Aurora Nedelcu

Academic interests

• Evolutionary Biology
• Cancer Biology
• Phycology

Brief biography

Dr. Aurora Nedelcu received her BSc (Biology) from Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) in 1988. Prior to coming to Canada to start her PhD, Dr. Nedelcu worked for several years as a Biology teacher in a Secondary School, as a Research Scientist in an Electron Microscopy Lab, and as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry.

She completed her PhD (Biology) at Dalhousie University (1993-1997) and then continued her training as a postdoctoral fellow in the Organelle Genome Megasequencing Lab at the Université de Montréal (1998) and as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of Arizona (1998 – 2002).

Dr. Nedelcu joined the Biology Department at UNB in 2002, where she is currently a Professor. She also holds an Adjunct position in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Nedelcu’s general research interests center around understanding how and why biological systems evolve, especially in terms of major innovations and the emergence of new levels of complexity. Most of her current research is rooted in the framework of transitions in individuality and complexity (at a conceptual level) and of cellular responses to stress, gene co-option and trade-offs (at a mechanistic level). She uses a combination of approaches (experimental and theoretical), spanning various levels of biological organization (genes, genomes, cells, individuals) and fields (genetics/genomics, molecular/cellular/developmental biology, experimental evolution).

Specific areas include:

• Molecular, gene and genome (both nuclear and organelle) evolution
• The genetic basis of key transitions and major innovations in evolution, such as the evolution of multicellularity, development, cell differentiation, programmed cell death, sex
• Evolution of cooperation and altruism
• Evolution and cancer

The model-systems currently used are the volvocine green algae and human cancer cell lines.

Courses taught

• BIOL2251 – Clinical Microbiology
• BIOL3241 – Molecular Evolution
• BIOL4123 – Evolutionary Medicine
• BIOL 4149 – Senior Research Project

Selected research

Thomas, F., Capp, J.-P., Dujon, A. M., Marusyk, A., Asselin, K., Campone, M., Pujol, P., Alix-Panabières, C., Roche, B., Ujvari, B., Gatenby, R., & Nedelcu, A. M. (2025). Leveraging selection for function in tumor evolution: System-level cancer therapies. Evolution, Medicine and Public Health, 13(1), 248–268.

Cameron-Pack, M. E., König, S., Reyes-Guevara, A., Reyes-Prieto, A., & Nedelcu, A. M. (2022). A personal cost of cheating can stabilize reproductive altruism during the early evolution of clonal multicellularity. Biology Letters, 18, Article 20220059.

Saggere, R. M. S., Lee, C. W., Chan, I. C. W., Durnford, D. G., & Nedelcu, A. M. (2022). A life-history trade-off gene with antagonistic pleiotropic effects on reproduction and survival in limiting environments. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289(1967), Article 20212669.