18 ACUMEN • SPRING 2024 Layden’s lab to test different theories throughout the year and hone in on the most strategic questions to target when they have the opportunity to visit wild populations during spawning season. “This research helps us understand how their biology is being impacted by the changing world and the changing ocean,” he says. His lab also studies the extensive regenerative abilities of sea anemones. His research aims to understand the mechanisms that drive regeneration of the nervous system and how they differ from those that generate the nervous system during development. The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is an ideal model to conduct this work because the sea anemone genome is closely related to the human genome and it’s one of the few species where researchers can study both neural development and regeneration. The hope is that this research can lead to valuable insights about human biology, and additional funding from the National Institutes of Health supports work on the foundational science that fuels these questions. “Understanding the similarities and differences between development and regeneration will provide critical clues necessary to better design regenerative therapies for biomedical applications,” says Layden. “The implications from our work will help forge a much better understanding about how you alter development to make regenerative neurogenesis successful. It’s really early in the field, so every breakthrough and piece of knowledge is critical.” The Chemistry of Underwater Volcanos— and How Life Survives Without Sunlight There’s no sunlight in the deep ocean, but there may be answers to some of the most fundamental questions about life on Earth—and beyond. Jill McDermott is trying to find some of those answers by studying how life in the deep ocean is mediated by chemistry. Life in the deep ocean is different from life on the surface. It can’t rely directly on photosynthesis to survive because no sunlight reaches the deep ocean. “It’s the darkest dark you’ll ever see,” she says. “Because there’s no sunlight, the basis of the food web is microbes, and those microbes are directly reliant on chemical energy. They’re the building blocks of life. Studying the chemical makeup of these systems can help us understand how life survives without sunlight.” McDermott investigates the fundamental geological and biological processes that sustain specific types of microbial life in the deep sea. She specifically looks at the interaction between seawater and volcanoes on the seafloor, which are known as hydrothermal systems, to uncover clues about how these ecosystems can exist in permanent darkness. Hydrothermal systems heat up the water and create a chemical-rich mineral soup that sustains life in the deep ocean. Her research could shed light on the origins of life on Earth and provide clues about life on other planets. McDermott has received funding from National Aeronautics and Space Administration to study and apply her ideas to other water-rich environments in the solar system like the icy moons Enceladus and Europa. “The better we understand Earth’s oceans, the more we can extend that to other places,” she says. She also aims to understand what creates chemical diversity and differences across hydrothermal systems. She investigates factors like temperature, depth, pressure and geology to probe these differences. She recently returned from an expedition that sailed west of the Galápagos Islands with members of the Herrera lab, where the pair are collaborating on research on how different types of volcanic systems affect the ecosystems surrounding hydrothermal vents in the eastern tropical Pacific. FIELDWORK IMAGES COURTESY OF LEHIGH OCEANS, LAB IMAGES–CHRISTA NEU
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