Person snorkeling underwater with mask and snorkel in a clear, green-tinted body of water.
Two women outdoors in front of a fountain, smiling at the camera. One woman has dark hair and is wearing a white top, while the other has curly hair and sunglasses, wearing a black floral top.
Scuba diver swimming underwater near coral reef and marine plants.

Laura D. Mydlarz

I am a Professor at The University of Texas at Arlington, in the Department of Biology.  I received my BS and MS from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL, and my PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in Marine Science in 2004.  After graduating, I conducted post-doctoral training with Drew Harvell at Cornell University.  I joined the faculty at University of Texas, Arlington in 2007.

The research interests in my lab are broadly coral disease and immunity, I am particularly interested in the pathways that confer disease resistance and what life-history trade-offs have caused variation in investment in immunity. My lab uses a range of tools to decipher and quantify immune pathways, including gene expression profiling via next-generation sequencing, proteomics, and assays of specific protein activity to define immune effectors. We have recently begun applying novel computational pipelines and machine learning approaches to extend the impact of this work I currently have an active lab with four PhD students and have graduated 10 PhDs in the past 15 years!

My lab has been funded by several awards from the National Science Foundation and NOAA Texas SeaGrant to me and my collaborators, Marilyn Brandt - University of Virgin Islands, Erinn Muller - Mote Marine Lab, Amy Apprill - Woodshole Oceanographic Institute, Dan Holstein - Stony Brook University,  Adrienne Correa, UC Berkeley.  I was an Associate Editor for the journal Marine Biology, and frequently review proposals for the National Science Foundation. I was co-PI on a LSAMP award to fund International research experiences for 2-year college students to conduct research at the Roatan Institute of Science.

I am currently Senior Associate Dean in the College of Science at UTA and served five years as Associate Chair of the Department of Biology. In these roles, I have enjoyed coordinating curriculum development, aligning academic programs with university-wide strategic goals, and expanding experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students. What I have found most rewarding is seeing students engage more deeply with science through hands-on, real-world experiences that complement their coursework.  I just completed a term as the Treasurer for the UTA Women Faculty and Staff Network and work hard with the executive committee to bring career and gender specific programming to the women faculty on campus. I am the Program Officer for the Division of Eco-immunity and Disease Ecology for the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology.  

In my spare time, I enjoy travel, scuba diving, underwater photography,  and spending time with family especially my 12 year old daughter, Lilia. I also enjoy live music (U2 and classic and alternative rock), movies and TV with my husband, Brian.