Duffy Lab Welcomes Gianna Fanelli

Please welcome Gianna Fanelli to Whitney Laboratory! She recently joined the Duffy Lab as a graduate student.

Gianna received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Central Florida, where she focused on the marine and aquatic sciences. Here she completed an internship with the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group and found a passion for sea turtle conservation. She also worked with the Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab (C.E.E. Lab) to study species diversity and publish data on queen conch (Strombus gigas) populations in Belize. She joins the Duffy Lab to pursue a Ph.D. in Zoology, with a research specialization in animal molecular and cellular biology. She will be studying fibropapillomatosis (FP) in one of her favorite species, the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas).

Gianna loves working with aquatic animals of all kinds. Most recently, she has been a volunteer with the turtle hospital at the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet, FL, and worked as a husbandry associate at a large AZA aquarium. She also enjoys nature photography and hanging out with her dog, Adam.