Department of Biology

Undersea life is often plagued by disease outbreaks, according to University of Washington marine ecologist Robert Paine, even though their causes are seldom identified.

There are many ways genetic engineering can produce food that is unsafe to eat. But the human diet has always been fraught with the same kind of risks, said Toby Bradshaw, a plant geneticist and chairman of the Biology Department at the University of Washington.

UW's Conservation Canines are at it again. Learn more about their work with orcas.

To hear UW biology professor Michael Dickinson tell it, there is nothing in the world quite as wonderful as a fruit fly.

Zoos all around the world love penguins. But as carefree as they might look, zoo penguins are stalked by an unrelenting killer: malaria. Penguin expert Dee Boersma weighs in.

Biology professor Toby Bradshaw seeks to calm fears about genetically modified food.

A UW biology grad student is working to identify rays killed for medicinal purposes.

After retirement, UW professors emeriti continue to gain recognition for their work, as evidenced by recent awards to biologist Robert Paine and author Charles Johnson.

The University of Washington Department of Biology has been awarded a $24,950 grant from the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund (DWCF). The conservation grant recognizes the University's efforts to increase the Galapagos penguin population.

The notion of keystone species, the loss of which can reverberate throughout the food web, is a concept taken for granted today but was unheard of when University of Washington biologist Robert Paine pioneered it in the 1960s.

Could bumblebees be sending out good vibrations to tomato plants? One biology student thinks so and she is out to show declining bee populations could have a big impact on summer crops.

A DNA-based technique developed by UW researcher Sam Wasser, helps researchers fight illegal poaching of African elephants.

When a foot injury sidelined dancer Anna Zemke (BA, Dance, Biochemistry), she gave up one dream to pursue another. But she never lost her passion for dance, even as she pursued a second degree in biochemistry.

Passing through bird guts increases chili seed survival 370 percent according to Evan Fricke, a UW doctoral student in biology and lead author of a paper appearing online June 21 in Ecology Letters.

UW Biologist Sam Wasser and his team at the Center for Conservation Biology innovated techniques for extracting and analyzing DNA from ivory.