News

Our Halmos College of Art and Sciences held an excellent fourth biennial graduate research symposium on Feb 24 – 25, 2022. Many students gave great talks, including our own Colleen McMaken and postdoctoral scientist Lauren Krausfeldt. Colleen garnered second prize among outstanding >20 student talks. This also allowed HCAS to hear Drs. Lauren Toth, and … Continue reading HCAS holds Biennial Graduate Research Symposium Jamboree and One of our Lab Members Wins a Student Prize

A collection of PNAS papers has been published to describe the why and how to sequence the whole genomes of the approximately 2 million species of eukaryotes on the planet at a high, chromosome level quality. This task will be accomplished by the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) and its coordinated “network of networks” led by … Continue reading Collection of PNAS Papers Highlighting Cogent Reasons and Standards for the Large Scale Sequencing of All Eukaryotes by the Earth Biogenome Project

The GIGA IV conference (https://giga4.sciencesconf.org/) ran November 16 – 18, 2021, and was put together fairly quickly, on the heels of a larger genomics conference – Biodiversity Genomics 2021 (https://www.darwintreeoflife.org/news_item/biodiversity-genomics-2021-sequencing-genomes-across-the-planet/). Nonetheless, GIGA IV was organized by Jean François Flot with a turnout of 141 total registrants. Early Career Researchers from the European IGNITE training network … Continue reading GIGA holds its 4th conference online, with many highlights

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) asked our lab in 2020 to carry out a basic microbiome profile (CRCP 13) of selected sites in Port Everglades Inlet and nearby offshore reef sites. We have now completed phase two of this project. The full FDEP report is available at https://floridadep.gov/rcp/coral/content/dep-coral-reef-conservation-program-projects Phase II of CRCP in … Continue reading Two year microbiome study of marine sediments for FDEP completed

On April 21, Lauren summarized her latest results in the talk entitled “A Multi-Omics Approach to Identify the Interconnecting Constraints on Cyanobacterial Blooms in Lake Okeechobee and Downstream Estuaries”. See more at https://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/GEER/

Congratulations to former NSU MS student Rachael Storo for publishing her thesis work on shark microbiomes in Frontiers of Microbiology! She steadfastly mastered the statistical analyses, and persevered through the writing process, while initiating a doctoral degree program at UGA. With this contribution, it was very interesting to see the least variation of microbial diversity … Continue reading Shark Microbiomes Characterized by Rachael Storo

In October 2020, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Wellcome Sanger Institute initiated a large-scale international Aquatic Symbiosis Genomics project, which includes funding four research “hubs” to organize 50 symbiotic species each for whole genome sequencing at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Hixton England. NSU HCAS faculty member Jose V. Lopez, Ph.D. will … Continue reading Our NSU lab will be a new hub for aquatic photosymbiotic genomes, and also help grow a wider genomics community

In August, MS BioSci students Elizaveta Shmakova and Yvain Desplat defended and graduate from the lab. They finished some fantastic research focused on elevating our chosen laboratory model sponge Cinachyrella. The two MS students presented clear seminars and worked hard on the topics of microbial symbiont metagenomics and host gene expression, respectively. Thanks to the … Continue reading Dept of Biology MS Graduates will boost the Cinachyrella model sponge

We thank the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for funding the pilot project, “Analysis of sediments from Port Everglades Inlet (PEI) for Microbiome Characterization“. The results should be made available later this year, and may have important implications. Detrimental effects have been known to result from activities such as dredging. which can disturb bottom … Continue reading Characterizing the sediment microbes of a seaport: Port Everglades Inlet

Alexis has completed a masterful story on the bioluminescent symbionts that live with the pelagic tunicate, Pyrosoma atlanticum (also known as a pyrosome). Its bioluminescence has been observed since the 1840s across various oceans. She now has solid microscopic and genetic evidence pointing to symbiont closely related to Photobacterium sp. R33.