Dr. Wright is an ichthyologist and molecular biologist focused on fish diversity and genetic mechanisms enabling adaptability to extreme environments. His interest began during his doctoral research at the University of California Santa Cruz, studying intertidal fishes. Currently, as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Houston, he investigates how fish survive in harsh conditions like icy polar oceans and deep-sea pressures, as well as transitions between freshwater and saltwater. His research involves a dynamic mix of adventurous field expeditions, cutting-edge laboratory experiments, precise genome editing with CRISPR, and advanced bioinformatics analyses, enhancing our understanding of evolutionary biology and its biomedical applications.

Fish are the most diverse and widespread group of vertebrates on Earth, occupying nearly every aquatic habitat imaginable. Their remarkable adaptability has allowed them to successfully colonize environments ranging from warm, shallow freshwater lakes to the deepest parts of the ocean, including areas as extreme as alpine lakes, polar seas, hydrothermal vents, and even the Mariana Trench. While most fish species thrive in habitats that readily support life, some have evolved extraordinary adaptations enabling survival in conditions of complete darkness, immense pressure, freezing temperatures, and limited food availability. Understanding how these unique traits have evolved provides insight into the fundamental mechanisms of adaptation and evolution. In this seminar, Dr. Wright will introduce several extraordinary fish species that exemplify adaptation to extreme habitats. Additionally, he will discuss how modern genomic technologies and bioinformatics tools are being applied to uncover the genetic basis of these adaptations, providing a window into the evolutionary processes shaping life on our planet.

Global change is affecting ecosystems worldwide. To understand and mitigate the consequences of global change, we may need to understand how biotic interactions influence ecological communities. There is emerging evidence that plant-microbe interactions can play a strong role in structuring plant communities. In this talk, Dr. Crawford will discuss her work investing how climate-mediated changes in plant-microbe interactions will influence plant communities in Texas grasslands.

Dr. Crawford earned her B.A. degree in Biology at University of Tennessee and her Ph.D. in Ecology at Rice University. She is an Associate Professor of the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at University of Houston. Her research focuses on how diverse ecological communities form and what function diversity plays in ecological processes. She does this by addressing how interactions among plants and between plants and other above- and below-ground organisms shape communities and mediate ecosystem functions.

Dr. Miller earned his B.A. degree in Biology at Colgate University and his Ph.D. in Ecology at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is an Associate Professor of the Biosciences Department at Rice University. His research addresses fundamental questions regarding population dynamics and the population-level consequences of inter-specific interactions, mostly in plant and insect systems. His work spans population, community, and evolutionary ecology, including the spread of biological invasions, the dynamics of consumer-resource and host-symbiont interactions, and the evolution of life histories.

All natural populations experience fluctuations in their environment through space and time. This has never been more true: increased climatic fluctuations and spatial heterogeneity are hallmarks of ongoing anthropogenic global change. This talk will explore how plant populations respond to spatial and temporal environmental variability. In the spatial dimension, environmental variation causes some locations to be more suitable for population viability than others. Over large spatial scales, the boundary between suitable and unsuitable habitat defines species range limits. I will present experimental work examining the drivers of range limitation in a grass species endemic to the southern Great Plains. In the temporal dimension, environmental variation can impose a penalty on fitness in stochastic environments through nonlinear averaging (bad times are more harmful than good times are helpful). I will present work exploring how interactions with microbial symbionts may buffer host populations against negative effects of fluctuations in the environment. Integrating over time and space, I will discuss challenges and opportunities for forecasting population responses to environmental change.

The seminar provided students with an idea of what a career working in one institutional core facility – the ATGC – was like: the genomic technologies that were being used, how data generated in the ATGC was critical for the various research programs MD Anderson investigators were conducting to understand, cure, and prevent cancer, and what ATGC members thought about their role in MD Anderson&ss mission to “Make Cancer History.”