Associate Professor of Biology Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert explored how cells respond to stress at the molecular level on the . “We experience a variety of types of stress every day,” she said, from the momentary stress of a lost phone to more chronic stress caused by air pollution and climate change. Cells either respond to stress successfully, maintaining homeostasis鈥攖he optimal condition for an organism to function鈥攐r do not, leading to cell death. “As climate change occurs globally, organisms must adapt as [the] regulation of gene expression is an essential response to these changes,” she said.