MBL Announces Recipients of the 2015 Whitman Center Investigators at the MBL Research Awards

WOODS HOLE, MA—The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) has announced the recipients of its 2015 Whitman Center Investigators at the MBL Research Awards. Each year, this program supports approximately 20 scientists from U.S. and international institutions who come to the MBL for six or more weeks in the summer to conduct independent research. Funds for the awards come from a variety of sources generously donated to the MBL.

The awards support a wide array of biological research, with particular focus on marine biology, regenerative biology, cell biology, developmental biology, microbiology, and neuroscience. Applications are peer-reviewed and evaluated based on their scientific merit, fit within the MBL, collaborative opportunities and synergy with current initiatives, as well as opportunities to attract new investigators and new and innovative areas of research to the MBL community.

Twenty-one investigators received awards to conduct research at the MBL in 2015.

Simon Alford, Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
“Control of the synaptic vesicle pool by endocytic processes”

Srdjan Antic, Associate Professor, University of Connecticut School of Medicine
“Sodium-Calcium imaging of glutamate-mediated dendritic spikes”

Magdalena Bezanilla, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“Microfluidics devices functioning as micro-barriers provide a novel single-cell re-polarization assay”

Sean Colin, Professor, Roger Williams University
“Fluid mechanical basis of natural propulsor bending patterns”

John Costello, Professor, Providence College
“Fluid mechanical basis of universal natural propulsor bending patterns”

David Furlow, Professor, University of California, Davis
“Continued in vivo analysis of thyroid hormone receptor signaling during development using emerging genetic technologies in Xenopus laevis”

Jay Gatlin, Assistant Professor, University of Wyoming
“Investigating mitotic spindle assembly using microfluidic devices and cell-mimetic droplets”

Jose Gomez-Skarmeta, Professor, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain
“Identification and functional analysis of cis-regulatory elements required for the highly specialized morphology of skate fins”

Pierre Gönczy, Professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
“Mechanisms of centriole elimination in starfish oocytes”

Gary Gorbsky, Chair, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
“Development of and gene editing in Xenopus tissue culture cell lines”

Gohta Goshima, Professor, Nagoya University
“Reconstitution of kinetochore microtubule dynamics”

Jessica Gray, Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School
“Investigating the role of miR-124 in nervous system evolution”

Marc Hammarlund, Assistant Professor, Yale University
“Mechanisms of neuronal circuit homeostasis”

Rolf Karlstrom, Professor and Chair, University of Massachusetts
“Zebrafish spinal cord regeneration”

Darcy Kelley, Professor, Columbia University
“Molecular neurobiology of sexually differentiated vocal patterns”

Amanda Mifflin, Assistant Professor, University of Puget Sound
“Field and nonlinear spectroscopic studies of iron availability and reduction at mineral/water interfaces”

Brian Mitchell, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University
“Functional analysis of the deuterosome using CRISPR/Cas based genome editing”

John Oakey, Assistant Professor, University of Wyoming
“In situ hydrogel microfabrication to produce functional biomimetic surfaces”

Karin Rengefors, Professor, Lund University, Sweden
“Single-cell population genomic analyses of an invasive microalgae”

Eric Tytell, Assistant Professor, Tufts University
“Biomedical tuning of the functional circuit of the lamprey central pattern generator for locomotion”

Erik Zornik, Assistant Professor, Reed College
“Functional imaging of novel pattern generator neurons”

—###—

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery and improving the human condition through research and education in biology, biomedicine, and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.