research topics under biology

How it works

Published by Robert Bruce at August 29th, 2023 , Revised On September 5, 2023

Biology Research Topics

Are you in need of captivating and achievable research topics within the field of biology? Your quest for the best biology topics ends right here as this article furnishes you with 100 distinctive and original concepts for biology research, laying the groundwork for your research endeavor.

Table of Contents

Our proficient researchers have thoughtfully curated these biology research themes, considering the substantial body of literature accessible and the prevailing gaps in research.

Should none of these topics elicit enthusiasm, our specialists are equally capable of proposing tailor-made research ideas in biology, finely tuned to cater to your requirements.

Thus, without further delay, we present our compilation of biology research topics crafted to accommodate students and researchers.

Research Topics in Marine Biology

Impact of climate change on coral reef ecosystems.
Biodiversity and adaptation of deep-sea organisms.
Effects of pollution on marine life and ecosystems.
Role of marine protected areas in conserving biodiversity.
Microplastics in marine environments: sources, impacts, and mitigation.

Biological Anthropology Research Topics

Evolutionary implications of early human migration patterns.
Genetic and environmental factors influencing human height variation.
Cultural evolution and its impact on human societies.
Paleoanthropological insights into human dietary adaptations.
Genetic diversity and population history of indigenous communities.

Biological Psychology Research Topics

Neurobiological basis of addiction and its treatment.
Impact of stress on brain structure and function.
Genetic and environmental influences on mental health disorders.
Neural mechanisms underlying emotions and emotional regulation.
Role of the gut-brain axis in psychological well-being.

Cancer Biology Research Topics

Targeted therapies in precision cancer medicine.
Tumor microenvironment and its influence on cancer progression.
Epigenetic modifications in cancer development and therapy.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors and their role in cancer immunotherapy.
Early detection and diagnosis strategies for various types of cancer.

Cell Biology Research Topics

Mechanisms of autophagy and its implications in health and disease.
Intracellular transport and organelle dynamics in cell function.
Role of cell signaling pathways in cellular response to external stimuli.
Cell cycle regulation and its relevance to cancer development.
Cellular mechanisms of apoptosis and programmed cell death.

Developmental Biology Research Topics

Genetic and molecular basis of limb development in vertebrates.
Evolution of embryonic development and its impact on morphological diversity.
Stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine approaches.
Mechanisms of organogenesis and tissue regeneration in animals.
Role of non-coding RNAs in developmental processes.

Human Biology Research Topics

Genetic factors influencing susceptibility to infectious diseases.
Human microbiome and its impact on health and disease.
Genetic basis of rare and common human diseases.
Genetic and environmental factors contributing to aging.
Impact of lifestyle and diet on human health and longevity.

Molecular Biology Research Topics

CRISPR-Cas gene editing technology and its applications.
Non-coding RNAs as regulators of gene expression.
Role of epigenetics in gene regulation and disease.
Mechanisms of DNA repair and genome stability.
Molecular basis of cellular metabolism and energy production.

Research Topics in Biology for Undergraduates

41. Investigating the effects of pollutants on local plant species.
Microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning in a specific habitat.
Understanding the genetics of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
Impact of urbanization on bird populations and biodiversity.
Investigating the role of pheromones in insect communication.

Synthetic Biology Research Topics

Design and construction of synthetic biological circuits.
Synthetic biology applications in biofuel production.
Ethical considerations in synthetic biology research and applications.
Synthetic biology approaches to engineering novel enzymes.
Creating synthetic organisms with modified functions and capabilities.

Animal Biology Research Topics

Evolution of mating behaviors in animal species.
Genetic basis of color variation in butterfly wings.
Impact of habitat fragmentation on amphibian populations.
Behavior and communication in social insect colonies.
Adaptations of marine mammals to aquatic environments.

Best Biology Research Topics

Unraveling the mysteries of circadian rhythms in organisms.
Investigating the ecological significance of cryptic coloration.
Evolution of venomous animals and their prey.
The role of endosymbiosis in the evolution of eukaryotic cells.
Exploring the potential of extremophiles in biotechnology.

Biological Psychology Research Paper Topics

Neurobiological mechanisms underlying memory formation.
Impact of sleep disorders on cognitive function and mental health.
Biological basis of personality traits and behavior.
Neural correlates of emotions and emotional disorders.
Role of neuroplasticity in brain recovery after injury.

Biological Science Research Topics:

Role of gut microbiota in immune system development.
Molecular mechanisms of gene regulation during development.
Impact of climate change on insect population dynamics.
Genetic basis of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Evolutionary relationships among vertebrate species based on DNA analysis.

Biology Education Research Topics

Effectiveness of inquiry-based learning in biology classrooms.
Assessing the impact of virtual labs on student understanding of biology concepts.
Gender disparities in science education and strategies for closing the gap.
Role of outdoor education in enhancing students’ ecological awareness.
Integrating technology in biology education: challenges and opportunities.

Biology-Related Research Topics

The intersection of ecology and economics in conservation planning.
Molecular basis of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria.
Implications of genetic modification of crops for food security.
Evolutionary perspectives on cooperation and altruism in animal behavior.
Environmental impacts of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Biology Research Proposal Topics

Investigating the role of microRNAs in cancer progression.
Exploring the effects of pollution on aquatic biodiversity.
Developing a gene therapy approach for a genetic disorder.
Assessing the potential of natural compounds as anti-inflammatory agents.
Studying the molecular basis of cellular senescence and aging.

Biology Research Topic Ideas

Role of pheromones in insect mate selection and behavior.
Investigating the molecular basis of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Impact of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions.
Genetic diversity and conservation of endangered species.
Evolutionary patterns in mimicry and camouflage in organisms.

Biology Research Topics for Undergraduates

Effects of different fertilizers on plant growth and soil health.
Investigating the biodiversity of a local freshwater ecosystem.
Evolutionary origins of a specific animal adaptation.
Genetic diversity and disease susceptibility in human populations.
Role of specific genes in regulating the immune response.

Cell and Molecular Biology Research Topics

Molecular mechanisms of DNA replication and repair.
Role of microRNAs in post-transcriptional gene regulation.
Investigating the cell cycle and its control mechanisms.
Molecular basis of mitochondrial diseases and therapies.
Cellular responses to oxidative stress and their implications in ageing.

These topics cover a broad range of subjects within biology, offering plenty of options for research projects. Remember that you can further refine these topics based on your specific interests and research goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some good research topics in biology?

A good research topic in biology will address a specific problem in any of the several areas of biology, such as marine biology, molecular biology, cellular biology, animal biology, or cancer biology.

A topic that enables you to investigate a problem in any area of biology will help you make a meaningful contribution.

How to choose a research topic in biology?

Choosing a research topic in biology is simple.

Follow the steps:

Generate potential topics.
Consider your areas of knowledge and personal passions.
Conduct a thorough review of existing literature.
Evaluate the practicality and viability.
Narrow down and refine your research query.
Remain receptive to new ideas and suggestions.

Who Are We?

For several years, Research Prospect has been offering students around the globe complimentary research topic suggestions. We aim to assist students in choosing a research topic that is both suitable and feasible for their project, leading to the attainment of their desired grades. Explore how our services, including research proposal writing , dissertation outline creation, and comprehensive thesis writing , can contribute to your college’s success.

USEFUL LINKS

Learning resources, company details.

How It Works

Automated page speed optimizations for fast site performance

Are you seeking one-on-one college counseling and/or essay support? Limited spots are now available. Click here to learn more.

49 Most Interesting Biology Research Topics

August 21, 2023

In need of the perfect biology research topics—ideas that can both showcase your intellect and fuel your academic success? Lost in the boundless landscape of possible biology topics to research? And afraid you’ll never get a chance to begin writing your paper, let alone finish writing? Whether you’re a budding biologist hoping for a challenge or a novice seeking easy biology research topics to wade into, this blog offers curated and comprehensible options.

And if you’re a high school or transfer student looking for opportunities to immerse yourself in biology, consider learning more about research opportunities for high school students , top summer programs for high school students , best colleges for studying biomedical engineering , and best colleges for studying biology .

What is biology?

Well, biology explores the web of life that envelops our planet, from the teeny-tiny microbes to the big complex ecosystems. Biology investigates the molecular processes that define existence, deciphers the interplay of genes, and examines all the dynamic ways organisms interact with their environments. And through biology, you can gain not only knowledge, but a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of all living things. Pretty cool!

There are lots and lots of sub-disciplines within biology, branching out in all directions. Throughout this list, we won’t follow all of those branches, but we will follow many. And while none of these branches are truly simple or easy, some might be easier than others. Now we’ll take a look at a few various biology research topics and example questions that could pique your curiosity.

Climate change and ecosystems

The first of our potentially easy biology research topics: climate change and ecosystems. Investigate how ecosystems respond and adapt to the changing climate. And learn about shifts in species distributions , phenology , and ecological interactions .

1) How are different ecosystems responding to temperature changes and altered precipitation patterns?2) What are the implications of shifts in species distributions for ecosystem stability and functioning?

2) Or how does phenology change in response to climate shifts? And how do those changes impact species interactions?

3) Which underlying genetic and physiological mechanisms enable certain species to adapt to changing climate conditions?

4) And how do changing climate conditions affect species’ abilities to interact and form mutualistic relationships within ecosystems?

Microbiome and human health

Intrigued by the relationship between the gut and the rest of the body? Study the complex microbiome . You could learn how gut microbes influence digestion, immunity, and even mental health.

5) How do specific gut microbial communities impact nutrient absorption?

6) What are the connections between the gut microbiome, immune system development, and susceptibility to autoimmune diseases?

7) What ethical considerations need to be addressed when developing personalized microbiome-based therapies? And how can these therapies be safely and equitably integrated into clinical practice?

8) Or how do variations in the gut microbiome contribute to mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression?

9) How do changes in diet and lifestyle affect the composition and function of the gut microbiome? And what are the subsequent health implications?

Urban biodiversity conservation

Next, here’s another one of the potentially easy biology research topics. Examine the challenges and strategies for conserving biodiversity in urban environments. Consider the impact of urbanization on native species and ecosystem services. Then investigate the decline of pollinators and its implications for food security or ecosystem health.

10) How does urbanization influence the abundance and diversity of native plant and animal species in cities?

11) Or what are effective strategies for creating and maintaining green spaces that support urban biodiversity and ecosystem services?

12) How do different urban design and planning approaches impact the distribution of wildlife species and their interactions?

13) What are the best practices for engaging urban communities in biodiversity conservation efforts?

14) And how can urban agriculture and rooftop gardens contribute to urban biodiversity conservation while also addressing food security challenges?

Bioengineering

Are you a problem solver at heart? Then try approaching the intersection of engineering, biology, and medicine. Delve into the field of synthetic biology , where researchers engineer biological systems to create novel organisms with useful applications.

15) How can synthetic biology be harnessed to develop new, sustainable sources of biofuels from engineered microorganisms?

16) And what ethical considerations arise when creating genetically modified organisms for bioremediation purposes?

17) Can synthetic biology techniques be used to design plants that are more efficient at withdrawing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?

18) How can bioengineering create organisms capable of producing valuable pharmaceutical compounds in a controlled and sustainable manner?

19) But what are the potential risks and benefits of using engineered organisms for large-scale environmental cleanup projects?

Neurobiology

Interested in learning more about what makes creatures tick? Then this might be one of your favorite biology topics to research. Explore the neural mechanisms that underlie complex behaviors in animals and humans. Shed light on topics like decision-making, social interactions, and addiction. And investigate how brain plasticity and neurogenesis help the brain adapt to learning, injury, and aging.

20) How does the brain’s reward circuitry influence decision-making processes in situations involving risk and reward?

21) What neural mechanisms underlie empathy and social interactions in both humans and animals?

22) Or how do changes in neural plasticity contribute to age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases?

23) Can insights from neurobiology inform the development of more effective treatments for addiction and substance abuse?

24) What are the neural correlates of learning and memory? And how can our understanding of these processes be applied to educational strategies?

Plant epigenomics

While this might not be one of the easy biology research topics, it will appeal to plant enthusiasts. Explore how epigenetic modifications in plants affect their ability to respond and adapt to changing environmental conditions.

25) How do epigenetic modifications influence the expression of stress-related genes in plants exposed to temperature fluctuations?

26) Or what role do epigenetic changes play in plants’ abilities to acclimate to changing levels of air pollution?

27) Can certain epigenetic modifications be used as indicators of a plant’s adaptability to new environments?

28) How do epigenetic modifications contribute to the transgenerational inheritance of traits related to stress resistance?

29) And can targeted manipulation of epigenetic marks enhance crop plants’ ability to withstand changing environmental conditions?

Conservation genomics

Motivated to save the planet? Conservation genomics stands at the forefront of modern biology, merging the power of genetics with the urgent need to protect Earth’s biodiversity. Study genetic diversity, population dynamics, and how endangered species adapt in response to environmental changes.

30) How does genetic diversity within endangered species influence their ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions?

31) What genetic factors contribute to the susceptibility of certain populations to diseases, and how can this knowledge inform conservation strategies?

32) How can genomic data be used to inform captive breeding and reintroduction programs for endangered species?

33) And what are the genomic signatures of adaptation in response to human-induced environmental changes, such as habitat fragmentation and pollution?

34) Or how can genomics help identify “hotspots” of biodiversity that are particularly important for conservation efforts?

Zoonotic disease transmission

And here’s one of the biology research topics that’s been on all our minds in recent years. Investigate the factors contributing to the transmission of zoonotic diseases , like COVID-19. Then posit strategies for prevention and early detection.

35) What are the ecological and genetic factors that facilitate the spillover of zoonotic pathogens from animals to humans?

36) Or how do changes in land use, deforestation, and urbanization impact the risk of zoonotic disease emergence?

37) Can early detection and surveillance systems be developed to predict and mitigate the spread of zoonotic diseases?

38) How do social and cultural factors influence human behaviors that contribute to zoonotic disease transmission?

39) And can strategies be implemented to improve global pandemic preparedness?

Bioinformatics

Are you a data fanatic? Bioinformatics involves developing computational tools and techniques to analyze and interpret large biological datasets. This enables advancements in genomics, proteomics, and systems biology. So delve into the world of bioinformatics to learn how large-scale genomic and molecular data are revolutionizing biological research.

40) How can machine learning algorithms predict the function of genes based on their DNA sequences?

41) And what computational methods can identify potential drug targets by analyzing protein-protein interactions in large biological datasets?

42) Can bioinformatics tools be used to identify potential disease-causing mutations in human genomes and guide personalized medicine approaches?

43) What are the challenges and opportunities in analyzing “omics” data (genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics) to uncover novel biological insights?

44) Or how can bioinformatics contribute to our understanding of microbial diversity, evolution, and interactions within ecosystems?

Regenerative medicine

While definitely not one of the easy biology research topics, regenerative medicine will appeal to those interested in healthcare. Research innovative approaches to stimulate tissue and organ regeneration, using stem cells, tissue engineering, and biotechnology. And while you’re at it, discover the next potential medical breakthrough.

45) How can stem cells be directed to differentiate into specific cell types for tissue regeneration, and what factors influence this process?

46) Or what are the potential applications of 3D bioprinting in creating functional tissues and organs for transplantation?

47) How can bioengineered scaffolds enhance tissue regeneration and integration with host tissues?

48) What are the ethical considerations surrounding the use of stem cells and regenerative therapies in medical treatments?

49) And can regenerative medicine approaches be used to treat neurodegenerative disorders and restore brain function?

Biology Research Topics – Final thoughts

So as you take your next steps, try not to feel overwhelmed. And instead, appreciate the vast realm of possibilities that biology research topics offer. Because the array of biology topics to research is as diverse as the ecosystems it seeks to understand. And no matter if you’re only looking for easy biology research topics, or you’re itching to unravel the mysteries of plant-microbe interactions, your exploration will continue to deepen what we know of the world around us.

High School Success

Mariya holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the Pratt Institute and is currently pursuing an MFA in writing at the University of California Davis. Mariya serves as a teaching assistant in the English department at UC Davis. She previously served as an associate editor at Carve Magazine for two years, where she managed 60 fiction writers. She is the winner of the 2015 Stony Brook Fiction Prize, and her short stories have been published in Mid-American Review , Cutbank , Sonora Review , New Orleans Review , and The Collagist , among other magazines.

2-Year Colleges
Application Strategies
Best Colleges by Major
Best Colleges by State
Big Picture
Career & Personality Assessment
College Essay
College Search/Knowledge
College Success
Costs & Financial Aid
Data Visualizations
Dental School Admissions
Extracurricular Activities
Graduate School Admissions
High Schools
Homeschool Resources
Law School Admissions
Medical School Admissions
Navigating the Admissions Process
Online Learning
Outdoor Adventure
Private High School Spotlight
Summer Program Spotlight
Summer Programs
Teacher Tools
Test Prep Provider Spotlight

“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”

— Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Nationally Recognized College Expert

College Planning in Your Inbox

Join our information-packed monthly newsletter.

I am a... Student Student Parent Counselor Educator Other First Name Last Name Email Address Zip Code Area of Interest Business Computer Science Engineering Fine/Performing Arts Humanities Mathematics STEM Pre-Med Psychology Social Studies/Sciences Submit

How It Works
PhD thesis writing
Master thesis writing
Bachelor thesis writing
Dissertation writing service
Dissertation abstract writing
Thesis proposal writing
Thesis editing service
Thesis proofreading service
Thesis formatting service
Coursework writing service
Research paper writing service
Architecture thesis writing
Computer science thesis writing
Engineering thesis writing
History thesis writing
MBA thesis writing
Nursing dissertation writing
Psychology dissertation writing
Sociology thesis writing
Statistics dissertation writing
Buy dissertation online
Write my dissertation
Cheap thesis
Cheap dissertation
Custom dissertation
Dissertation help
Pay for thesis
Pay for dissertation
Senior thesis
Write my thesis

212 Unique Biology Research Topics For Students And Researchers

Every student studying something related to biology — botany, marine, animal, medicine, molecular or physical biology, is in an interesting field. It’s a subject that explores how animate and inanimate objects relate to themselves. The field unveils the past, the present, and what lies in the future of the relationship between the living and nonliving things.

This is precisely why you need custom and quality biology topics for your college and university essay or project. It’ll make it easy to brainstorm, research, and get to writing straight away. Before the deep dive, what is biology?

What Is Biology?

Everyone knows it’s the scientific study of life, but beyond that, biology facilitates the comprehension of living and nonliving things. It’s a branch that explores their anatomy, behavior, distribution, morphology, and physiology.

For example, it understands how genes are classified and constituted into generations. It encompasses various branches, including botany, medicine, genetics, ecology, marine biology, zoology, and molecular biology.

Here are what some of these mean:

Botany: This study of plants examines their structure, physiology, ecology, economic importance, and distribution, among others. It also deals with their biochemical processes, properties, and social interactions between plants. It extends to how plants are vital for human life, survival, and growth and how they play a significant role in stabilizing environmental health. Zoology: Zoology studies animal behavior, brain, structure, physiology, class, and distribution. It’s the general study of the lives of both living and extinct animals. It explains animal classification, the animal kingdom, evolution, habitat, embryology, and life span. Physiology: Physiology deals with the daily functions of the human body: How it works and the factors that make it work. It examines molecular behavior, the chemistry and physics behind locomotion, and how the cells in the living organisms’ body function. It helps understand how humans and animals get sick and what can be done to alleviate pain. Microbiology: Dealing with microorganisms, it examined how viruses, algae, fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and slime molds become parts of human life. They’re regarded as microbes, which play substantial roles in the human biochemical processes, including climate change, biodegradation, biodeterioration, food spoilage, biotech, and epidemiology. Marine Biology: This is the scientific study of organs in the sea. It understands their family classification, how they survive, and what makes wild marine animals different from domesticated and consumable ones. It also explores their interaction with the environment through several processes. The marine biologist studies marines in their natural environment, collects data on their characteristics, human impact on their living, and how they relate with themselves.

Now that you know all these, here are some custom biology topics to research for your university or college essay and paper.

Controversial Biology Topics

There are many controversial subjects in every field, and biology isn’t exempt from controversy. If you’d like to create an original essay through diverse opinions, here are biology topics for you:

What are your thoughts on the post-Roe V Wade world?
How can the post-Roe V Wade policy affect developing countries looking up to America for their laws?
Abortion and feminism: discuss
Does saving life justify cloning?
Explain the principle of abortion in medical practice
The effects of cloning in medicine
How does genetics contribute to obesity?
Explain why a parent could have Hepatitis B virus and only one of five offspring have the virus
Is homosexuality really in the gene?
How does depression correlate with genetics?
Additives and how they affect the genes
Examine how genetic mutations work
Discuss the grounds that you could prove for legalizing human cloning
Which is more immoral: Human or animal cloning?
How is nanotechnology different from biotechnology?
Discuss the manifestation of nanotechnology in science
Explain three instances where public opinion has held back scientific inventions
How does transgenic crop work?
Would you say genetically modified food is safe for consumption?
Explain why sexual abuse leads to trauma.

Biology Research Paper Topics

You’d need to write an extensive paper on biology one day. This could be when you’re in your final year in college or the university or submitting to a competition. You’d need Biology topics to research for brainstorming, and here are 30 of them:

Stem cells and tissue formation processes
Why are there different congenital disabilities?
Mixtures in anticancer drugs?
What are the complexities of existing HIV drugs?
What is the contribution of chemotherapy to cancer?
Examine the chemotherapy process and why it doesn’t work for some patients.
Explain the origin of developmental diseases
How do germs affect the cells?
What are the consequences of the sun on the white person’s and black person’s skin?
Why are some diseases treatable through drugs while some are not?
Scientific lessons learned from COVID-19 and ideas to tackle the next virus
If animals are carriers of the virus, what should be done to them?
Examine five animals in extinction and what led to it
Discuss the subject of endangered species and why people should care
Is a plant-based diet sustainable for human health?
Account for the consequence of living on Mars on human health
Discuss the inconveniences involved in space travel
How does space flight contribute to environmental disasters
Discuss the emergence of leukemia
Explain how the immune systems in humans work
Evaluate the factors that weaken the immunological system
What would you consider the deadliest virus?
Autoimmune: what is it, origin and consequences
Immune disorder: origin and how it affects the body
Does stress affect the ability to have sex?
Contribution of vaccine to eradicating disease: Discuss
What are the complexities in taking the Hepatitis B vaccine while being positive?
Allergies: why do humans have them?
DNA modification: how does it work?
Explain the misconceptions about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Interesting Biology Topics

Biology doesn’t have to be boring. Different aspects of biology could be fun to explore, especially if you’ve had a flair for the study since your elementary school classes.

You can either write an essay or paper with the following interesting biology research topics:

Human emotions and conflicts with their intellectual intelligence
Emotions: Its influence on art and music and how the perception of art influences the world
The consequences of marijuana and alcohol on teenagers
Compare and contrast how alcohol affects teenagers and adults
Discuss the contributions of neuroscience to the subject of emotional pain
Explain how the brain process speech
Discuss the factors that cause autism
Explain what is meant when people say humans are animals
Why do scientists say humans are pessimists?
Factors contributing to the dopamine levels human experience
How does isolation affect the human brain?
What factors contribute to instinctive responses?
Noise pollution: how it affects living organisms
Fire ecology: The contributions of plants to fire outbreak
Explain the science behind how hot temperature, soil, and dry grass start a fire
Microbes: what do you understand by bioremediation?
Explain urban ecology and the challenges it pokes to solve
Discuss how excessive internet usage affects the human memory
Evaluate how conservation biology contributes to the extinction prevention efforts
Discuss the role of satellites and drones in understanding the natural world
Why do we need space travel and studies?
Explain the limitations of limnology studies
What are infectious-disease-causing agents all about?
Discuss what epigenetics studies encompass
Why is cancer research essential to the world?
Discuss climate change: Governments are not interested, and there is no alternative
How is behavioral science studies a core part of the understanding of the world?
Discuss the issues with genetic engineering and why it’s a challenge
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses in the arguments for a plant-based diet
Create a survey amongst students of biology asking why they chose to study the course.

Biology Research Topics For College Students

If you find any of the above beyond your intellectual and Research capacity, here are some topics you can handle. You can use these for your essays, projects, quizzes, or competitions.

These custom yet popular biology research topics will examine famous personalities and other discourse in biology:

Effects of the human hormone on the mind
Why do men get erect even when they’re absentminded?
How does women’s arousal work?
How can melatonin be valuable for therapy?
Risky behavior: Hormones responsible for the risk
Stem and cloning: what is the latest research on the subject?
Hormones: changes in pregnancy
Why do pregnant women have an appetite for random and remote things?
The role of physical activities in hormone development
Examine the benefits and threats of transgenic crops
The fight against COVID-19: assess current successes
The fight against smallpox: assess current successes
The fight against HIV: history, trends, and present research
Discuss the future of prosthetic appliances
Examine the research and the future of mind-controlled limbs
What does cosmetic surgery mean, and why is it needed?
Analyze the meaning and process of vascular surgery
Discuss the debate around changes in genital organs for males and females in transgender bodies
How do donors and organ transplants work?
Account for the work of Dr. Malcom E Miller
Discuss the contribution of Charles Darwin to human evolution
Explain the trends in biomedicine
Discuss the functions of x-rays in botany
Assess the most efficient systems for wildlife preservation
Examine how poverty contributes to climate hazards
Discuss the process involved in plant metabolism
The transformation of energy into a living thing: discuss
Prevention for sexually transmitted disease: What are the misconceptions?
Analyze how the human body reacts to poison
Russian Poisoning: What are the lessons scientists must learn?
COVID-19: Discuss the efforts by two or three governments to prevent the spread
Discuss the contributions of Pfizer during the pandemic.

Marine Biology Research Topics

This subject explains orgasms in the sea, how they survive, and their interaction with their environment. If you have a flair for this field, the following Biology research topics may interest you:

Discuss what quantitative ecology through modeling means
Smallest diatoms and marine logistics: discuss
How is the shark studied?
Acidification of seas: Causes and consequences
Discuss the concept of the immortality of Jellyfishes
Discuss the differences between seawater and freshwater in marine study
Account for some of the oldest marine species
Discuss the evolution of the deep sea
Explain whales’ communication techniques
What does plankton ecology encompass?
The importance of coral reefs to seawater
Challenges that encompass geological oceanography
How tourism affects natural animal habitat
Discuss some instances of the domestication of wild marine animals
Coastal zone: pros and cons of living in such areas
How do sharks perceive enemies?
Analyze why some animals can live in water but can’t live on land
Explain how plants survive in the sea
Compare and contrast the different two species of animals in the water
How can marine energy be generated, stored, and used?

Molecular Biology Research Topics

Focusing on the construct of cells and analysis of their composition, it understands the alteration and maintenance of cellular processes. If you’d like to focus on molecular biology, here are 15 good biology research topics for you:

Ethical considerations in molecular genetics
Discuss the structure and component of the gene
Examine the restrictions in DNA
What are the peculiarities in modern nucleic acid analysis
What goes into the Pharmaceutical production of drugs
Evaluate the building blocks of life
Discuss the systems of RNA translation to protein
PCR: How DNA is tested and analyzed
Why is prion disease so dangerous?
Compare and contrast recessive genes vs. dominant genes
Can there be damage to the human DNA, and can it be repaired?
Constraints in the research of microarray data analysis
Protein purification: How it evolves
Objectives of nucleic acid
Explain the structure of a prion.

Biology Research Topics For High School

Your teachers and professors will be awed if you create impeccable essays for your next report. You need to secure the best grades as you move closer to graduation, and brainstorming any of these popular biology research topics will help:

Identify the most endangered species
The challenges to animal extinction
What are the things everyone should know about sea life?
Discuss the history of genetics
Explain the biological theory of Charles Darwin
How did the lockdown affect social interaction?
Why do some people refuse the vaccine?
Origin of genetics
What is animal hunting, and why is it fashionable
Explain the evolution of a virus
Role of lockdown in preventing deaths and illnesses
Invasive species: What does it mean?
Endangered animals: How do they survive in the face of their hazards?
Lockdown and their role in reducing coronavirus transmission
Vaccine distribution: Ideas for global distribution
Why can viruses become less virulent?
Discuss the evolution of the world
Explain the evolution of the planet
Explain what Elon Musk means when he says life on Mars is possible
What does herd immunity mean?
Flu: why is there a low incidence in 2020?
Relationship between archaeology and biology
Antiviral drug: What it means
Factors leading to the evolution of humans
Give instances of what natural selection means
What is considered the dead branches of evolution
Whale hunting: What it means and the present trends
Who is Stephen Jay, and what is his role in paleontology?
Origin of diseases: why must humans fall sick?
Why are humans called higher animals?

Human Biology Research Topics

Human biology understands humans and their relationship between themselves and their environment. It also studies how the body works and the impediments to health. Here are some easy biology research topics to explore on the subject:

How do gut bacteria affect the brain?
What are the ethical concerns around organ transplants?
The consequence of alcohol on the liver
The consequences of extreme salt on the human body
Why do humans need to deworm regularly?
The relationship between obesity and genetics
Genetically modified foods: Why are they needed?
How sun exposure affects human skin
Latest trends: Depression is hereditary
Influence of music on the human brain
What are the stages of lung cancer
Forensic DNA: latest trends
How visual consumptions affect how humans think
What is the process that leads to pregnancy?
Explain the role of nanotechnology in HIV research
Discuss any experiment with stem cells you know about
Explain how humans consume food
Discuss the process of metabolism as well as its criticality to human health
Explore the consistent challenges technology poses to human health
Explain the process of body decay to a skeleton.

Cell Biology Research Topics

There are many evolutionary biology research paper topics formed not by the nomenclature but for what they stand for. Cell biology is one of the most complex branches of the field.

It examines minor units and the living organisms that make them up. The focus is on the relationship between the cytoplasm, membrane, and parts of the cell. Here are some topics to explore for your scientific dissertation writing :

How does chromatin engage in the alterations of gene expression?
What are the usual cell infections, and why does the body have immunity defections?
Identify and account for the heritage of Robert Brown in his core career focus
Explain the structure of the animal cell and why It’s what it is
Identify the cells in the human body as well as their functions
Explain a scenario and justify the context of animals photosynthesizing like plants
Why do bacteria invade the body, and how do they do it?
Why are mitochondria considered the powerhouse of the cell
Use the molecular analysis tool to explain multicellular organisms
Examine how the White blood cells fight disease
What do you understand about the role of cell biology in the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
What are the latest research methods in cell biology?
Identify the characteristics of viruses and why they threaten human existence.
Discuss the differences between DNA and RNA
What part of the body is responsible for human functionality for as long as the individual wants?

Get Biology Research Help As Soon As Possible

Creating the best essays or papers is easier now that you have custom biology research topics. However, you may still need support writing your paper beyond these topic ideas. After all, the first stage of writing like experts is brainstorming ideas and researching which is most feasible to write about.

If you truly want to wow your professor or teacher but can’t afford to dedicate all the required time, here’s an alternative. You can hire writing helpers online for quality papers at a cheap price, and we can help with that. We are a team of writers with many years of writing experience for students in Europe and North America. You can even buy thesis online with us, as well as editing services.

Each paper is assigned to writers with expertise in a specific field. This enables them to provide in-depth analysis as your assignment requires. We’re based online, which means you won’t have issues with accessibility and availability. Just tell us what you need, and we will get it done.

350+ Biology Research Topics

Biology is a vast field of study that explores the diverse aspects of life, from the smallest organisms to the complex ecosystems they inhabit. With new discoveries being made every day, the field of biology is constantly evolving and expanding. As a result, there are numerous research topics within biology that can capture the imagination of students, researchers , and professionals alike. Whether you’re interested in genetics, ecology, microbiology, or any other subfield of biology, there is no shortage of fascinating topics to explore. In this post, we will discuss some of the most compelling biology research topics that you can delve into.

Biology Research Topics

Biology Research Topics are as follows:

The role of gut microbiota in human health and disease.
The effects of climate change on animal behavior and physiology.
The molecular mechanisms of cancer development and progression.
The evolutionary origins of human language.
The impact of pesticides on insect populations and ecosystems.
The genetic basis of aging and longevity.
The ecological importance of microbial communities in soil.
The physiology and behavior of marine mammals.
The molecular mechanisms of viral infections.
The evolutionary history of flowering plants.
The ecological impacts of invasive species.
The role of epigenetics in gene regulation and disease.
The evolution of social behavior in animals.
The physiology and ecology of birdsong.
The impact of antibiotics on gut microbiota and human health.
The role of the microbiome in psychiatric disorders.
The evolutionary history of human migrations.
The ecological and physiological effects of light pollution on animals.
The mechanisms of cell division and differentiation.
The ecological impacts of deforestation.
The molecular mechanisms of drug addiction.
The genetic basis of plant resistance to pests and diseases.
The evolutionary history of human diet and nutrition.
The molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases.
The ecology and evolution of sexual selection.
The physiological and behavioral effects of air pollution on animals.
The role of epigenetics in plant development and stress response.
The evolutionary history of animal domestication.
The molecular mechanisms of genetic diseases.
The ecological impacts of climate change on plants.
The evolutionary history of human mating systems.
The physiological and behavioral effects of noise pollution on animals.
The genetic basis of intelligence and cognitive abilities.
The ecological and physiological effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms.
The molecular mechanisms of immune system function and dysfunction.
The evolutionary history of human social structures.
The ecological impacts of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems.
The genetic basis of animal migration.
The physiological and behavioral effects of light and dark cycles on animals.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of symbiosis.
The molecular mechanisms of gene regulation and expression.
The evolutionary history of human disease resistance.
The ecological impacts of overfishing on marine ecosystems.
The genetic basis of animal communication.
The physiological and behavioral effects of temperature changes on animals.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of parasitism.
The molecular mechanisms of circadian rhythms.
The evolutionary history of human social cognition.
The ecological impacts of urbanization on wildlife.
The genetic basis of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
The impact of climate change on insect population dynamics.
The role of the microbiome in the development of autoimmune diseases.
The genetic basis of complex human diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
The evolution of plant secondary metabolites and their ecological functions.
The effects of anthropogenic noise on animal communication and behavior.
The molecular mechanisms of protein synthesis and folding.
The role of RNA in gene expression and regulation.
The ecology and evolution of microbial symbioses in plants.
The physiological and behavioral effects of air temperature changes on animals.
The genetic basis of crop domestication and improvement.
The evolution of reproductive strategies in animals.
The impacts of plastic pollution on terrestrial ecosystems.
The molecular mechanisms of stem cell differentiation and regeneration.
The ecological dynamics of predator-prey interactions.
The role of gut microbiota in the regulation of host metabolism.
The genetic basis of host-pathogen coevolution.
The evolution of social cognition and cooperation in animals.
The ecological and physiological effects of wildfires on ecosystems.
The molecular mechanisms of transcriptional regulation in eukaryotic cells.
The role of microorganisms in soil nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning.
The genetic basis of plant-pathogen interactions.
The ecology and evolution of microbial communities in the ocean.
The physiological and behavioral effects of water pollution on aquatic organisms.
The molecular mechanisms of protein degradation and turnover.
The impact of urbanization on pollinator populations and plant-pollinator interactions.
The genetic basis of insecticide resistance in pests.
The evolution of animal cognition and perception.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of host-parasite interactions.
The role of epigenetic modifications in plant adaptation to environmental stress.
The physiological and behavioral effects of endocrine disruptors on animals.
The molecular mechanisms of DNA replication and repair.
The impact of ocean warming on coral reef ecosystems.
The genetic basis of animal personality traits.
The ecology and evolution of microbial symbioses in animals.
The physiological and behavioral effects of light quality on plants.
The molecular mechanisms of RNA editing and splicing.
The role of microbial communities in plant-pathogen interactions.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of seed dispersal.
The genetic basis of animal coloration and pattern.
The impact of climate change on plant phenology and productivity.
The molecular mechanisms of signal transduction in cells.
The role of microbial communities in the human gut-brain axis.
The ecology and evolution of animal migrations.
The physiological and behavioral effects of chemical pollution on animals.
The genetic basis of animal development and morphogenesis.
The evolution of animal social behavior and communication.
The ecological dynamics of plant-pollinator networks.
The molecular mechanisms of intracellular trafficking and transport.
The role of microbial communities in the degradation of pollutants.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of species interactions in ecological communities.
The role of epigenetics in cancer development and progression.
The molecular basis of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
The impact of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
The genetic basis of aging and age-related diseases.
The evolution of social organization in primates.
The ecological dynamics of plant-fungal interactions.
The role of microbiota in immune system development and function.
The molecular mechanisms of DNA damage and repair.
The physiological and behavioral effects of climate change on marine organisms.
The genetic basis of human variation and diversity.
The evolution of sexual selection and mate choice in animals.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of species invasions.
The role of microbiota in brain function and behavior.
The molecular mechanisms of immune system activation and regulation.
The physiological and behavioral effects of pollution on wildlife.
The genetic basis of behavioral disorders and mental illness.
The evolution of plant-pollinator mutualisms.
The ecological dynamics of predator-prey coevolution.
The role of microbiota in metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
The molecular mechanisms of protein-protein interactions and signaling.
The genetic basis of complex traits such as intelligence and personality.
The evolution of animal communication and language.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of mutualistic interactions in ecological communities.
The role of microbiota in the development and maintenance of gut homeostasis.
The molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter synthesis and release.
The physiological and behavioral effects of artificial light at night on wildlife.
The genetic basis of developmental disorders such as autism and ADHD.
The evolution of host-parasite coevolution and adaptation.
The ecological dynamics of plant-herbivore interactions.
The role of microbiota in the regulation of metabolism and energy balance.
The molecular mechanisms of membrane transport and signaling.
The physiological and behavioral effects of habitat fragmentation on wildlife.
The genetic basis of circadian rhythms and sleep disorders.
The evolution of animal cognition and decision-making.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of trophic cascades.
The role of microbiota in the development and function of the respiratory system.
The molecular mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance.
The physiological and behavioral effects of endocrine disruptors on wildlife.
The genetic basis of developmental plasticity and adaptation.
The evolution of animal social learning and culture.
The ecological dynamics of predator-prey interactions in aquatic systems.
The role of microbiota in the regulation of host immunity and inflammation.
The molecular mechanisms of RNA interference and gene silencing.
The physiological and behavioral effects of climate change on migratory animals.
The genetic basis of drug addiction and substance abuse disorders.
The evolution of animal cooperation and conflict resolution.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of niche construction.
The role of microbiota in the regulation of host-microbe interactions.
The molecular mechanisms of gene regulation by non-coding RNAs.
The role of epigenetics in gene expression and regulation.
The molecular mechanisms of DNA damage response and repair.
The impact of environmental toxins on human health.
The evolutionary origins of viruses and their impact on hosts.
The genetics of aging and age-related diseases.
The impact of ocean acidification on marine organisms.
The molecular basis of cancer development and progression.
The genetic basis of behavior in animals.
The impact of environmental stressors on plant growth and productivity.
The evolution of sex determination and sexual selection.
The role of the immune system in host-microbe interactions.
The molecular mechanisms of circadian rhythms and sleep.
The impact of air pollution on respiratory health.
The genetic basis of speciation and hybridization.
The role of neurotransmitters in brain function and behavior.
The ecological dynamics of microbial communities in soil.
The impact of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
The molecular mechanisms of viral entry, replication, and release.
The genetics of plant domestication and diversification.
The role of mitochondrial DNA in aging and disease.
The impact of deforestation on ecosystem functioning.
The molecular basis of drug addiction and treatment.
The genetic basis of adaptation and evolution in response to environmental change.
The role of gut-brain signaling in behavior and disease.
The impact of noise pollution on wildlife populations.
The genetic basis of plant morphology and development.
The role of the microbiome in disease susceptibility and resistance.
The ecological dynamics of plant-insect interactions.
The impact of agricultural practices on soil health and biodiversity.
The molecular mechanisms of gene regulation in development and disease.
The genetic basis of complex traits in humans and animals.
The role of cytokines in immune response and inflammation.
The ecological dynamics of microbial communities in aquatic ecosystems.
The impact of plastic waste on marine ecosystems.
The molecular mechanisms of genome stability and repair.
The genetics of rare and common genetic diseases.
The role of the endocannabinoid system in health and disease.
The ecological dynamics of competition and cooperation in populations.
The impact of light pollution on wildlife behavior and ecology.
The genetic basis of animal migration and navigation.
The role of the microbiome in host metabolism and energy balance.
The impact of climate change on agricultural productivity and food security.
The molecular mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance and transmission.
The genetics of human brain development and disorders.
The role of pheromones in animal communication and behavior.
The ecological dynamics of host-microbe-pathogen interactions.
The effect of diet and nutrition on gut microbiome diversity and composition.
The ecology and evolution of microbial interactions in the soil.
The role of epigenetic modifications in cancer development and progression.
The impact of climate change on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
The molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial respiration and ATP synthesis.
The role of non-coding RNAs in gene regulation and disease.
The evolution and diversification of flowering plants.
The effects of artificial light at night on animal behavior and physiology.
The genetic basis of adaptation to extreme environments.
The ecology and evolution of plant-microbe interactions.
The physiological and behavioral effects of noise pollution on wildlife.
The molecular mechanisms of DNA methylation and histone modification.
The role of microbial communities in the cycling of nutrients in aquatic ecosystems.
The evolution of animal color vision and perception.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of mutualistic interactions.
The impact of deforestation on soil fertility and carbon storage.
The molecular mechanisms of viral replication and pathogenesis.
The role of microorganisms in the biodegradation of plastics.
The ecology and evolution of microbial communities in the human gut.
The physiological and behavioral effects of climate change on birds.
The impact of invasive species on native ecosystems.
The genetic basis of developmental disorders and intellectual disabilities.
The evolution of animal behavior and communication in response to anthropogenic change.
The ecological dynamics of soil carbon sequestration and storage.
The role of microbial communities in the decomposition of organic matter.
The physiological and behavioral effects of air pollution on plants.
The molecular mechanisms of cellular differentiation and tissue development.
The ecology and evolution of plant-animal interactions.
The genetic basis of resistance to herbicides and pesticides in crops.
The impact of urbanization on bird diversity and distribution.
The role of microorganisms in the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in soil.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of invasive species interactions.
The physiological and behavioral effects of climate change on reptiles and amphibians.
The role of microbial communities in the degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons.
The genetic basis of plant development and growth.
The evolution of animal migration and dispersal.
The impact of land use change on freshwater biodiversity.
The molecular mechanisms of membrane transport and ion channels.
The role of microorganisms in the cycling of sulfur and phosphorus in soil.
The physiological and behavioral effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms.
The genetic basis of behavior and personality traits in humans.
The evolution of plant reproductive strategies and pollination systems.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of predator-prey coevolution.
The impact of environmental stressors on gene expression and epigenetics.
The evolution of sexual reproduction and mating systems in plants.
The role of microorganisms in bioremediation of contaminated sites.
The physiological and behavioral effects of climate change on fish.
The molecular mechanisms of chromatin remodeling and gene regulation.
The genetic basis of adaptation to high altitude environments.
The ecology and evolution of plant-insect interactions.
The impact of pesticide use on insect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
The role of microorganisms in nitrogen fixation and cycling.
The genetic basis of neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive decline.
The evolution of social behavior and cooperation in animals.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of plant invasions.
The physiological and behavioral effects of noise pollution on humans.
The molecular mechanisms of RNA splicing and alternative splicing.
The role of microorganisms in biogeochemical cycling of trace elements.
The genetic basis of adaptation to extreme temperatures.
The ecology and evolution of microbial communities in soil and water.
The impact of climate change on insect phenology and distribution.
The molecular mechanisms of protein folding and misfolding.
The role of microorganisms in biodegradation of environmental pollutants.
The evolution of animal cognition and intelligence.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of predator-prey interactions.
The impact of anthropogenic noise on marine mammals.
The role of microorganisms in biofilm formation and quorum sensing.
The genetic basis of speciation and hybridization in plants.
The evolution of parental care and offspring development in animals.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of food web interactions.
The physiological and behavioral effects of air pollution on human health.
The molecular mechanisms of transcriptional regulation and gene expression.
The role of microorganisms in plant growth promotion and disease suppression.
The genetic basis of adaptation to drought stress in crops.
The ecology and evolution of microbial interactions in the ocean.
The impact of land use change on soil erosion and nutrient cycling.
The molecular mechanisms of autophagy and programmed cell death.
The role of microorganisms in biodegradation of pharmaceuticals.
The genetic basis of immune system variation and disease susceptibility.
The evolution of animal social networks and communication systems.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of biodiversity loss.
The physiological and behavioral effects of light pollution on nocturnal animals.
The molecular mechanisms of DNA repair and genome stability.
The role of microorganisms in the production of biofuels and bioplastics.
The genetic basis of adaptation to salinity stress in plants.
The ecology and evolution of microbial symbioses with plants and animals.
The impact of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions.
The molecular mechanisms of cellular senescence and aging.
The role of microorganisms in biodegradation of synthetic organic compounds.
The genetic basis of variation in complex traits in humans.
The evolution of animal social behavior and cultural transmission
The genetic basis of cancer development and progression.
The role of microorganisms in the gut microbiome and human health.
The genetic basis of phenotypic plasticity and adaptation in plants.
The evolution of animal migration and navigation.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of community assembly.
The physiological and behavioral effects of light and dark cycles on circadian rhythms.
The molecular mechanisms of protein synthesis and degradation.
The role of microorganisms in nitrogen and carbon cycling in aquatic ecosystems.
The genetic basis of sex determination and differentiation in animals.
The ecology and evolution of predator-prey coevolution.
The impact of anthropogenic activities on marine biodiversity and ecosystems.
The role of microorganisms in bioleaching and biomining of metals.
The genetic basis of inherited disorders and genetic diseases.
The evolution of animal social behavior and communication systems.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of competition and coexistence.
The physiological and behavioral effects of endocrine disruptors on human health.
The molecular mechanisms of cell division and mitosis.
The role of microorganisms in biodegradation of plastics and synthetic materials.
The genetic basis of epigenetic inheritance and regulation.
The ecology and evolution of mutualistic symbioses in plants and animals.
The impact of habitat fragmentation on species diversity and ecosystem functioning.
The role of microorganisms in bioremediation of oil spills.
The genetic basis of drug resistance in pathogens and cancer cells.
The evolution of animal personality and individual variation.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of biotic interactions in freshwater ecosystems.
The physiological and behavioral effects of artificial sweeteners on human health.
The molecular mechanisms of intracellular trafficking and secretion.
The role of microorganisms in biocontrol of plant pathogens and pests.
The genetic basis of hybridization and introgression in animals and plants.
The ecology and evolution of plant-pollinator mutualisms.
The impact of climate change on marine ecosystems and fisheries.
The molecular mechanisms of genome editing and gene therapy.
The role of microorganisms in biogas production and carbon capture.
The genetic basis of developmental disorders and birth defects.
The evolution of animal coloration and camouflage.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of invasive species.
The physiological and behavioral effects of air pollution on wildlife.
The molecular mechanisms of signal transduction and cell signaling.
The role of microorganisms in biodegradation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products.
The genetic basis of reproductive isolation and speciation.
The ecology and evolution of microbial interactions with plants and insects.
The impact of climate change on bird migration and breeding patterns.
The molecular mechanisms of protein-protein interactions and protein complexes.
The role of microorganisms in bioremediation of heavy metals.
The evolution of animal cognition and learning.
The ecological and evolutionary dynamics of biodiversity hotspots.
The impact of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems.
The genetics of complex diseases and personalized medicine.
The evolution of plant defense mechanisms against herbivores.
The role of microorganisms in soil carbon sequestration.
The physiological and behavioral effects of light on plant growth and development.
The molecular mechanisms of cancer metastasis and invasion.
The ecology and evolution of microbial communities in the human body.
The impact of climate change on migratory bird populations.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

200+ Funny Research Topics

500+ Sports Research Topics

300+ American History Research Paper Topics

500+ Cyber Security Research Topics

500+ Environmental Research Topics

500+ Economics Research Topics

150 Actual Biology Research Paper Topics

Table of contents

1 What Is Biology? What Topics Might Biologists Study?
2 How to Choose a Topic for Biology Research Paper?
3.1 15 Developmental Biology Topics For Research
3.2 15 Immune System Biology Research Topics
3.3 15 Cell Biology Research Topics
3.4 15 DNA Research Topics
3.5 15 Molecular Biology Research Topics
3.6 15 Neurobiology Research Topics
3.7 15 Abortion, Human cloning, and Genetic Researches Topics
3.8 15 Environmental and Ecology Topics for Your Research
3.9 15 Plant Pathology Biology Research Topics
3.10 15 Animals Biology Research Topics
3.11 15 Marine Biology Research Topics
3.12 15 Zoology Research Topics
3.13 15 Genetics Research Topics
3.14 15 Biotechnology Research Topics
3.15 15 Evolutionary Biology Research Topics

Biology is one of the most magnetic fields of study these days. If you want to be a biologist or scientist in the future, there is no better time to start than right now. Biology research topics covered in this article will keep you busy and interested. Writing a research paper is one of the best ways to dip your toes into the field. Before doing that, you need to know some good topics for the research paper . They should be suitable for biology students rather than cutting-edge researchers. On Papersowl.com , we provide as many biology research paper examples as possible so that you have a huge choice.

What Is Biology? What Topics Might Biologists Study?

Biology is simply the study of everything that has a form of life. It includes investigations on plants, animals, and everything found in the environment. It is about studying how life forms grow, develop, and interact with each other. Biology essay topics for research encompass all these and more.

This science uncovers many fields where various life forms are studied. It makes sense to look through these fields to help you decide which suits you the best.

Plant Biology research topics are about studying the plants around us. They disclose information about their existence as a part of the ecosystem, their life cycle, resources they can give us, their ability to preserve them from climate changes, and so on. There are many ideas to choose from, but you must focus on a specific one.

Human Biology research topics are all about us. These topics focus on different body parts, such as the human brain, the human immunological system, the nervous system, etc. In addition, you can discuss DNA modifications in humans and explain why genetic disorders occur in your research projects. Various cell research is also common today.

Biology research topics on the environment are in great demand too. For example, climate change is becoming a more significant threat every day. By studying environmental topics in biology for projects and research, we can come up with ways to combat them and preserve ecosystems.

Microbiology research topics delve into things we can’t see. There are trillions of microbes and bacteria all around us. Knowing about them is essential to understanding what makes us sick and how to fight against them. All microbiology research paper topics are pretty complicated yet very engaging to include in your paper research.

Molecular biology topics dive even deeper into the level of atoms and molecules. The various medicines and drugs we take were all created through molecular-biology research. It is one of the areas full of ideas, but there is yet to be much evidence. Science is advancing in this realm but still needs a lot of time. Topics of molecular biology will need days for research only.

Keep in mind that there are more ideas and variations of this science. We offer more examples in further sections of the article about developmental biology, marine biology, evolutionary biology, etc. Explore them and make your writing appealing and meaningful in the eyes of a professor.

How to Choose a Topic for Biology Research Paper?

When choosing a biology project topic, you must be aware of one or more fields of science. Biology research is critical to the present world. By doing research, we can learn more about genetic disorders, immune disorders, mental health, natural disease resistance, etc. Knowing about each of these could save lives in the future.

For those who may not have the time or resources to do their own research, there are research paper writing services that can provide assistance with the project. And we are always here to help you find your own topic among interesting biology research topics. Here we prepared some useful tips to follow.

Tip 1: The level of interest matters Pay attention to one that interests you, and you might have ideas on how to develop the topic. Passion is fundamental in research, after all.
Tip 2: Explore the topic Try to narrow things down a bit. If the topic is too broad, you may not be able to cover all aspects of it in one research paper. If it is too narrow, the paper could end up too short. Analyze the topic and the ways to approach it. By doing so, you can strike a balance between the two.
Tip 3: Discover the recent developments To make your research paper touchable with the present day, you must explore the latest developments in the field. You can find out what kind of research has been done recently by looking at journals. Check out research papers, topics, research articles, and other sources.
Tip 4: Ensure to get enough resources When choosing a topic, make sure it has plenty of resources available. For example, a research paper on xenobiology or cutting-edge nanobiology might sound attractive. Still, you might have difficulties getting data and resources for those unless you are a researcher at a government lab. Data, resources, complex numbers, and statistics are all invaluable to writing a paper about these topics.

That is why we have selected a range of biological topics. The topics on this list are all hopefully exciting topics for research you could write an excellent paper on. We should also add that easy biology topics to research are rare, and a writer usually needs days to prepare and start writing. Yes, biology research topics for high school students are a bit easier, but still, they need time to explore them.

On the other hand, biology research topics for college students are far more complex and detailed. Some people prefer evolutionary biology research paper topics, and we can agree with this claim. These research areas do have a lot of potential and a lot of data to support the claims. Others prefer cell biology research topics that are a bit specific and fun. Anyway, with this article’s list of easy biology research topics, you will surely find the one matching your interest.

For those who may not have the time or resources to do their own research, there are provide assistance with the project.

15 Developmental Biology Topics For Research

Exploring the processes of how cells grow and develop is exciting. The human body contains millions of cells, and it’s interesting to research their behavior under different conditions. If you feel like writing about it, you can find some interesting biology topics below.

How do stem cells form different tissues?
How are tumors formed?
Duplication of genomes
Plasticity of development
Different birth defects
Interactions between genes and the environment
Anticancer drugs mixtures
Developmental diseases: Origin
Drosophila Oogenesis
Most deadly viruses
Most deadly bacteria in the world
How do germs affect cells?
How does leukemia start?
Development of the cardiovascular system in children
How do autoimmune diseases start and affect the human body?

15 Immune System Biology Research Topics

For decades, many scientists and immunologists have studied the human immune system and tried to explain its reaction to various pathogens. This area allows you to deepen into it and reveal how a body protects itself from harmful impact. Look over the biology research questions below and find your match-up.

How does the human body’s immune system work?
The human immune system: How to strengthen it?
What makes the immunological system weaker?
The notion of auto-immune diseases and their effect on the body’s immune system
The global HIV/aids epidemic
What methods are used to prevent the spread of hives?
Living with auto-immune diseases
Genetics and the immune system: effects and consequences
How do immune disorders affect the body, and what causes them?
Are allergies signs of worrying about an immune disorder?
DNA modification in solving immune disorders
Stress as the biggest ruiner of the immunological system
Vaccines as strong supporters of the immunological system
The perception of vaccines in society
Why do some people refuse vaccines and put others around them in danger?

15 Cell Biology Research Topics

Cell study might seem challenging yet very engaging. It will be a good idea to compare various types of cells and compare them in animals and plants. Make your choice from the list of cell biology research topics below.

The structure of an animal cell
Mitochondria and its meaning in cell development
Cells classification and their functions
Red blood cells and their function in transporting oxygen
White blood cells and their responsibility to fight diseases
How are plant cells different from animal cells?
What would it be if animals had a function to photosynthesize?
Single-celled organisms: What is it, and how do they work?
What processes do cells go through in division?
Invasion of bacteria into the body
Viruses – alive or not?
Fungi: their reproduction and distribution
Cancer cells: Why are they so dangerous?
What methods are used to kill cancer cells?
The role of stem cells and their potential in a body

15 DNA Research Topics

The variety of biology research topics for college students might impress you a lot. This is a science with a large field of investigation, disclosing much scientific information to use in your project. The notion of DNA and its gist are also excellent options to write about.

The structure of the human DNA
The main components of a DNA chain
Why does DNA have a double-helix spiral structure?
The purpose of chromosomes
MRNA and its relation to DNA
Do single-celled organisms have DNA?
Do viruses have DNA?
What happens if you have too many or too few chromosomes?
Analyzing the structure of DNA using computers
Uses for the DNA of extinct organisms like mammoths and dinosaurs
Storing non-genetic information in DNA
Can you write a computer program into human DNA?
How does radiation affect DNA?
Modifying DNA to treat aids
Can we fight cancer through DNA modification?

15 Molecular Biology Research Topics

Do you prefer to research molecules’ chemical and physical composition? We gathered some molecular biology research topics to make your choice easier.

The structure and components of a gene
How do molecules move in and out of a cell?
The basic building blocks of life
How are drugs designed for humans?
How is a vaccine designed to target a specific disease?
Dominant genes vs. recessive genes
Prion disease – why is it so dangerous?
Hormones and their function in the body
Developing artificial hormones from other animals
How to carry out a western blot?
Testing and analyzing DNA using PCR
The three-dimensional structure of a molecule
What is DNA transcription, and how is it used?
The structure of a prion
What is the central dogma of molecular biology?

15 Neurobiology Research Topics

The more you dive into science, the more exciting things you find. That’s about biology. Here, you can choose biology research topics for high school and try to reveal more simply.

Nervous system: its structure and function
Neurons as unique cells playing a central role in the nervous system
What is the maximum reaction speed in a human?
Reaction speed: how to improve it?
Research on Organic Farming
What are the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease?
Why do we feel happy or sad?
Headaches in terms of Neurobiology
What are the reasons for neurobiological degeneration?
Myths and reality of Amnesia
What causes Alzheimer’s Disease, and what are the consequences of the disease?
What is the treatment for Spinal Cord Injury?
Studies on Narcolepsy and Insomnia: What are the causes?
Is there a connection between Mental Health and Neurobiology?
Emotions in terms of their reflection in the brain

15 Abortion, Human cloning, and Genetic Researches Topics

There are so many scientific researches and theories that society accepts or neglects. You can operate different notions and try to explain them, reflecting their advantages and downsides for a human being. We gathered some enticing life science research topics for high school students that might interest you.

The controversy around abortion: legal or not?
Can abortion be safe?
Human cloning – reality vs. science-fiction
The goals of cloning humans
Are human cloning and transplantation ethical?
Having a “perfect child” through gene therapy: Is it a myth?
How far has gene therapy gone in genetic research?
Advantages and disadvantages of gene therapy
How gene therapy can help beat cancer
How gene therapy can eliminate diabetes
The opportunity to edit genes by CRISPR
DNA modifications in humans to enhance our abilities – an ethical dilemma
Will expensive gene therapy widen the gap between the rich and the poor?
Cloning: the good and the Bad for a Generation
The disadvantages of cloning
Free unlimited checks
All common file formats
Accurate results
Intuitive interface

15 Environmental and Ecology Topics for Your Research

The nature around us is so enormous and includes many branches to investigate. If you are keen on the environment and how ecology affects it, the list of follow-up biology paper topics might be helpful to you.

The theory of evolution
How does natural selection work?
How do living organisms adapt to their environment?
The concept of divergent and convergent evolution
Building a sustainable environment
Development of environment-friendly cities
How to control population growth?
Why have recycling resources become so essential in the modern world?
The effect of plastic on the environment
What are the global consequences of deforestation?
What can we expect when losing biodiversity?
Ecological damage: How to prevent it?
How can GMO products affect ecology?
Cloning endangered or extinct species: Is it a good idea?
Is climate change the main reason for disrupting ecology?

15 Plant Pathology Biology Research Topics

Many factors impact human health and the quality of food products matters. These easy biology research topics will be useful if you want to describe the connection between those two concepts.

How do plants protect themselves from diseases?
How to increase the plant’s resistance to diseases?
Diseases distribution among plants
The banana pandemic
How do herbicides influence plants?
Corn blight
Can any plant diseases affect humans?
The issue of stem rust and its impact on wheat
What approaches are used to struggle against invasive plants and affected weeds?
Fertilizers: their pros and cons on plants
Plant disease genetics: its system and structure
What is the connection between ecological changes and plant diseases?
Modifications on food production because of plant diseases
How do fungal and viral diseases appear in plants?
The sweet potato virus

15 Animals Biology Research Topics

It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t like animals. If you are curious about animals scientifically, here you are with biology research paper topics in this field.

Classification of animals
Land-based life: its evolution history
Controversies about keeping animals as pets
Is it ethical to test drugs and products on animals?
Why do nature reserves against zoos?
Evidence on prehistoric aquatic animals growing giant
What species of animals are vegan?
Animals and their social behavior
Primate behavior
How intelligent can other primates be?
Are wolves and dogs intelligent?
Domesticating animals
Hibernation in animals
Why animals migrate
Should we bring back extinct animals?

15 Marine Biology Research Topics

The marine theme is engaging as it reveals so many interesting facts about life forms dwelling under the water. You can make your paper look captivating using biology topics in marine below.

How acidification affects aquatic environments
Evolution in the deep sea
What’s the meaning of camouflage mechanism in sea life?
Consequences of oil spills on marine life
Oldest marine species
How do whales communicate with each other?
How blind fish navigate
Are marine shows and aquariums ethical?
The biology and life cycle of seabirds
How jellyfish are immortal
Plankton ecology
Difference between freshwater and seawater marine life
Coral reefs: their importance and evolution
Saving and restoring coral reefs
Life in the deep-sea ocean trenches

15 Zoology Research Topics

Zoology can be an excellent choice to write about if you are close to animal studies. Look at biology topics to research and choose the one that fits your interest most.

Asian elephants and human speech patterns
Oyster genomes and adaptation
Darwin’s work in the Galápagos Islands
Asian carp: Invasive species analysis
Giant squids: Fact vs. fiction
Coyote and wolf hybrid species in the United States
Parasites and disease
Migration patterns of killer bees
The treatment of species in Melville’s Moby Dick
Biodiversity and plankton
The role of camels and the development of Africa and the Middle East
Muskellunge and adaptive creek mechanisms to small water
Ants and cooperative behavior among species
Animal communication and the origin of language
Speech in African Gray Parrots

15 Genetics Research Topics

Writing about modifications caused on the gene level is pretty challenging but very fascinating. You can select one among the biological questions for research and bring up a meaningful paper.

Genetics and its role in cancer studies
Can genetic code be confidential?
Is it possible to choose the sex of a person before birth?
Genetics as a ray of hope for children with an intellectual disability
What factors in human genetics affect behavior?
Is it somehow possible to improve human personality through genetics?
Are there any living cells in the gene?
Fighting HIV with gene mutations
Genetic mutations
How addictive substances affect genes
Genetic testing: is it necessary?
Cloning: positive or negative outcome for future generations
Pros and cons of genetic engineering
Is the world ready for the bioethics revolution?
The linkage between genetics and obesity

15 Biotechnology Research Topics

The way scientists conduct research today is magnificent. Implementing high-tech innovations in biology research brings new opportunities to study the world. What are these opportunities? Explore biotechnology research topics for college students and disclose the best options for you.

Biotechnology used in plant research
What is the contribution of biotechnology to food?
Pharmacogenetics: What is it, and how it works?
How are anti-cancer drugs produced to be effective?
Nanotechnology in DNA: How to isolate it?
Recent nanotechnology used in HIV treatment
What biotech apps are used to detect foodborne pathogens in food systems?
Genotypes research: Why are they tolerant and sensitive to heavy metal?
High-tech solutions in diagnosing cancer
Forensic DNA and its latest developments
Metabolic changes at the level of cells
Nanotechnology in improving treatments for respiratory viruses
The latest biotech discoveries
Digital evolution: bioresearch and its transformation
The concept of vaccine development

15 Evolutionary Biology Research Topics

Knowing how life forms started their existence is fundamental. And more interesting is to look through the evolution of many processes. If you find this trend of research more engaging, we outlined evolutionary biology research paper topics to diversify your choice.

Darwin’s concept’s impact on science
The evolution concept by Lamarck
Origins of the evolutionary theory
Evolution acceptance: a belief vs. a theory?
Evolutionary in microbiology
Development of robotics
Revealing differences: human brain & animal brain
Preservation of biological resources
Transformations in aging
Adaptive genetic system
Morphometrics’ history
Developmental theory and population genomics
Bacteria ecology’s evolution
Biological changes: impact and evolution
Infectious diseases and their profession

The world of science and biology is vast, making research tedious. Use our list of interesting biology research topics to choose the best issue to write your own paper.

However, it is still hard to prepare a high-quality biology research paper, even with a brilliant topic. Not all college students can do it. Do you feel like you need some help? Then buy biology paper from our professional writers! Our experts will choose the best biology experimental research topics for you and can bring up top-level papers within the shortest time. Additionally, if you need help with a statistics project related to biology, our team of experienced professionals is equipped to provide you with the utmost quality of research and analysis.

Readers also enjoyed

WHY WAIT? PLACE AN ORDER RIGHT NOW!

Just fill out the form, press the button, and have no worries!

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy.

251+ Life Science Research Topics [Updated]

Life science research is like peering into the intricate workings of the universe, but instead of stars and galaxies, it delves into the mysteries of life itself. From unraveling the secrets of our genetic code to understanding ecosystems and everything in between, life science research encompasses a vast array of fascinating topics. In this blog post, we’ll embark on a journey through some of the most captivating life science research topics within the realm of life science research.

What is research in life science?

Table of Contents

Research in life science involves the systematic investigation and study of living organisms, their interactions, and their environments. It encompasses a wide range of disciplines, including biology, genetics, ecology, microbiology, neuroscience, and more.

Life science research aims to expand our understanding of the fundamental principles governing life processes, uncover new insights into biological systems, develop innovative technologies and therapies, and address pressing challenges in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, and conservation.

251+ Life Science Research Topics: Category Wise

Genetics and genomics.

Genetic basis of inherited diseases
Genome-wide association studies
Epigenetics and gene regulation
Evolutionary genomics
CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology
Pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine
Population genetics
Functional genomics
Comparative genomics across species
Genetic diversity and conservation

Biotechnology and Bioengineering

Biopharmaceutical production
Metabolic engineering for biofuel production
Synthetic biology applications
Bioremediation techniques
Nanotechnology in drug delivery
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
Biosensors for environmental monitoring
Bioprocessing optimization
Biodegradable plastics and sustainable materials
Agricultural biotechnology for crop improvement

Ecology and Environmental Biology

Biodiversity hotspots and conservation strategies
Ecosystem services and human well-being
Climate change impacts on ecosystems
Restoration ecology techniques
Urban ecology and biodiversity
Marine biology and coral reef conservation
Habitat fragmentation and species extinction
Ecological modeling and forecasting
Wildlife conservation genetics
Microbial ecology in natural environments

Neuroscience and Cognitive Science

Brain mapping techniques (fMRI, EEG, etc.)
Neuroplasticity and learning
Neural circuitry underlying behavior
Neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc.)
Neural engineering for prosthetics
Consciousness and the mind-body problem
Psychiatric genetics and mental health disorders
Neuroimaging in psychiatric research
Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Neural correlates of consciousness

Evolutionary Biology

Mechanisms of speciation
Molecular evolution and phylogenetics
Coevolutionary dynamics
Evolution of antibiotic resistance
Cultural evolution and human behavior
Evolutionary consequences of climate change
Evolutionary game theory
Evolutionary medicine and infectious diseases
Evolutionary psychology and human cognition
Paleogenomics and ancient DNA analysis

Cell Biology and Physiology

Cell cycle regulation and cancer biology
Stem cell biology and regenerative medicine
Organelle dynamics and intracellular transport
Cellular senescence and aging
Ion channels and neuronal excitability
Metabolic pathways and cellular energetics
Cell signaling pathways in development and disease
Autophagy and cellular homeostasis
Mitochondrial function and disease
Cell adhesion and migration in development and cancer

Microbiology and Immunology

Microbiome composition and function
Antibiotic resistance mechanisms
Host-microbe interactions in health and disease
Viral pathogenesis and vaccine development
Microbial biotechnology for waste treatment
Immunotherapy approaches for cancer treatment
Microbial diversity in extreme environments
Antimicrobial peptides and drug discovery
Microbial biofilms and chronic infections
Host immune responses to viral infections

Biomedical Research and Clinical Trials

Translational research in oncology
Precision medicine approaches
Clinical trials for gene therapies
Biomarker discovery for disease diagnosis
Stem cell-based therapies for regenerative medicine
Pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism studies
Clinical trials for neurodegenerative diseases
Vaccine efficacy trials
Patient-reported outcomes in clinical research
Health disparities and clinical trial participation

Emerging Technologies and Innovations

Single-cell omics technologies
3D bioprinting for tissue engineering
CRISPR-based diagnostics
Artificial intelligence applications in life sciences
Organs-on-chip for drug screening
Wearable biosensors for health monitoring
Nanomedicine for targeted drug delivery
Optogenetics for neuronal manipulation
Quantum biology and biological systems
Augmented reality in medical education

Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) in Life Sciences

Privacy concerns in genomic research
Ethical considerations in gene editing technologies
Access to healthcare and genetic testing
Intellectual property rights in biotechnology
Informed consent in clinical trials
Animal welfare in research
Equity in environmental decision-making
Data sharing and reproducibility in science
Dual-use research and biosecurity
Cultural perspectives on biomedicine and genetics

Public Health and Epidemiology

Disease surveillance and outbreak investigation
Global health disparities and access to healthcare
Environmental factors in disease transmission
Health impacts of climate change
Social determinants of health
Infectious disease modeling and forecasting
Vaccination strategies and herd immunity
Epidemiology of chronic diseases
Mental health epidemiology
Occupational health and safety

Plant Biology and Agriculture

Crop domestication and evolution
Plant-microbe interactions in agriculture
Genetic engineering for crop improvement
Plant hormone signaling pathways
Abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms in plants
Soil microbiology and nutrient cycling
Agroecology and sustainable farming practices
Plant secondary metabolites and natural products
Plant developmental biology
Plant epigenetics and environmental adaptation

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Genome assembly and annotation algorithms
Phylogenetic tree reconstruction methods
Metagenomic data analysis pipelines
Machine learning approaches for biomarker discovery
Structural bioinformatics and protein modeling
Systems biology and network analysis
Transcriptomic data analysis tools
Population genetics simulation software
Evolutionary algorithms in bioinformatics
Cloud computing in life sciences research

Toxicology and Environmental Health

Mechanisms of chemical toxicity
Risk assessment methodologies
Environmental fate and transport of pollutants
Endocrine disruptors and reproductive health
Nanotoxicology and nanomaterial safety
Biomonitoring of environmental contaminants
Ecotoxicology and wildlife health
Air pollution exposure and respiratory health
Water quality and aquatic ecosystems
Environmental justice and health disparities

Aquatic Biology and Oceanography

Marine biodiversity conservation strategies
Ocean acidification impacts on marine life
Coral reef resilience and restoration
Fisheries management and sustainable harvesting
Deep-sea biodiversity and exploration
Harmful algal blooms and ecosystem health
Marine mammal conservation efforts
Microplastics pollution in aquatic environments
Ocean circulation and climate regulation
Aquaculture and mariculture technologies

Social and Behavioral Sciences in Health

Health behavior change interventions
Social determinants of health disparities
Health communication strategies
Community-based participatory research
Patient-centered care approaches
Cultural competence in healthcare delivery
Health literacy interventions
Stigma reduction efforts in public health
Health policy analysis and advocacy
Digital health technologies for behavior monitoring

Bioethics and Biomedical Ethics

Ethical considerations in human subjects research
Research ethics in vulnerable populations
Privacy and data protection in healthcare
Professional integrity and scientific misconduct
Ethical implications of genetic testing
Access to healthcare and health equity
End-of-life care and euthanasia debates
Reproductive ethics and assisted reproduction
Ethical challenges in emerging biotechnologies

Forensic Science and Criminalistics

DNA fingerprinting techniques
Forensic entomology and time of death estimation
Trace evidence analysis methods
Digital forensics in criminal investigations
Ballistics and firearm identification
Forensic anthropology and human identification
Bloodstain pattern analysis
Arson investigation techniques
Forensic toxicology and drug analysis
Forensic psychology and criminal profiling

Nutrition and Dietary Science

Nutritional epidemiology studies
Diet and chronic disease risk
Functional foods and nutraceuticals
Macronutrient metabolism pathways
Micronutrient deficiencies and supplementation
Gut microbiota and metabolic health
Dietary interventions for weight management
Food safety and risk assessment
Sustainable diets and environmental impact
Cultural influences on dietary habits

Entomology and Insect Biology

Insect behavior and communication
Insecticide resistance mechanisms
Pollinator decline and conservation efforts
Medical entomology and vector-borne diseases
Invasive species management strategies
Insect biodiversity in urban environments
Agricultural pest management techniques
Insect physiology and biochemistry
Social insects and eusociality
Insect symbiosis and microbial interactions

Zoology and Animal Biology

Animal behavior and cognition
Conservation genetics of endangered species
Reproductive biology and breeding programs
Wildlife forensics and illegal wildlife trade
Comparative anatomy and evolutionary biology
Animal welfare and ethics in research
Physiological adaptations to extreme environments
Zoological taxonomy and species discovery
Animal communication and signaling
Human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Protein folding and misfolding diseases
Enzyme kinetics and catalytic mechanisms
Metabolic regulation in health and disease
Signal transduction pathways
DNA repair mechanisms and genome stability
RNA biology and post-transcriptional regulation
Lipid metabolism and membrane biophysics
Molecular interactions in drug design
Bioenergetics and cellular respiration
Structural biology and X-ray crystallography

Cancer Biology and Oncology

Tumor microenvironment and metastasis
Cancer stem cells and therapy resistance
Angiogenesis and tumor vasculature
Immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer therapy
Liquid biopsy techniques for cancer detection
Oncogenic signaling pathways
Personalized medicine approaches in oncology
Radiation therapy and tumor targeting strategies
Cancer genomics and precision oncology
Cancer prevention and lifestyle interventions

Developmental Biology and Embryology

Embryonic stem cell differentiation
Morphogen gradients and tissue patterning
Developmental genetics and model organisms
Regenerative potential in vertebrates and invertebrates
Developmental plasticity and environmental cues
Embryo implantation and pregnancy disorders
Germ cell development and fertility preservation
Cell fate determination in development
Evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo)
Organogenesis and tissue morphogenesis

Pharmacology and Drug Discovery

Drug-target interactions and pharmacokinetics
High-throughput screening techniques
Structure-activity relationship studies
Drug repurposing strategies
Natural product drug discovery
Drug delivery systems and nanomedicine
Pharmacovigilance and drug safety monitoring
Pharmacoeconomics and healthcare outcomes
Drug metabolism and drug-drug interactions

Stem Cell Research

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) technology
Stem cell therapy applications in regenerative medicine
Stem cell niche and microenvironment
Stem cell banking and cryopreservation
Stem cell-based disease modeling

What Are The 10 Examples of Life Science Research Paper Titles?

Investigating the Role of Gut Microbiota in Neurological Disorders: Implications for Therapeutic Interventions.
Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Novel Genetic Markers for Cardiovascular Disease Risk.
Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer Metastasis: Insights from Cellular Signaling Pathways.
The Impact of Climate Change on Plant-Pollinator Interactions: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation.
Exploring the Potential of CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing Technology in Treating Genetic Disorders.
Characterizing the Microbial Diversity of Extreme Environments: Insights from Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents.
Assessment of Novel Drug Delivery Systems for Targeted Cancer Therapy: A Preclinical Study.
Unraveling the Neurobiology of Addiction: Implications for Treatment Strategies.
Investigating the Role of Epigenetics in Age-Related Diseases: From Mechanisms to Therapeutic Targets.
Evaluating the Efficacy of Herbal Remedies in Traditional Medicine: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Life science research is a journey of discovery, filled with wonder, excitement, and the occasional setback. Yet, through perseverance and ingenuity, researchers continue to push the boundaries of knowledge, unlocking the secrets of life itself. As we stand on the cusp of a new era of scientific discovery, one thing is clear: the future of life science research is brighter—and more promising—than ever before. I hope these life science research topics will help you to find the best topics for you.

Step by Step Guide on The Best Way to Finance Car

The Best Way on How to Get Fund For Business to Grow it Efficiently

Search by keyword
Search by citation

Page 1 of 12

The crucial role of HFM1 in regulating FUS ubiquitination and localization for oocyte meiosis prophase I progression in mice

Helicase for meiosis 1 (HFM1), a putative DNA helicase expressed in germ-line cells, has been reported to be closely associated with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). However, the underlying molecular mec...

View Full Text

Distinct properties of putative trophoblast stem cells established from somatic cell nuclear-transferred pig blastocysts

Genetically modified pigs are considered ideal models for studying human diseases and potential sources for xenotransplantation research. However, the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique utilized to...

Electroacupuncture attenuates neuropathic pain via suppressing BIP-IRE-1α-mediated endoplasmic reticulum stress in the anterior cingulate cortex

Studies have suggested that endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) is involved in neurological dysfunction and that electroacupuncture (EA) attenuates neuropathic pain (NP) via undefined pathways. However, the rol...

Effect of Cannabis sativa L. extracts, phytocannabinoids and their acetylated derivates on the SHSY-5Y neuroblastoma cells’ viability and caspases 3/7 activation

There is a need for novel treatments for neuroblastoma, despite the emergence of new biological and immune treatments, since refractory pediatric neuroblastoma is still a medical challenge. Phyto cannabinoids ...

The hepatoprotective effect of 4-phenyltetrahydroquinolines on carbon tetrachloride induced hepatotoxicity in rats through autophagy inhibition

The liver serves as a metabolic hub within the human body, playing a crucial role in various essential functions, such as detoxification, nutrient metabolism, and hormone regulation. Therefore, protecting the ...

Connexin channels and hemichannels are modulated differently by charge reversal at residues forming the intracellular pocket

Members of the β-subfamily of connexins contain an intracellular pocket surrounded by amino acid residues from the four transmembrane helices. The presence of this pocket has not previously been investigated i...

IDH1 mutation produces R-2-hydroxyglutarate (R-2HG) and induces mir-182-5p expression to regulate cell cycle and tumor formation in glioma

Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 ( IDH1 and IDH2 ), are present in most gliomas. IDH1 mutation is an important prognostic marker in glioma. However, its regulatory mechanism in glioma remains incomplet...

Therapeutic potential of oleic acid supplementation in myotonic dystrophy muscle cell models

We recently reported that upregulation of Musashi 2 (MSI2) protein in the rare neuromuscular disease myotonic dystrophy type 1 contributes to the hyperactivation of the muscle catabolic processes autophagy and...

Dorsal root ganglion-derived exosomes deteriorate neuropathic pain by activating microglia via the microRNA-16-5p/HECTD1/HSP90 axis

The activated microglia have been reported as pillar factors in neuropathic pain (NP) pathology, but the molecules driving pain-inducible microglial activation require further exploration. In this study, we in...

MicroRNA-721 regulates gluconeogenesis via KDM2A-mediated epigenetic modulation in diet-induced insulin resistance in C57BL/6J mice

Aberrant gluconeogenesis is considered among primary drivers of hyperglycemia under insulin resistant conditions, with multiple studies pointing towards epigenetic dysregulation. Here we examine the role of mi...

Combined transcriptomics and proteomics unveil the impact of vitamin C in modulating specific protein abundance in the mouse liver

Vitamin C (ascorbate) is a water-soluble antioxidant and an important cofactor for various biosynthetic and regulatory enzymes. Mice can synthesize vitamin C thanks to the key enzyme gulonolactone oxidase (Gul...

Novel role of LLGL2 silencing in autophagy: reversing epithelial-mesenchymal transition in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a major urological disease that is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in men. LLGL2 is the mammalian homolog of Lgl. It acts as a tumor suppressor in breast and hepati...

Rapid development and mass production of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing chicken egg yolk antibodies with protective efficacy in hamsters

Despite the record speed of developing vaccines and therapeutics against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it is not a given that such success can be secured in future pandemics. In addition, COVID-19 vaccination and appl...

High-fat diet, microbiome-gut-brain axis signaling, and anxiety-like behavior in male rats

Obesity, associated with the intake of a high-fat diet (HFD), and anxiety are common among those living in modern urban societies. Recent studies suggest a role of microbiome-gut-brain axis signaling, includin...

General regulatory factors exert differential effects on nucleosome sliding activity of the ISW1a complex

Chromatin dynamics is deeply involved in processes that require access to DNA, such as transcriptional regulation. Among the factors involved in chromatin dynamics at gene regulatory regions are general regula...

Establishment of primary prostate epithelial and tumorigenic cell lines using a non-viral immortalization approach

Research on prostate cancer is mostly performed using cell lines derived from metastatic disease, not reflecting stages of tumor initiation or early progression. Establishment of cancer cell lines derived from...

The effect of diabetes mellitus on differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into insulin-producing cells

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global epidemic with increasing incidences. DM is a metabolic disease associated with chronic hyperglycemia. Aside from conventional treatments, there is no clinically approved cure...

Control of astrocytic Ca 2+ signaling by nitric oxide-dependent S-nitrosylation of Ca 2+ homeostasis modulator 1 channels

Astrocytes Ca 2+ signaling play a central role in the modulation of neuronal function. Activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR) by glutamate released during an increase in synaptic activity triggers ...

Increased levels and activation of the IL-17 receptor in microglia contribute to enhanced neuroinflammation in cerebellum of hyperammonemic rats

Patients with liver cirrhosis may show minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) with mild cognitive impairment and motor incoordination. Rats with chronic hyperammonemia reproduce these alterations. Motor incoordi...

Identification and expression analysis of two steamer-like retrotransposons in the Chilean blue mussel ( Mytilus chilensis )

Disseminated neoplasia (DN) is a proliferative cell disorder of the circulatory system of bivalve mollusks. The disease is transmitted between individuals and can also be induced by external chemical agents su...

Noncoding RNAs in skeletal development and disorders

Protein-encoding genes only constitute less than 2% of total human genomic sequences, and 98% of genetic information was previously referred to as “junk DNA”. Meanwhile, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) consist of app...

Cx43 hemichannels and panx1 channels contribute to ethanol-induced astrocyte dysfunction and damage

Alcohol, a widely abused drug, significantly diminishes life quality, causing chronic diseases and psychiatric issues, with severe health, societal, and economic repercussions. Previously, we demonstrated that...

Galectins in epithelial-mesenchymal transition: roles and mechanisms contributing to tissue repair, fibrosis and cancer metastasis

Galectins are soluble glycan-binding proteins that interact with a wide range of glycoproteins and glycolipids and modulate a broad spectrum of physiological and pathological processes. The expression and subc...

Glutaminolysis regulates endometrial fibrosis in intrauterine adhesion via modulating mitochondrial function

Endometrial fibrosis, a significant characteristic of intrauterine adhesion (IUA), is caused by the excessive differentiation and activation of endometrial stromal cells (ESCs). Glutaminolysis is the metabolic...

The long-chain flavodoxin FldX1 improves the biodegradation of 4-hydroxyphenylacetate and 3-hydroxyphenylacetate and counteracts the oxidative stress associated to aromatic catabolism in Paraburkholderia xenovorans

Bacterial aromatic degradation may cause oxidative stress. The long-chain flavodoxin FldX1 of Paraburkholderia xenovorans LB400 counteracts reactive oxygen species (ROS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the...

MicroRNA-148b secreted by bovine oviductal extracellular vesicles enhance embryo quality through BPM/TGF-beta pathway

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their cargoes, including MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a crucial role in cell-to-cell communication. We previously demonstrated the upregulation of bta-mir-148b in EVs from oviductal...

YME1L-mediated mitophagy protects renal tubular cells against cellular senescence under diabetic conditions

The senescence of renal tubular epithelial cells (RTECs) is crucial in the progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). Accumulating evidence suggests a close association between insufficient mitophagy and RT...

Effects of latroeggtoxin-VI on dopamine and α-synuclein in PC12 cells and the implications for Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by death of dopaminergic neurons leading to dopamine deficiency, excessive α-synuclein facilitating Lewy body formation, etc. Latroeggtoxin-VI (LETX-VI), a proteinaceo...

Glial-restricted progenitor cells: a cure for diseased brain?

The central nervous system (CNS) is home to neuronal and glial cells. Traditionally, glia was disregarded as just the structural support across the brain and spinal cord, in striking contrast to neurons, alway...

Carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent ST23 Klebsiella pneumoniae with a highly transmissible dual-carbapenemase plasmid in Chile

The convergence of hypervirulence and carbapenem resistance in the bacterial pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae represents a critical global health concern. Hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (hvKp) strains, frequently from...

Endometrial mesenchymal stromal/stem cells improve regeneration of injured endometrium in mice

The monthly regeneration of human endometrial tissue is maintained by the presence of human endometrial mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (eMSC), a cell population co-expressing the perivascular markers CD140b an...

Embryo development is impaired by sperm mitochondrial-derived ROS

Basal energetic metabolism in sperm, particularly oxidative phosphorylation, is known to condition not only their oocyte fertilising ability, but also the subsequent embryo development. While the molecular pat...

Fibroblasts inhibit osteogenesis by regulating nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttling of YAP in mesenchymal stem cells and secreting DKK1

Fibrous scars frequently form at the sites of bone nonunion when attempts to repair bone fractures have failed. However, the detailed mechanism by which fibroblasts, which are the main components of fibrous sc...

MSC-derived exosomes protect auditory hair cells from neomycin-induced damage via autophagy regulation

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) poses a major threat to both physical and mental health; however, there is still a lack of effective drugs to treat the disease. Recently, novel biological therapies, such as ...

Alpha-synuclein dynamics bridge Type-I Interferon response and SARS-CoV-2 replication in peripheral cells

Increasing evidence suggests a double-faceted role of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) following infection by a variety of viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Although α-syn accumulation is known to contribute to cell toxic...

Lactadherin immunoblockade in small extracellular vesicles inhibits sEV-mediated increase of pro-metastatic capacities

Tumor-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) can promote tumorigenic and metastatic capacities in less aggressive recipient cells mainly through the biomolecules in their cargo. However, despite recent ad...

Integration of ATAC-seq and RNA-seq identifies MX1-mediated AP-1 transcriptional regulation as a therapeutic target for Down syndrome

Growing evidence has suggested that Type I Interferon (I-IFN) plays a potential role in the pathogenesis of Down Syndrome (DS). This work investigates the underlying function of MX1, an effector gene of I-IFN,...

The novel roles of YULINK in the migration, proliferation and glycolysis of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells: implications for pulmonary arterial hypertension

Abnormal remodeling of the pulmonary vasculature, characterized by the proliferation and migration of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) along with dysregulated glycolysis, is a pathognomonic feat...

Electroacupuncture promotes neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus and improves pattern separation in an early Alzheimer's disease mouse model

Impaired pattern separation occurs in the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) neurogenesis participates in pattern separation. Here, we investigated whether spatial memo...

Role of SYVN1 in the control of airway remodeling in asthma protection by promoting SIRT2 ubiquitination and degradation

Asthma is a heterogenous disease that characterized by airway remodeling. SYVN1 (Synoviolin 1) acts as an E3 ligase to mediate the suppression of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress through ubiquitination and de...

Advances towards the use of gastrointestinal tumor patient-derived organoids as a therapeutic decision-making tool

In December 2022 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed the requirement that drugs in development must undergo animal testing before clinical evaluation, a declaration that now demands the establish...

Melatonin alleviates pyroptosis by regulating the SIRT3/FOXO3α/ROS axis and interacting with apoptosis in Atherosclerosis progression

Atherosclerosis (AS), a significant contributor to cardiovascular disease (CVD), is steadily rising with the aging of the global population. Pyroptosis and apoptosis, both caspase-mediated cell death mechanism...

Prenatal ethanol exposure and changes in fetal neuroendocrine metabolic programming

Prenatal ethanol exposure (PEE) (mainly through maternal alcohol consumption) has become widespread. However, studies suggest that it can cause intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and multi-organ developmen...

Autologous non-invasively derived stem cells mitochondria transfer shows therapeutic advantages in human embryo quality rescue

The decline in the quantity and quality of mitochondria are closely associated with infertility, particularly in advanced maternal age. Transferring autologous mitochondria into the oocytes of infertile female...

Development of synthetic modulator enabling long-term propagation and neurogenesis of human embryonic stem cell-derived neural progenitor cells

Neural progenitor cells (NPCs) are essential for in vitro drug screening and cell-based therapies for brain-related disorders, necessitating well-defined and reproducible culture systems. Current strategies em...

Heat-responsive microRNAs participate in regulating the pollen fertility stability of CMS-D2 restorer line under high-temperature stress

Anther development and pollen fertility of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) conditioned by Gossypium harknessii cytoplasm (CMS-D2) restorer lines are susceptible to continuous high-temperature (HT) stress in sum...

Chemogenetic inhibition of NTS astrocytes normalizes cardiac autonomic control and ameliorate hypertension during chronic intermittent hypoxia

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by recurrent episodes of chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH), which has been linked to the development of sympathoexcitation and hypertension. Furthermore, it has ...

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 activates Cx43 hemichannels and disturbs intracellular Ca 2+ dynamics

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). An aspect of high uncertainty is whether the SARS-CoV-2 per se or the systemic inflammation ...

The effect of zofenopril on the cardiovascular system of spontaneously hypertensive rats treated with the ACE2 inhibitor MLN-4760

Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) plays a crucial role in the infection cycle of SARS-CoV-2 responsible for formation of COVID-19 pandemic. In the cardiovascular system, the virus enters the cells by bind...

Two murine models of sepsis: immunopathological differences between the sexes—possible role of TGFβ1 in female resistance to endotoxemia

Endotoxic shock (ExSh) and cecal ligature and puncture (CLP) are models that induce sepsis. In this work, we investigated early immunologic and histopathologic changes induced by ExSh or CLP models in female a...

Editorial Board
Manuscript editing services
Instructions for Editors
Sign up for article alerts and news from this journal
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Facebook
ISSN: 0717-6287 (electronic)

Biological Research

ISSN: 0717-6287

Submission enquiries: Access here and click Contact Us
General enquiries: [email protected]

Skip to primary navigation
Skip to main content
Skip to footer

Bringing the World's Best Biology to You

iBiology Research Talks by Topic

At the heart of iBiology are over 600 talks from the world’s leading scientists, sharing their research, their experiences, and the joys of discovery.

Biochemistry

Driving the Future: Biofuels: Blake Simmons

Optimizing Biofuels

Lipid Droplets

Mitochondria: The Mysterious Cellular Parasite: Jared Rutter

Mitochondria, Metabolism, and Cell Behavior

Feedback Regulation of HMG CoA Reductase: Russell DeBoseBoyd

Regulation of Cholesterol Synthesis

Factors and Functions of Organelle Membrane Contact Sites: Gia Voeltz

Endoplasmic Reticulum Membrane Contact Sites

Introduction to Ion Channels

Bioengineering

Good Chemistry

Tinkering with Nature’s Tools

Synthetic Cells

Genome Engineering with CRISPR-Cas9

Liquid Phase Separation in Living Cells

Realizing Synthetic Carbon Dioxide Fixation

Using math to define life

Discovery of the Structure of the Nucleosome

How Flies Fly

Discovery of Lung Surfactant

Single-Cell Imaging: Reconstructing Mouse Development

Seeing is Believing: Imaging the Expression of Genes within Single Cells: Robert Singer

RNA Localization: Following Single mRNAs in Living Cells

Cell Biology

Chromosomes in inviable hybrids

Skin Fat Regulation

Liver Disease Research: Chrystelle Vilfranc

BRUCE protein and liver disease

Meselson Stahl Experiment

Cryo-cooling Protein Crystals: The First 52 Years: David J. Haas

Macromolecular Cryocrystallography

X10 Expansion Microscopy

Development and Stem Cells

Injury Response in Intestinal Villi

Reprogramming in the Inner Ear

Introduction to Root Genetics: Philip Benfey

Root Development

Adult Stem Cells and Organoids

Outer Subventricular Zone Radial Glia Cells

Making and Breaking the Silence: Jeannie Lee

X Chromosome Inactivation

Fire Among Giants

Soil Microbes and Plant Defenses

Corals: on the brink.

A Walk in the Woods

Bat Vision Evolution

Restoration Ecology in Coastal Wetland

The Century of Biology

Temperature, parasites, and public health

Educational science videos: Laci GerhartBarley

Educational science videos: Paper discussion and Q&A

Making of a Parasitic Plant: Caitlin Conn

The Making of a Parasitic Plant

Archaea and the Tree of Life

Do Female Frogs Call?

Genetics and Gene Regulation

Homology-directed repair

Modeling Chromatin Interactions

2022 Share Your Research series trailer

Finding Faith in Science

Transcriptional Adaptation to Mutations

Understanding Meningioma Biology

Human Disease

Drink up to improve brain health

Tumors and the Immune System

Decoding Brain Tumors with Extracellular Vesicles

Microglia States in Health and Disease: Beth Stevens

Microglia in Health and Disease

Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses: How Environmental Changes Affect Disease Transmission: Rebecca Christofferson

Arbovirus Transmission

Rett Syndrome: Genomes, Epigenomes and Neuropsychiatric conditions: Huda Zoghbi

Rett Syndrome and the Insight it Provides into Syndromic Autism

Gene Changes With Social Interaction

Pieces of a Puzzle

Malaria and Malaria Parasites

Tick and Other Arthropod Saliva

Cells of the Immune System: Brittany Anderton

Cells of the Immune System

A Mouse Model to Understand Lupus

Microbiology

Decoding Ancestral Knowledge

Electric Microbes

How to Kill a Superbug

The CRISPR Apostle

Maternal Stress Impacts Infant Immunity

A newly discovered antibiotic

Neuroscience

A Winding Life Through Science

Individual Recognition in Zebra Finch

Viral Resistance of Squash

brain development and reading: Greenwood

Maternal Literacy and Brain Development

Unconsciousness Under General Anesthetic is a Dynamic State: Emery Brown

Anesthesia and the Brain

How we communicate information across brains: Uri Hasson

Using Storytelling to Share Memories Across Brains

Plant Biology

Modeling a Soil Microbiome

The Future of Forests

Gregor Mendel's Famous Genetics Experiment

The Cell Wall

How Corn Fights Crop Stress

Plant-Pathogen Interactions

Single Cell Sequencing

Systematic Approaches for Mapping the Cell

Epigenomics and LncRNAs

Bioimage Analysis

The Scientific Community Image Forum

CellProfiler

RedCiencia - network for Spanish-speaking scientists

Building RedCiencia

Harmony: Science and Song

The Practice of Mentoring Scientists

Teach Science: Giving Back

The Michigan Initiative

Find a video.

Search All Videos
Search YouTube
Short Films
All Playlists
All Speakers
Videos in Other Languages
CRISPR-Cas Technology
Professional Development

For Educators

Educator Newsletter
Educator Resources
Flipped Courses
Online Courses Resources
All Educator Resources

Educators Recommend

Discovering Cell Cycle Regulators
Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
Next Generation Sequencing
Semi-Conservative Replication of DNA
Toll-Like Receptors in Adaptive Immunity

Free Courses

Free Online Courses
Take a Free Course
Learn Microscopy
Intro to Microscopy

Career Development

Professional Development Courses
Professional Development Talks
Career Exploration
Biomedical Workforce
NRMN Resources

Best of iBiology

Short Science Films
Meselson and Stahl
Doudna & Charpentier’s Nobel Prize
Microscopy Series
Short Microscopy Series
Famous Discoveries
Bench to Bedside
Share Your Research
Our Mission
Science Communication Lab
Financial Conflict of Interest Policy

199+ Innovative Biology Research Topics For Students – 2024

Writing a biology research paper is one of the most complicated assignments during college study. The reason behind this is that it requires deep analysis of a scientific topic that becomes time-consuming.

If you are also assigned to write a biology research paper, three questions you should ask yourself.

What sources do you have to use to get information?
What should be my starting point?
How can I edit my research paper?

But one question you can’t ignore to ask yourself is what topic I should choose for my research paper.

In this blog, we will discuss top biology research topics that will definitely help you to get good scores.

Get the best Biology Research paper help from our professional experts. They will provide you top-notch & Plagiarism-free content within the given deadline at an affordable price.

Tips for Picking the Right Biology Research Topic

Table of Contents

When you know what parts of a subject you like, picking a topic for your research paper gets easier. But, there are some tips from experts that make choosing a topic even quicker. Here are our best tips:

Look at what important things are happening and what’s new in the field you’re interested in by reading scientific journals, articles, and forums. This will help you see which topics have enough information for research.
Avoid topics in biology that have already been researched a lot. Your teacher might have read many papers on popular topics, so it’s better to pick something new.
Make sure your topic is narrow enough so you can cover everything about it and write a detailed paper.

By following these tips, you’ll find the best topic for your biology research paper. And remember, we’re here to help with any writing assignment you have. Just give us a call, and our expert will help you pick the perfect biology research paper topic!

What Are Good Biology Research Topics?

A good biology research paper should challenge readers to think differently and inspire meaningful conversations. Moreover, it must be relevant and have the potential to make an impact on the community.

It doesn’t matter what it’s about – animals, humans, plants, ecology, etc. – as long as it addresses something from a new perspective, makes a new discovery, shows a link between two organisms or phenomena, or potential leads to a scientific breakthrough.

There is great potential to be explored in order to gain a better understanding of life and living organisms. Here are the following good biology research topics.

Here are some really interesting and promising biology research topics to check out. We have cover lots of different areas in biology, giving plenty of chances to find new things and make progress.

Easy Biology Research Topics

Photosynthesis in plants
Mitosis and meiosis cell division
Biodiversity in local ecosystems
The human digestive system
Plant adaptations to different environments
Life cycle of frogs
Characteristics of different blood groups
Functions of the human skeletal system
Adaptation of desert plants
Fermentation process in bacteria
Characteristics of different biomes
Human respiratory system
Parasitic relationships in nature
Types of plant cells and their functions
Reproduction in flowering plants
Ecological succession
Importance of decomposers in ecosystems
Structure and function of plant roots
Osmosis in living organisms
Nitrogen cycle in nature

Interesting Biology Topics

The role of gut microbiome in human health
Epigenetics and gene expression
Biomimicry and its applications
Regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy
The impact of climate change on biodiversity
The potential of CRISPR technology
The biology of aging
Quorum sensing in bacteria
Biological clocks and circadian rhythms
The evolution of antibiotic resistance
Bioluminescence in living organisms
Nanotechnology in medicine
The role of hormones in human development
Genetic engineering in agriculture
The impact of plastics on marine life
The biology of addiction and substance abuse
The neurobiology of sleep and dreaming
Evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo)
The potential of gene therapy
The biology of human emotions

Biology Research Topics for High School

The life cycle of a butterfly
Enzyme catalysis in biological processes
The structure and function of the human eye
Genetic disorders and their inheritance patterns
Plant tissue culture and its applications
The role of antibiotics in treating bacterial infections
Mechanisms of seed germination
The impact of pollution on aquatic ecosystems
Biological pest control methods
The importance of biodiversity conservation
The structure and function of plant leaves
The human nervous system
Cellular respiration in living organisms
The effects of deforestation on the environment
The role of enzymes in digestion
The process of DNA replication
The importance of vaccines
The structure and function of the human heart
The importance of water for living organisms
The role of symbiosis in nature

Biology Research Topics for College Students

The molecular mechanisms of cancer
Bioinformatics and computational biology
Neuroplasticity and learning
Genome editing with CRISPR technology
Sustainable agriculture and food security
The biology of stress and its effects
Genetic engineering and ethical considerations
Biofilms and their applications
Synthetic biology and designer organisms
The role of microRNAs in gene regulation
The biology of infectious diseases
The impact of air pollution on human health
The role of proteins in cellular processes
The neurobiology of memory formation
The genetics of human behavior and personality
The potential of plant-based medicines
The impact of climate change on marine ecosystems
The biology of cancer stem cells
The role of gut-brain axis in mental health
The potential of gene therapy in treating genetic disorders

Biology Research Topics for University

Bionanotechnology and nanomedicine
Metabolomics and systems biology
Bioremediation and environmental biotechnology
Molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases
Protein folding and misfolding disorders
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS)
Plant-microbe interactions and symbiosis
Biological applications of machine learning
The biology of aging and longevity
The potential of personalized medicine
The role of epigenetics in cancer development
The neurobiology of consciousness and perception
The impact of microplastics on marine ecosystems
The potential of gene drives in conservation biology
The biology of viruses and emerging viral diseases
The role of non-coding RNAs in gene regulation
The impact of urbanization on biodiversity
The potential of synthetic biology in bioremediation

Human Biology Research Topics

The role of the endocrine system in homeostasis
Immunotherapy and cancer treatment
Aging and age-related diseases
The human microbiome and its implications
The impact of stress on human health
The biology of sleep and circadian rhythms
The role of gut-brain axis in health and disease
Personalized medicine and pharmacogenomics
The effects of exercise on human physiology
The role of nutrition in human health
The biology of human reproduction
The impact of environmental factors on human health
The neurobiology of pain perception
The role of genetics in human development
The biology of mental disorders
The impact of sedentary lifestyle on human health
The role of the immune system in autoimmune diseases
The biology of wound healing
The potential of regenerative medicine in human health

Immune System Biology Topics to Research

Autoimmune diseases and their mechanisms
Vaccines and their development
Allergies and hypersensitivity reactions
The role of cytokines in immune response
Immunodeficiency disorders and their treatments
The gut microbiome and its impact on immunity
Immune system aging and immunosenescence
The role of the immune system in cancer
Transplant rejection and immunosuppression
The biology of inflammation and its regulation
The role of immune cells in neurodegenerative diseases
The impact of stress on the immune system
The potential of immunotherapy in treating autoimmune diseases
The role of the immune system in pregnancy and fetal development
The impact of environmental factors on the immune system
The biology of immune memory
The potential of vaccines in treating cancer
The role of the immune system in wound healing
The impact of nutrition on the immune system
The potential of personalized immunotherapy

Genetics Research Topics in Biology

Genetic testing and personalized medicine
Gene therapy and its applications
Epigenetic inheritance and transgenerational effects
Genetic engineering and GMOs
The genetics of complex traits and diseases
Genome editing and its ethical implications
Mitochondrial genetics and diseases
The genetics of aging and longevity
The role of genetics in plant breeding
The impact of environmental factors on gene expression
The potential of gene editing in treating genetic disorders
The role of genetics in drug development and personalized medicine
The impact of epigenetics on human health and disease
The role of genetics in human evolution
The potential of gene therapy in treating neurodegenerative diseases
The impact of genetics on human intelligence and cognitive abilities
The role of genetics in cancer development and progression
The potential of genetic testing in prenatal diagnosis

Neurobiology Research Topics

Neurodegenerative diseases and their mechanisms
The role of neuroplasticity in learning and memory
Neural circuits and brain connectivity
Neuroethics and the implications of neuroscience
The biology of sleep and dreaming
The neurobiology of addiction and substance abuse
The role of glial cells in brain function
Neurodevelopmental disorders and their causes
The neurobiology of emotions and emotional regulation
The impact of environmental factors on brain development
The role of neurogenesis in adult brain function
The potential of brain-computer interfaces
The neurobiology of pain and its modulation
The impact of traumatic brain injury on brain function
The role of the brain in regulating body weight and metabolism
The neurobiology of language and communication
The impact of stress on the brain and cognitive function
The potential of neuroimaging techniques in understanding brain function
The role of neurotransmitters in regulating behavior

Evolutionary Biology Research Topics

Speciation and the mechanisms of reproductive isolation
Evolutionary genetics and molecular evolution
Phylogenetics and reconstructing evolutionary relationships
Evolutionary ecology and adaptation
Coevolution and mutualism in biological systems
Evolutionary psychology and human behavior
Cultural evolution and its parallels with biological evolution
Evolutionary medicine and its applications in understanding human health
Evolutionary algorithms and their applications in optimization
Evolutionary origins of social behaviors
Evolutionary consequences of climate change
Evolutionary aspects of host-pathogen interactions
Evolutionary dynamics of invasive species
Evolutionary history of major groups of organisms
Evolutionary mechanisms of sex determination and sexual selection
Evolutionary implications of hybridization and introgression
Evolutionary transitions in complexity
Evolutionary patterns in biodiversity hotspots
Evolutionary perspectives on conservation biology and ecosystem management

Quick Links

Biology Branches That Are Very Important For Students
Importance Of Physics In Different Sectors
Research paper help online

How To Present Your Biology Research Topics To Make It More Engaging

Here are seven easy steps to present your biology research topics:

Start with a Clear Title: Make sure the title of your research explains what it’s about.
Provide Background Information: Quickly explain why your topic is important and what other studies have found.
Outline Your Research Question or Hypothesis: Clearly say what you’re trying to find out or test.
Describe Your Methods: Explain how you did your research, like any experiments or data collection.
Present Your Results: Show what you found, using tables or graphs to help.
Discuss Your Findings: Explain what your results mean for your question or hypothesis.
Conclude with Implications and Future Directions: Sum up your findings and talk about what could happen next because of them.

By doing these steps, you can share your biology research in a way that’s easy to understand and interesting.

Choosing a topic for your biology research paper can feel overwhelming, but it’s important to ask yourself the right questions. First, look at where you’re getting your information from and check out the latest discoveries in your area of interest. Second, make sure your topic is fresh and focused enough for you to cover it well. Lastly, think about which topic you’re most interested in.

From how plants make food through photosynthesis to the complex world of genetics, there are many exciting topics to explore. Whether you’re in high school or a university researcher, there’s something for everyone in biology.

Remember, how you present your research is just as important as picking the topic. Make sure your title is clear, give some background information, explain your question or guess, talk about how you did your research, show your results, talk about what you found, and finish by talking about what it means and where to go next.

By following these steps, you can not only understand biology research better but also share your discoveries in a way that’s easy to understand and interesting.

Also, if you need homework help in biology , we have a team of biology experts, you can discuss your queries with them and get the best Biology Homework Help to get A+ Grade.

How can I tell if my biology research topic is good?

You can figure out if your biology research topic is good by checking a few important things. First, see if it matches what your assignment says you should do. Then, think about if it’s something new and interesting. Also, consider if your topic is clear and not too broad. Lastly, ask yourself why someone would want to read your paper.

What Factors Need To Be Considered While Choosing A Biology Research Paper Topic?

1. Consider you interest 2. Analyze the topic appropriately 3. Don’t choose too broad and too narrow topic 4. Do proper research 5. Determine your resources carefully

How To Do Homework Fast – 11 Tips To Do Homework Fast

Homework is one of the most important parts that have to be done by students. It has been around for…

How to Write an Assignment Introduction – 6 Best Tips

In essence, the writing tasks in academic tenure students are an integral part of any curriculum. Whether in high school,…

Writing custom essays & research papers since 2008

Top 100 biology research topics for high school and college.

Writing a biology essay may not sound like a very difficult thing to do. In fact, most students really like this subject. The problem is not that you can’t write a good paper on a topic in biology. The problem is with finding excellent biology research topics. Now, you may be wondering why you would want to invest so much time into finding great biology research paper topics. After all, what you write in the essay matters more than the topic, right? Wrong! We are here to tell you that professors really appreciate interesting and unique topics.

And it makes a lot of sense, if you think about it. If you simply pick one of the most popular biology research topics, you will never be able to pique the interest of your teacher. He has read dozens, if not hundreds, or papers on that exact same topic. What you want to do is come up with interesting biology research topics. You want to find topics that none of your classmates are thinking of writing an academic paper about. You will shortly see why this is important. And we will also give you 100 biology topics for research projects that you can use for free – right now!

Biology Research Paper Topics Really Are Important!

It doesn’t matter what area of biology you need to write about. This information applies to everything from zoology and botany to anatomy. The reality is that your professor will really appreciate good topics. And you can rest assured that he or she knows how to spot them. The moment the professor starts to read your paper, he or she will immediately realize that you really did your best to find an excellent topic. And if you write a good introduction paragraph (which contains a captivating thesis statement as well), you are in the best position to earn bonus points.

You may not be aware of it, but teachers are willing to treat great papers with more leniency. This means that you will not get penalized for minor mistakes if you come up with a great topic. In other words, you will get a better grade on your papers if you manage to come up with good research topics for biology. This is a fact and it is based on thousands of pieces of feedback from our readers.

How Do You Choose Good Biology Research Topics?

Choosing research topics for biology can be a daunting task. Frankly, the research paper topics biology students are looking for are not easy to come by. The first thing you want to avoid is going to the first website that pops up in Google and getting your ideas from there. Most of your peers will do the same. Also, avoid topics that are extremely simple. You will simply not have enough ideas to write about. Of course, you should avoid overly complex topics because finding information about them may be extremely difficult.

The best way to find a good topic, in our opinion, is to get in touch with an academic writing company. You will get access to a professional writer who knows exactly what professors are looking for. A writer will quickly give you an amazing research topic in biology.

Eloquent Examples of Popular Biology Research Topics

To make things as simple as possible for you, we’ve put together a list of biology research project ideas. You will find 100 topics on various subjects below. Of course, you can use any of our topics for free. However, keep in mind that even though we are doing our best to maintain this list fresh, other students will find it as well. If you need new topics for your next biology essay, we recommend you to get in touch with us. We monitor our email address, so we can help you right away. Also, you can buy a research paper from our service.

Biology Research Topics for High School

Are you looking for biology research topics for high school? These are relatively simple when compared to college-level topics. Here are a couple of topic ideas that high school students will surely appreciate:

Identifying Three Dead Branches of Evolution.
What Is Sleep?
How Does Physical Exercise Affect the Metabolism?
A Behavioral Study of Birds.
How Does Music Affect Your Brain?
Climate Change and Biodiversity.
Are Bees Really Becoming Extinct?
Rainforest Extinction Is Dangerous.
The Benefits of Organic Farming.
Can the Brain Repair Itself?
The Effect of Bacteria on Depression.
How Do Sea Animals Camouflage?

Research Topics in Biology for Undergraduates

Research topics in biology for undergraduates are more complex than high school or college topics. Our researchers did their best to find topics that are relatively complex. However, each one of the following topics has plenty of information about it online:

What Is the Mechanism of Metastasis in Cancer Patients?
How Do Tumor Suppressor Genes Appear?
How Can We Destroy Cancer Cells Without Damaging Other Cells?
The Benefits of Gene Therapy.
Analyzing the Huntington’s Disease (the HTT Gene).
How Does the down Syndrome (Trisomy of 21st Chromosome) Appear?
Analyzing the Brain Activity During an Epileptic Seizure.
How Are Our Memories Formed and Preserved?
The Effect of Probiotics on Infections.
Analyzing Primate Language.
Analyzing Primate Cognitive Functions.
The Link Between Darwin’s Theory and Biology.

Biology Research Topics for College Students

Biology research topics for college students are of moderate difficulty. They are easier than undergrad topics and more complex than high school topics. While compiling this list, we made sure you have more than enough information online to write the paper quickly:

Using DNA Technology in the Field of Medical Genetics.
The Effect of Drinking on Embryonic Development.
How Are Genes Mapped and Cloned?
Explain What Genetic Polymorphism Is.
What Is a Hereditary Disease?
The Effect of Drugs on Embryonic Development.
Describing Oligogenic Diseases (like Hirschsprung Disease)
What Is the Mendelian Inheritance?
How Transcriptomics and Proteomics Changed Modern Medicine.
The Risk Factors of Infertility Explained.
How Does Aging Effect Infertility?
What Do Ash Elements Do in a Plant?
Explaining the Pigments in a Plant Cell.
How Is Photosynthesis Done?
The Role of Fats in Plant Cells.
The Effect of Smoking on Embryonic Development.

Cell Biology Research Topics

Some of the best biology topics are cell biology research topics. The scientific community is constantly making progress in this area, so there is always something new to write about. Here are some of the best examples:

What Is Regenerative Medicine?
A Closer Look at Tissue Engineering.
Discuss the Future of Regenerative Medicine.
Analyzing Therapeutic Cloning.
The Pros and Cons of Creating Artificial Organs.
How Do Cell Age?
Can We Reverse Cell Aging?
Advances in Cell Therapy.
What Is Cell Adhesion?
Explaining Cell Division.
What Is Cellular Metabolism?
Describe Active and Passive Transport in Cells.
What Are Cell Plastids?

Evolutionary Biology Research Paper Topics

If you want something more complex, you can try your hand at writing on evolutionary biology research paper topics. As with all our topics, you will be able to find a lot of ideas and information online. Here are our picks:

Where Did Plants Come From? (The Evolutionary Theory)
Explaining the Host-parasite Coevolution.
How Did Parasites Evolve over Time?
What Is Natural Selection and How Does It Work?
Explain Sexual Selection.
Explain Sexual Conflict.
How Did Our Immune Systems Evolve?
How Do New Species Appear in the Wild?
The Evolution of Cell Respiration.
What Is the Hippo Pathway? (Developmental Biology)

Various Topics

Antibiotics resistance, agriculture and cloning are hot subjects nowadays. Your professor will surely be interested to learn more about biology research topics. Here is a mix of topic ideas from our established community of academic writers:

The Problem of Using Antibiotics on Large Scale.
Examining the Effects of Salt on Plants.
What Is DNA Technology?
The Effects of GMOs on the Human Body.
How Is the Quality of Antibiotics Controlled?
How Are GMO Food Crops Created?
The Effect of Veterinary Antibiotics on Humans.
The Allergic Reactions to Specific Antibiotics.
A Look at How Penicillin Works in the Human Body.
How Are Antibiotics Obtained?
What Are Natural Biochemicals with Pest-repellent Properties?
The 3 Most Toxic Effects of Antibiotics
How the Human Body Develops Resistance to Antibiotics.
The Impact of Biology on the Us Agriculture.
What Is the Green Revolution?
Analyzing the Minerals in the Plant Cell.
Analyzing Muscle Development and Regeneration
The Uses of Cancer Stem Cells.

Marine Biology Research Topics

There is a lot of talk about global warming, about microplastics in our oceans, and about endangered marine species. This means that marine biology research topics are a very hot topic today. Here are some of our best ideas:

Can GMO Organisms Break down Oil after Maritime Accidents?
Pollution-absorbing Bio-films.
Microbes That Can Absorb Toxic Compounds in the Water.
Can We Really Use Bioluminescence?
How Is Bio-diesel Created?
Analyzing the Coral Reef Biology.
Why Is the Lobster Population Dwindling?
The Effect of Mass Fishing on the World’s Oceans.
Global Warming and Its Effect on Marine Microorganisms.

Molecular Biology Research Topics

Writing about molecular biology research topics is not easy. However, it’s a foolproof way to get a top grade. Your professor will really appreciate your willingness to write an essay about a complex topic. Just make sure you know what you are talking about. Below you can find some of the best topics:

How Is Insulin Produced?
How Is the Growth Hormone Produced?
Analyzing the Repropagation of Translation.
What Is DNA-telomerase?
The Process of Sequencing Nucleotides in DNA.
What Is Telomerase?
The Link Between Telomerase and Cancer.
The Link Between Telomerase and Aging.
How Does DNA Forensics Work?
Describe the Process of Protein Metabolism.

There is no such thing as easy biology research topics. When the topic is too simple, you end up getting penalized. You can’t write 500 words about it without straying away from the subject. Also, no matter how interesting the topic may be, you should make sure that the essay is written perfectly. This means that not even interesting biology research topics can save you from a bad grade if you fail to follow all applicable academic writing standards.

Find it hard to cope with your college paper? Great news! Use promo “ mypaper20 ” and enjoy 20% discount on a biology writing assignment from our profs!

Loading metrics

Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Meta-Research Article

Meta-Research Articles feature data-driven examinations of the methods, reporting, verification, and evaluation of scientific research.

See Journal Information »

Assessing the evolution of research topics in a biological field using plant science as an example

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America, Department of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America, DOE-Great Lake Bioenergy Research Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America

Shin-Han Shiu,
Melissa D. Lehti-Shiu

Published: May 23, 2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612
Peer Review
Reader Comments

Scientific advances due to conceptual or technological innovations can be revealed by examining how research topics have evolved. But such topical evolution is difficult to uncover and quantify because of the large body of literature and the need for expert knowledge in a wide range of areas in a field. Using plant biology as an example, we used machine learning and language models to classify plant science citations into topics representing interconnected, evolving subfields. The changes in prevalence of topical records over the last 50 years reflect shifts in major research trends and recent radiation of new topics, as well as turnover of model species and vastly different plant science research trajectories among countries. Our approaches readily summarize the topical diversity and evolution of a scientific field with hundreds of thousands of relevant papers, and they can be applied broadly to other fields.

Citation: Shiu S-H, Lehti-Shiu MD (2024) Assessing the evolution of research topics in a biological field using plant science as an example. PLoS Biol 22(5): e3002612. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612

Academic Editor: Ulrich Dirnagl, Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin, GERMANY

Received: October 16, 2023; Accepted: April 4, 2024; Published: May 23, 2024

Copyright: © 2024 Shiu, Lehti-Shiu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: The plant science corpus data are available through Zenodo ( https://zenodo.org/records/10022686 ). The codes for the entire project are available through GitHub ( https://github.com/ShiuLab/plant_sci_hist ) and Zenodo ( https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10894387 ).

Funding: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (IOS-2107215 and MCB-2210431 to MDL and SHS; DGE-1828149 and IOS-2218206 to SHS), Department of Energy grant Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (DE-SC0018409 to SHS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Abbreviations: BERT, Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers; br, brassinosteroid; ccTLD, country code Top Level Domain; c-Tf-Idf, class-based Tf-Idf; ChatGPT, Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer; ga, gibberellic acid; LOWESS, locally weighted scatterplot smoothing; MeSH, Medical Subject Heading; SHAP, SHapley Additive exPlanations; SJR, SCImago Journal Rank; Tf-Idf, Term frequency-Inverse document frequency; UMAP, Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection

Introduction

The explosive growth of scientific data in recent years has been accompanied by a rapidly increasing volume of literature. These records represent a major component of our scientific knowledge and embody the history of conceptual and technological advances in various fields over time. Our ability to wade through these records is important for identifying relevant literature for specific topics, a crucial practice of any scientific pursuit [ 1 ]. Classifying the large body of literature into topics can provide a useful means to identify relevant literature. In addition, these topics offer an opportunity to assess how scientific fields have evolved and when major shifts in took place. However, such classification is challenging because the relevant articles in any topic or domain can number in the tens or hundreds of thousands, and the literature is in the form of natural language, which takes substantial effort and expertise to process [ 2 , 3 ]. In addition, even if one could digest all literature in a field, it would still be difficult to quantify such knowledge.

In the last several years, there has been a quantum leap in natural language processing approaches due to the feasibility of building complex deep learning models with highly flexible architectures [ 4 , 5 ]. The development of large language models such as Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT; [ 6 ]) and Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer (ChatGPT; [ 7 ]) has enabled the analysis, generation, and modeling of natural language texts in a wide range of applications. The success of these applications is, in large part, due to the feasibility of considering how the same words are used in different contexts when modeling natural language [ 6 ]. One such application is topic modeling, the practice of establishing statistical models of semantic structures underlying a document collection. Topic modeling has been proposed for identifying scientific hot topics over time [ 1 ], for example, in synthetic biology [ 8 ], and it has also been applied to, for example, automatically identify topical scenes in images [ 9 ] and social network topics [ 10 ], discover gene programs highly correlated with cancer prognosis [ 11 ], capture “chromatin topics” that define cell-type differences [ 12 ], and investigate relationships between genetic variants and disease risk [ 13 ]. Here, we use topic modeling to ask how research topics in a scientific field have evolved and what major changes in the research trends have taken place, using plant science as an example.

Plant science corpora allow classification of major research topics

Plant science, broadly defined, is the study of photosynthetic species, their interactions with biotic/abiotic environments, and their applications. For modeling plant science topical evolution, we first identified a collection of plant science documents (i.e., corpus) using a text classification approach. To this end, we first collected over 30 million PubMed records and narrowed down candidate plant science records by searching for those with plant-related terms and taxon names (see Materials and methods ). Because there remained a substantial number of false positives (i.e., biomedical records mentioning plants in passing), a set of positive plant science examples from the 17 plant science journals with the highest numbers of plant science publications covering a wide range of subfields and a set of negative examples from journals with few candidate plant science records were used to train 4 types of text classification models (see Materials and methods ). The best text classification model performed well (F1 = 0.96, F1 of a naïve model = 0.5, perfect model = 1) where the positive and negative examples were clearly separated from each other based on prediction probability of the hold-out testing dataset (false negative rate = 2.6%, false positive rate = 5.2%, S1A and S1B Fig ). The false prediction rate for documents from the 17 plant science journals annotated with the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) term “Plants” in NCBI was 11.7% (see Materials and methods ). The prediction probability distribution of positive instances with the MeSH term has an expected left-skew to lower values ( S1C Fig ) compared with the distributions of all positive instances ( S1A Fig ). Thus, this subset with the MeSH term is a skewed representation of articles from these 17 major plant science journals. To further benchmark the validity of the plant science records, we also conducted manual annotation of 100 records where the false positive and false negative rates were 14.6% and 10.6%, respectively (see Materials and methods ). Using 12 other plant science journals not included as positive examples as benchmarks, the false negative rate was 9.9% (see Materials and methods ). Considering the range of false prediction rate estimates with different benchmarks, we should emphasize that the model built with the top 17 plant science journals represents a substantial fraction of plant science publications but with biases. Applying the model to the candidate plant science record led to 421,658 positive predictions, hereafter referred to as “plant science records” ( S1D Fig and S1 Data ).

To better understand how the models classified plant science articles, we identified important terms from a more easily interpretable model (Term frequency-Inverse document frequency (Tf-Idf) model; F1 = 0.934) using Shapley Additive Explanations [ 14 ]; 136 terms contributed to predicting plant science records (e.g., Arabidopsis, xylem, seedling) and 138 terms contributed to non-plant science record predictions (e.g., patients, clinical, mice; Tf-Idf feature sheet, S1 Data ). Plant science records as well as PubMed articles grew exponentially from 1950 to 2020 ( Fig 1A ), highlighting the challenges of digesting the rapidly expanding literature. We used the plant science records to perform topic modeling, which consisted of 4 steps: representing each record as a BERT embedding, reducing dimensionality, clustering, and identifying the top terms by calculating class (i.e., topic)-based Tf-Idf (c-Tf-Idf; [ 15 ]). The c-Tf-Idf represents the frequency of a term in the context of how rare the term is to reduce the influence of common words. SciBERT [ 16 ] was the best model among those tested ( S2 Data ) and was used for building the final topic model, which classified 372,430 (88.3%) records into 90 topics defined by distinct combinations of terms ( S3 Data ). The topics contained 620 to 16,183 records and were named after the top 4 to 5 terms defining the topical areas ( Fig 1B and S3 Data ). For example, the top 5 terms representing the largest topic, topic 61 (16,183 records), are “qtl,” “resistance,” “wheat,” “markers,” and “traits,” which represent crop improvement studies using quantitative genetics.

PPT PowerPoint slide
PNG larger image
TIFF original image

(A) Numbers of PubMed (magenta) and plant science (green) records between 1950 and 2020. (a, b, c) Coefficients of the exponential function, y = ae b . Data for the plot are in S1 Data . (B) Numbers of documents for the top 30 plant science topics. Each topic is designated by an index number (left) and the top 4–6 terms with the highest cTf-Idf values (right). Data for the plot are in S3 Data . (C) Two-dimensional representation of the relationships between plant science records generated by Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP, [ 17 ]) using SciBERT embeddings of plant science records. All topics panel: Different topics are assigned different colors. Outlier panel: UMAP representation of all records (gray) with outlier records in red. Blue dotted circles: areas with relatively high densities indicating topics that are below the threshold for inclusion in a topic. In the 8 UMAP representations on the right, records for example topics are in red and the remaining records in gray. Blue dotted circles indicate the relative position of topic 48.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.g001

Records with assigned topics clustered into distinct areas in a two-dimensional (2D) space ( Fig 1C , for all topics, see S4 Data ). The remaining 49,228 outlier records not assigned to any topic (11.7%, middle panel, Fig 1C ) have 3 potential sources. First, some outliers likely belong to unique topics but have fewer records than the threshold (>500, blue dotted circles, Fig 1C ). Second, some of the many outliers dispersed within the 2D space ( Fig 1C ) were not assigned to any single topic because they had relatively high prediction scores for multiple topics ( S2 Fig ). These likely represent studies across subdisciplines in plant science. Third, some outliers are likely interdisciplinary studies between plant science and other domains, such as chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Such connections can only be revealed if records from other domains are included in the analyses.

Topical clusters reveal closely related topics but with distinct key term usage

Related topics tend to be located close together in the 2D representation (e.g., topics 48 and 49, Fig 1C ). We further assessed intertopical relationships by determining the cosine similarities between topics using cTf-Idfs ( Figs 2A and S3 ). In this topic network, some topics are closely related and form topic clusters. For example, topics 25, 26, and 27 collectively represent a more general topic related to the field of plant development (cluster a , lower left in Fig 2A ). Other topic clusters represent studies of stress, ion transport, and heavy metals ( b ); photosynthesis, water, and UV-B ( c ); population and community biology (d); genomics, genetic mapping, and phylogenetics ( e , upper right); and enzyme biochemistry ( f , upper left in Fig 2A ).

(A) Graph depicting the degrees of similarity (edges) between topics (nodes). Between each topic pair, a cosine similarity value was calculated using the cTf-Idf values of all terms. A threshold similarity of 0.6 was applied to illustrate the most related topics. For the full matrix presented as a heatmap, see S4 Fig . The nodes are labeled with topic index numbers and the top 4–6 terms. The colors and width of the edges are defined based on cosine similarity. Example topic clusters are highlighted in yellow and labeled a through f (blue boxes). (B, C) Relationships between the cTf-Idf values (see S3 Data ) of the top terms for topics 26 and 27 (B) and for topics 25 and 27 (C) . Only terms with cTf-Idf ≥ 0.6 are labeled. Terms with cTf-Idf values beyond the x and y axis limit are indicated by pink arrows and cTf-Idf values. (D) The 2D representation in Fig 1C is partitioned into graphs for different years, and example plots for every 5-year period since 1975 are shown. Example topics discussed in the text are indicated. Blue arrows connect the areas occupied by records of example topics across time periods to indicate changes in document frequencies.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.g002

Topics differed in how well they were connected to each other, reflecting how general the research interests or needs are (see Materials and methods ). For example, topic 24 (stress mechanisms) is the most well connected with median cosine similarity = 0.36, potentially because researchers in many subfields consider aspects of plant stress even though it is not the focus. The least connected topics include topic 21 (clock biology, 0.12), which is surprising because of the importance of clocks in essentially all aspects of plant biology [ 18 ]. This may be attributed, in part, to the relatively recent attention in this area.

Examining topical relationships and the cTf-Idf values of terms also revealed how related topics differ. For example, topic 26 is closely related to topics 27 and 25 (cluster a on the lower left of Fig 2A ). Topics 26 and 27 both contain records of developmental process studies mainly in Arabidopsis ( Fig 2B ); however, topic 26 is focused on the impact of light, photoreceptors, and hormones such as gibberellic acids (ga) and brassinosteroids (br), whereas topic 27 is focused on flowering and floral development. Topic 25 is also focused on plant development but differs from topic 27 because it contains records of studies mainly focusing on signaling and auxin with less emphasis on Arabidopsis ( Fig 2C ). These examples also highlight the importance of using multiple top terms to represent the topics. The similarities in cTf-Idfs between topics were also useful for measuring the editorial scope (i.e., diverse, or narrow) of journals publishing plant science papers using a relative topic diversity measure (see Materials and methods ). For example, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , USA has the highest diversity, while Theoretical and Applied Genetics has the lowest ( S4 Fig ). One surprise is the relatively low diversity of American Journal of Botany , which focuses on plant ecology, systematics, development, and genetics. The low diversity is likely due to the relatively larger number of cellular and molecular science records in PubMed, consistent with the identification of relatively few topical areas relevant to studies at the organismal, population, community, and ecosystem levels.

Investigation of the relative prevalence of topics over time reveals topical succession

We next asked whether relationships between topics reflect chronological progression of certain subfields. To address this, we assessed how prevalent topics were over time using dynamic topic modeling [ 19 ]. As shown in Fig 2D , there is substantial fluctuation in where the records are in the 2D space over time. For example, topic 44 (light, leaves, co, synthesis, photosynthesis) is among the topics that existed in 1975 but has diminished gradually since. In 1985, topic 39 (Agrobacterium-based transformation) became dense enough to be visualized. Additional examples include topics 79 (soil heavy metals), 42 (differential expression), and 82 (bacterial community metagenomics), which became prominent in approximately 2005, 2010, and 2020, respectively ( Fig 2D ). In addition, animating the document occupancy in the 2D space over time revealed a broad change in patterns over time: Some initially dense areas became sparse over time and a large number of topics in areas previously only loosely occupied at the turn of the century increased over time ( S5 Data ).

While the 2D representations reveal substantial details on the evolution of topics, comparison over time is challenging because the number of plant science records has grown exponentially ( Fig 1A ). To address this, the records were divided into 50 chronological bins each with approximately 8,400 records to make cross-bin comparisons feasible ( S6 Data ). We should emphasize that, because of the way the chronological bins were split, the number of records for each topic in each bin should be treated as a normalized value relative to all other topics during the same period. Examining this relative prevalence of topics across bins revealed a clear pattern of topic succession over time (one topic evolved into another) and the presence of 5 topical categories ( Fig 3 ). The topics were categorized based on their locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOWESS) fits and ordered according to timing of peak frequency ( S7 and S8 Data , see Materials and methods ). In Fig 3 , the relative decrease in document frequency does not mean that research output in a topic is dwindling. Because each row in the heatmap is normalized based on the minimum and maximum values within each topic, there still can be substantial research output in terms of numbers of publications even when the relative frequency is near zero. Thus, a reduced relative frequency of a topic reflects only a below-average growth rate compared with other topical areas.

(A-E) A heat map of relative topic frequency over time reveals 5 topical categories: (A) stable, (B) early, (C) transitional, (D) sigmoidal, and (E) rising. The x axis denotes different time bins with each bin containing a similar number of documents to account for the exponential growth of plant science records over time. The sizes of all bins except the first are drawn to scale based on the beginning and end dates. The y axis lists different topics denoted by the label and top 4 to 5 terms. In each cell, the prevalence of a topic in a time bin is colored according to the min-max normalized cTf-Idf values for that topic. Light blue dotted lines delineate different decades. The arrows left of a subset of topic labels indicate example relationships between topics in topic clusters. Blue boxes with labels a–f indicate topic clusters, which are the same as those in Fig 2 . Connecting lines indicate successional trends. Yellow circles/lines 1 – 3: 3 major transition patterns. The original data are in S5 Data .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.g003

The first topical category is a stable category with 7 topics mostly established before the 1980s that have since remained stable in terms of prevalence in the plant science records (top of Fig 3A ). These topics represent long-standing plant science research foci, including studies of plant physiology (topics 4, 58, and 81), genetics (topic 61), and medicinal plants (topic 53). The second category contains 8 topics established before the 1980s that have mostly decreased in prevalence since (the early category, Fig 3B ). Two examples are physiological and morphological studies of hormone action (topic 45, the second in the early category) and the characterization of protein, DNA, and RNA (topic 18, the second to last). Unlike other early topics, topic 78 (paleobotany and plant evolution studies, the last topic in Fig 3B ) experienced a resurgence in the early 2000s due to the development of new approaches and databases and changes in research foci [ 20 ].

The 33 topics in the third, transitional category became prominent in the 1980s, 1990s, or even 2000s but have clearly decreased in prevalence ( Fig 3C ). In some cases, the early and the transitional topics became less prevalent because of topical succession—refocusing of earlier topics led to newer ones that either show no clear sign of decrease (the sigmoidal category, Fig 3D ) or continue to increase in prevalence (the rising category, Fig 3E ). Consistent with the notion of topical succession, topics within each topic cluster ( Fig 2 ) were found across topic categories and/or were prominent at different time periods (indicated by colored lines linking topics, Fig 3 ). One example is topics in topic cluster b (connected with light green lines and arrows, compare Figs 2 and 3 ); the study of cation transport (topic 47, the third in the transitional category), prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s, is connected to 5 other topics, namely, another transitional topic 29 (cation channels and their expression) peaking in the 2000s and early 2010s, sigmoidal topics 24 and 28 (stress response, tolerance mechanisms) and 30 (heavy metal transport), which rose to prominence in mid-2000s, and the rising topic 42 (stress transcriptomic studies), which increased in prevalence in the mid-2010s.

The rise and fall of topics can be due to a combination of technological or conceptual breakthroughs, maturity of the field, funding constraints, or publicity. The study of transposable elements (topic 62) illustrates the effect of publicity; the rise in this field coincided with Barbara McClintock’s 1983 Nobel Prize but not with the publication of her studies in the 1950s [ 21 ]. The reduced prevalence in early 2000 likely occurred in part because analysis of transposons became a central component of genome sequencing and annotation studies, rather than dedicated studies. In addition, this example indicates that our approaches, while capable of capturing topical trends, cannot be used to directly infer major papers leading to the growth of a topic.

Three major topical transition patterns signify shifts in research trends

Beyond the succession of specific topics, 3 major transitions in the dynamic topic graph should be emphasized: (1) the relative decreasing trend of early topics in the late 1970s and early 1980s; (2) the rise of transitional topics in late 1980s; and (3) the relative decreasing trend of transitional topics in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which coincided with a radiation of sigmoidal and rising topics (yellow circles, Fig 3 ). The large numbers of topics involved in these transitions suggest major shifts in plant science research. In transition 1, early topics decreased in relative prevalence in the late 1970s to early 1980s, which coincided with the rise of transitional topics over the following decades (circle 1, Fig 3 ). For example, there was a shift from the study of purified proteins such as enzymes (early topic 48, S5A Fig ) to molecular genetic dissection of genes, proteins, and RNA (transitional topic 35, S5B Fig ) enabled by the wider adoption of recombinant DNA and molecular cloning technologies in late 1970s [ 22 ]. Transition 2 (circle 2, Fig 3 ) can be explained by the following breakthroughs in the late 1980s: better approaches to create transgenic plants and insertional mutants [ 23 ], more efficient creation of mutant plant libraries through chemical mutagenesis (e.g., [ 24 ]), and availability of gene reporter systems such as β-glucuronidase [ 25 ]. Because of these breakthroughs, molecular genetics studies shifted away from understanding the basic machinery to understanding the molecular underpinnings of specific processes, such as molecular mechanisms of flower and meristem development and the action of hormones such as auxin (topic 27, S5C Fig ); this type of research was discussed as a future trend in 1988 [ 26 ] and remains prevalent to this date. Another example is gene silencing (topic 12), which became a focal area of study along with the widespread use of transgenic plants [ 27 ].

Transition 3 is the most drastic: A large number of transitional, sigmoidal, and rising topics became prevalent nearly simultaneously at the turn of the century (circle 3, Fig 3 ). This period also coincides with a rapid increase in plant science citations ( Fig 1A ). The most notable breakthroughs included the availability of the first plant genome in 2000 [ 28 ], increasing ease and reduced cost of high-throughput sequencing [ 29 ], development of new mass spectrometry–based platforms for analyzing proteins [ 30 ], and advancements in microscopic and optical imaging approaches [ 31 ]. Advances in genomics and omics technology also led to an increase in stress transcriptomics studies (42, S5D Fig ) as well as studies in many other topics such as epigenetics (topic 11), noncoding RNA analysis (13), genomics and phylogenetics (80), breeding (41), genome sequencing and assembly (60), gene family analysis (23), and metagenomics (82 and 55).

In addition to the 3 major transitions across all topics, there were also transitions within topics revealed by examining the top terms for different time bins (heatmaps, S5 Fig ). Taken together, these observations demonstrate that knowledge about topical evolution can be readily revealed through topic modeling. Such knowledge is typically only available to experts in specific areas and is difficult to summarize manually, as no researcher has a command of the entire plant science literature.

Analysis of taxa studied reveals changes in research trends

Changes in research trends can also be illustrated by examining changes in the taxa being studied over time ( S9 Data ). There is a strong bias in the taxa studied, with the record dominated by research models and economically important taxa ( S6 Fig ). Flowering plants (Magnoliopsida) are found in 93% of records ( S6A Fig ), and the mustard family Brassicaceae dominates at the family level ( S6B Fig ) because the genus Arabidopsis contributes to 13% of plant science records ( Fig 4A ). When examining the prevalence of taxa being studied over time, clear patterns of turnover emerged similar to topical succession ( Figs 4B , S6C, and S6D ; Materials and methods ). Given that Arabidopsis is mentioned in more publications than other species we analyzed, we further examined the trends for Arabidopsis publications. The increase in the normalized number (i.e., relative to the entire plant science corpus) of Arabidopsis records coincided with advocacy of its use as a model system in the late 1980s [ 32 ]. While it remains a major plant model, there has been a decrease in overall Arabidopsis publications relative to all other plant science publications since 2011 (blue line, normalized total, Fig 4C ). Because the same chronological bins, each with same numbers of records, from the topic-over-time analysis ( Fig 3 ) were used, the decrease here does not mean that there were fewer Arabidopsis publications—in fact, the number of Arabidopsis papers has remained steady since 2011. This decrease means that Arabidopsis-related publications represent a relatively smaller proportion of plant science records. Interestingly, this decrease took place much earlier (approximately 2005) and was steeper in the United States (red line, Fig 4C ) than in all countries combined (blue line, Fig 4C ).

(A) Percentage of records mentioning specific genera. (B) Change in the prevalence of genera in plant science records over time. (C) Changes in the normalized numbers of all records (blue) and records from the US (red) mentioning Arabidopsis over time. The lines are LOWESS fits with fraction parameter = 0.2. (D) Topical over (red) and under (blue) representation among 5 genera with the most plant science records. LLR: log 2 likelihood ratios of each topic in each genus. Gray: topic-species combination not significantly enriched at the 5% level based on enrichment p -values adjusted for multiple testing with the Benjamini–Hochberg method [ 33 ]. The data used for plotting are in S9 Data . The statistics for all topics are in S10 Data .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.g004

Assuming that the normalized number of publications reflects the relative intensity of research activities, one hypothesis for the relative decrease in focus on Arabidopsis is that advances in, for example, plant transformation, genetic manipulation, and genome research have allowed the adoption of more previously nonmodel taxa. Consistent with this, there was a precipitous increase in the number of genera being published in the mid-90s to early 2000s during which approaches for plant transgenics became established [ 34 ], but the number has remained steady since then ( S7A Fig ). The decrease in the proportion of Arabidopsis papers is also negatively correlated with the timing of an increase in the number of draft genomes ( S7B Fig and S9 Data ). It is plausible that genome availability for other species may have contributed to a shift away from Arabidopsis. Strikingly, when we analyzed US National Science Foundation records, we found that the numbers of funded grants mentioning Arabidopsis ( S7C Fig ) have risen and fallen in near perfect synchrony with the normalized number of Arabidopsis publication records (red line, Fig 4C ). This finding likely illustrates the impact of funding on Arabidopsis research.

By considering both taxa information and research topics, we can identify clear differences in the topical areas preferred by researchers using different plant taxa ( Fig 4D and S10 Data ). For example, studies of auxin/light signaling, the circadian clock, and flowering tend to be carried out in Arabidopsis, while quantitative genetic studies of disease resistance tend to be done in wheat and rice, glyphosate research in soybean, and RNA virus research in tobacco. Taken together, joint analyses of topics and species revealed additional details about changes in preferred models over time, and the preferred topical areas for different taxa.

Countries differ in their contributions to plant science and topical preference

We next investigated whether there were geographical differences in topical preference among countries by inferring country information from 330,187 records (see Materials and methods ). The 10 countries with the most records account for 73% of the total, with China and the US contributing to approximately 18% each ( Fig 5A ). The exponential growth in plant science records (green line, Fig 1A ) was in large part due to the rapid rise in annual record numbers in China and India ( Fig 5B ). When we examined the publication growth rates using the top 17 plant science journals, the general patterns remained the same ( S7D Fig ). On the other hand, the US, Japan, Germany, France, and Great Britain had slower rates of growth compared with all non-top 10 countries. The rapid increase in records from China and India was accompanied by a rapid increase in metrics measuring journal impact ( Figs 5C and S8 and S9 Data ). For example, using citation score ( Fig 5C , see Materials and methods ), we found that during a 22-year period China (dark green) and India (light green) rapidly approached the global average (y = 0, yellow), whereas some of the other top 10 countries, particularly the US (red) and Japan (yellow green), showed signs of decrease ( Fig 5C ). It remains to be determined whether these geographical trends reflect changes in priority, investment, and/or interest in plant science research.

(A) Numbers of plant science records for countries with the 10 highest numbers. (B) Percentage of all records from each of the top 10 countries from 1980 to 2020. (C) Difference in citation scores from 1999 to 2020 for the top 10 countries. (D) Shown for each country is the relationship between the citation scores averaged from 1999 to 2020 and the slope of linear fit with year as the predictive variable and citation score as the response variable. The countries with >400 records and with <10% missing impact values are included. Data used for plots (A–D) are in S11 Data . (E) Correlation in topic enrichment scores between the top 10 countries. PCC, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, positive in red, negative in blue. Yellow rectangle: countries with more similar topical preferences. (F) Enrichment scores (LLR, log likelihood ratio) of selected topics among the top 10 countries. Red: overrepresentation, blue: underrepresentation. Gray: topic-country combination that is not significantly enriched at the 5% level based on enrichment p -values adjusted for multiple testing with the Benjamini–Hochberg method (for all topics and plotting data, see S12 Data ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.g005

Interestingly, the relative growth/decline in citation scores over time (measured as the slope of linear fit of year versus citation score) was significantly and negatively correlated with average citation score ( Fig 5D ); i.e., countries with lower overall metrics tended to experience the strongest increase in citation scores over time. Thus, countries that did not originally have a strong influence on plant sciences now have increased impact. These patterns were also observed when using H-index or journal rank as metrics ( S8 Fig and S11 Data ) and were not due to increased publication volume, as the metrics were normalized against numbers of records from each country (see Materials and methods ). In addition, the fact that different metrics with different caveats and assumptions yielded consistent conclusions indicates the robustness of our observations. We hypothesize that this may be a consequence of the ease in scientific communication among geographically isolated research groups. It could also be because of the prevalence of online journals that are open access, which makes scientific information more readily accessible. Or it can be due to the increasing international collaboration. In any case, the causes for such regression toward the mean are not immediately clear and should be addressed in future studies.

We also assessed how the plant research foci of countries differ by comparing topical preference (i.e., the degree of enrichment of plant science records in different topics) between countries. For example, Italy and Spain cluster together (yellow rectangle, Fig 5E ) partly because of similar research focusing on allergens (topic 0) and mycotoxins (topic 54) and less emphasis on gene family (topic 23) and stress tolerance (topic 28) studies ( Fig 5F , for the fold enrichment and corrected p -values of all topics, see S12 Data ). There are substantial differences in topical focus between countries ( S9 Fig ). For example, research on new plant compounds associated with herbal medicine (topic 69) is a focus in China but not in the US, but the opposite is true for population genetics and evolution (topic 86) ( Fig 5F ). In addition to revealing how plant science research has evolved over time, topic modeling provides additional insights into differences in research foci among different countries, which are informative for science policy considerations.

In this study, topic modeling revealed clear transitions among research topics, which represent shifts in research trends in plant sciences. One limitation of our study is the bias in the PubMed-based corpus. The cellular, molecular, and physiological aspects of plant sciences are well represented, but there are many fewer records related to evolution, ecology, and systematics. Our use of titles/abstracts from the top 17 plant science journals as positive examples allowed us to identify papers we typically see in these journals, but this may have led to us missing “outlier” articles, which may be the most exciting. Another limitation is the need to assign only one topic to a record when a study is interdisciplinary and straddles multiple topics. Furthermore, a limited number of large, inherently heterogeneous topics were summarized to provide a more concise interpretation, which undoubtedly underrepresents the diversity of plant science research. Despite these limitations, dynamic topic modeling revealed changes in plant science research trends that coincide with major shifts in biological science. While we were interested in identifying conceptual advances, our approach can identify the trend but the underlying causes for such trends, particularly key records leading to the growth in certain topics, still need to be identified. It also remains to be determined which changes in research trends lead to paradigm shifts as defined by Kuhn [ 35 ].

The key terms defining the topics frequently describe various technologies (e.g., topic 38/39: transformation, 40: genome editing, 59: genetic markers, 65: mass spectrometry, 69: nuclear magnetic resonance) or are indicative of studies enabled through molecular genetics and omics technologies (e.g., topic 8/60: genome, 11: epigenetic modifications, 18: molecular biological studies of macromolecules, 13: small RNAs, 61: quantitative genetics, 82/84: metagenomics). Thus, this analysis highlights how technological innovation, particularly in the realm of omics, has contributed to a substantial number of research topics in the plant sciences, a finding that likely holds for other scientific disciplines. We also found that the pattern of topic evolution is similar to that of succession, where older topics have mostly decreased in relative prevalence but appear to have been superseded by newer ones. One example is the rise of transcriptome-related topics and the correlated, reduced focus on regulation at levels other than transcription. This raises the question of whether research driven by technology negatively impacts other areas of research where high-throughput studies remain challenging.

One observation on the overall trends in plant science research is the approximately 10-year cycle in major shifts. One hypothesis is related to not only scientific advances but also to the fashion-driven aspect of science. Nonetheless, given that there were only 3 major shifts and the sample size is small, it is difficult to speculate as to why they happened. By analyzing the country of origin, we found that China and India have been the 2 major contributors to the growth in the plant science records in the last 20 years. Our findings also show an equalizing trend in global plant science where countries without a strong plant science publication presence have had an increased impact over the last 20 years. In addition, we identified significant differences in research topics between countries reflecting potential differences in investment and priorities. Such information is important for discerning differences in research trends across countries and can be considered when making policy decisions about research directions.

Materials and methods

Collection and preprocessing of a candidate plant science corpus.

For reproducibility purposes, a random state value of 20220609 was used throughout the study. The PubMed baseline files containing citation information ( ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/baseline/ ) were downloaded on November 11, 2021. To narrow down the records to plant science-related citations, a candidate citation was identified as having, within the titles and/or abstracts, at least one of the following words: “plant,” “plants,” “botany,” “botanical,” “planta,” and “plantarum” (and their corresponding upper case and plural forms), or plant taxon identifiers from NCBI Taxonomy ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/taxonomy ) or USDA PLANTS Database ( https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/home ). Note the search terms used here have nothing to do with the values of the keyword field in PubMed records. The taxon identifiers include all taxon names including and at taxonomic levels below “Viridiplantae” till the genus level (species names not used). This led to 51,395 search terms. After looking for the search terms, qualified entries were removed if they were duplicated, lacked titles and/or abstracts, or were corrections, errata, or withdrawn articles. This left 1,385,417 citations, which were considered the candidate plant science corpus (i.e., a collection of texts). For further analysis, the title and abstract for each citation were combined into a single entry. Text was preprocessed by lowercasing, removing stop-words (i.e., common words), removing non-alphanumeric and non-white space characters (except Greek letters, dashes, and commas), and applying lemmatization (i.e., grouping inflected forms of a word as a single word) for comparison. Because lemmatization led to truncated scientific terms, it was not included in the final preprocessing pipeline.

Definition of positive/negative examples

Upon closer examination, a large number of false positives were identified in the candidate plant science records. To further narrow down citations with a plant science focus, text classification was used to distinguish plant science and non-plant science articles (see next section). For the classification task, a negative set (i.e., non-plant science citations) was defined as entries from 7,360 journals that appeared <20 times in the filtered data (total = 43,329, journal candidate count, S1 Data ). For the positive examples (i.e., true plant science citations), 43,329 plant science citations (positive examples) were sampled from 17 established plant science journals each with >2,000 entries in the filtered dataset: “Plant physiology,” “Frontiers in plant science,” “Planta,” “The Plant journal: for cell and molecular biology,” “Journal of experimental botany,” “Plant molecular biology,” “The New phytologist,” “The Plant cell,” “Phytochemistry,” “Plant & cell physiology,” “American journal of botany,” “Annals of botany,” “BMC plant biology,” “Tree physiology,” “Molecular plant-microbe interactions: MPMI,” “Plant biology,” and “Plant biotechnology journal” (journal candidate count, S1 Data ). Plant biotechnology journal was included, but only 1,894 records remained after removal of duplicates, articles with missing info, and/or withdrawn articles. The positive and negative sets were randomly split into training and testing subsets (4:1) while maintaining a 1:1 positive-to-negative ratio.

Text classification based on Tf and Tf-Idf

Instead of using the preprocessed text as features for building classification models directly, text embeddings (i.e., representations of texts in vectors) were used as features. These embeddings were generated using 4 approaches (model summary, S1 Data ): Term-frequency (Tf), Tf-Idf [ 36 ], Word2Vec [ 37 ], and BERT [ 6 ]. The Tf- and Tf-Idf-based features were generated with CountVectorizer and TfidfVectorizer, respectively, from Scikit-Learn [ 38 ]. Different maximum features (1e4 to 1e5) and n-gram ranges (uni-, bi-, and tri-grams) were tested. The features were selected based on the p- value of chi-squared tests testing whether a feature had a higher-than-expected value among the positive or negative classes. Four different p- value thresholds were tested for feature selection. The selected features were then used to retrain vectorizers with the preprocessed training texts to generate feature values for classification. The classification model used was XGBoost [ 39 ] with 5 combinations of the following hyperparameters tested during 5-fold stratified cross-validation: min_child_weight = (1, 5, 10), gamma = (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2.5), subsample = (0.6, 0.8, 1.0), colsample_bytree = (0.6, 0.8, 1.0), and max_depth = (3, 4, 5). The rest of the hyperparameters were held constant: learning_rate = 0.2, n_estimators = 600, objective = binary:logistic. RandomizedSearchCV from Scikit-Learn was used for hyperparameter tuning and cross-validation with scoring = F1-score.

Because the Tf-Idf model had a relatively high model performance and was relatively easy to interpret (terms are frequency-based, instead of embedding-based like those generated by Word2Vec and BERT), the Tf-Idf model was selected as input to SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP; [ 14 ]) to assess the importance of terms. Because the Tf-Idf model was based on XGBoost, a tree-based algorithm, the TreeExplainer module in SHAP was used to determine a SHAP value for each entry in the training dataset for each Tf-Idf feature. The SHAP value indicates the degree to which a feature positively or negatively affects the underlying prediction. The importance of a Tf-Idf feature was calculated as the average SHAP value of that feature among all instances. Because a Tf-Idf feature is generated based on a specific term, the importance of the Tf-Idf feature indicates the importance of the associated term.

Text classification based on Word2Vec

The preprocessed texts were first split into train, validation, and test subsets (8:1:1). The texts in each subset were converted to 3 n-gram lists: a unigram list obtained by splitting tokens based on the space character, or bi- and tri-gram lists built with Gensim [ 40 ]. Each n-gram list of the training subset was next used to fit a Skip-gram Word2Vec model with vector_size = 300, window = 8, min_count = (5, 10, or 20), sg = 1, and epochs = 30. The Word2Vec model was used to generate word embeddings for train, validate, and test subsets. In the meantime, a tokenizer was trained with train subset unigrams using Tensorflow [ 41 ] and used to tokenize texts in each subset and turn each token into indices to use as features for training text classification models. To ensure all citations had the same number of features (500), longer texts were truncated, and shorter ones were zero-padded. A deep learning model was used to train a text classifier with an input layer the same size as the feature number, an attention layer incorporating embedding information for each feature, 2 bidirectional Long-Short-Term-Memory layers (15 units each), a dense layer (64 units), and a final, output layer with 2 units. During training, adam, accuracy, and sparse_categorical_crossentropy were used as the optimizer, evaluation metric, and loss function, respectively. The training process lasted 30 epochs with early stopping if validation loss did not improve in 5 epochs. An F1 score was calculated for each n-gram list and min_count parameter combination to select the best model (model summary, S1 Data ).

Text classification based on BERT models

Two pretrained models were used for BERT-based classification: DistilBERT (Hugging face repository [ 42 ] model name and version: distilbert-base-uncased [ 43 ]) and SciBERT (allenai/scibert-scivocab-uncased [ 16 ]). In both cases, tokenizers were retrained with the training data. BERT-based models had the following architecture: the token indices (512 values for each token) and associated masked values as input layers, pretrained BERT layer (512 × 768) excluding outputs, a 1D pooling layer (768 units), a dense layer (64 units), and an output layer (2 units). The rest of the training parameters were the same as those for Word2Vec-based models, except training lasted for 20 epochs. Cross-validation F1-scores for all models were compared and used to select the best model for each feature extraction method, hyperparameter combination, and modeling algorithm or architecture (model summary, S1 Data ). The best model was the Word2Vec-based model (min_count = 20, window = 8, ngram = 3), which was applied to the candidate plant science corpus to identify a set of plant science citations for further analysis. The candidate plant science records predicted as being in the positive class (421,658) by the model were collectively referred to as the “plant science corpus.”

Plant science record classification

In PubMed, 1,384,718 citations containing “plant” or any plant taxon names (from the phylum to genus level) were considered candidate plant science citations. To further distinguish plant science citations from those in other fields, text classification models were trained using titles and abstracts of positive examples consisting of citations from 17 plant science journals, each with >2,000 entries in PubMed, and negative examples consisting of records from journals with fewer than 20 entries in the candidate set. Among 4 models tested the best model (built with Word2Vec embeddings) had a cross validation F1 of 0.964 (random guess F1 = 0.5, perfect model F1 = 1, S1 Data ). When testing the model using 17,330 testing set citations independent from the training set, the F1 remained high at 0.961.

We also conducted another analysis attempting to use the MeSH term “Plants” as a benchmark. Records with the MeSH term “Plants” also include pharmaceutical studies of plants and plant metabolites or immunological studies of plants as allergens in journals that are not generally considered plant science journals (e.g., Acta astronautica , International journal for parasitology , Journal of chromatography ) or journals from local scientific societies (e.g., Acta pharmaceutica Hungarica , Huan jing ke xue , Izvestiia Akademii nauk . Seriia biologicheskaia ). Because we explicitly labeled papers from such journals as negative examples, we focused on 4,004 records with the “Plants” MeSH term published in the 17 plant science journals that were used as positive instances and found that 88.3% were predicted as the positive class. Thus, based on the MeSH term, there is an 11.7% false prediction rate.

We also enlisted 5 plant science colleagues (3 advanced graduate students in plant biology and genetic/genome science graduate programs, 1 postdoctoral breeder/quantitative biologist, and 1 postdoctoral biochemist/geneticist) to annotate 100 randomly selected abstracts as a reviewer suggested. Each record was annotated by 2 colleagues. Among 85 entries where the annotations are consistent between annotators, 48 were annotated as negative but with 7 predicted as positive (false positive rate = 14.6%) and 37 were annotated as positive but with 4 predicted as negative (false negative rate = 10.8%). To further benchmark the performance of the text classification model, we identified another 12 journals that focus on plant science studies to use as benchmarks: Current opinion in plant biology (number of articles: 1,806), Trends in plant science (1,723), Functional plant biology (1,717), Molecular plant pathology (1,573), Molecular plant (1,141), Journal of integrative plant biology (1,092), Journal of plant research (1,032), Physiology and molecular biology of plants (830), Nature plants (538), The plant pathology journal (443). Annual review of plant biology (417), and The plant genome (321). Among the 12,611 candidate plant science records, 11,386 were predicted as positive. Thus, there is a 9.9% false negative rate.

Global topic modeling

BERTopic [ 15 ] was used for preliminary topic modeling with n-grams = (1,2) and with an embedding initially generated by DistilBERT, SciBERT, or BioBERT (dmis-lab/biobert-base-cased-v1.2; [ 44 ]). The embedding models converted preprocessed texts to embeddings. The topics generated based on the 3 embeddings were similar ( S2 Data ). However, SciBERT-, BioBERT-, and distilBERT-based embedding models had different numbers of outlier records (268,848, 293,790, and 323,876, respectively) with topic index = −1. In addition to generating the fewest outliers, the SciBERT-based model led to the highest number of topics. Therefore, SciBERT was chosen as the embedding model for the final round of topic modeling. Modeling consisted of 3 steps. First, document embeddings were generated with SentenceTransformer [ 45 ]. Second, a clustering model to aggregate documents into clusters using hdbscan [ 46 ] was initialized with min_cluster_size = 500, metric = euclidean, cluster_selection_method = eom, min_samples = 5. Third, the embedding and the initialized hdbscan model were used in BERTopic to model topics with neighbors = 10, nr_topics = 500, ngram_range = (1,2). Using these parameters, 90 topics were identified. The initial topic assignments were conservative, and 241,567 records were considered outliers (i.e., documents not assigned to any of the 90 topics). After assessing the prediction scores of all records generated from the fitted topic models, the 95-percentile score was 0.0155. This score was used as the threshold for assigning outliers to topics: If the maximum prediction score was above the threshold and this maximum score was for topic t , then the outlier was assigned to t . After the reassignment, 49,228 records remained outliers. To assess if some of the outliers were not assigned because they could be assigned to multiple topics, the prediction scores of the records were used to put records into 100 clusters using k- means. Each cluster was then assessed to determine if the outlier records in a cluster tended to have higher prediction scores across multiple topics ( S2 Fig ).

Topics that are most and least well connected to other topics

The most well-connected topics in the network include topic 24 (stress mechanisms, median cosine similarity = 0.36), topic 42 (genes, stress, and transcriptomes, 0.34), and topic 35 (molecular genetics, 0.32, all t test p -values < 1 × 10 −22 ). The least connected topics include topic 0 (allergen research, median cosine similarity = 0.12), topic 21 (clock biology, 0.12), topic 1 (tissue culture, 0.15), and topic 69 (identification of compounds with spectroscopic methods, 0.15; all t test p- values < 1 × 10 −24 ). Topics 0, 1, and 69 are specialized topics; it is surprising that topic 21 is not as well connected as explained in the main text.

Analysis of documents based on the topic model

Topical diversity among top journals with the most plant science records

Using a relative topic diversity measure (ranging from 0 to 10), we found that there was a wide range of topical diversity among 20 journals with the largest numbers of plant science records ( S3 Fig ). The 4 journals with the highest relative topical diversities are Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , USA (9.6), Scientific Reports (7.1), Plant Physiology (6.7), and PLOS ONE (6.4). The high diversities are consistent with the broad, editorial scopes of these journals. The 4 journals with the lowest diversities are American Journal of Botany (1.6), Oecologia (0.7), Plant Disease (0.7), and Theoretical and Applied Genetics (0.3), which reflects their discipline-specific focus and audience of classical botanists, ecologists, plant pathologists, and specific groups of geneticists.

Dynamic topic modeling

The codes for dynamic modeling were based on _topic_over_time.py in BERTopics and modified to allow additional outputs for debugging and graphing purposes. The plant science citations were binned into 50 subsets chronologically (for timestamps of bins, see S5 Data ). Because the numbers of documents increased exponentially over time, instead of dividing them based on equal-sized time intervals, which would result in fewer records at earlier time points and introduce bias, we divided them into time bins of similar size (approximately 8,400 documents). Thus, the earlier time subsets had larger time spans compared with later time subsets. If equal-size time intervals were used, the numbers of documents between the intervals would differ greatly; the earlier time points would have many fewer records, which may introduce bias. Prior to binning the subsets, the publication dates were converted to UNIX time (timestamp) in seconds; the plant science records start in 1917-11-1 (timestamp = −1646247600.0) and end in 2021-1-1 (timestamp = 1609477201). The starting dates and corresponding timestamps for the 50 subsets including the end date are in S6 Data . The input data included the preprocessed texts, topic assignments of records from global topic modeling, and the binned timestamps of records. Three additional parameters were set for topics_over_time, namely, nr_bin = 50 (number of bins), evolution_tuning = True, and global_tuning = False. The evolution_tuning parameter specified that averaged c-Tf-Idf values for a topic be calculated in neighboring time bins to reduce fluctuation in c-Tf-Idf values. The global_tuning parameter was set to False because of the possibility that some nonexisting terms could have a high c-Tf-Idf for a time bin simply because there was a high global c-Tf-Idf value for that term.

The binning strategy based on similar document numbers per bin allowed us to increase signal particularly for publications prior to the 90s. This strategy, however, may introduce more noise for bins with smaller time durations (i.e., more recent bins) because of publication frequencies (there can be seasonal differences in the number of papers published, biased toward, e.g., the beginning of the year or the beginning of a quarter). To address this, we examined the relative frequencies of each topic over time ( S7 Data ), but we found that recent time bins had similar variances in relative frequencies as other time bins. We also moderated the impact of variation using LOWESS (10% to 30% of the data points were used for fitting the trend lines) to determine topical trends for Fig 3 . Thus, the influence of the noise introduced via our binning strategy is expected to be minimal.

Topic categories and ordering

The topics were classified into 5 categories with contrasting trends: stable, early, transitional, sigmoidal, and rising. To define which category a topic belongs to, the frequency of documents over time bins for each topic was analyzed using 3 regression methods. We first tried 2 forecasting methods: recursive autoregressor (the ForecasterAutoreg class in the skforecast package) and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA implemented in the pmdarima package). In both cases, the forecasting results did not clearly follow the expected trend lines, likely due to the low numbers of data points (relative frequency values), which resulted in the need to extensively impute missing data. Thus, as a third approach, we sought to fit the trendlines with the data points using LOWESS (implemented in the statsmodels package) and applied additional criteria for assigning topics to categories. When fitting with LOWESS, 3 fraction parameters (frac, the fraction of the data used when estimating each y-value) were evaluated (0.1, 0.2, 0.3). While frac = 0.3 had the smallest errors for most topics, in situations where there were outliers, frac = 0.2 or 0.1 was chosen to minimize mean squared errors ( S7 Data ).

The topics were classified into 5 categories based on the slopes of the fitted line over time: (1) stable: topics with near 0 slopes over time; (2) early: topics with negative (<−0.5) slopes throughout (with the exception of topic 78, which declined early on but bounced back by the late 1990s); (3) transitional: early positive (>0.5) slopes followed by negative slopes at later time points; (4) sigmoidal: early positive slopes followed by zero slopes at later time points; and (5) rising: continuously positive slopes. For each topic, the LOWESS fits were also used to determine when the relative document frequency reached its peak, first reaching a threshold of 0.6 (chosen after trial and error for a range of 0.3 to 0.9), and the overall trend. The topics were then ordered based on (1) whether they belonged to the stable category or not; (2) whether the trends were decreasing, stable, or increasing; (3) the time the relative document frequency first reached 0.6; and (4) the time that the overall peak was reached ( S8 Data ).

Taxa information

To identify a taxon or taxa in all plant science records, NCBI Taxonomy taxdump datasets were downloaded from the NCBI FTP site ( https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/taxonomy/new_taxdump/ ) on September 20, 2022. The highest-level taxon was Viridiplantae, and all its child taxa were parsed and used as queries in searches against the plant science corpus. In addition, a species-over-time analysis was conducted using the same time bins as used for dynamic topic models. The number of records in different time bins for top taxa are in the genus, family, order, and additional species level sheet in S9 Data . The degree of over-/underrepresentation of a taxon X in a research topic T was assessed using the p -value of a Fisher’s exact test for a 2 × 2 table consisting of the numbers of records in both X and T, in X but not T, in T but not X, and in neither ( S10 Data ).

For analysis of plant taxa with genome information, genome data of taxa in Viridiplantae were obtained from the NCBI Genome data-hub ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/data-hub/genome ) on October 28, 2022. There were 2,384 plant genome assemblies belonging to 1,231 species in 559 genera (genome assembly sheet, S9 Data ). The date of the assembly was used as a proxy for the time when a genome was sequenced. However, some species have updated assemblies and have more recent data than when the genome first became available.

Taxa being studied in the plant science records

Flowering plants (Magnoliopsida) are found in 93% of records, while most other lineages are discussed in <1% of records, with conifers and related species being exceptions (Acrogynomsopermae, 3.5%, S6A Fig ). At the family level, the mustard (Brassicaceae), grass (Poaceae), pea (Fabaceae), and nightshade (Solanaceae) families are in 51% of records ( S6B Fig ). The prominence of the mustard family in plant science research is due to the Brassica and Arabidopsis genera ( Fig 4A ). When examining the prevalence of taxa being studied over time, clear patterns of turnovers emerged ( Figs 4B , S6C, and S6D ). While the study of monocot species (Liliopsida) has remained steady, there was a significant uptick in the prevalence of eudicot (eudicotyledon) records in the late 90s ( S6C Fig ), which can be attributed to the increased number of studies in the mustard, myrtle (Myrtaceae), and mint (Lamiaceae) families among others ( S6D Fig ). At the genus level, records mentioning Gossypium (cotton), Phaseolus (bean), Hordeum (wheat), and Zea (corn), similar to the topics in the early category, were prevalent till the 1980s or 1990s but have mostly decreased in number since ( Fig 4B ). In contrast, Capsicum , Arabidopsis , Oryza , Vitus , and Solanum research has become more prevalent over the last 20 years.

Geographical information for the plant science corpus

The geographical information (country) of authors in the plant science corpus was obtained from the address (AD) fields of first authors in Medline XML records accessible through the NCBI EUtility API ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25501/ ). Because only first author affiliations are available for records published before December 2014, only the first author’s location was considered to ensure consistency between records before and after that date. Among the 421,658 records in the plant science corpus, 421,585 had Medline records and 421,276 had unique PMIDs. Among the records with unique PMIDs, 401,807 contained address fields. For each of the remaining records, the AD field content was split into tokens with a “,” delimiter, and the token likely containing geographical info (referred to as location tokens) was selected as either the last token or the second to last token if the last token contained “@” indicating the presence of an email address. Because of the inconsistency in how geographical information was described in the location tokens (e.g., country, state, city, zip code, name of institution, and different combinations of the above), the following 4 approaches were used to convert location tokens into countries.

The first approach was a brute force search where full names and alpha-3 codes of current countries (ISO 3166–1), current country subregions (ISO 3166–2), and historical country (i.e., country that no longer exists, ISO 3166–3) were used to search the address fields. To reduce false positives using alpha-3 codes, a space prior to each code was required for the match. The first approach allowed the identification of 361,242, 16,573, and 279,839 records with current country, historical country, and subregion information, respectively. The second method was the use of a heuristic based on common address field structures to identify “location strings” toward the end of address fields that likely represent countries, then the use of the Python pycountry module to confirm the presence of country information. This approach led to 329,025 records with country information. The third approach was to parse first author email addresses (90,799 records), recover top-level domain information, and use country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) data from the ISO 3166 Wikipedia page to define countries (72,640 records). Only a subset of email addresses contains country information because some are from companies (.com), nonprofit organizations (.org), and others. Because a large number of records with address fields still did not have country information after taking the above 3 approaches, another approach was implemented to query address fields against a locally installed Nominatim server (v.4.2.3, https://github.com/mediagis/nominatim-docker ) using OpenStreetMap data from GEOFABRIK ( https://www.geofabrik.de/ ) to find locations. Initial testing indicated that the use of full address strings led to false positives, and the computing resource requirement for running the server was high. Thus, only location strings from the second approach that did not lead to country information were used as queries. Because multiple potential matches were returned for each query, the results were sorted based on their location importance values. The above steps led to an additional 72,401 records with country information.

Examining the overlap in country information between approaches revealed that brute force current country and pycountry searches were consistent 97.1% of the time. In addition, both approaches had high consistency with the email-based approach (92.4% and 93.9%). However, brute force subregion and Nominatim-based predictions had the lowest consistencies with the above 3 approaches (39.8% to 47.9%) and each other. Thus, a record’s country information was finalized if the information was consistent between any 2 approaches, except between the brute force subregion and Nominatim searches. This led to 330,328 records with country information.

Topical and country impact metrics

To determine annual country impact, impact scores were determined in the same way as that for annual topical impact, except that values for different countries were calculated instead of topics ( S8 Data ).

Topical preferences by country

To determine topical preference for a country C , a 2 × 2 table was established with the number of records in topic T from C , the number of records in T but not from C , the number of non- T records from C , and the number of non- T records not from C . A Fisher’s exact test was performed for each T and C combination, and the resulting p -values were corrected for multiple testing with the Bejamini–Hochberg method (see S12 Data ). The preference of T in C was defined as the degree of enrichment calculated as log likelihood ratio of values in the 2 × 2 table. Topic 5 was excluded because >50% of the countries did not have records for this topic.

The top 10 countries could be classified into a China–India cluster, an Italy–Spain cluster, and remaining countries (yellow rectangles, Fig 5E ). The clustering of Italy and Spain is partly due to similar research focusing on allergens (topic 0) and mycotoxins (topic 54) and less emphasis on gene family (topic 23) and stress tolerance (topic 28) studies ( Figs 5F and S9 ). There are also substantial differences in topical focus between countries. For example, plant science records from China tend to be enriched in hyperspectral imaging and modeling (topic 9), gene family studies (topic 23), stress biology (topic 28), and research on new plant compounds associated with herbal medicine (topic 69), but less emphasis on population genetics and evolution (topic 86, Fig 5F ). In the US, there is a strong focus on insect pest resistance (topic 75), climate, community, and diversity (topic 83), and population genetics and evolution but less focus on new plant compounds. In summary, in addition to revealing how plant science research has evolved over time, topic modeling provides additional insights into differences in research foci among different countries.

Supporting information

S1 fig. plant science record classification model performance..

(A–C) Distributions of prediction probabilities (y_prob) of (A) positive instances (plant science records), (B) negative instances (non-plant science records), and (C) positive instances with the Medical Subject Heading “Plants” (ID = D010944). The data are color coded in blue and orange if they are correctly and incorrectly predicted, respectively. The lower subfigures contain log10-transformed x axes for the same distributions as the top subfigure for better visualization of incorrect predictions. (D) Prediction probability distribution for candidate plant science records. Prediction probabilities plotted here are available in S13 Data .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s001

S2 Fig. Relationships between outlier clusters and the 90 topics.

(A) Heatmap demonstrating that some outlier clusters tend to have high prediction scores for multiple topics. Each cell shows the average prediction score of a topic for records in an outlier cluster. (B) Size of outlier clusters.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s002

S3 Fig. Cosine similarities between topics.

(A) Heatmap showing cosine similarities between topic pairs. Top-left: hierarchical clustering of the cosine similarity matrix using the Ward algorithm. The branches are colored to indicate groups of related topics. (B) Topic labels and names. The topic ordering was based on hierarchical clustering of topics. Colored rectangles: neighboring topics with >0.5 cosine similarities.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s003

S4 Fig. Relative topical diversity for 20 journals.

The 20 journals with the most plant science records are shown. The journal names were taken from the journal list in PubMed ( https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/serfile_addedinfo.html ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s004

S5 Fig. Topical frequency and top terms during different time periods.

(A-D) Different patterns of topical frequency distributions for example topics (A) 48, (B) 35, (C) 27, and (D) 42. For each topic, the top graph shows the frequency of topical records in each time bin, which are the same as those in Fig 3 (green line), and the end date for each bin is indicated. The heatmap below each line plot depicts whether a term is among the top terms in a time bin (yellow) or not (blue). Blue dotted lines delineate different decades (see S5 Data for the original frequencies, S6 Data for the LOWESS fitted frequencies and the top terms for different topics/time bins).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s005

S6 Fig. Prevalence of records mentioning different taxonomic groups in Viridiplantae.

(A, B) Percentage of records mentioning specific taxa at the ( A) major lineage and (B) family levels. (C, D) The prevalence of taxon mentions over time at the (C) major lineage and (E) family levels. The data used for plotting are available in S9 Data .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s006

S7 Fig. Changes over time.

(A) Number of genera being mentioned in plant science records during different time bins (the date indicates the end date of that bin, exclusive). (B) Numbers of genera (blue) and organisms (salmon) with draft genomes available from National Center of Biotechnology Information in different years. (C) Percentage of US National Science Foundation (NSF) grants mentioning the genus Arabidopsis over time with peak percentage and year indicated. The data for (A–C) are in S9 Data . (D) Number of plant science records in the top 17 plant science journals from the USA (red), Great Britain (GBR) (orange), India (IND) (light green), and China (CHN) (dark green) normalized against the total numbers of publications of each country over time in these 17 journals. The data used for plotting can be found in S11 Data .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s007

S8 Fig. Change in country impact on plant science over time.

(A, B) Difference in 2 impact metrics from 1999 to 2020 for the 10 countries with the highest number of plant science records. (A) H-index. (B) SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). (C, D) Plots show the relationships between the impact metrics (H-index in (C) , SJR in (D) ) averaged from 1999 to 2020 and the slopes of linear fits with years as the predictive variable and impact metric as the response variable for different countries (A3 country codes shown). The countries with >400 records and with <10% missing impact values are included. The data used for plotting can be found in S11 Data .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s008

S9 Fig. Country topical preference.

Enrichment scores (LLR, log likelihood ratio) of topics for each of the top 10 countries. Red: overrepresentation, blue: underrepresentation. The data for plotting can be found in S12 Data .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s009

S1 Data. Summary of source journals for plant science records, prediction models, and top Tf-Idf features.

Sheet–Candidate plant sci record j counts: Number of records from each journal in the candidate plant science corpus (before classification). Sheet—Plant sci record j count: Number of records from each journal in the plant science corpus (after classification). Sheet–Model summary: Model type, text used (txt_flag), and model parameters used. Sheet—Model performance: Performance of different model and parameter combinations on the validation data set. Sheet–Tf-Idf features: The average SHAP values of Tf-Idf (Term frequency-Inverse document frequency) features associated with different terms. Sheet–PubMed number per year: The data for PubMed records in Fig 1A . Sheet–Plant sci record num per yr: The data for the plant science records in Fig 1A .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s010

S2 Data. Numbers of records in topics identified from preliminary topic models.

Sheet–Topics generated with a model based on BioBERT embeddings. Sheet–Topics generated with a model based on distilBERT embeddings. Sheet–Topics generated with a model based on SciBERT embeddings.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s011

S3 Data. Final topic model labels and top terms for topics.

Sheet–Topic label: The topic index and top 10 terms with the highest cTf-Idf values. Sheets– 0 to 89: The top 50 terms and their c-Tf-Idf values for topics 0 to 89.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s012

S4 Data. UMAP representations of different topics.

For a topic T , records in the UMAP graph are colored red and records not in T are colored gray.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s013

S5 Data. Temporal relationships between published documents projected onto 2D space.

The 2D embedding generated with UMAP was used to plot document relationships for each year. The plots from 1975 to 2020 were compiled into an animation.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s014

S6 Data. Timestamps and dates for dynamic topic modeling.

Sheet–bin_timestamp: Columns are: (1) order index; (2) bin_idx–relative positions of bin labels; (3) bin_timestamp–UNIX time in seconds; and (4) bin_date–month/day/year. Sheet–Topic frequency per timestamp: The number of documents in each time bin for each topic. Sheets–LOWESS fit 0.1/0.2/0.3: Topic frequency per timestamp fitted with the fraction parameter of 0.1, 0.2, or 0.3. Sheet—Topic top terms: The top 5 terms for each topic in each time bin.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s015

S7 Data. Locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOWESS) of topical document frequencies over time.

There are 90 scatter plots, one for each topic, where the x axis is time, and the y axis is the document frequency (blue dots). The LOWESS fit is shown as orange points connected with a green line. The category a topic belongs to and its order in Fig 3 are labeled on the top left corner. The data used for plotting are in S6 Data .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s016

S8 Data. The 4 criteria used for sorting topics.

Peak: the time when the LOWESS fit of the frequencies of a topic reaches maximum. 1st_reach_thr: the time when the LOWESS fit first reaches a threshold of 60% maximal frequency (peak value). Trend: upward (1), no change (0), or downward (−1). Stable: whether a topic belongs to the stable category (1) or not (0).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s017

S9 Data. Change in taxon record numbers and genome assemblies available over time.

Sheet–Genus: Number of records mentioning a genus during different time periods (in Unix timestamp) for the top 100 genera. Sheet–Genus: Number of records mentioning a family during different time periods (in Unix timestamp) for the top 100 families. Sheet–Genus: Number of records mentioning an order during different time periods (in Unix timestamp) for the top 20 orders. Sheet–Species levels: Number of records mentioning 12 selected taxonomic levels higher than the order level during different time periods (in Unix timestamp). Sheet–Genome assembly: Plant genome assemblies available from NCBI as of October 28, 2022. Sheet–Arabidopsis NSF: Absolute and normalized numbers of US National Science Foundation funded proposals mentioning Arabidopsis in proposal titles and/or abstracts.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s018

S10 Data. Taxon topical preference.

Sheet– 5 genera LLR: The log likelihood ratio of each topic in each of the top 5 genera with the highest numbers of plant science records. Sheets– 5 genera: For each genus, the columns are: (1) topic; (2) the Fisher’s exact test p -value (Pvalue); (3–6) numbers of records in topic T and in genus X (n_inT_inX), in T but not in X (n_inT_niX), not in T but in X (n_niT_inX), and not in T and X (n_niT_niX) that were used to construct 2 × 2 tables for the tests; and (7) the log likelihood ratio generated with the 2 × 2 tables. Sheet–corrected p -value: The 4 values for generating LLRs were used to conduct Fisher’s exact test. The p -values obtained for each country were corrected for multiple testing.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s019

S11 Data. Impact metrics of countries in different years.

Sheet–country_top25_year_count: number of total publications and publications per year from the top 25 countries with the most plant science records. Sheet—country_top25_year_top17j: number of total publications and publications per year from the top 25 countries with the highest numbers of plant science records in the 17 plant science journals used as positive examples. Sheet–prank: Journal percentile rank scores for countries (3-letter country codes following https://www.iban.com/country-codes ) in different years from 1999 to 2020. Sheet–sjr: Scimago Journal rank scores. Sheet–hidx: H-Index scores. Sheet–cite: Citation scores.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s020

S12 Data. Topical enrichment for the top 10 countries with the highest numbers of plant science publications.

Sheet—Log likelihood ratio: For each country C and topic T, it is defined as log((a/b)/(c/d)) where a is the number of papers from C in T, b is the number from C but not in T, c is the number not from C but in T, d is the number not from C and not in T. Sheet: corrected p -value: The 4 values, a, b, c, and d, were used to conduct Fisher’s exact test. The p -values obtained for each country were corrected for multiple testing.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s021

S13 Data. Text classification prediction probabilities.

This compressed file contains the PubMed ID (PMID) and the prediction probabilities (y_pred) of testing data with both positive and negative examples (pred_prob_testing), plant science candidate records with the MeSH term “Plants” (pred_prob_candidates_with_mesh), and all plant science candidate records (pred_prob_candidates_all). The prediction probability was generated using the Word2Vec text classification models for distinguishing positive (plant science) and negative (non-plant science) records.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002612.s022

Acknowledgments

We thank Maarten Grootendorst for discussions on topic modeling. We also thank Stacey Harmer, Eva Farre, Ning Jiang, and Robert Last for discussion on their respective research fields and input on how to improve this study and Rudiger Simon for the suggestion to examine differences between countries. We also thank Mae Milton, Christina King, Edmond Anderson, Jingyao Tang, Brianna Brown, Kenia Segura Abá, Eleanor Siler, Thilanka Ranaweera, Huan Chen, Rajneesh Singhal, Paulo Izquierdo, Jyothi Kumar, Daniel Shiu, Elliott Shiu, and Wiggler Catt for their good ideas, personal and professional support, collegiality, fun at parties, as well as the trouble they have caused, which helped us improve as researchers, teachers, mentors, and parents.

View Article
PubMed/NCBI
Google Scholar
2. Blei DM, Lafferty JD. Topic Models. In: Srivastava A, Sahami M, editors. Text Mining. Cambridge: Chapman and Hall/CRC; 2009. pp. 71–93.
7. ChatGPT. [cited 2023 Aug 25]. Available from: https://chat.openai.com
9. Fei-Fei L, Perona P. A Bayesian hierarchical model for learning natural scene categories. 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR’05); 2005. pp. 524–531 vol. 2. https://doi.org/10.1109/CVPR.2005.16
19. Blei DM, Lafferty JD. Dynamic topic models. Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Machine learning. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery; 2006. pp. 113–120. https://doi.org/10.1145/1143844.1143859
35. Kuhn T. The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1962.
36. CiteSeer | Proceedings of the second international conference on Autonomous agents. [cited 2023 Aug 23]. Available from: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/280765.280786
39. Chen T, Guestrin C. XGBoost: A Scalable Tree Boosting System. Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. New York, NY, USA: ACM; 2016. pp. 785–794. https://doi.org/10.1145/2939672.2939785
40. Řehůřek R, Sojka P. Software Framework for Topic Modelling with Large Corpora. Proceedings of the LREC 2010 Workshop on New Challenges for NLP Frameworks. Valletta, Malta: ELRA; 2010. pp. 45–50.
42. Hugging Face–The AI community building the future. 2023 Aug 19 [cited 2023 Aug 25]. Available from: https://huggingface.co/

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

View all journals

Cell biology articles from across Nature Portfolio

Cell biology is the discipline of biological sciences that studies the structure, physiology, growth, reproduction and death of cells. Research in cell biology uses microscopic and molecular tools and examines all cell types, from unicellular organisms such as protozoa to the specialised cells that consitutute multicellular organisms.

Unfolding emergency calls stress granules to the ER

Sensing stress within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the ER transmembrane protein IRE1α initiates a signal transduction pathway to restore homeostasis. A study finds that this process requires an ER membrane-bound phase separation event that leads to the local assembly of stress granules (SGs) and delivery of signalling components.

David Pincus
Scott A. Oakes

Cells dispose of cytoplasmic mitochondrial DNA by nucleoid-phagy

Mitochondrial damage in stress conditions results in the release of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), causing inflammation that is linked to various diseases. We discovered a mechanism for the elimination of this harmful mtDNA — ‘nucleoid-phagy’. Targeting this process represents another way to treat mitochondrial damage-related diseases.

Studying cell membrane tension and mechanosensation during mechanical stimulation

An experimental method to study how cells sense and react to external mechanical forces combines controlled mechanical stimulation using nanopipettes with fluorescence imaging of membrane tension. This approach facilitates the study of mechanosensitive ion channels and the propagation of cell membrane tension.

Related Subjects

Cell adhesion
Cell division
Cell growth
Cell migration
Cell polarity
Cell signalling
Cellular imaging
Chromosomes
Circadian rhythms
Cytoskeleton
Glycobiology
Mechanisms of disease
Membrane trafficking
Nuclear organization
Nuclear transport
Post-translational modifications
Protein folding
Protein transport
Proteolysis

Latest Research and Reviews

Targeting the autophagy-NAD axis protects against cell death in Niemann-Pick type C1 disease models

Tetsushi Kataura
Lucia Sedlackova
Viktor I. Korolchuk

Macrophages in cardiovascular diseases: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets

Runkai Chen
Hongrui Zhang
Canzhao Liu

Peroxiredoxin I and II as novel therapeutic molecular targets in cervical cancer treatment through regulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress induced by bleomycin

PDZK1 confers sensitivity to sunitinib in clear cell renal cell carcinoma by suppressing the PDGFR-β pathway

Lijie Zhang

PNPO–PLP axis senses prolonged hypoxia in macrophages by regulating lysosomal activity

Sekine et al. show that macrophages utilize different pathways to sense acute and chronic hypoxia, the latter relying preferentially on PNPO–PLP rather than hypoxia-inducible factors.

Hiroki Sekine
Haruna Takeda
Hozumi Motohashi

Effects of dietary fermented Saccharomyces cerevisiae extract (Hilyses) supplementation on growth, hematology, immunity, antioxidants, and intestinal health in Nile tilapia

Asmaa S. Abd El-Naby
Amel M. El Asely
Fatma Samir

News and Comment

UDPG: Maintaining the true nature of sugar

Ronghui Yang

A snapshot into the transcriptomic landscape of apoptosis and ferroptosis in cancer

Apoptosis and ferroptosis are two regulated cell death (RCD) pathways implicated in different human diseases and considered as promising strategies to eliminate cancer cells. These two pathways are characterized by distinct morphological and biochemical properties, induce cell death through different mechanisms, but share common regulators in different cancer types. Although apoptosis and ferroptosis have been extensively studied over the last few years, their transcriptomic responses have not yet been systematically compared due to remarkable variability in the transcriptomic data. Here we provide a brief snapshot of the transcriptomic landscapes of the apoptosis and ferroptosis responses in cancer, discuss their divergent and convergent properties, and implications to cancer therapy.

Yaron Vinik

Gerogenes and gerosuppression: the pillars of precision geromedicine

Carlos López-Otín
Andrea B. Maier
Guido Kroemer

Quick links

Explore articles by subject
Guide to authors
Editorial policies

Biology Article
25 Important Topics In Biology

25 Important Topics in Biology

Following are a list of biology topics that have been carefully selected according to their scope and importance. These topics are elementary and form the basis of much more advanced concepts in higher classes. Moreover, questions frequently arise from these topics in various competitive exams. Hence, students will find this list most beneficial for their exam preparations.

1. Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis an important process that is observed in plants and certain microscopic organisms. Furthermore, all life on earth is directly or indirectly dependent on this process. It is even speculated that the evolution of life on earth was significantly influenced by photosynthesis.

Complete Article: Photosynthesis

2. Carbon Cycle

The carbon cycle is a biogeochemical process that also has a significant impact on life. The cycle essentially explains how carbon is incorporated and exchanged among the various entities (such as living organisms, atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere etc).

Complete Article: Carbon Cycle

3. Nitrogen Cycle

Nitrogen is an important element required for life. However, neither plants nor animals can extract nitrogen directly from the atmosphere, instead, they rely on a series of biological and/or physical processes to incorporate into their systems. These set of processes contribute to the nitrogen cycle.

Complete Article: Nitrogen Cycle

4. Difference Between Mitosis And Meiosis

Mitosis and meiosis are two types of cell divisions that are observed in living organisms. One of the major differences between the two is that mitosis occurs during growth and maintenance while meiosis occurs only during sexual reproduction.

Complete Article: Difference Between Mitosis And Meiosis

5. Flora And Fauna

Flora refers to all plant life while fauna refers to all animal life. There are over 8.7 million species of living organisms identified to date and more being discovered every day. Life is so abundant that every nook and corner of the planet is teeming with life.

Complete Article: Flora And Fauna

6. Human Digestive System

Digestion is an important life process and is observed in a multitude of life forms. Some have a rather simple system while others are much more complicated. Unsurprisingly, humans have a digestive system too, and it is much more advanced with a host of organs and glands that perform very specific functions and roles.

Complete Article: Human Digestive System

7. Human Heart

The heart is an important organ usually found in most higher animals. Even invertebrates have a heart that pumps blood into their cavities. However, unlike the invertebrates, the human heart is quite advanced with respect to its structure, functions and capabilities.

Complete Article: Human Heart

8. Sense Organs

To interpret the world around us, we have various senses and sense organs. These sense organs provide information which helps to make decisions and perceive the environment and associated stimuli.

Complete Article: Sense Organs

The cell is the most basic, structural and functional unit of life. A cell can be classified based on various criteria (such as plant and animal cell, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell, types of cells present in human tissues or plant tissues etc.

Complete Article: Cells

10. Human Brain

The brain is one of the most important organs which control nearly every aspect of our body. It is also one of the most complex organs in the entire body, with billions of neurons that relay information between the brain and the body.

Complete Article: Human Brain

Also called the fluid connective tissue, blood (and lymph) carries oxygen, essential minerals and nutrients to the cells. It also collects the metabolic waste products to be eliminated from the body. Humans are not the only organisms with blood, earthworms, spiders and even leeches have blood.

Complete Article: Blood and its Components

12. Soil Profile

The dirt beneath your feet is made up of several distinct layers, each with its own physical and chemical properties. Soil also varies from place to place due to their parent material (the original layer of rock where the formation of soil takes places.)

Complete Article: Soil Profile

13. Transpiration

Transpiration is the process where water vapour is let out through the stomata on the leaves. It is a very crucial process that performs two major roles – pumping minerals and water to the leaves for photosynthesis and removing excess heat from the plants.

Complete Article: Transpiration

14. Gymnosperms

Gymnosperms are a group of seed-producing plants that have been around far longer than the angiosperms. The plant’s Greek-origin name translates to “naked seeds” as they the seeds are not enclosed in any way (unlike the angiosperms).

Complete Article: Gymnosperms

15. Saprophytes

Saprophytes are organisms that consume dead or decaying organic matter. Certain species of plants, bacteria and fungi follow this form of nutrition. However, fungi, in particular, are well-known saprophytes as they are the principal decomposers in an ecosystem.

Complete Article: Saprophytes

16. Biofertilizers

Biofertilizer is a fertilizer that contains living or latent microbes. These forms of fertilizers help to promote plant growth by increasing the number of essential nutrients available to the plants. Traditionally used biofertilizers include Rhizobium, blue-green algae and Azospirillum.

Complete Article: Biofertilizers

17. Rhizobium

Rhizobium is an important soil bacteria that helps to convert the atmospheric nitrogen into fixed nitrogen, which is then usable by plants. It does this once it finds a base inside root nodules of plants such as legumes.

Complete Article: Rhizobium

18. Ecology

Ecology is the branch of biology that deals with the relationships that exist between organisms and their surroundings.

Complete Article: Ecology

19. Adaptation And Habitats

Life on earth resides in very diverse environments with many factors and variables (such as temperature, humidity, altitude etc). To ensure their best chances of survival, life develops various adaptations to cope up with the environment and with other life forms. One of the best examples of adaptations is camouflage, where predators and prey blend into their environment for predation or to avoid predation.

Complete Article: Adaptation And Habitats

20. Evolution

Throughout the earth’s 4.54 billion years of history, countless organisms have come and gone. The very first undisputed signs of life appeared roughly 3.5 billion years ago, though there is divisive evidence that it emerged as early as 4.2 billion years. But the question of “How life came to be” still remains unanswered.

Complete Article: Evolution

21. Plant Cell

Plant cells are vastly different from animal cells, though both are eukaryotic in nature. Moreover, plant cells do not have certain organelles like lysosomes or centrioles. However, they possess various other cell organelles that facilitate the process of photosynthesis such as chloroplasts.

Complete Article: Plant Cell

22. Animal Cell

Animal cells are quite similar to plant cells. However, one of the major differentiating factors is the absence of a cell wall. Other organelles like chloroplasts are absent as well.

Complete Article: Animal Cell

23. Difference between Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells

One of the ways cells are classified is based on the presence or absence of a nucleus and nuclear membrane. Prokaryotic cells lack the aforementioned while eukaryotic cells do.

Complete Article: Difference between Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells

24. Heredity

Also known as biological inheritance, it is the set of processes where traits from parents are passed on to their offsprings either through sexual or asexual reproduction.

Complete Article: Heredity

25. Biomolecules

A biomolecule is a term used to describe the molecules that are found in organisms and it takes part in important biological processes and cellular activities. Examples include proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids etc.

Complete Article: Biomolecules

Explore more fascinating concepts about biology or other related topics by registering at BYJU’S Biology .

Important Links:

Biology MCQs

Biology Important Questions – Class 11 & 12

Register with BYJU'S & Download Free PDFs

Along with Stanford news and stories, show me:

Student information
Faculty/Staff information

We want to provide announcements, events, leadership messages and resources that are relevant to you. Your selection is stored in a browser cookie which you can remove at any time using “Clear all personalization” below.

A 3D bioprinter in the Skylar-Scott lab prints a sample of heart tissue in 2022. (Image credit: Andrew Brodhead)

Under a new $26.3 million federal contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Stanford University aims to bioprint a fully functioning human heart and implant it in a living pig within five years.

“It’s truly a moonshot effort, but the raw ingredients for bioprinting a complete and complex human organ are now in place for this big push,” said Mark Skylar-Scott , assistant professor of bioengineering in the Schools of Engineering and Medicine , a member of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute , and principal investigator on the project.

The vision of fabricating bespoke, patient-specific human organs – livers, lungs, kidneys, brain, and, yes, a human heart – has been a tantalizing dream of modern medicine for years, but only recently has stem cell science, the scale of cell production, and 3D bioprinting advanced to a point where the dream is within reach.

Bioprinting is a 3D printing technology that, instead of using plastic or metal, prints living tissues cell by cell. The key development, Skylar-Scott said, is that we can now print cells and blood vessels into those tissues.

“With vasculature comes the ability to make large and thick tissues that can be implanted and survive,” Skylar-Scott said. “Thus begins the era of organ biofabrication.”

Leap in scale

That bioprinting expertise is coupled with a dramatic leap in scale in cell production, from the petri dish of old to today’s reactors able to turn out heart-specific cells billions at a time. These will become the bioprinter’s “ink.”

“We are going to use an automated bank of bioreactors to produce the different cell types of the heart,” Skylar-Scott said.

This bank of bioreactors will turn out billions of ventricular and atrial cardiomyocytes, specialized conduction cells that form the Purkinje fibers, nodal cells that are the heart’s pace-making cells, as well as smooth muscle cells, macrophages that support tissue development, and, of course, the blood vessel endothelial cells needed to keep the tissue alive. Skylar-Scott estimates that the team will be able to generate sufficient cells for a heart every two weeks.

“We will use these vast numbers of cells to practice, practice, practice and learn all the design rules of the heart and optimize viability and function at the whole-heart scale for eventual implantation into a pig,” he said. The bioprinted human heart will be transplanted into a pig with severe congenital immunodeficiency to prevent rejection. However, the team’s approach uses patient-specific stem cells that, when transplanted into that same patient, may not require immunosuppression. “Your own heart, made out of your own cells; that is the dream,” Skylar-Scott added.

The dramatic scope of the project prompts vision of a day when similar biofabrication plants manufacture new hearts, lungs, livers, and other organs for implantation into ailing humans – each bioprinted organ a perfect genetic match for its patient. Such aspirations are to be expected, Skylar-Scott said, but he adds that he believes that day is still decades off, if not more. Still, this bioprinting initiative will serve as a necessary and powerful proof-of-concept to accelerate the commercialization and translation of organ engineering.

Ecosystem of expertise

Discussion of such possibilities brings Skylar-Scott full circle to the challenge ahead. Bioprinting and implanting a heart into a living creature will require a profound collection of expertise well beyond the skills of any one researcher. In that regard, Skylar-Scott returns to the Stanford research ecosystem that makes this project a possibility.

While he is the principal investigator on the project, the full team of Stanford experts needed to make the dream a reality is remarkable in its depth and breadth (see sidebar). It includes experts in engineering, biochemistry, computer modeling, cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, biology, materials science, and more. Only Stanford concentrates leadership in all these disparate but interrelated fields within walking distance of one another.

Stanford is a real center of excellence for cardiovascular medicine, Skylar-Scott said – the Cardiovascular Institute, stem cell derivation expertise, and vascular experts to provide the raw materials combined with a great ecosystem of 3D bioprinting and materials faculty to think how to use and assemble the materials.

“When you have all these resources in one place, it makes it easier to collaborate and to do some pretty amazing things,” Skylar-Scott said.

Media Contacts

Jill Wu, Stanford University School of Engineering: (386) 383-6061, [email protected]

Frontiers | Science News

Science News

Research Topics

Biodiversity loss: three research topics revealing threats and solutions.

The planet is demanding a reset in our interactions with nature. Protecting and restoring biodiversity is no longer optional because when nature suffers, so do we .

According to United Nations data, "current negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems will undermine progress towards 80% of the assessed targets of eight Sustainable Development Goals."

As a result, the theme for this year’s International Day for Biological Diversity is ’Be part of the Plan’, a call to action for everyone to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework , also known as the Biodiversity Plan.

In light of the crucial role of biodiversity to the health of our planet, we have listed three of our most impactful Research Topics on the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss.

All articles are openly available to view and download.

1 | Aquatic One Health—The Intersection of Marine Wildlife Health, Public Health, and Our Oceans

33,400 views | 10 articles

This Research Topic provides insights into marine wildlife and aquaculture disease processes, conditions, and health issues. It also demonstrates the potential to influence public health within the One Health framework.

The interrelatedness of environmental, animal, and public wellbeing form the basis of the 'One Health' concept, a framework to guide research and conservation efforts by studying not only animal health in isolation, but also in the context of public and environmental health.

Humankind's past and present use of ocean ecosystems as waste sinks has had significant, wide-ranging, and negative effects on marine life and human health, making this topic highly relevant to the mission of biodiversity preservation.

View Research Topic

2 | Ethnofood Chemistry: Bioactive Components in Unexploited Foods from Centres of Biodiversity

45,000 views | 11 articles

A Research Topic looking at ethno plant foods from centers of biodiversity -Africa, Asia and Australia, North, and Central America, South America, Europe, and Central Asia- with bioactive components of nutritional and health value.

Ethnofoods—traditional foods—originate from the heritage and culture of an ethnic group that uses their knowledge of local plants and animal sources. They are also unexploited and underutilized by the wider community worldwide.

This topic highlights the importance of incorporating ethno-plant foods into nutrition intervention programs globally to combat hidden hunger and provide nutrition and food security. Furthermore, it contributes to demonstrating the possibility of developing sustainable food systems.

3 | Community Series in the Wildlife Gut Microbiome and Its Implication for Conservation Biology, Volume II

53,100 views | 21 articles

This Research Topic dives into the potential connection between gut microbiome and conservation biology. Microbiome studies can increase our understanding of non-native species invasion, host response to pathogens and chemical contamination, and host ability to tolerate climate change.

The animal gut microbiota can be beneficial in many ways, including dietary supplementation, host immune function, and behavior. The microbiomes of animals affect host fitness, population characteristics such as demography, and health status, as well as adaptability. For example, the fitness effects of gut microbiomes on wild animals may have important implications for the conservation and management of species.

Post related info

May 21, 2024

Frontiers Science Communications

Post categories, featured news, related subjects, research topics, related content.

Five Research Topics exploring the science of mental health

Frontiers' Research Topic publishing program: pioneering the future of scientific publishing

Frontiers institutional partnerships update – winter 2024

Frontiers ebook releases: May 2024

Clues to mysterious disappearance of North America’s large mammals 50,000 years ago found within ancient bone collagen

‘Extraordinary’ 4,000-year-old Egyptian skull may show signs of attempts to treat cancer

AI, open science, and the extreme weather pandemic: Takeaways from SXSW 2024

Big data, AI, and personalized medicine: scientists reveal playbook aiming to revolutionize healthcare

IMAGES

Engaging Biology Research Topics of 2023
230 Best Biology Research Topics and Ideas for Students
150 Best Biology Research Paper Topics
150 Best Biology Research Paper Topics
⭐ Good topics for biology projects. 134 Interesting Biology Topics for
Top 240 Biology Research Topics for Students in 2022

VIDEO

Introduction to biology
Introduction to Research and how to choose a research topic
What is research topic? Criteria for selecting topic, components and examples #health #research
Top 10 Trending Biological Research Areas
BIOLOGY
12th Biology के महत्वपूर्ण प्रश्न

COMMENTS

100 Biology Research Topics for Students & Researchers
Research Topics in Biology for Undergraduates. 41. Investigating the effects of pollutants on local plant species. Microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning in a specific habitat. Understanding the genetics of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Impact of urbanization on bird populations and biodiversity. Investigating the role of pheromones ...
49 Most Interesting Biology Research Topics
The first of our potentially easy biology research topics: climate change and ecosystems. Investigate how ecosystems respond and adapt to the changing climate. And learn about shifts in species distributions, phenology, and ecological interactions. 1) How are different ecosystems responding to temperature changes and altered precipitation ...
200+ Interesting Biology Research Topics For Students In 2023
Molecular Biology Research Topics For Undergraduates. 31. Studying the structure and function of DNA and RNA molecules. 32. Analyzing the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. 33. Investigating the mechanisms of DNA replication and repair. 34. Studying the role of non-coding RNAs in gene regulation.
10 Most Interesting Biology Research Topics
These 10 biology topics are some of the hottest areas in scientific research today, but don't limit yourself — there's more than enough knowledge to satisfy a curious mind in any field. You might just have to look a little closer under the microscope to find an entirely new world.
200+ Biology Research Topics for Students
A List of Researchable Topics for Biology. A list of researchable topics for biology students starts with several interesting biological topics concerning sociological perspective and ethical issues. The most debatable subjects are abortion, human cloning, genetic researches and the new ethics that should be created to resolve these issues.
212 Essential Biology Research Topics That Will Impress You
If you'd like to focus on molecular biology, here are 15 good biology research topics for you: Ethical considerations in molecular genetics. Discuss the structure and component of the gene. Examine the restrictions in DNA. What are the peculiarities in modern nucleic acid analysis.
350+ Biology Research Topics
Biology Research Topics. Biology Research Topics are as follows: The role of gut microbiota in human health and disease. The effects of climate change on animal behavior and physiology. The molecular mechanisms of cancer development and progression. The evolutionary origins of human language. The impact of pesticides on insect populations and ...
Biological sciences
Biological sciences encompasses all the divisions of natural sciences examining various aspects of vital processes. The concept includes anatomy, physiology, cell biology, biochemistry and ...
Top 100 in Cell and Molecular Biology
This collection highlights our most downloaded* cell and molecular biology papers published in 2021. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers showcase valuable research from an ...
Top 50 Life and Biological Sciences Articles
Top 50 Life and Biological Sciences Articles. We are pleased to share with you the 50 most read Nature Communications articles* in life and biological sciences published in 2019. Featuring authors ...
150 Actual Biology Research Paper Topics
3.9 15 Plant Pathology Biology Research Topics. 3.10 15 Animals Biology Research Topics. 3.11 15 Marine Biology Research Topics. 3.12 15 Zoology Research Topics. 3.13 15 Genetics Research Topics. 3.14 15 Biotechnology Research Topics. 3.15 15 Evolutionary Biology Research Topics. Biology is one of the most magnetic fields of study these days ...
251+ Life Science Research Topics [Updated]
Research in life science involves the systematic investigation and study of living organisms, their interactions, and their environments. It encompasses a wide range of disciplines, including biology, genetics, ecology, microbiology, neuroscience, and more. Life science research aims to expand our understanding of the fundamental principles ...
Articles
IDH1 mutation is an important prognostic marker in glioma. However, its regulatory mechanism in glioma remains incomplet... Haiting Zhao, Li Meng, Peng Du, Xinbin Liao, Xin Mo, Mengqi Gong, Jiaxin Chen and Yiwei Liao. Biological Research 2024 57 :30. Research article Published on: 17 May 2024.
World-Class Talks on Biology Topics
Free biology research talks from the world's leading scientists. Talks are sorted by biology topics so you can find what interests you! Top. Skip to primary navigation; ... is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences under Grant No. 2122350 and 1 R25 GM139147. Any ...
199+ Innovative Biology Research Topics For Students
Interesting Biology Topics. The role of gut microbiome in human health. Epigenetics and gene expression. Biomimicry and its applications. Regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy. The impact of climate change on biodiversity. The potential of CRISPR technology. The biology of aging. Quorum sensing in bacteria.
Top 10 Research Topics from 2021
Find the answers to your biggest research questions from 2021. With collective views of over 3.7 million, researchers explored topics spanning from nutritional
Molecular biology
Molecular Biology is the field of biology that studies the composition, structure and interactions of cellular molecules such as nucleic acids and proteins that carry out the biological processes ...
Frontiers in Systems Biology
Insights in Data and Model Integration: 2023. Edoardo Saccenti. 1,282 views. 2 articles. An exciting new journal integrating theory, experimentation, and practical application across biology and biomedicine to tackle some of the most urgent questions we face as humans.
100 Biology Research Topics Ideas For Students
To make things as simple as possible for you, we've put together a list of biology research project ideas. You will find 100 topics on various subjects below. Of course, you can use any of our topics for free. However, keep in mind that even though we are doing our best to maintain this list fresh, other students will find it as well.
Insights in Vector Biology: 2021
The goal of this special edition Research Topic is to shed light on the progress made in the past decade in the field and on its future challenges. This article collection will inspire, inform and provide direction and guidance to researchers in the field. Keywords : tropical diseases, vector biology, discoveries, gaps, perspectives, insights.
Assessing the evolution of research topics in a biological field using
The least connected topics include topic 0 (allergen research, median cosine similarity = 0.12), topic 21 (clock biology, 0.12), topic 1 (tissue culture, 0.15), and topic 69 (identification of compounds with spectroscopic methods, 0.15; all t test p-values < 1 × 10 −24). Topics 0, 1, and 69 are specialized topics; it is surprising that topic ...
Cell biology
Cell biology is the discipline of biological sciences that studies the structure, physiology, growth, reproduction and death of cells. Research in cell biology uses microscopic and molecular tools ...
Frontiers in Immunology
Foods, Dietary Supplements, and Herbal Products Treating the Diseases of the 21st Century: Moving from Traditional to Scientific Research: Volume II. The official journal of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) and the most cited in its field, leading the way for research across basic, translational and clinical immunology.
List of 25 Important Biology Topics for Competitive Exams
Moreover, questions frequently arise from these topics in various competitive exams. Hence, students will find this list most beneficial for their exam preparations. 1. Photosynthesis. Photosynthesis an important process that is observed in plants and certain microscopic organisms.
Moonshot effort aims to bioprint a human heart and implant it in a pig
Under a new $26.3 million federal contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health ... computer modeling, cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, biology, materials science, and more. ...
Biodiversity loss: three Research Topics revealing threats ...
This Research Topic dives into the potential connection between gut microbiome and conservation biology. Microbiome studies can increase our understanding of non-native species invasion, host response to pathogens and chemical contamination, and host ability to tolerate climate change. The animal gut microbiota can be beneficial in many ways ...

Biology Research Topics

Research Topics in Marine Biology

Biological Anthropology Research Topics

Biological Psychology Research Topics

Cancer Biology Research Topics

Cell Biology Research Topics

Developmental Biology Research Topics

Human Biology Research Topics

Molecular Biology Research Topics

Research Topics in Biology for Undergraduates

Synthetic Biology Research Topics

Animal Biology Research Topics

Best Biology Research Topics

Biological Psychology Research Paper Topics

Biological Science Research Topics:

Biology Education Research Topics

Biology-Related Research Topics

Biology Research Proposal Topics

Biology Research Topic Ideas

Biology Research Topics for Undergraduates

Cell and Molecular Biology Research Topics

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Are We?

You May Also Like

USEFUL LINKS

49 Most Interesting Biology Research Topics

What is biology?

Climate change and ecosystems

Microbiome and human health

Urban biodiversity conservation

Bioengineering

Neurobiology

Plant epigenomics

Conservation genomics

Zoonotic disease transmission

Bioinformatics

Regenerative medicine

Biology Research Topics – Final thoughts

College Planning in Your Inbox

212 Unique Biology Research Topics For Students And Researchers

What Is Biology?

Controversial Biology Topics

Biology Research Paper Topics

Interesting Biology Topics

Biology Research Topics For College Students

Marine Biology Research Topics

Molecular Biology Research Topics

Biology Research Topics For High School

Human Biology Research Topics

Cell Biology Research Topics

Get Biology Research Help As Soon As Possible

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

350+ Biology Research Topics

Biology Research Topics

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

You may also like

200+ Funny Research Topics

500+ Sports Research Topics

300+ American History Research Paper Topics

500+ Cyber Security Research Topics

500+ Environmental Research Topics

500+ Economics Research Topics

150 Actual Biology Research Paper Topics

What Is Biology? What Topics Might Biologists Study?

How to Choose a Topic for Biology Research Paper?

Top Research Biology Paper Topics

15 Developmental Biology Topics For Research

15 Immune System Biology Research Topics

15 Cell Biology Research Topics

15 DNA Research Topics

15 Molecular Biology Research Topics

15 Neurobiology Research Topics

15 Abortion, Human cloning, and Genetic Researches Topics

15 Environmental and Ecology Topics for Your Research

15 Plant Pathology Biology Research Topics

15 Animals Biology Research Topics

15 Marine Biology Research Topics

15 Zoology Research Topics

15 Genetics Research Topics