences such conditions as Crohn's disease, obesity and diabetes.

Cornell microbiologist Susan Merkel is helping to shape how science is taught to undergraduates across the United States as part of a national curriculum task force.

A new study of the genes of twins will hopefully lead to a better understanding of how gut microbes co-evolved with humans and their diets.

Assistant professor of microbiology, Ruth E. Ley, and two other Cornell faculty members have received National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Awards, which includes $1.5 million over five years to stimulate innovative research and support promising new investigators who are studying biomedical or behavioral research conditions.

Anthony Bretscher and John Helmann are two of 78 scientists elected as fellows to the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) this year.

Cornell faculty members Jonathan Butcher and Ruth Ley have received Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Awards, which provide a total of $300,000 over three years of direct research costs.

Dan Buckley, professor of crop and soil sciences, and Steve Zinder, professor of microbiology, led an intensive summer course, Microbial Diversity, at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.