News

PI Lopez was interviewed by the Miami Herald , WMNF radio and NBC Miami to discuss the current bleaching along reefs of the Kristin Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve (KJCAP). In conjunction with National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI) colleagues, Ronen Liberman and Nick Jones, a bleaching watch has been in effect ever since the extreme 2023 … Continue reading Octocoral bleaching on local S. Florida reefs is consistent with current global events

Congratulations to MMG student and lab manager Paisley Samuel who has published the bulk of her MS thesis in Frontiers in Water for her first primary authored paper “Diversity fluctuations of the microbial community during annual Microcystis blooms within Lake Okeechobee, FL”. This is a personal milestone and capstone to our earlier Army Corps of Engineers project … Continue reading Bloom-forming cyanobacteria have complex interactions with the underlying heterotrophic communities on Lake Okeechobee

A high quality whole chromosomal genome of the sponge Diacarnus erythraeanus and the metagenomes of its microbial associates have been published from the Photosymbiosis Hub, a component of the Wellcome Sanger Institute/Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Aquatic Symbiosis Genome (ASG) Project. Dr. Laura Steindler has studied this common sponge and marine microbial associations for a number … Continue reading Chromosomal Genome of the Red Sea sponge, Diacarnus erythraeanus, Kelly-Borges & Vacelet, 1995, and its Associated Microbial Metagenomes Published

Glad to announce that another student in the MMG lab, Athena Capetanakis, successfully defended her NSU Master’s thesis entitled “The Characterization and Detection of Human Associated Pathogens Within Aquatic Sediments in Florida”. She did a great job applying our 16S rRNA microbiome workflow towards characterizing sediments of Ft Lauderdale city canals, which lie upstream of … Continue reading Masters Student, Athena Capetanakis, defends her thesis characterizing urban canal sediments

Another Aquatic Symbiosis Genome (ASG) Project Genome Note has been published. This time on the chromosomal level whole genome sequence of the photosymbiotic ascidian, Trididemnum clinides Kott, 1977 and its microbial associates’ metagenomes. This species lives with microbial symbiont Prochloron, which can also attribute to its production of interesting natural products. Thanks to our collaborator Euichi Hirose … Continue reading Pacific-based ascidian, Trididemnum clinides Kott, 1977, whole genome is now published

Congratulations to Stacy Brown, next MS student in the MMG lab to successfully defend her thesis “Microbial Community and Water Quality Assessment of Crassostrea virginica Habitats in Southeast Florida”. Her project was an interesting convergence of her community organizing and participation (Urban Farming Institute, SFAEP) on local water quality (oyster rehabilitation) and using microbiome profiles … Continue reading Stacy Brown defends her thesis on New River microbiomes

For those interested in coral symbiosis, our college was treated to a riveting seminar by Professor Todd LaJeunesse at our bi-ennial HCAS Graduate Research Science Symposium last month. He described the history of Symbiodinium research and his own role in advancing the field. A recording of Dr. LaJeunesse’s riveting talk is available via this link.

Bioinformatics MS student Emma Gellman won first place student talk for her presentation, “Characterization of Potential Marine Microbial Degraders of PHA using Phade Straws” at the recent HCAS Graduate Science Research Symposium at the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center in February 2025. This was followed by another first place win by Molecular Microbiology and Genomics (MMG) … Continue reading MMG students win presentation awards