Aurora Nedelcu (Univ. New Brunswick, Canada) (virtual), Title TBA
16 December | 17 h 00 min - 18 h 30 min
Academic interests
- Evolutionary Biology
- Genome/Molecular Evolution
- Cancer Biology
Brief biography
Dr. Aurora Nedelcu is a Professor of Biology at the University of New Brunswick (Canada). She received her BSc (Biology) from Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) in 1988. Prior to coming to Canada to start her PhD, Dr. Nedelcu has worked for several years as a Biology teacher in a Secondary School, as a Research Scientist in an Electron Microscopy Lab, and as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry.
She completed her PhD (Biology) at Dalhousie University (1993-1997) and then continued her training as a postdoctoral fellow in the Organelle Genome Megasequencing Lab at the Universite de Montreal (1998) and as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of Arizona (1998 – 2002).
Dr. Nedelcu has joined the Biolgy Department at UNB in 2002, where she is currently a Professor. She also holds an Adjunct position in the Departament of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Nedelcu’s general research interests center around understanding how and why biological systems evolve, especially in terms of major innovations and the emergence of new levels of complexity. Most of her current research is rooted in the framework of transitions in individuality and complexity (at a conceptual level) and of cellular responses to stress, gene co-option and trade-offs (at a mechanistic level). She is using a combination of approaches (experimental and theoretical), spanning various levels of biological organization (genes, genomes, cells, individuals) and fields(genetics/genomics, molecular/cell/developmental biology, experimental evolution).
Specific areas include:
- Molecular, gene and genome (both nuclear and organelle) evolution
- The genetic basis of key transitions and major innovations in evolution – such as the evolution of multicellularity, development, cell differentiation, programmed cell death, sex
- Evolution of cooperation and altruism
- Evolution and cancer
The model-systems currently used are the volvocine green algae and human cancer cell lines.