Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CUREs)

All sections are closed and in progress for Spring 2026

Summer Projects 2026

*Students can sign up for their project of choice during open registration on Howdy. Spots are first-come first serve. 

Neural Circuit Reconstruction - Virtual

Lillvis Lab 

Prerequisites: None

BIOL 491 Section 376 - 2 Credit Hours

BIOL 491 Section 377- 3 Credit Hours

Neural circuits are the foundation of behavior. However, we know little about how circuit wiring changes with age and disease, how variations in wiring contribute to behavior variations found across individuals, or how wiring differences enable behaviors to evolve. Investigating these questions requires the synaptic structure of circuits to be compared across many animals, but current methods are too slow and costly to achieve this. To overcome these limitations, the Lillvis lab is developing new expansion microscopy-based methods to rapidly reconstruct neural circuits. This class will focus on evaluating these methods by analyzing brain images and reconstructing neural circuits in fruit flies, spiders, bees, and fish. The research we conduct will help us improve our expansion and imaging methods and generate fully automated methods to reconstruct neural circuits in the future. 

Novel Virus Genome Discovery - Virtual

Neuman Lab

Prerequisites: None

BIOL 291 Section 379 - 2 Credit Hours

BIOL 491 Section 378 - 2 Credit Hours

For every living organism, there is a virus that infects it. When people go out and sample an organism, sometimes that organism is sick with a virus. These accidental bycatch viruses are sequenced and stored in transcriptome databases. We're looking at neglected virus hosts because these kinds of viruses are under characterized, so we want to help in finding and describing them. By describing these viruses that infect these underrepresented hosts, we can better understand how all the viruses in that group function. The broader impacts of this work could be used for things like conservation efforts or pest control. 

Students find viruses from the Transcriptome Shotgun Assembly (TSA) database using reference protein sequences via tBLASTn. The genome arrangement is then annotated and built using ORFfinder and HHPRED. 

You can find more information about the project here: https://forms.gle/wPSAsakyLcZtJNbM7

Phylogenetic Signal in Chromosomal Traits

Blackmon Lab

Prerequisites: BIOL 111, BIOL 112, BIOL 213

BIOL 491-380 Section Closed for Pre-Selected Students 

In this CURE, students will investigate the evolutionary conservatism of chromosomal traits across diverse vertebrate clades. Students will collect real biological data from literature and databases, perform phylogenetic signal analyses, run simulations to model trait evolution and contribute to a publishable dataset and manuscript. The course integrates data science, evolutionary biology and collaborative research.

You can find more information about the project here: https://coleoguy.github.io/biolai-cure.html

Fall Projects 2026

*Students can sign up for their project of choice during open registration on Howdy. Spots are first-come first serve.

Caenorhadbitis elegans

LeBoeuf Lab

Prerequisites: BIOL 111, BIOL 112, BIOL 213

BIOL 491 Section 584 - 2 Credit hours -- Thursday 2PM-4PM

Stressed out? There's a pathway for that! In this research-intensive course you will use the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, an established laboratory model organism, to address how organisms remodel muscle during development even under stress conditions. The project will involce creating genetic tools that allow for exploration of what tissues must respond to stress for muscles to properly remodel. Students will learn animal husbandry, microscopy, and experimental set up techniques.

Neural Circuit Reconstruction

Lillvis Lab

Prerequisites: None

BIOL 491 Section 576 - 2 Credit Hours -- Tuesday 10AM-12PM

BIOL 491 Section 577 - 3 Credit Hours -- Tuesday 2PM-4PM

Neural circuits are the foundation of behavior. However, we know little about how circuit wiring changes with age and disease, how variations in wiring contribute to behavior variations found across individuals, or how wiring differences enable behaviors to evolve. Investigation these questions requires the synaptic structure of circuits to be compared across many animals, but current methods are too slow and costly to achieve this. To overcome these limitations, the Lillvis lab is developing new expansion microscopy-based methods to rapidly reconstruct neural circuits. This class will focus on evaluating these methods by analyzing brain images and reconstructing neural circuits in fruit flies, spiders, bees, and fish. The research we conduct will help us improve our expansion and imaging methods and generate fully automated methods to reconstruct neural circuits in the future.

Novel Virus Genome Discovery

Neuman Lab

Prerequisites: None

BIOL 291 Section 580 - 2 Credit Hours -- Thursday 11AM-1PM

BIOL 491 Section 580 - 2 Credit Hours -- Thursday 11AM-1PM

BIOL 291 Section 581 - 2 Credit Hours -- Thursday 4PM-6PM

BIOL 491 Section 582 - 2 Credit Hours -- Thursday 4PM-6PM

For every living organism, there is a virus that infects it. When people go out and sample an organism, sometimes that organism is sick with a virus. These accidental bycatch viruses are sequenced and stored in transcriptome databases. We're looking at neglected virus hosts because these kinds of viruses are under characterized, so we want to help in finding and describing them. By describing these viruses that infect these underrepresented hosts, we can better understand how all the viruses in that group function. The broader impacts of this work could be used for things like conservation efforts or pest control.

Students find viruses from the Transcriptome Shotgun Assembly (TSA) database using reference protein sequences via tBLASTn. The genome arrangement is then annotated and built using ORFfinder and HHPRED.

You can find more information about the project here: https://forms.gle/wPSAsakyLcZtJNbM7

Changing Climates and Cassiopea xamachana

Strader Lab

Prerequisites: BIOL 111, BIOL 112, BIOL 214

BIOL 491 Section 578 - 3 Credit Hours -- Tuesday 1AM-3PM

Organisms are consistently having to respond to rapidly changing climates. This challenges organisms to adapt, acclimate, or move, requiring fundamental knowledge about organisms’ ecology and evolution. To study this, we will utilize a partially clonal marine jellyfish species, Cassiopea xamachana, to understand the complex role genetics and evolution play in how organisms are able to respond to differences in their environment (ecology). We will learn fundamentals about life-history evolution, quantify aspects of fitness, and test how it changes under different environmental parameters. This research will contribute to our lab’s ongoing investigations into the mechanisms enabling the proliferation of C. xamachana in tropical and subtropical Florida.

Finis Shale Micropaleontology

Neuman Lab

Prerequisites: BIOL 111, BIOL 112

BIOL 491 Section 583 - 3 Credit Hours -- Friday 10AM-12PM

Students will collect, clean, sort and identify microfossils from the an upper Paleozoic Era site located in Texas. The fossil site is known for exceptional preservation of marine organisms, ease of preparation, and extraordinary biodiversity. Microfossils will be used to prepare a publication answering an unanswered paleontological question. Examples of such questions would include describing early developmental stages of known species, or describing new species. Taught course content will include primers on identification and development of common fossil groups, paleontological methods, specimen photography, and writing or emending species descriptions.

Functional characterization of oncogene

Sarkar Lab

Prerequisites: BIOL 111, BIOL 112, BIOL 213

BIOL 491 Section 585 - 3 Credit Hours

This course-based undergraduate research experience introduces students to the functional role of an oncogene in cancer cells. Using basic cell culture, proliferation, migration, and gene expression assays,  along with Bioinformatics analyses, students will investigate how oncogene expression alters cell behavior. The course emphasizes hands-on experimentation, data analysis, and the connection of molecular changes to cancer-related phenotypes.