A man examining the soil and vegetation by a natural water source.

School of Life Sciences News

Life sciences involves studies of living organisms and their life processes, including their evolution and relationships with other living organisms and our planet. The courses and programs offered by the School of Life Sciences are designed for those students pursuing professional careers in medicine, science, and science education.

Current Life Sciences News

Spring Flowers (Becca Schwartz)
Campus News |

A roundup of the top news stories featuring UNLV students and faculty.

two women in graduation gowns with "UNLV Latinx" Stolls
Research |

UNLV-led grant project creates a hub for faculty across the country to share resources, learn, and collaborate with each other.

UNLV professor standing in lab with computer screen in front of him
Research |

International team explores how our cells detect and destroy disease-causing proteins with specificity; findings published Feb. 20 in the journal Molecular Cell.

a man at a table with a microscope and open book
UNLV History |

The late biology professor documented the history of Southern Nevada through its plants.

woman holding a framed photo of her pet Great Dane
People |

This administrative assistant left a career in medical education to learn something new, and then found the School of Life Sciences.

A biology student working in a lab.
Campus News |

Science fiction meets reality in this biology lab course that uses mutant enzymes to transform students into scientists.

Life Sciences In The News

Mirage News

Caltech researchers have discovered a new class of enzymes that enable a myriad of bacteria to "breathe" nitrate when in low-oxygen conditions. While this is an evolutionary advantage for bacterial survival, the process produces the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) as a byproduct, the third-most potent greenhouse gas, after carbon dioxide and methane.

KTNV-TV: ABC 13

At the Center for Urban Water Conservation, you’ll find over 500 fruit trees, grapevines, herb gardens and vegetable beds. It's the Research Garden & Demonstration Orchard for University of Nevada Extension, which also works in partnership with UNLV.

VOI

To minimize the use of plastic as a single-use packaging, alternatively, if you have to use a plastic bag, a rubber bag can be an alternative if you are stuck. Indeed, it is better to accommodate frozen food or stored in a refrigerator with an air-tight food container. But so that you can store a lot of piles, you can use the plastic bag bank used many times. However, microbiologists suggest the following.

Moab Sun News

Here on the Colorado Plateau, old-growth juniper and pinyon pine trees can live for 1,000 years. Can these ancient trees remember things that happened to them years ago? Science Moab explored this enchanting question with Drew Peltier, an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Drew is a tree ecophysiologist interested in how climate influences tree growth in our changing world. He does this by studying what he calls “memory” in trees.

Parade

Get ready for a noisy summer: Double the normal amount of cicadas are predicted to emerge this year. Melodramatically dubbed by some as a "cicada apocalypse," there is a reason why we're going to see so many of them in 2024. Find out everything to know about why there will be so many cicadas in 2024 (AKA a double-brood!), how many cicadas to expect and which states they'll hit the hardest.

Parade

Get ready for a noisy summer: Double the normal amount of cicadas are predicted to emerge this year. Melodramatically dubbed by some as a "cicada apocalypse," there is a reason why we're going to see so many of them in 2024. Find out everything to know about why there will be so many cicadas in 2024 (AKA a double-brood!), how many cicadas to expect and which states they'll hit the hardest.

Life Sciences Experts

An expert in insect physiology and evolution.
An expert in bioinformatics, virology, AIDS/HIV, Alzheimer's disease, and genetics.
An expert on bacterial gene regulation and bacterial pathogens, including E. coli, Shigella, and Salmonella. 
An expert on hibernation, pupfish, evolution, and cellular biology.
An expert in conservation biology, phylogeography, and ecology.  
An expert on mutagenesis, DNA repair, and bacterial genetics.

Recent Life Sciences Accomplishments

Ranjani Murali (Life Sciences), in collaboration with researchers from Caltech, is the lead author of a groundbreaking new study that found many more bacteria produce greenhouse gases than previously thought. The research team discovered a new class of enzymes that enable various bacteria to use nitrate as a substitute for oxygen in low-…
Kelly Tseng (Life Sciences) participated as an invited speaker and panelist in the Lessons from Successful Grantees panel at the Dialogue With Institutional Leaders About Successfully Navigating NIH conference held at the National Institutes of Health main campus in Bethesda, MD. 
Chad Cross (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), Louisa Messenger (Environmental and Occupational Health), and Sean Neiswenter (Life Sciences) were selected to receive a UNLV 2024 Faculty Opportunity Award for their project titled, "Emerging Parasitic & Vector-Borne Diseases: Disease Ecology from a One Health Perspective." The Faculty…
Noehealani Antolin (Public Health), Manoj Sharma (Public Health), Gabriela Buccini (Public Health), Chad Cross (Public Health), Eduardo Robleto (Life Sciences), Jason Flatt (Public Health) gave an oral presentation on "Understanding Fruit and Vegetables Consumption Behaviors Among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander College…
Jessica Grifaldo (Life Sciences), Erin Cassin (Life Sciences), Dengxun Lai (Life Sciences), Landon Netherton (Life Sciences), Efren Heredia (Chemistry), Ryan Doss (Life Sciences), and Monika Karney (Life Sciences) all won prizes for their oral or poster presentations at the Regional American Society for Microbiology Meeting that was held in the…
Chad Cross (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) and Allen Gibbs (Life Sciences) were interviewed for an article titled, "'Double' the Amount of Cicadas Are Coming This Spring in Once-in-200-Year-Event—And These 2 States Will Be Hit the Hardest" by Parade magazine. Cross and Gibbs discussed why there are so many cicadas this year, how many there will…