MBL Highlights of 2025
As we look forward to the new year, we are much encouraged by MBL’s accomplishments in 2025. The challenges scientific research organizations are facing are real, but so are MBL’s distinctive, far-reaching achievements in discovery and training. Through the sustained hard work of the MBL Research and Education divisions, a high percentage of grant applications in 2025 were successful, and we can anticipate new discoveries and new knowledge for years to come. Here are just a few of many highlights of 2025 from MBL’s labs, field sites, courses, and development and communications initiatives.
MBL News
The $25 million, unrestricted gift came through the generosity of cell biologist and MBL Whitman Scientist Mark Terasaki.
An exciting new chapter in MBL history celebrates the thousands of individuals who have made the MBL part of their scientific journey.
MBL Trustee Susan Fitzpatrick and MBL Fellow Jane Maienschein publish an editorial in Science magazine on the critical importance of supporting marine labs such as the MBL.
Accolades
Zak Swartz
Zak Swartz, Assistant Scientist in the Bell Center, is Named a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences.
Nipam Patel
MBL Director Nipam Patel is Selected to Present his Research at the 162nd Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.
Linda Hyman
Linda Hyman, MBL Education Director, is Named a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science.
Education News
Research News
Selected MBL Research Highlights
- MBL Whitman Center’s “Chromatin Consortium” Visualizes the Creation of Condensates
MBL Scientists: Michael Rosen, Rosana Collepardo-Guevara, Huabin Zhou and other members of the Chromatin Consortium
- New Microscope can Image, at Once, Full 3D Orientation and Position of Molecules
MBL Scientists: Talon Chandler (UChicago student), Shalin Mehta, Abhishek Kumar, Rudolf Oldenbourg, and Whitman Scientists Tobias Baskin, Patrick LaRivière, and Hari Shroff
- Central Command: Injury to Axolotl Tail Activates Distant Neurons in Brain, Promoting Regeneration
MBL Scientists: Karen Echeverri, S.E. Walker
- Symbiotic Bacteria Ride along with Marine Cells in Ocean’s Upper Layer
MBL Scientists: Alexandra Worden, Fabian Wittmers, Charlotte Eckmann
- Effects of Beech Leaf Disease on Falmouth Trees Revealed in MBL Student’s Publication
MBL Scientists: Zoe Cardon, Aaron MacDonald (Semester in Environmental Science student) and Quincy S. Dowling (Research Assistant)
Top Five Research Stories in the Media
These MBL research papers garnered the most global attention in 2025 (data from Altmetric).
- The Most Detailed Study Ever of the Complex Motions of Octopus Arms
MBL Scientists: Chelsea Bennice (Whitman), Kendra Buresch, Roger Hanlon
- The Outer Ear has its Evolutionary Origins in the Gills of Fishes
MBL Scientist: J. Andrew Gillis
- “She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not”: Physical Forces Encouraged Evolution of Multicellular Life, Scientists Propose
MBL Scientists: Shashank Shakar and Wallace Marshall (Physiology course), Sean P. Colin and Jack Costello (Whitman Scientists)
- Climate-induced, Cascading Impacts on the Arctic Environment in 2024
MBL Scientist: Jim McClelland
- A Method for Investigating Surface Contraction Waves in Dividing Starfish Eggs that could Advance the Design of Synthetic Cells
MBL Scientist: Zak Swartz
Events
Top Five Social Media Posts
Social media account: Instagram
Date posted: August 20, 2025
Impressions: 418,694
Social media account: Instagram
Date posted: November 10, 2025
Impressions: 23,794
Social media account: Facebook
Date posted: July 28, 2025
Impressions: 18,201
Social media account: LinkedIn
Date posted: May 23, 2025
Impressions: 12,113
Social media account: LinkedIn
Date posted: April 5, 2025
Impressions: 5,987
