Department of Biological Sciences

Graham Hatfull holding a Petri dish
In 2019, biologist Graham Hatfull’s research on bacteria-killing viruses saved a British teenager’s life. Based on that success, a new patient’s case, published in Nature Medicine, further advances the science behind curing antibiotic-resistant lung infections.
Jess Boddy, in a Pitt t-shirt, holds two turtles. A pond is in the background.
Wombat poop is cube shaped. An octopus has nine brains. Weird but true facts like these are all in a day’s work for Jess Boddy (A&S ’16), an editor and podcast producer at Popular Science who got her start at Pitt.
Hallway of the Cathedral of Learning, with a student walking in the background
The Office of the Provost recently awarded Open Educational Resources (OER) funding to seven projects during the spring 2021 term...
Two up-close renderings of a fly's eye
Students in Jeffrey Hildebrand and Nancy Kaufmann’s lab course get valuable real-world experience—and recently, a publication credit—as they uncover why neural tubes fail to close during development.
Alvin Liu crouching near a body of water, next to shrubbery
In his new book, longtime plant collector and Pitt junior Alvin Liu offers an in-depth look at the wild carnivorous plants that thrive in the New Jersey Pinelands.
A student with blue-green and black hair uses lab equipment
Simply acknowledging that college is challenging during introductory science courses has helped to close racial and gender achievement gaps. The intervention, begun in a Pitt biology course, is being adopted at universities around the country.
A person wearing headphones and a face mask in an orange sweater performs tests at a desk
Though not without its challenges, Kristin Butela says students in her Foundations of Biology Lab course are collaborating and communicating their work better than in years’ past, in part due to adjustments under Flex@Pitt.