About the Department

The Department of Organismal Biology is a part of the Evolutionary Biology Centre. The Department has about one hundred employees and is mainly a research department, but our teachers teach nearly 1,000 students at Biology Education Centre.

Our Research is focused on developmental biology, systematics, evolution and physiology of living organisms.

The department was formed in its current organisatoin in 2010 and was composed of research programs in environmental toxicology, zoological developmental biology, evolutionary organism biology, comparative physiology, Physiology and systematic biology and Human Evolution. We have research teams who study early vertebrate evolution, plant development and animal physiology. The deepest branches of the tree of life are explored using bioinformatics and experimental studies. Research is also being conducted on how environmental toxins affect cell functions and poison the long-term effects on people and animals.

The ancient DNA facilities is located at our department.

The Department is organized into four research programs:

• Evolution and Development
• Physiology and Environmental Toxicology
• Systematic Biology
• Human evolution