One of the 100 most-read neuroscience papers in Scientific Reports in 2018 was a study led by MBL Associate Scientist Jennifer Morgan, director of the Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering. Morgan’s article, which placed 25th out of more than 1,627 neuroscience papers published, reported that many of the genes involved in
By Kate MacCord and Jane Maienschein MBL McDonnell Initiative and Arizona State University Regeneration occurs at many different levels in nature, from individual organisms (notably earthworms and hydra), through communities of microbes, to ecosystems such as forests. … At each of these levels we see evidence for a built-in regenerative process that attempts to maintain
<![endif][if lt IE 9]>< ![endif] Congratulations to the 2019 Grass Fellowship recipients! These early-career scientists will spend the upcoming summer at the MBL pursuing a self-designed, independent research project. The Grass Fellows function as an intellectual and social group within the MBL scientific community while sharing research space in the storied Grass Lab. This years’
Spotlight on the little-studied but widespread marine fungi! The Moore Foundation sponsored a workshop at MBL on the topic, resulting in two recent papers in Current Biology, including this “Marine Fungi Primer.” MBL Fellow Amy Gladfelter of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, organized the workshop. By Amy S. Gladfelter, Timothy Y. James and Anthony
By Casey Gilman For both hunters and the hunted, being cryptic is imperative. By mimicking the patterns, shapes and architecture of their surroundings, animals have evolved extraordinarily clever ways of camouflaging themselves against the multi-textural world they live in. But, according to Lydia Mäthger from the Marine Biological Laboratory, USA, animal eyes can still present a
By Mark Wolverton The Marine Biological Laboratory has purchased a new, advanced confocal microscope with a grant from the National Institutes of Health awarded to Associate Scientist Michael Shribak. Shribak, in collaboration with Kazuhiro Maeshima of Japan’s National Institute of Genetics (NIG) and MBL’s Tomomi Tani, will use the microscope to study heterochromatin (a condensed
By Jennifer Tsang Microbial communities have been evolving with their host environments for millions of years, whether that be inside the human body, in soil, or in the ocean. With the advent of rapid DNA sequencing, researchers have been able to identify organisms and genes present in these microbial communities. But it is often difficult
Here’s a (widely circulated!) shout-out to MBL scientist Michael Shribak’s OI-DIC microscope from Dyche Mullins of University of California, San Francisco (and former MBL Physiology course co-director). For no particular reason, here is a beautiful movie of meiosis in a crane fly (Nephrotoma suturalis) spermatocyte, imaged by quantitative phase microscopy (OI-DIC microscope). I cribbed this
Welcome to Emil Ruff, who has joined the Marine Biological Laboratory as an Assistant Scientist in the Ecosystems Center and the Bay Paul Center. The Ruff lab studies microbial life in deep-sea ecosystems, where light doesn’t penetrate and energy is scarce. To thrive in this environment, most microbes collaborate and develop complex food webs. The
MBL Senior Scientist Zoe Cardon has received a collaborative grant from the Department of Energy to study how viral infections in plants can affect the fate of the largest pool of organic carbon stored in soils: organic carbon bound to minerals. As carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere continue to rise, driving further climate