UNT's BioDiscovery Institute Research Associate Jaime Barros recently co-authored a paper with Richard Dixon, University Distinguished Research Professor in UNT's College of Science, that was published in the journal Nature Communications. In utilizing state-of-the-art techniques, Barros and the research team resolved a 40-year-old research question explaining how plants produce lignin, a compound that provides structural rigidity in plants and allows them to grow upright, to better understand how to genetically engineer it for use in the biofuel and farming industries.

Dane Crossley, associate professor of biological sciences at UNT, recently received $775,000 of a three-year $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to continue his research in cardiovascular physiology in reptiles. His project, a collaboration with researchers at the University of North Dakota and California State University at East Bay, examines the effect of developmental hypoxia — low levels of oxygen during fetal development — on juvenile cardiac function. His research is leading to an understanding of the evolution and development of the cardiovascular system and the impacts environmental stress can have on its function.

Ph.D. candidate Amy Wynia traveled more than 6,000 miles to Navarino Island in southernmost Chile for 11 months across the span of approximately two years to explore the forests in search of the Magellanic Woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus), the largest woodpecker in South America. Wynia, a student and researcher in UNT's Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program, went to the ends of the earth to collect information for her Ph.D. dissertation and learn more about and try to protect the decreasing population of the birds.

Since working on her doctorate at UNT under Regents Professor of electrical engineering Miguel Acevedo, alumna Shiho Matsubayashi has been interested in the ways technology can help environmental scientists understand the world around them and improve conditions in nature to benefit biodiversity. This June, Matsubayashi, now an associate professor in the Graduate School of Engineering at Osaka University in Japan, returned to UNT to help researchers study the painted bunting, a species of bird native to North Texas, at the Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Area.

UNT at Frisco was the presenting sponsor for CodeLaunch 2019, an annual startup expo and pitch competition, held July 31 at Frisco's Comerica Center. CodeLaunch speakers included finalist nine-year-old Prince Nallamothula and runner-up Gouzia Sivarajah, a high school senior, who have worked closely with mentors at UNT's Inspire Park. The young innovators will be featured speakers at Inspire Frisco's Aug. 14 IFTalk: Rising and Raising Entrepreneurs. Inspire Park serves as a hub for UNT's efforts to empower entrepreneurs of all ages with mentoring, education and networking events. Opened as a business incubator space, Inspire Park now also offers classroom and laboratory space designed to enhance collaborative learning for UNT at Frisco students.