Meet Ashley Gonclaves, Cnid-Immunity Lab’s newest PhD Student
Hi everyone, I am new to the Cnidarian Immunity lab and just joined this past spring 2020 – I am super excited to get involved and happy to be part of this helpful, ambitious group of scientists!
Fluorescence activated cell sorting in corals!
The Cnidarian Immunity Lab is excited to share a methods paper on how we utilize fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) on corals and Nematostella.
Pocillopora the cosmopolitan Pacific coral
The Cnidarian Immunity Lab is located in Miami, Florida, and is situated closely to vibrant coral reefs that support many of the ~70 coral species that live in the Caribbean region. However, one important coral species complex that our lab studies is not found in the Caribbean, but rather is widely distributed across the Indo-Pacific and tropical Eastern Pacific regions, ranging from the west coast of Kenya all the way to Panamá.
Congratulations to Ben Young and Grace Snyder on passing quals!
Congratulations to Ben Young and Grace Snyder passing their qualifying exams! They now are *PhD candidates* !
New paper on the role of Perforin-2 and immunity in corals
We are excited to announce the publication of our new paper on Perforin-2 (P2) in corals in Frontiers Immunology.
Pdam Wound Healing
Haley is an undergraduate student working in the lab examining coral wound healing in Pocillopora damicornis.
Congratulations to Our Undergraduate Students
Congratulations to our undergrad students Anthony Bonacolta and James Nowotny for receiving the RSMAS Small Undergraduate Research Grant Experience (SURGE) Award. We can’t wait to see your research results!
Kevin’s wound-healing experiment
Our lab manager Kevin Rodriguez shot this incredible 5-hour time lapse of a Pocillopora damicornis fragment immediately after wounding.
RSMAS Undergrad Research Symposium
Megan Howson and Jess Daly presented their findings from the Nematostella wounding project at the RSMAS undergraduate research symposium in late April.
Germ-Free Nematostella Project
Anthony began a project this semester using antibiotics to get rid of bacteria residing within the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella.
Sunscreen Ban in Hawaii
Dr. Traylor-Knowles was interviewed about the sunscreen ban and corals in Hawaii.
Grace’s Project (Part 3)
Once Grace has finished sorting her cell types, she will establish cDNA libraries from the RNA of each cell type in Pocillopora damicornis, to establish it as a model organism.
Grace’s Project (Part 2)
A continuation of Grace Snyder‘s project: to sort cell populations, Grace begins by blasting tissue from a coral fragment.
Grace’s FACS Project
Our newest Ph.D student onboard, Grace Snyder, is working on a project that involves the separation of cell populations from Pocillopora damicornis tissues.
Nematostella Cell Culturing Project
James, a junior research student has been developing a cell-culturing protocol for Nematostella vectensis, one of our model organisms in the lab.
Nematostella Wound Healing and Regeneration
Megan and Jess, are undergraduate students researching wound healing and regeneration in Nematostella using two cell markers.
White Band Disease
What is white band disease? This is the primary condition that Ben is researching in his coral disease project.
Ben’s Project
Ben, a first year Master’s student is currently working on a project with Dr. Xaymara Serrano, a RSMAS graduate and researcher at NOAA. They are analyzing the gene expression of healthy and diseased corals.
Coral Images- 1/23
Ever seen a picture of coral under a microscope? From the naked eye, individual coral polyps are difficult to see in detail.
Great Barrier Reef- 11/13
The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) off the coast of Queensland, Australia, has suffered record-breaking, back-to-back coral bleaching events in the summers of 2015 and 2016.