The University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series continues Thursday, May 8, 2025, at 6 p.m. with the program titled “Nature’s Repair Kit: The Science of Sea Star Regeneration.” Dr. Veronica Hinman, Whitney Laboratory Director and Professor of Biology, University of Florida, will be the speaker.
Prior to the lecture from 5-6 p.m. the Whitney Laboratory will have a history display in the Center for Marine Studies lobby and Sea Turtle Hospital and Whitney Laboratory gift shop items will be for sale. May 8th Event in Partnership with the St. Augustine History Festival.
| TIME | DETAILS | LOCATION |
|---|---|---|
| 5-6 PM |
Whitney Laboratory History Display Gift Shop Items for Sale |
Center for Marine Studies Lobby |
| 6-7 PM |
Evenings at Whitney Public Lecture - Nature’s Repair Kit: The Science of Sea Star Regeneration |
Center for Marine Studies Lohman Auditorium |
This free lecture will be presented in person at the UF Whitney Laboratory Lohman Auditorium, 9505 Ocean Shore Boulevard, in St. Augustine. Those interested also have the option of registering to watch via Zoom live the night of the lecture.
Register to watch online: https://ufl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SoD3IuszR1G_GiZrmSBeXQ
Marine organisms like sea stars and sea cucumbers have remarkable regenerative abilities, capable of rebuilding entire arms and complex tissues. This talk will explore how these resilient animals help scientists understand the biology of regeneration, focusing on how injury triggers gene expression changes and the formation of new tissues. We will examine the variations in regenerative capacity across species and discuss how studying marine model organisms can enhance our understanding of the evolutionary roots of regeneration and its potential applications in regenerative medicine.
Dr. Veronica Hinman obtained bachelor's degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Zoology from the University of Queensland in Australia. She completed her PhD at the University of Queensland, where she spent time doing research at the University’s Heron Island Marine Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech with Eric Davidson, studying the evolution of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) using Echinoderm embryos. Her research focuses on GRNs and the evolution of development and regeneration, mainly focused on cis-regulatory mechanisms and comparative functional genomics using echinoderms. She has led a productive, funded research lab at Carnegie Mellon University from 2006-2024. She is the co-director of an NIH-funded resource program in bioinformatics to run Echinobase.org. The core mission of this model organism knowledgebase is to provide gold-standard, curated, and publicly accessible integrated genomics data.