Duffy Lab News

Dr. David Duffy in NY Times Article about Precision Wildlife Medicine

Whitney Laboratory Assistant Professor of Wildlife Disease Genomics Dr. David Duffy was interviewed and provided expertise for the article.

People standing in front of scientific posters

Students Win Awards at the Southeast Regional Sea Turtle Meeting

Congratulations to graduate student Emily Skinner for winning the Best Poster Presentation award at the 2025 Southeast Regional Sea Turtle Meeting! The meeting had 420 attendees, with Emily taking the top award out of 80 presented posters.

Duffy Lab welcomes Emily Skinner

Please welcome Emily Skinner to the Whitney Laboratory! Emily is a Ph.D. student in the Duffy Lab.

Study Highlights Rising Threat of Tumor Disease in Sea Turtles

A published study by the Research and Hospital Team (Whilde et al. 2024) sheds light on the growing threat of fibropapillomatosis (FP), a tumor disease affecting sea turtles around the world, particularly green turtles.

Whitney Researchers publish article in Science of the Total Environment

Congratulations to Whitney Laboratory researchers who published an article in Science of the Total Environment -"Multicellular species environmental DNA (eDNA) research constrained by overfocus on mitochondrial DNA".

Abby, an 8 year old bobcat (Lynx rufus) housed at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, photo by Jessica Stull

A Chance Bobcat Sighting Leads to a novel eDNA Approach

This paves the way for the rapid deployment of eDNA approaches for any species of interest, without requiring laborious development of targeted approaches, thereby increasing the ease and utility of eDNA research for endangered species conservation and management.

Aerial view of the Whitney Laboratory campus

Dr. David Duffy's eDNA Research Mentioned in Washington Post Article

Assistant Professor of Wildlife Disease Genomics Dr. David Duffy and his lab's eDNA research were recently mentioned in the Washington Post Article - The high-tech hunt for one of the world’s most elusive sharks

Fiona Duffy and David Duffy filtering water samples, Wicklow Ireland. DNA was found everywhere they sampled a river except the remote mountain top where the river starts. (Jenny Whilde)

UF News: Ubiquitous human DNA opens Pandora's box of ethical questions

UF scientists are raising ethical questions in a groundbreaking study, which demonstrated that high-quality human DNA is easily recoverable from our environment. The revelation opens up countless potential benefits for the public good, but the research also cracks open a Pandora’s box.

UF News Article: Environmental human DNA offers new opportunities for public good

UF scientists recently announced they had unearthed high-quality, information-rich human DNA from nearly every spot they could think of. The era of human environmental DNA, or eDNA, has arrived.

Dr. Duffy and Dr. Whilde at President of Ireland’s Cherishing our Biodiversity and Sustainability Event

Dr. Duffy and Dr. Whilde Attend President of Ireland's Event

Drs. David Duffy and Jenny Whilde were recently invited participants to the President of Ireland’s Cherishing our Biodiversity and Sustainability Event.

Dr. David Duffy on BBC Inside Science

Dr. David was recently on BBC Radio 4 - BBC Inside Science discussing the benefits and problems of environmental DNA (eDNA).

Duffy Lab Welcomes Chris Nolte

Please welcome Chris Nolte to the Whitney Laboratory and Dr. David Duffy's lab. While at Whitney Laboratory, Chris will collaborate with Dr. Dave Duffy, studying the population genetics of Hawksbill sea turtles in Florida.

Two people on a boat taking a water sample

Human DNA is everywhere. That’s a boon for science – and an ethical quagmire.

Published May 15 in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the paper by Dr. David Duffy and his group outlines the relative ease of collecting human DNA nearly everywhere they looked. Read the full article in UF News and other international and national news articles.

Duffy Lab Welcomes Dr. Sophie Dupont

Please welcome Dr. Sophie Dupont to the Whitney Laboratory! Dr. Dupont is a visiting researcher in the Duffy Lab and will be training in the viral detection and quantification lab techniques developed at the Whitney Lab.

Jessica Farrell of the Duffy Lab Defends her Phd!

On January 24th, Jessica Farrell, a graduate student advised by David Duffy, Assistant Professor of Wildlife Disease Genomics, successfully defended her Ph.D. entitled “Assessing Florida Sea Turtle Populations and their Fibropapillomatosis Tumor Pandemic”.

Selected Media Contributions

2021

Feb. 2021 Opening of our WRI rehabilitation hospital featured on RTE news, website and radio station. https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2021/0205/1195235-ireland-wildlife-hospital/

2020

Nov. 2020 Research featured in on First Coast News station, segment and article on our findings (including interview). Study: Plastic found in the smallest of baby sea turtles in Northeast Florida. https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/study-plastic-found-in-the-smallest-of-baby-sea-turtles-in-northeast-florida/77-553f41b6-6f19-42c6-91bf-9db031c16c1b

Nov. 2020 Duffy D. J. (2020). How many genes does it take to make a human? RTE Brainstorm. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/1111/1177444-how-many-genes-does-it-take-to-make-a-human/

Oct. 2020 Interviewed and papers featured in Communications Biology editorial: Open Access Week at Communications Biology, Montague-Cardoso, K. 2020. https://cancercommunity.nature.com/posts/open-access-week-at-communications-biology

https://natureecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/open-access-week-at-communications-biology

Sept. 2020 Research featured on The Weather Channel https://twitter.com/pattrn/status/1301915377916694528

Sept. 2020 Research featured in on News 4 JAX station, segment and article. Sea turtle hatchlings found dead along Northeast Florida coast after eating plastic. https://www.news4jax.com/weather/2020/09/01/sea-turtle-hatchlings-found-dead-along-northeast-florida-coast-after-eating-plastic/

Aug. 2020 Duffy D. J., and Eastman, C. (2020). Newly hatched Florida sea turtles are consuming dangerous quantities of floating plastic. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/newly-hatched-florida-sea-turtles-are-consuming-dangerous-quantities-of-floating-plastic-143785

Article re-printed by numerous news outlets , and featured on First Coast News and The Weather Channel stations: https://frontiers.altmetric.com/details/88832208

Aug. 2020 Duffy D. J., Duffy, P., Whilde, J. and Higgs, E. (2020). Ireland's hidden problem with wildlife crime. RTE Brainstorm. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0811/1158591-irelands-hidden-problem-with-wildlife-crime/

July 2020 Duffy D. J., and Whilde, J. (2020). How the rate of pandemics has grown due to human activities. RTE Brainstorm. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0702/1150996-pandemics-coronavirus-animals-birds-humans/

RTE Brainstorm pandemic article re-printed by the Veterinary Ireland Journal . http://www.veterinaryirelandjournal.com/focus/190-pandemics-the-origin-of-the-diseases

June 2020 Duffy, D. J. (2020). The University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle Hospital: Advancing Sea Turtle Disease Research, Supported by the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation. Florida Environmental Outreach Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 2.

Mar. 2020 What animals can teach humans about regrowing body parts. RTE Brainstorm. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0225/1117560-animals-regrowing-body-parts

Feb. 2020 Invited to have research images featured in a cancer research exhibition at the Francis Crick Institute, UK (pending, possibly delayed due to the pandemic). https://www.crick.ac.uk/news/2020-02-04_the-crick-announces-first-uk-exhibition-exploring-cancer-research

2019

Nov. 2019 Interviewed for an article on our sea turtle research for UF’s Explore Magazine, Fall 2019 edition p22-23. http://explore.research.ufl.edu/sea-turtle-er.html

Jan. 2019 Authored an article on canine venereal disease (a transmissible cancer) for RTE Brainstorm. ‘Who let the dogs out? Meet Candie, the oldest dog on the planet.’ https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2019/0115/1023297-who-let-the-dogs-out-meet-candie-the-oldest-dog-on-the-planet/

2018

Nov. 2018 Authored an article on FP research and pathogen-induced cancers for RTE Brainstorm. ‘Meet the real teenage mutant sea turtles.’ https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/1111/1010223-meet-the-real-teenage-mutant-sea-turtles/

Oct. 2018 Sea turtle research featured on Bustling Abroad blog. https://www.bustlingabroad.com/turtle-hospital-saving-sea-turtles-florida/

July 2018 Sea turtle research featured on UF News ‘Spotlight’ page. https://news.hr.ufl.edu/spotlight/the-whitney-labs-sea-turtle-hospital-helping-some-of-floridas-endangered-residents-heal-and-head-back-home/?utm_source=July+2018+UF+at+Work&utm_campaign=6cb59c15a9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_05_08_54&utm_medium=email&utm_term=

July 2018 WTSP 10 News Tampa (CBS-affiliated television station). News segment focusing on our FP precision medicine research. https://www.wtsp.com/video/news/marine-biologists-are-using-human-skin-cancer-treatments-to-help-sea-turtles/67-8194602

Save our Seas Foundation News. Can turtle tumours be treated? The answer is closer to home than we think. https://saveourseas.com/can-turtle-tumours-be-treated-the-answer-is-closer-to-home-than-we-think/

Research featured by an article on The Conversation Could human cancer treatments be the key to saving sea turtles from a disfiguring tumor disease? (written by Jessica Farrell, a PhD co-supervisee). https://theconversation.com/could-human-cancer-treatments-be-the-key-to-saving-sea-turtles-from-a-disfiguring-tumor-disease-98140

This article was subsequently highlighted by

Smithsonian https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/sharing-human-cancer-treatments-turtles-180969600/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07/11/2018%20Daily%20Newsletter&spMailingID=35105399&spUserID=NzQwNDU2OTM0NzcS1&spJobID=1321199653&spReportId=MTMyMTE5OTY1MwS2

Florida Environmental Outreach Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 3, p10-11.

June 2018 St. Augustine Record. Research highlighted and public talk advertised http://www.staugustine.com/entertainmentlife/20180612/saving-our-sea-turtles

June 2018 Media coverage of our Comms. Bio. Paper:

Science news. Interview and fibropapillomatosis genomics paper featured. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/cure-common-turtle-cancer-takes-lesson-human-cancers

Nature Asia. http://www.natureasia.com/en/research/highlight/12543

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/common-human-med-offers-hope-to-cancer-stricken-turtles
https://www.alnmag.com/news/2018/06/one-health-human-drug-successfully-treats-cancer-sea-turtles

RNA-seq blog. https://www.rna-seqblog.com/rna-seq-reveals-that-a-common-human-med-offers-hope-to-cancer-stricken-turtles/

Discover Magazine blog. Fibropapillomatosis genomics paper featured. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2018/06/07/human-cancer-treatment-sea-turtles/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20DiscoverTopStories%20%28Discover%20Top%20Stories%29#.WxmzSfZFw2w

N+1 (Russian news site). https://nplus1.ru/news/2018/06/08/sea-turtles-tumors

University of Florida News. Featured in and contributed to article on FP paper. http://news.ufl.edu/articles/2018/06/human-cancer-therapies-successfully-treat-tumors-in-sea-turtles-.php

Bangor University News. Featured in and contributed to article on FP paper. https://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/latest/human-cancer-therapies-successfully-treat-tumor-ridden-sea-turtles-37098

Jan. 2018 The Guardian. Interviewed (Nov. 2017) for a feature on marine biology. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/12/blue-planet-effect-why-marine-biology-courses-booming

2017

Oct. 2017 Contributed to Inspired by The Blue Planet promotional video for Bangor University. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOxNpneDaUk

Oct. 2017 Pelican Post. Contributed to an article on fibropapilloma tumors and the sea turtle hospital. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5251c609e4b05f3f0154f487/t/59d15e9f0abd041b024d82ea/1506893496704/Fall+2017+09+04.pdf

July 2017 NBC’s First Coast News. News segment featured our fibropapillomatosis research. http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/health/researching-turtle-tumors-in-flagler-could-help-human-medicine/455873724

July 2017 St. Augustine Record. Research featured in an article on fibropapilloma tumors of sea turtles. www.staugustine.com/living/sunday-life/2017-07-09/specialty-license-plate-provides-funds-sea-turtle-rehabilitation

2016

Dec. 2016 Duffy, D. J. (2017). Turtles, Tumors and Treatments: How we can assist Florida’s green turtles in overcoming the spreading oncological threat of Fibropapilloma disease. Florida Environmental Outreach Magazine, Spring Issue, p16-19.

Nov. 2016 Anthropocene Magazine. Research featured in A health care revolution… for wildlife? http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2016/11/precision-medicine-for-wildlife/

Sept. 2016 Contributed to a public awareness video by the Sea Turtle Conservancy focusing on my genomic approach to fibropapilloma tumor research. Received over 36,000 views on Facebook in first month. https://vimeo.com/188777268 https://www.facebook.com/conserveturtles/videos/1486336228061785/

Aug. 2016 St. Augustine Record. Research and public lecture featured in an article on fibropapilloma tumors of sea turtles. www.staugustine.com/living/community/2016-08-16/cancer-sea-turtles-topic-lecture

June 2016 University of Florida News. Contributed to an article on fibropapilloma tumors of sea turtles. www.news.ufl.edu/articles/2016/06/a-second-chance-for-cisco.php