The Department of Biological Sciences at UMBC prides itself on maintaining a high-quality undergraduate program with a strong emphasis on research. As integral parts of faculty research teams, undergraduate students become actively involved in real research projects, collaborating directly with their research mentors. This often leads to their co-authorship in cutting-edge peer-reviewed scientific publications.

The strong undergraduate research component is illustrated in the following list of publications (undergraduate students shown in bold typeface).

Publications by UMBC undergraduate authors, 2005-2010 (Undergraduates in bold)

• Bosch, J.J.,  J.A. Thompson, M.K. Srivastava, U.K. Iheagwara, T.G. Murray, M.Lotem, B.R. Ksander, and S. Ostrand-Rosenberg, 2007.  MHC II Transduced Tumor Cells Originating in the Immune Privileged Eye Prime and Boost CD4+ T Lymphocytes That Cross-react with Primary and Metastatic Uveal Melanoma.  Cancer Res. 67:4499-4506.
• Cheng, Q., Balzer, E., Yoshida, M., Wong, J.C., and Miller, S.M.  (2006)  Effect of histone deactylase inhibitors on tubulin acetylation and development in Volvox carteri.  J. Phycol. 42:417-22.
• Cho, I., Horn, L., Felix, T.M., Foster, L., Gregory, G., Starz-Gaiano, M., Chambers, M.M., De Luca, M., and Leips, J.  2010.  Age- and diet-specific effects of variation at S6 kinase on life history, metabolic and immune response traits in Drosophila melanogaster.  DNA and Cell Biology(in press).
• De Luca, M., Klimentidis, Y.C., Casazza, K., Chambers, M.M., Cho, R., Harbison, S.T., Jumbo-Lucioni, P., Zhang, S., Leips, J., Fernandez, J.R. 2010. A conserved role for syndecan family members in the regulation of whole-body energy metabolism.  PLoS One. 2010 Jun 23;5(6):e11286.
• Dissanayake, S., N. Tuera, and S. Ostrand-Rosenberg, 2005.  Presentation of endogenously synthesized MHC class II-restricted epitopes by MHC class II cancer vaccines is independent of transporter associated with antigen processing and the proteasome.  J. Immunol., 174:1811-1819.
• Dolan, B., K. Gibbs, Jr., and S. Ostrand-Rosenberg, 2006.  Dendritic cells cross-dressed with peptide-MHC class I complexes prime CD8+ T lymphocytes.  J. Immunol. 177:6018-6024.
• Dolan, B., K. Gibbs, Jr., and S. Ostrand-Rosenberg, 2006.  Tumor-specific CD4+ T cells are activated by “cross-dressed” dendritic cells presenting peptide-MHC class II complexes acquired from cell-based cancer vaccines.  J. Immunol. 176:1447-1455.
• Douglas, J.M., T.W. Cronin, T.-H. Chiou, and N.J. Dominy.  2007. Light habitats and the role of polarized iridescence in the sensory ecology of Neotropical nymphalid butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae).  Journal of Experimental Biology 210:788-799.
• Dowling, J. L. and Omland, K. E.  2009.  Return rates in two temperate breeding orioles (Icterus).  Wilson Journal of Ornithology,  121:190-193.
• Duncan, L., Nishii, I., Harryman, A., Buckley, S., Howard, A., Freidman, N.R. and Miller, S.M. (2007) The VARL gene family and the evolutionary origins of the master cell-type regulatory gene, regA, in Volvox carteri. J. Mol. Evol. 65:1-11.
• Gleason, J. E., E. A. Szyleyko and D. M. Eisenmann (2006) Multiple redundant Wnt signaling components function in two processes during C. elegans vulval development. Developmental Biology 298:442-457.
• Guan, B., Pungaliya, P.,, Li, X.,  Uquillas, C., Mutton, L.N., Rubin, E.H., and Bieberich, C.J.  (2008) Ubiquitination by TOPORS regulates the prostate tumor suppressor NKX3.1.  J.  Biol.  Chem., 283:4834-40.
• Guarraia C, Norris L, Raman A, Farabaugh PJ. Saturation mutagenesis of a +1 programmed frameshift-inducing mRNA sequence derived from a yeast retrotransposon. RNA. 2007 13:1940-1947.
• Harrington MJ, Hong E, Fasanmi O, Brewster R. Cadherin-mediated adhesion regulates posterior body formation. BMC Dev Biol. 2007 Nov 28;7:130.
• Hodges, T., Laskowski, K., De Luca, M., and Leips, J. "Antagonistic pleiotropic effects of natural polymorphism in Dopa decarboxylase on fitness in Drosophila melanogaster", Current Biology (in review).
• Hua Lu, Sasan Salimian, Emily Gamelin, Guoying Wang, Jennifer Fedorowski, William LaCourse, Jean T. Greenberg (2009) Genetic analysis of acd6-1 reveals complex defense networks and leads to identification of novel defense genes in Arabidopsis. Plant J. 58(3): 401-12
• Humphries, E. M., Peters, J. L., Jónsson, J., Stone, R., Afton, A. D. and Omland, K. E.  2009. Genetic differentiation between sympatric and allopatric wintering populations of snow geese. Wilson Journal of Ornithology, 121:730-738.
• Kiere, L. M., C.M. Hofmann, J. Price T.W. Cronin and K. Omland. 2009.  Discrete evolutionary color changes in caciques suggest different modes of carotenoid evolution between closely related taxa.  Journal of Avian Biology 40:605-613.
• Kiere, L. M., Hofmann, C.M., Tracy, I.E., Cronin, T.W., Leips, J., and K.E. Omland. 2007. Using color to define species boundaries: quantitative analysis in the orchard oriole complex supports the recognition of two species. Condor 109:692-697.
• Kondo, B., Peters, J. L., Rosensteel, B. B., and Omland, K. E.  2008.  Coalescent analyses of multiple loci support a new route to speciation in birds.  Evolution 62: 1182–1191.
• Leips, J., Gilligan, P. and Mackay, T.F.C. 2006.  Quantitative trait loci with age-specific effects on fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 172:1595-1605.
• Lesser, K., I. Paiusi and Leips, J.  2006. Naturally occurring genetic variation in the age-specific immune response of Drosophila melanogaster. Aging Cell.5:293-295.
• Li, X. Maghami, S., and Bieberich, C. J. (2006) The prostate tumor suppressor NKX3.1 is regulated by protein kinase CK2, Mol. Cell. Biol  26(8):3008-17.
• Lin W, Ezekwe EA Jr, Zhao Z, Liman ER, Restrepo D. (2009) TRPM5-expressing microvillous cells in the main olfactory epithelium, BMC Neurosci. 2008 Nov 24;9:114.
• Lindahl, L., A. Bommakanti, X. Li, L. Hayden, A, Jones, M. Khan, T. Oni & J.M. Zengel (2009). RNase MRP is required for entry of 35S precursor rRNA into the canonical processing pathway.   RNA 15, 1407-1416.
• Mendelson, T.C. and Simons, J.N.  2006.  AFLPs resolve cytonuclear discordance and increase resolution among barcheek darters (Percidae: Etheostoma: Catonotus). Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution 41:445-453.
• Mendelson, T.C. and Wong, M.K. 2010. AFLP phylogeny of the snubnose darters and allies yields resolution at multiple levels of divergence. Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution, (in press).
• Ogura T, Krosnowski K, Zhang L, Bekkerman M, Lin W (2010) Chemoreception Regulates Chemical Access to Mouse Vomeronasal Organ: Role of Solitary Chemosensory Cells. PLoS ONE 5(7): e11924.
• Peters, J. L., Zhuravlev, Y., Fefelov, I., Humphries, E. M. and Omland, K. E.  2008.  Multilocus phylogeography of a Holarctic duck: colonization of North America from Eurasia by gadwall (Anas strepera).  Evolution 62: 1469-1483.
• Peterson, T.A., Adadey, A., Santana-Cruz ,I., Sun, Y., Winder A, Kann, M.G., DMDM: Domain Mapping of Disease Mutations. Bioinformatics. [Epub ahead of print] (August 4, 2010).
• Sinha, P., V. Clements, S. Miller, and S. Ostrand-Rosenberg, 2005.  Tumor immunity: A balancing act between T cell activation, macrophage activation and tumor-induced immune suppression.  Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 54: 1137-1142.
• Sturge, R. J., Jacobsen, F., Rosensteel, B. B., Neale, R. J.  and Omland, K. E.  Colonization of South America from Caribbean islands confirmed by molecular phylogeny with increased taxon sampling.  Condor 111:575-579.
• Vallabhaneni H, Mayer LM, Farabaugh PJ. A comprehensive analysis of translational missense errors in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Kramer EB, RNA. 2010 16:1797-1808.
• Wang G, Seabolt S, Hamdoun S, Park J, & Lu H (2010) Multiple roles of WIN3 in regulating disease resistance, cell death, and flowering time in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology, (submitted).