Classes started this week for CSUN’s Spring 2026 semester, and Biology Department labs and lecture halls are welcoming back hundreds of students returning from winter break. A Biology Faculty meeting is scheduled for Friday, January 23 at 11am (check email for location and Zoom option).
The Biology Colloquium seminar series opens Friday with Prof. Sean Murray presenting “Pleiotropic phenotypes resulting from overexpression of a bacterial efflux pump”. Colloquium seminars this semester will be held at 2:30pm in Chaparral Hall room 5125.
Biosphere is also back, with a lightly refreshed website, a new format for the weekly newsletter email, and a new streamlined news contribution form. Use the form to send in your latest updates — scholarship and grant opportunities, awards won, papers published, and projects funded — to be included in the next weekly email newsletter.
In the meantime, here’s some of what’s been going on across the Biology Department:
Marine heatwaves prove too much for fire coral
Master’s students Emilia Dell’Antonio and Lauren Mahoney, and Prof. Peter Edmunds, document the extensive damage done to Caribbean fire coral populations by a 2024 marine heatwave, in a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in November.
Yoder Lab calls for help to study Joshua trees’ super-early bloom
Professor Jeremy Yoder and Master’s student Kirsten Zornado are rallying iNaturalist users to help observe an anomalous early Joshua tree bloom.
Marine Biology crowdfunds for SCUBA training
Adjunct Professor Georgios Tsounis has organized a CSUN Funder crowdfunding campaign to support equipment and training for Marine Biology students learning to conduct scientific dives.
Biology faculty win new grant support
Faculty and staff achievements in Fall 2025 include new research grants to Eduardo Amorim, Robert Carpenter, Peter Edmunds, Cindy Malone, Janet Kubler, Steven Dudgeon, Cheryl Van Buskirk, MariaElena Zavala, Ray Hong, and Cheryl Hogue.