The Department of Life Sciences comprises a team of investigators conducting cutting edge research in numerous realms of modern biology. Topics being addressed in departmental laboratories span the entire size range of biology, beginning with the determination of protein structures at atom-level resolution, continuing to the examination of single-celled organisms and multi-cellular systems and reaching the study of whole animals and communities. In tackling questions related to protein science, microbiology, development, physiology, neurobiology, genomics, structural biology, ecology and other fields, Department of Life Sciences researchers rely on a wide variety of experimental systems, including Bacteria, Archaea, Yeast, Plants, Insects, Fish and other forms of marine life, rodents, and mammals, to unravel the mystery of life at the gene, protein, cell, system and organism levels.