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Winter rains got a little out of hand this week, but CSUN biologists brought their umbrellas and hopped the torrents in the Lindley Avenue gutters to learn how aging changes the human immune system, hear a giant fish’s underwater calls, and prep for the first exams of the semester.
Student awards and scholarships presented by the Biology Department and the College of Science and Mathematics are still open for applications — the deadline for most CSM opportunities is Feb 28, and for Biology, March 5.
The Office of Strategic Communications is still seeking students to profile for the 2026 commencement celebrations — Faculty should reach out to Carmen Chandler, carmen.chandler@csun.edu, to nominate students.
The Biology Colloquium seminar series continues Friday with Dr. Berenice Benayoun, Associate Professor of Gerontology, Cancer Biology, Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC Keck School of Medicine. Her talk will be titled “Sex-differences in immune aging: are we missing half of the picture?” Colloquium seminars are held this semester at 2:30pm in Chaparral Hall room 5125.
Click through for more of what’s going on across the Biology Department:
CSUN Marine Biologists help catch a giant bass note on camera
CSUN Marine Biologists’ recent work to record thunderous calls made by giant sea bass was featured on the OceanX YouTube channel — including new video of a booming bass. Check out the embedded video below, or click through to hear these huge fish boom, and learn why they make a signal so strong divers feel it in their chests from Prof Larry Allen and recent Master’s grad Elizabeth Burns.
Joshua tree genomics feature in National Geographic
The Yoder Lab’s work to identify genes and traits that help Joshua trees survive desert drought and heat — and which could be the key to helping them survive a hotter, drier future — is featured as part of a new National Geographic article on developing efforts to protect the Mojave Desert’s most distinctive trees.