Publication Overview: Four Cerianthid Venoms!

My first first-author publication was recently accepted into Marine Drugs, a peer-reviewed open access journal that broadly explores how marine natural products can be used as therapeutic agents, including for drug discovery and other biotechnology applications. In our study, we reported, for the first time, the venom-like gene profiles of four species of tube anemones…… Continue reading Publication Overview: Four Cerianthid Venoms!

How Twitter has helped me in graduate school

I’ll be honest, when I started graduate school two years ago I believed I was “bad” at social media. I was inconsistent at best with platforms like Facebook and Snapchat, and I had no desire to learn about networking websites like LinkedIn. Anyway, platforms like Instagram and Twitter would just be distractions, right?    That being…… Continue reading How Twitter has helped me in graduate school

Stinging Cells from the Summer!

I am busy cranking away at the Smithsonian NMNH, but I wanted to share some photos of one of my favorite complex animal features: the stinging cell! Stinging cells house nematocysts, the stinging cell organelles distinctive to all cnidarians (hence the Latin translation, nettle-bearing animals). Nematocysts are thread-like capsules secreted by stinging cells that are… Continue reading Stinging Cells from the Summer!

Lives of Jellies at the Mall!

In the 95F heat, jetlagged, and arriving in DC less than 24 hours prior, I cannot describe how happy I was to do a little jellyfish outreach with the interns and researchers of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) Invertebrate Biology Aquaroom at the Annual Smithsonian Staff Picnic! Along with Dr. Allen Collins, Dr.… Continue reading Lives of Jellies at the Mall!