Spotlight of the Week- Dr. Nikki Traylor-Knowles

Our first spotlight of the week is our Principal Investigator- Dr. Nikki Traylor-Knowles! Dr. Traylor-Knowles received her Ph.D. in Biology from Boston University. She did her Post Doc at Stanford University studying heat stress tolerance and immunity in corals, and joined the faculty at RSMAS in February 2016. She currently works as an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami and is the head of our lab. “I do this work because I am passionate about coral reefs and understanding how things work. I enjoy a good mystery, and everyday in my profession I am confronted with new mysteries that intrigue (and frustrate) me. My lab is striving to understand how the coral immune systems are able to deal with climate change, and other human impacts. Through this work, we hope to be able to develop biomarkers for assessing coral health.” -Nikki