Ryan Lab News

Whitney Researchers reveal secrets of a Ctenophore-Eating Ctenophore

Within the phylum Ctenophora (comb jellies), a lineage called Beroe underwent a major evolutionary change when it lost its tentacles and instead resorted to exclusively eating other ctenophores. To date, we have very little knowledge of the genomic changes that accompanied that major morphological and lifestyle transition.

Two juvenile ctenophores of the species Mnemiopsis leidyi

Ctenophores deploy a rapid injury response dating back to the last common animal ancestor

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.

Ryan Lab welcomes Dr. Urvashi Goswami

Please welcome Dr. Urvashi Goswami to the Whitney Laboratory! Urvashi recently joined the Ryan Lab as a Postdoctoral Associate.

Allen Institute Article: Comb jellies gives scientists hints of our nervous system’s past

"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.

Remi Ketchum, PhD receives Graduate Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award from UNC Charlotte

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!

Developing stinging cells (magenta and aqua) in a larva of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis

Tweaking a single gene can remind cells of their ancestral roots

In an effort to understand how genes can drive the evolution of new cell types, UF Whitney Laboratory biologists have inactivated a gene from the starlet sea anemone and recreated an ancient cell type that is not normally found in this animal. Congratulations to former Whitney scientist Dr. Leslie Babonis (currently an Assistant Professor at Cornell University), Dr. Camille Enjolras, Brent Foster, Dr. Fredrik Hugosson, Dr. Joseph Ryan, Dr. Mark Martindale and colleagues who recently published in Nature Communications, "Single-cell atavism reveals an ancient mechanism of cell type diversification in a sea anemone".

Paper Published in PNAS Reveals How New Cell Type Can Arise

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).

James Strother, Joseph Ryan, Mark Martindale

Dr. Joseph Ryan, Dr. Mark Martindale, and Dr. James Strother Named Allen Distinguished Investigators!

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!

Alexandra Hernandez of the Ryan Lab Defends her PhD!

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".