Graduate Program Faculty

Expertise Areas: Ecology and Evolution

Expertise Areas: Dr. Bruederle's research interests include the evolution of species rich genera such as Carex (Cyperaceae), which comprises approximately 2000 species worldwide. He is interested specifically in the evolutionary mechanisms that facilitate speciation in this large genus. Additional interests include: plant systematics at and below the level of genus, population genetics and endemism, conservation genetics, and biogeography. He is also interested in the implementation, institutionalization, and assessment of undergraduate research.

Expertise Areas: First year Experience/Success of STEM students and Health Professions Advising Education & Degrees PhD., Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1996 M.A., Neurophysiology, University of Colorado, Denver, 1987 B.A., Biology, University of Colorado, Denver, 1985 Bio Dr. Ferguson has been on the faculty at the University of Colorado Denver since 1985 and teaches in the Dept. of Integrative Biology. He has been nationally recognized for excellence in teaching and...

Expertise Areas: Chemical Ecology, Behavioral Ecology

Expertise Areas: My science education research interests are concerned with assessing and improving how students understand biological concepts and apply scientific principles, especially concepts and principles related to ecology. I work at both the undergraduate and grades 6-12 levels. My approach to this research employs both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods. I enjoy working on large-scale, multi-faceted collaborative projects that seek to answer transformative and often complicated research questions. Thus, some of the projects I work on involve many collaborators from across the country. My goals as a science education researcher are to make discoveries that can be used for improving pedagogy and assessment in undergraduate biology education and for informing the development of national science standards and practices for K-12 education. My ecological research bridges community and ecosystem ecology to explore how plant communities and soils respond to external factors such as intensive herbivory, nutrient inputs, emerging infectious diseases, and climate change. The model system that I work on has shaped and integrated the questions that I pursue. I study the impact of introduced bubonic plague on both urban and rural black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) communities. My field research involves mostly observational studies across space and time gradients. I conduct greenhouse experiments to further explore the mechanisms underlying the broad patterns I observe in the field. Much of my research is situated in and around urban Denver, making it easily accessible to UC Denver student researchers.

Expertise Areas: My research adapts genomics tools to answer fundamental questions about the evolution of animal diversity. I focus on the regulatory control of gene expression during vertebrate development. My approach integrates functional and comparative genomics, developmental biology, and phylogenetics. My goal is to understand the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying the evolution of vertebrate morphology.

Expertise Areas: The Miller lab develops and uses bioinformatic and genome-enabled approaches to study microbial communities. With the advent of new sequencing technologies, one can sequence billions or trillions of base pairs of DNA for relatively little money. One of the most powerful applications of this new economy is the direct sequencing of microbial DNA and RNA from the environment. The combination of deep sequencing and bioinformatics reveals that even “simple” natural microbial communities are in fact quite complex. The Miller lab is interested in understanding this complexity at a systems level for microbial communities relevant to the environment, bioenergy production, and human health and disease.

Expertise Areas: Environmental Microbiology

Expertise Areas: The main interests in our lab revolve around understanding the functions of the enzyme glycogen synthase kinase-3 (Gsk-3) isoforms. We are utilizing a systems biology approach to understanding Gsk-3 function in maintaining pluripotency of embryonic stem cells. We have recently identified a role for Gsk-3 in regulating the methylation of mRNA. This modification, referred to as m6A, affects many aspects of RNA biology, including regulating the stability of mRNA and the translational efficiency. We are currently investigating the mechanisms underlying these effects, and their implications on the biology of stem cells.

Expertise Areas: The Ragland Lab is interested in the process of local adaptation to changing environments, and the mechanisms underlying animal hibernation. Our goal is to understand the mechanisms and targets of natural selection, integrating studies from genomes, to physiology, to whole organism performance. Please refer to the lab website for more information: https://seasonaladaptation.org

Expertise Areas: Primary areas of study include environmental microbiology; microbial ecology; microbial physiology; chemical detoxification; remediation; see Roanemicrobiology.weebly.com for more information. Other areas of interest include qualitative evaluation; collective impact; identity and representation within STEM; and cross-cultural communication.

Expertise Areas: Experimental Comparative Physiology, Evolutionary Biology and Animal Behavior

Expertise Areas: The evolution, ecology, and population biology of bird-dispersed pines and their corvid dispersers; and, the conservation and restoration of five-needle white pines in western North America.

Expertise Areas: Endocrine Disruption Environmental Toxicology Ecological Developmental Biology

Expertise Areas: I study animal population biology with a special interest in migratory systems. Migratory systems are useful models because conditions experienced at one place and time influence dynamics observed in distant locations; these are systems that link the biology and health of continents. My long-term goal is to understand factors regulating population demography and geographic range distributions, so that we can predict responses to disease epidemics and changes in climate, environmental health, and human land use. I combine fieldwork, lab work and modeling to study these systems and have developed novel statistical tools for determining dietary and geographic histories from chemical and molecular compositions of animal tissues.