The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience
Congratulations to Whitney researchers Dorothy Mitchell, Dr. Allison Edgar, Julia Ramon Mateu, Dr. Joseph Ryan and Dr. Mark Martindale who published a paper titled "The ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi deploys a rapid injury response dating back to the last common animal ancestor" in Communications Biology. Read More
Please welcome Dr. Urvashi Goswami to the Whitney Laboratory! Urvashi recently joined the Ryan Lab as a Postdoctoral Associate. Read More
"Mucus always messes everything up." Allen Distinguished Investigator Dr. Joseph Ryan is making waves for his research on the biology of an extremely difficult creature to study - comb jellies. Read More
Please welcome Leandra Toledo to the Whitney Laboratory! She recently joined the Ryan Lab as a student researcher. Read More
Congratulations to Remi Ketchum, Ph.D, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Ryan Lab, who received the 2023 Graduate Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award for the category of Biological Sciences/Life Sciences from UNC Charlotte’s Graduate School for her PhD work! Read More
Please welcome Natalia E. Padillo-Anthemides to the Whitney Laboratory! She recently joined the Ryan Lab as a Ph.D. student through the Genetics & Genomics program. Read More
Please welcome Dr. Adolfo Lara to Whitney Laboratory! He recently joined the Ryan Lab as a postdoctoral research associate and will be focused on the evolutionary genomics of doliolids. Read More
Congratulations to Dr. Leslie Babonis, Dr. Camile Enjolras, Dr. Joseph Ryan and Dr. Mark Q. Martindale for their contributions to a recent paper entitled, "A novel regulatory gene promotes novel cell fate by suppressing ancestral fate in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis" published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Read More
Please welcome Lana Dykes to Whitney Laboratory! She recently joined Dr. Joseph Ryan's lab as an undergraduate researcher. Read More
This grant will allow researchers to better understand the brains and nervous systems of animals and humans by studying gelatinous ocean comb jellies, sea creatures that can lead us to insights about how brains began. This is the first time the foundation has awarded the grant to the University of Florida! Read More
On November 12, Alexandra M. Hernandez, a Ph.D. student working in the laboratory of Joseph Ryan, successfully defended her Ph.D. entitled “Unraveling Ctenophorology and its Implications on Early Animal Evolution". Read More
Please welcome Daniel Groso to the Whitney Laboratory! Daniel joined Dr. Joseph Ryan's laboratory as an undergraduate researcher in May of 2020. Read More
Please welcome Dani Hayes to the Whitney Laboratory. Dani is working as a post-baccalaureate researcher in the Ryan Laboratory and is applying to Ph.D. programs for Fall 2021. She is broadly interested in phylogenetics and bioinformatics. Read More
We are pleased to announce that Whitney Faculty Dr. Joseph Ryan was granted promotion and tenure by the University of Florida Board of Trustees to Associate Professor of Biology. Read More
Congratulations to Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Joseph Ryan for receiving a three year grant from the National Science Foundation for the project titled "Interrogating Molecular and Physiological Adaptations in Antarctic Marine Animals." Read More
This award is presented annually to a UF faculty or staff member who has excelled in promoting diversity and inclusivity in the university environment through their positive interactions with others in graduate education. Read More
Alex Hernandez, a grad student studying comb jellies at Whitney Laboratory, was recently on Antonio Farias’ podcast Level Up. Are comb jellies the earliest animal on the Tree of Life? Tune in to find out! Read More
Congratulations to Jennifer Ortiz for being selected as the 2019 Whitney Laboratory REU Program’s poster contest winner. Jennifer worked with Dr. Joseph Ryan, assistant professor of biology at Whitney Laboratory, this summer during the program. Read More
Congratulations to Whitney Laboratory's Dr. Joseph Ryan for his recent publication in Gigascience. A international collaboration involving 8 institutions led by Joseph Ryan at the Whitney Laboratory describes sequencing and analyses of genomes of three disparate jellyfish species: a box jellyfish (Alatina alata), a stalked jellyfish (Calvadosia cruxmelitensis), and an upside down jellyfish (Cassiopea xamachana). Read More
Congratulations to Jessica Whelpley, graduate student at Whitney Laboratory, for being highlighted in the article titled Fearless Science by UF News. Read More
The Ryan Lab published the paper titled "Horizontally transferred genes in the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi" today in PeerJ. Read More
Dr. Melissa DeBiasse is a new Postdoc in the Ryan Lab Dr. Melissa DeBiasse is an evolutionary ecologist and is interested in the processes that generate biodiversity in the ocean. Her research examines the distribution of genetic and phenotypic variation within and among populations in marine invertebrates. Read More
Congratulations to Jessica Whelpley, graduate student in the Ryan Lab, for receiving a University of Florida Biodiversity Institute Graduate Fellowship. Read More
The Ryan Lab at Whitney Laboratory observed 2018 Darwin Week last week for the fourth straight year by going out and visiting area schools. Read More
Whitney’s Drs. Barbara Battelle, Joseph Ryan and Karen Kempler along with Dr. Megan Porter from the University of Hawaii, Manoa headed a research team, which included members of the Limulus (American horseshoe crab) Genome Consortium to publish the Limulus genome and a comprehensive analysis of the expression of visual pigments in horseshoe crabs. Read More
Congratulations to Whitney Lab’s Leslie Babonis, postdoctoral research associate, Mark Martindale, Whitney Lab director and professor, and Joseph Ryan, assistant professor of biology, for publishing a paper in BioMed Central titled Do novel genes drive morphological novelty? An investigation of the nematosomes in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. Read More
The Ryan Lab at Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience observed 2017 Darwin Week (Feb. 12-17) for the third straight year by organizing educational events throughout the week. Read More
Whitney Laboratory Director Mark Martindale and Biodiversity Scientist Francois Michonneau in collaboration with Whitney Laboratory Assistant Professor of Biology Joseph Ryan and Florida Museum of Natural History Curator of Marine Malacology Gustav Paulay received funding from the University of Florida Biodiversity Institute. Read More
Congratulations to Alexis Lanza and Alex Hernandez for each being honored with an award from the Graduate Student Association of the University of Florida Biology Department. Alexis received the Michael L. May Research Grant for her work titled “Insight into the mechanism of embryonic organizer activity in axis formation of annelids.” Read More