Transforming Crime Investigation

Teaching evolution at BYU has an origin story decades in the making. Today, it acts as a testament to BYU’s commitment to search for and teach truth by integrating faith and science.

BYU researchers Rick Jellen and Jeff Maughan and Washington State University's Cedric Habiyaremye are breeding new varieties of the protein-rich quinoa that can thrive in the harsh weather conditions of Rwanda’s tropical climate.

The global prevalence of anxiety has increased in recent years, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fish may help us understand human anxiety, social connection, and how to move forward.

Students in the College of Life Sciences were recognized this year as Student Employee of the Year and as winners at the Student Innovator of the Year and 3-Minute Thesis competitions.

Elder Larry Echo Hawk shares how his heritage, education, and spirituality led to him serve Indigenous communities as a lawyer and as a government official. He's continued on to serve the world and Jesus Christ as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.

College of Life Sciences students are researching alcoholism, building the graduate student community, designing effective workouts, creating new milk packaging, stimulating crop growth in high-salt soil, and changing diets to protect the planet.

Dean Laura Bridgewater celebrates how BYU College of Life Sciences students and professors are fulfilling their calling to be a light in the world.

Chad Pollard (’22), cell biology PhD student and BYU’s 2022 Student Innovator of the Year, is on a mission to revolutionize Alzheimer’s disease diagnostics.

New dean of the BYU College of Life Sciences Laura Bridgewater champions scientific research as a force for good in the world, learning to embrace the trial-and-error process at an early age as a ballet dancer.

Registered dietitian and BYU alum Miki Eberhardt empowers individuals to create mindful personal and family eating plans. This is not the same thing as thinking constantly about what you eat; it's about making peace with food by focusing on nourishment, nutrition, and celebrating all body types.

Earlene Durrant was hired as BYU’s first female athletic trainer in 1972. With little to no funding for the women’s athletic training program 50 years ago, Durrant molded her resource scraps into over thirty courses and two Hall of Fame inductions.

Students and faculty across the College of Life Sciences are doing amazing things. Read about the three new associate deans, a new dairy product created by food science students, and more.

Through her diligent science communications, Isabella Errigo's research on the negative health effects of Utah's pollution is now a building block for environmental legislation, non-profit missions, and university curriculums. "I expected her to come back with some ideas on how to move forward. She, in the meantime, called forty or fifty members of Congress," says Ben Abbott, BYU professor.

New dean of the College of Life Sciences Laura Bridgewater focuses on faith and science, community, experiential learning, and knowing the "why" behind the research students conduct.

Andrew Hillier and Seth Huber combine public health and engineering at BYU to speed up healing for the foot ulcers of people with diabetes. The students' foot braces take stress off the foot and reduce the need for amputation.

Dr. Kamal Ranadive, born in 1917 in Pune, India, used her degrees to conduct biomedical research in various cancers and a leprosy vaccine. When she retired, she trained rural women to work in healthcare and organized scholarships for women in science.

The following is an abridgment of Dr. Glenn Schiraldi’s presentation given on September 9, 2021, as part of the College of Life Sciences Faith and Science seminar series.

Dallin Leota, the new owner of the Lytle Preserve, opens the land to BYU students, visitors, and Paiute tribe leaders to provide hands-on experiences with history, preservation, and land restoration.

Winners of the Semiannual Agar Art Contests for the 2021-2022 school year, sponsored by the College of Life Sciences Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology (MMBIO).

With the number of natural history collections declining, Skip Skidmore and Randy Larsen recognize the importance of the bird collection at the Bean Life Science Museum.

This distant place is close to home.

It’s not every day that an undergraduate student approaches you with an innovative idea that significantly impacts the field and leads to developing a patented product, a startup company, and published research,” says Jonathon Hill, an associate professor of cell biology at BYU. “[But] I actually think the mentorship aspect is the best story here.”

At the University of Louisville in Kentucky, a student approached then-professor James Porter and said, “You must be a Christian.” This surprised Porter; he never talked about his religion in the public education sphere. The student continued, “I could tell by the way you act that you must be a Christian.”

Four-year-old Sara Sayedi sits on her mother’s bedroom floor in Iran, flipping through images of colorful monkeys and frigid arctic landscapes. The world comes alive to her through the villages pictured in National Geographic magazines and the detailed maps in atlases. Her mother helps her sound out unfamiliar words like Antarctica. Decades later, Sayedi’s fascination with the natural world continues to grow as she engages in environmental conservation work through research that impacts policymaking.

News From Our Life Sciences Departments

I am amazed at how often the work of students from the College of Life Sciences is featured by various campus and off-campus communication outlets. For example, a paper recently published in the journal PLOS One by a group of faculty and students from our Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology was recently the lead article on the BYU homepage and was covered by several local media outlets. These researchers found that the virus responsible for COVID-19 was very unstable when placed on paper money but was more stable when placed on a credit card. This work suggests that our shift to cashless transactions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to limit the spread of the virus may have been ill-advised.

In 2002, the death of legendary NFL center Mike Webster introduced the world to the degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The disease is marked by depression, rage, substance abuse, cognitive dysfunction, and dementia, and diagnoses are rising rapidly among retired football players.

A notebook in one hand and binoculars in the other, twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall left England and arrived in modern-day Tanzania to observe chimpanzees in their natural habitat. Her arrival in the Gombe Stream National Park was intimidating for her as she set out to study the huge, furry chimps by living in harmony with them. Even now at eighty-seven years old, Goodall still studies chimpanzees and advocates for wildlife conservation around the world.

Life Sciences Museum

Every October, schools around the country celebrate Red Ribbon Week, the nation’s oldest and largest drug abuse prevention campaign. New research from the Edwards Lab in the BYU Neuroscience Center shows the importance of this drug abuse education, revealing mechanisms that explain why young adults are more susceptible to the negative effects of marijuana than adults.

The following is an abridgment of Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s original speech given in January 2021 at the BYU College of Life Sciences Seminar Series and sponsored by the Department of Biology.

The sun blazed down on the sidewalk of Provo’s Center Street as community members pounded the pavement to the finish line. The marathon started before the sun had even risen, and amongst the clumps of college students was an older gentleman dressed in bright yellow. He finished in under five hours.

Standing before a new crop of graduate students, professor Benjamin Crookston assigned a “challenge paper” to those sitting in his introductory class to the public health master’s program. After listing four relevant issues, he asked the class to select one, research the topic, and identify ways to address the issue. After careful review, the class chose to address male engagement in female economic empowerment. With Crookston’s help, these six BYU graduate students worked with the Grameen Foundation to create an evidence review on the issue.

After undergoing several dynamic changes over the last year, the College of Life Sciences Greenhouse—a hidden gem—is primed to enable students and faculty to innovate sustainable practices and impact global nutrition. The new greenhouse director, Dr. Matt Arrington, has worked hard to make the greenhouse the ideal setting for hands-on learning and inspired research. His vision is to provide “enough open space where students can have [an] innovative flow of ideas and create their own projects.” Students are encouraged to brainstorm ideas and then use greenhouse resources to carry them out.

MMBIO, BIO, CELL BIO, PWS, EXSC, NDFS, PH

Molecular biology student Zak Webber (’20) worked his way down the hallways of the BYU Life Sciences Building, stopping at office doors and waiting patiently on upholstered chairs. His research idea could improve the health of the Navajo Nation, so there wasn’t time for a rain check. While waiting to meet with one professor, Webber noticed another open office door. He walked over and pitched his idea to Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences professor Ben Abbott, who felt himself to be a match for the project.

I could also ask, "How does knowledge gained through spiritual means fit into the equation?” It is true that science relies on knowledge that is gained by observation using one or more of our special senses.

Alumni Spotlight

New Appointments, New Hires, & Retiring

Margaret Liu grew up with a determined mother who shaped her into a tenacious scientist. Liu’s mother faced racial prejudice as a Chinese immigrant, so she encouraged her children to work hard in school and provided them with music lessons to ensure unique opportunities. She would often tell Liu, “To whom much is given, much is expected,” reminding her that she was held to a high standard.

Five Tips to Faithfully Approach the Intersection Between Faith and Science

Our Counselor, Friend, and Role Model

Inspiring Learning Through a Pandemic: How the College of Life Sciences Took Initiative

Bringing Focus to Diversity in the College of Life Sciences

News From Our Life Sciences Departments

PDBio Evolves Into Cell Biology and Physiology

Alder Dillman

EVERY FIVE YEARS SINCE ITS ESTABLISHMENT IN 1999, the neuroscience major has alternated between the College of Life Sciences and the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences. However, as of July 1, 2021, students and faculty will no longer need to adjust to the rotating administration as the Neuroscience Center will permanently reside in the College of Life Sciences.

ONE OF THE COLLEGE OF LIFE SCIENCES’ PRIORITIES is to support the university’s strategic objective to advance student-centered research and scholarship in the light of President Worthen’s Inspiring Learning initiative.