Molecular Biology, Physiology, Toxicology, and Molecular Genetics

Adjunct/Affiliate Faculty: Eric Baehrecke, David O'Brochta, Utpal Pal, Louisa Wu

Insects are the most diverse class of organisms on earth and taken together have a more profound impact on humans - both positive and negative - than any other group of animals on the planet. Consequently, insect physiologists, toxicologists, and molecular biologists comprise a far-reaching community that combines applied and basic research.

For example, insect nervous systems are studied as sites of action of many pesticides and as the principal physiological system that enables the enormous behavioral diversity of insects. Scientists from many conceptual approaches also share an appreciation for insects as model systems. Much of the early work in numerous fields, including genetics, neurobiology, endocrinology, gene expression, sex determination, and translational control was conducted using insects. Insects continue to provide important new models for exercise physiology, the neural and molecular conduits of behavior, aging, cancer research, and the molecular biology of the immune response. The recent completion of the Drosophila genome has maintained the place of insects at the forefront of research on the structure, function, mapping, organization, expression, and evolution of genomes.