In this full-time apprenticeship, students will learn concepts, skills and techniques for research at the intersection of marine biodiversity and functional genomics, including single-cell genomic analyses such as RNA-Seq. As they learn these tools, they will apply them to a diversity of marine organisms to reconstruct the cell tree of life, decipher the origins of animal cell types, and gain a better understanding of the early stages of neural system evolution. Ultimately, students will design and conduct their own research project that explores the complexity of life at different dimensions.

During field trips to local shoreline sites and on research vessels, students will use a range of methods to sample organisms from assorted benthic and pelagic habitats, returning to the lab with specimens representing a diversity of animal phyla and theirlarvae. Participation in Oceanic Trips will be a Unique Experience for Students and as all collections will be performed by students. In the genomics lab, they will learn protocols for isolation and molecular mapping of individual cells from the organisms they’ve collected, capturing thousands of cells across tissues and species for single-cell transcriptome profiling (scRNA-seq). To analyze the resulting sequences, students will use the tools of deep computational and comparative analysis of massive datasets. In the process of learning concepts and techniques in fieldwork, physiological molecular lab studies, and bioinformatics, they will also learn the fundamentals of invertebrate zoology and become familiar with many of the key organisms in the region’s marine fauna.

With their newly acquired skills and knowledge, students will design their own research projects with guidance from instructors. In doing so, they will be free to explore ideas in evolutionary theory, biodiversity, cell biology, neuroscience, and genomics. For example, a student might study and map gene expression patterns across different developmental stages and tissues of an organism, or perform a novel analysis of existing genome atlases from representatives of different animal phyla. A project could also include ecological components, such as documenting the locations and densities of selected species (e.g. ones with potential relevance for biomedical research) and comparing those observations with historic data and maps. These research projects will ultimately contribute to the emerging field of integrative biomedical sciences and our understanding of fundamental biological questions and trends.