COS News

Northeastern University professors explain how the axolotl — an adorable amphibian with a permanent smile and pink, feathery gills — has become so popular, and why it’s also critically endangered in the wild.

Northeastern students Abigail Binkley and Abigail Williams spent their fall semester in Kenya on co-ops that explored the ways education and culture can help prevent the medical crises from occurring in the first place.

“Shakespeare’s themes are universal and should be able to be viewed by everyone,” says Ainsley Niven-Merriman, assistant director of the Northeastern Shakespeare Society.

We are delighted to welcome new faculty members with primary appointments in the College of Science whose teaching and research builds the Good Power of Science, trains the next generation of science professionals, and solves crucial research challenges.

Andreia Ionescu, assistant professor of biology, is conducting research to understand how stem cells can be used to treat bone fractures.

Constantin Takacs loves to study black-legged deer ticks and Borrelia burgdorferi, which is good news for everybody else.

Northeastern researcher Kim Lewis is spearheading an effort to accelerate discovery of new antibiotics as part of a multi-institutional, federally funded project to tackle the growing problem of antibiotic resistance. “It’s a big issue because we largely stopped introducing novel antibiotics about 50 years ago,” says Lewis, distinguished professor of biology and director of Northeastern’s...

“We came to a point of realization that the work and research that we have done at Northeastern has propelled us into many situations that we never thought possible before joining,” Dillon says.  

A new study from a Northeastern-led collaboration, looking into the C. elegans worms’ interactions with their microbiome, found that the worms are willing to leave a bacterial food source when they’re exposed to one of their deadliest toxins and identified the driving neurological mechanism behind it.

After the microscopic roundworms he was studying survived a toxic chemical environment, professor Javier Apfeld was intrigued to discover their tactic for protection against chemical foe.

Caenorhabditis elegans, a transparent, microscopic worm, has evolved a way to take advantage of protection provided by nearby bacteria. This response could provide clues as to how humans coordinate our own cellular defense systems.