Liao Lab News

Fish sensory cells have close evolutionary ties to sensory cells of humans and other vertebrates

Larval Zebrafish, credit: 7dpf larva, akiramuto.net/archives/458, CC BY 4.0, Credit: National Institute of Genetics

Congratulations to Whitney researchers Dr. Elias Lunsford, Dr. Yuriy Bobkov, Brandon Ray, Dr. James Liao and Dr. James Strother who published a paper titled "Anion efflux mediates transduction in the hair cells of the zebrafish lateral line" in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read More


Liao Lab welcomes Glenn Greenwald

Greenwald, Glenn

Glenn Greenwald joined the Liao Lab as a part-time laboratory technician, where he is working on the snook and red drum movement projects. Read More


Brendan Gibbs - 2023 Matthaei Ecological Scholar

 Gibbs, Brendan

This summer he is working under Dr. James Liao to set up a new project, with an additional 10 receivers, spearheaded by the FWC and the Rehage Lab at FIU to track snook movements in response to rising ocean temperatures. Read More


Dr. James Liao Promoted to Full Professor

Liao, James

A big congratulations to Dr. James Liao, Whitney Laboratory Associate Professor of Biology, who has received promotion to Full Professor from the University of Florida! Read More


PhD student Brendan Gibbs Publishes in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods

Student in laboratory working on fish

Congratulations to PhD Student Brendan Gibbs for his recent publication  "Recording central nervous system responses of freely-swimming marine and freshwater fishes with a customizable, implantable AC differential amplifier" in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods. Read More


Paper Published in eLife reveals evolutionary convergence of a neural mechanism in the cavefish lateral line system

Surface fish and cavefish lateral lines are anatomically similar in early development.

Congratulations to Dr. Elias Lunsford who published a paper with Dr. James Liao and coauthors in the Proceedings in eLife - "Evolutionary convergence of a neural mechanism in the cavefish lateral line system." Read More


Liao Lab Review on Fish Swimming Efficiency in Current Biology Magazine

Figure 1. Structural modifi cations of the body enhance the ability to reduce drag and increase thrust.

In this primer Dr. James Liao highlights multiple strategies that fish use to swim more efficiently. Some involve structural properties like tail shape and body stiffness, while others involve higher order behaviors to exploit the energy already available in the environment. Read More


Dr. Elias Lunsford of the Liao Lab Defends his PhD!

Student and Faculty in Cap and Gown

On June 14, Elias Lunsford, a graduate student advised by James Liao, Associate Professor of Biology, successfully defended his Ph.D. entitled ““Mechanisms and evolution of sensory feedback and signal transduction in lateral line hair cells”. Read More


Liao Lab Welcomes Dr. Subhra Shankha Koley

Shankha Koley, Subhra

Please welcome Dr. Subhra Shankha Koley to Whitney Laboratory! He recently joined the Liao Lab as a postdoctoral associate and will be exploring the various fluid mechanical aspects of the hydrodynamics of fish schooling behind the wake of multiple cylinders and other flow conditions. Read More


Liao Lab Welcomes Esra Goturk

Goturk, Esra

Please welcome Esra Goturk to Whitney Laboratory! She recently joined Dr. James Liao's lab as the laboratory manager. Read More


Whitney Lab Releases 100K Red Drum in an effort to increase fish populations in local Florida waters

100,000 Red Drum Fish

In an effort to increase Red Drum populations in local Florida waters, the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience released 100,000+ Red Drum (known to many as Redfish) into the waterways near and in the area of the lab on February 9, 2022. Laboratory staff, volunteers and local boat captains participated in this initiative. Read More


Elias Lunsford wins Best Student Presentation at The Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)

Lunsford, Elias

Congratulations to Liao Lab Ph.D. student Elias Lunsford for winning the Best Student Paper competition at The Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) last week in the Division of Neurobiology, Neuroethology and Sensory Biology. Read More


Dr. James Liao and Colleagues Publish Paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

PNAS Paper Figure 1

Congratulations to Dr. James Liao and colleagues for the paper "Convergence of undulatory swimming kinematics across a diversity of fishes" published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The team includes past Liao Lab post doc Dr. Otar Akayeti, now faculty in Wales, as well as Liao's colleagues at Harvard, who looked at the swimming kinematics of 44 fishes and challenge assumptions on previous swimming locomotion. Read More


Last week 3.7 million red drum (Redfish) larvae released in the Matanzas River

Red Drum larvae being released into the Matanzas River

Last week 3.7 million red drum (Redfish) larvae were released in the Matanzas River as part of Whitney Lab's fish conservation efforts. Adult, breeding red drum were collected as part of the Dr. Jimmy Liao Lab's ongoing fish migration and conservation project. Read More


Liao Lab Publishes Paper in Plos Biology

Liao Lab Paper Figure

Congratulations to the Liao Lab who recently published a paper in PLOS Biology on the importance of the lateral line for efficient swimming entitled ‘Corollary discharge enables proprioception from lateral line sensory feedback'. Read More


Congratulations to Dr. James Liao for NSF award and election as SICB Officer

James Liao, Ph.D.

Congratulations to Dr. James Liao for his new National Science Foundation (NSF) Physics of Living Systems grant award: Schooling through vortex streets: a biological and computational approach to understanding behavior of wild fish Read More


Liao Lab's Red Drum Tagging Project in NERRdsontheWater Blog

otn-receivers

The Liao Lab's Red Drum Tagging Project in one of the 29 National Estuarine Research Reserves in the country was recently shared in the NERRdsontheWater Blog Post: Drumming up Data. Read More


Steven Longmire Joins the Liao Lab

 Longmire, Steven

Please welcome Steven Longmire to Whitney Laboratory! He recently joined Dr. James Liao's lab as Lab Manager. Read More


Yamaha Rightwaters™ Powers Redfish Study at University of Florida

 Yamaha Rightwaters Boat for UF

Yamaha Rightwaters is teaming up with Skeeter Boats to provide a SX2250 center console boat with a 250-horsepower Yamaha V MAX SHO outboard to the University of Florida. Scientists in the University’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience will use the boat and outboard to conduct a study on redfish activities and numbers to gather better data on the species in Northern Florida. Read More


Sip 'N Science YouTube Link - Secrets of Local Fish Migration in Northeast Florida

Redfish

If you missed our Sip 'N Science recently with Clark Morgan the webinar is now on our YouTube channel. Read More


Whitney Sip 'N Science Free Webinar Feb. 11 - Clark Morgan, Secrets of Local Fish Migration in Northeast Florida

 Sip N Science

Join us for our February Webinar! Clark will share the Whitney Lab's project of tracking and monitoring red drum fish movement and migration patterns in Northeast Florida. He will provide details of how acoustic telemetry is used to understand local fish habitat usage, and how this work is helping identify and protect critical spawning and nursery areas to impact conservation. Read More


Liao Lab Collaborative Research Published in Scientific Reports

Image from published paper

Congratulations to the Liao Lab for their collaborative research on the numerical simulation of fish swimming recently published in Scientific Reports. The paper is entitled ‘A numerical study of fish adaption behaviors in complex environments with a deep reinforcement learning and immersed boundary–lattice Boltzmann method’. Read More


Liao Lab in Today's Science

James Liao, Ph.D.

Congratulations to the Liao Lab, who was recently featured in an article in Today's Science, "Trout go with the Flow (Sometimes)". The article was a write up of the lab's recent publication in the Journal of Experimental Biology, “Oxygen consumption of drift-feeding rainbow trout: the energetic tradeoff between locomotion and feeding in flow". Read More


Sip 'N Science YouTube link with Dr. James Liao

 Sip 'N Science

If you missed our Sip 'N Science recently with Dr. James Liao here is the YouTube link below. We got great feedback from the participants and are looking forward to the next one! Read More


Whitney Sip 'N Science Free Webinar Sept. 17 - Dr. James Liao | The Tao of Fish Swimming

 Sip 'N Science

Join us virtually as Whitney Laboratory scientists and educators share our research and animals. Please join us for Sip 'N Science - until we can get back together again! There will be a 20 minute webinar with a Q&A interactive discussion afterwards. Registration is required. We hope you can join us! Read More


David Sparks Joins the Liao Lab

David Sparks

Please welcome David Sparks to Whitney Laboratory! He joins Dr. James Liao’s lab as a Ph.D. student. Read More


Dr. James Liao Publishes Paper in Current Biology

James Liao, Ph.D.

Congratulations to Dr. James Liao, who recently published a paper in Current Biology titled "An Algorithmic Approach to Natural Behavior." Read More


Brendan Gibbs Joins the Liao Lab

 Gibbs, Brendan

Please welcome Brendan Gibbs to Whitney Laboratory! He recently joined Dr. James Liao's lab as a laboratory technician who will be investigating sensory modulation of multiple stimuli in freely swimming fish. Read More


Dr. James Liao in Hakai Magazine

James Liao, Ph.D.

Congratulations to Dr. James Liao who was recently featured in Hakai Magazine, as part of their Coastal Jobs Series. Read More


Liao Lab Publishes Paper The pursuit strategy of predatory bluefish

How do bigger fish attack and capture smaller fish? Or for that matter, your fishing lure? The Liao Laboratory, in collaboration with colleagues at UC Irvine, set out to investigate and found that local predatory bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) cannot anticipate intercepting their fleeing prey, mudminnows (Fundulus heteroclitus). Read More


Clark Morgan Joins the Liao Lab

Clark Morgan

Please welcome Clark Morgan to Whitney Laboratory! He recently joined Dr. James Liao's lab as a research technician and will be leading the red drum acoustic telemetry project, which will focus on investigating migration and habitat utilization patterns of adult red drum in St. Augustine waters. Read More


Dr. Liao Receives UF Office of Research Award

James Liao, Ph.D.

Congratulations to Dr. Jimmy Liao for recently receiving a UF Office of Research Award. Two out of only fifteen funded UF Office of Research awards were made to Whitney Laboratory faculty's research - both awards are collaborative with other colleges on campus! Read More


Whitney Lab Represented at TEDx in Gainesville

Whitney Lab represented at TEDx in Gainesville at the CADE museum. In the session, Modern Explorers Graduate Student Jessica Welpley and Associate Professor James Liao led roundtable discussions on what it means to be an explorer in science. Read More


Liao Lab Publishes Paper in Journal of Experimental Biology

Models of Fish Heads

Congratulations to the Liao Lab for the recent paper published in the Journal of Experimental Biology titled “Head width influences flow sensing by the lateral line canal system in fishes.” Read More


Liao Lab Publishes Paper in Integrative & Comparative Biology

Dr. Otar Akanyeti and Dr. James Liao

Congratulations to James Liao and Otar Akanyeti for authoring the paper titled “Behavior, Electrophysiology and Robotics Experiments to Study Lateral Line Sensing in Fishes.” Read More


Liao Lab Research Published in PNAS and Featured in UF News Video

Dr. Jimmy Liao and tank

Congratulations to the Liao Lab at Whitney Laboratory for its research being featured in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Read More


Welcome to the Whitney Lab!

Six people

Whitney Laboratory has several new faces this Fall! Please take a moment to read about our newest colleagues below, and join me in welcoming them to Whitney. Welcome, newcomers! Read More


Whitney’s Liao Lab: Dr. Otar Akanyeti and Dr. James Liao Publish in Journal of Fluid Mechanics

Dr. Otar Akanyeti and Dr. James Liao

Dr. Otar Akanyeti (former Postdoctoral & Research Faculty of the Liao Lab, now faculty at Aberystwyth University, UK) and Dr. James Liao’s research paper in Journal of Fluid Mechanics focusing on a local Florida Jackfish’s movement was selected for the publication’s cover this month! Read More


Congratulations to the 2017 Carl and Marcella Matthaei Scholars

Two students

The Carl and Marcella Matthaei Ecological Scholarship Fund at the Whitney Laboratory provides support for University of Florida scientists-in-training to have access to the Matanzas River Basin, where we can engage in its biodiversity, ecology and conservation. Read More


Liao Lab has New Publication in the Journal Hearing Research

Congratulations to the Liao Lab, which has a new publication in Hearing Research entitled “A non-toxic dose of cobalt chloride blocks hair cells of the zebrafish lateral line.” The work was spearheaded by Dr. William Stewart and aided by Dr. Jacob Johansen, both postdoctoral research associates in the Liao Lab. Read More


Dr. James Liao & Dr. Leonid Moroz Receive UF Term Professorship Award

Congratulations to Dr. James Liao and Dr. Leonid Moroz, who each received the University of Florida Term Professorship Award from the UF Provost’s Office. The awards are based on assessment of academic accomplishment, and awardees have displayed a distinguished career that places them among the leaders in their discipline. Read More


Liao Lab Paper Selected for 2016 Journal of Experimental Biology Outstanding Paper Prize Shortlist

Congratulations to Whitney Lab’s Associate Professor of Biology Jimmy Liao and his team, William Stewart and Otar Akanyeti, for having a paper selected for the 2016 Journal of Experimental Biology Outstanding Paper Prize Shortlist. Read More


Whitney’s Jimmy Liao Promoted to University of Florida Associate Professor of Biology with Tenure

We are pleased to announce that Whitney Faculty Dr. James Liao was granted promotion and tenure by the University of Florida Board of Governors to Associate Professor of Biology. He is now tenured faculty in the University of Florida Biology Department! Read More


The Scientist Shares Sensory Research from Dr. James Liao’s Lab at Whitney

Congratulations to Dr. James Liao, associate professor of biology, for being featured in The Scientist. The article talks about Dr. Liao’s sensory research taking place here at Whitney Lab. Read More


Elias has Joined the Whitney Lab Team!

Elias Lunsford

Elias received a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Ecology from Seattle Pacific University in 2013. While at SPU, he studied the chemically mediated interactions of sea stars and mussels when exposed to natural borne toxins as consequence of harmful algal blooms with Dr. Ryan Ferrer. Read More


University of Florida News Features Research by Whitney Lab’s Otar Akanyeti & James Liao

Fish mold and fish

To save energy, fish use their heads Scientists used to think a fish’s head motions were just a byproduct of swimming. Using 3-D printed fish, University of Florida scientists Otar Akanyeti, James Liao and collaborators at Harvard showed that head motion can make a fish’s movement and respiration more efficient. Read More