Biological Sciences Professor Wins UC's Young Investigator Award

Biological Sciences Associate Professor Josh Gross receives the prestigious Sigma Xi Young Investigator Award, an annual honor that highlights the University’s rising stars of research, during the society's Spring Mixer, March 17.

Gross has amassed millions of dollars of national funding, garnered international acclaim and made breakthrough discoveries. On top of that, he’s a genuinely nice guy with an insatiable curiosity whose joy in discovery is downright contagious.

Gross joined the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences in 2010 after finishing a post-doc in Genetics at Harvard Medical School. The Associate Professor was recently enthusiastically promoted and awarded tenure.

“There are simply not enough superlatives to describe this outstanding young scholar,” wrote George Uetz, Professor and Head of the Department of Biological Sciences in support of Gross’ Sigma Xi nomination. 

Nominator and Distinguished Research Professor Edna Kaneshiro noted, “Josh is already nationally and internationally known as an expert and authority in developmental biology and morphogenesis, genetics, ecology, evolution, gene expression and resulting phenotypes.”

In addition to his peer-reviewed and peer-praised research methods and discoveries, Gross extends opportunities to a wide range of students, according to Kaneshiro. “What makes Josh stand over and above most young investigators who focus on their research productivity is that he also devotes a great deal of his time and effort to his mentees,” she wrote.

As part of his Sigma Xi recognition, Gross will give a brief presentation about his work at the group’s Spring Mixer, Thursday, March 17, at 5 pm, in the Winkler Center on East Campus. Catered snacks, as well as beer and wine, provided. Click here to register.

Below is an excerpt of an upcoming feature story highlighting Gross’ sensory research at UC.

Sensing the unexpected

Three plastic fish tanks, smaller-than-shoebox-sized and with different color lids, sit on a plain white table in a sterile, windowless room. At first glance, they could pass for minimalist dorm room décor. But they are, in reality, critical components in Biological Sciences Assistant Professor Joshua Gross’ award-winning lab.

One of the tanks holds surface-dwelling fish, another holds fish that thrive in total darkness. The third holds hybrids of the first two that have been bred by Gross and his sensory research team.

At first, Gross simply wanted to understand how these different types of fish adapted to survive in their different environments. How did the blind cavefish, creatures with no eyes and no pigment, sense where food was and how to get it? What genetic changes had happened to sharpen some of their senses and completely eliminate others?

His questions garnered interest, and funding, from both the NIH and the NSF—more than $2 million worth over the next five years. Learning how species can adapt to and live successfully in new environments provides insights into how evolution happens, knowledge that could apply across species and over time.

Gross can illustrate part of the adaptation with a simple experiment. He drops a handful of thread-thin worms into the two fishes’ tanks. The sighted fish are skittish and approach the food with trepidation; they eat slowly and don’t consume very much. The blind fish, on the other hand, sprint toward the food; they eat more and they eat more quickly.

But what about that third tank of hybrid fish?

As Gross and his students studied the blind cavefish, they saw something unexpected. Some of the blind cavefishes’ faces were lopsided. And so were some, but not all, of their hybrid offspring in that third tank. They had uncovered another piece of a genetic puzzle, and this one had a more direct link to humans, another species with a documented history of “asymmetrical abnormalities.” 

What causes the abnormalities that seem so random? Gross is now working to find out. His team suspects that the sensors inside the fishes’ heads are actually helping shape bone development, so they are mapping the location of sensors and their relation to bone structure, looking for patterns that might lead to answers.