The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience
Congratulations to the Schnitzler Lab for their recently published paper in Scientific Reports titled "Gene knockdown via electroporation of short hairpin RNAs in embryos of the marine hydroid Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus."
Understanding the biological function of genes in animals is a fundamental goal of basic scientific research. Whitney Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Gonzalo Quiroga-Artigas and colleagues (all members of the Schnitzler Lab) describe a detailed, straightforward, and efficient method for studying gene function with an experimental technique which interferes with gene function that they have extended to their research organism, Hydractinia. Hydractinia is a useful organism for studying many aspects of development, regeneration, stem cells, and self-recognition. The Schnitzler lab is working to further establish this marine invertebrate organism as an experimental model for understanding these fascinating biological processes.