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developmental and stem cell biologists

A day in the life

A day in the life…

Developmental biology is characterised by the diversity of organisms we put under the microscope. Each one comes with its own strengths and challenges, quirks and even personalities, and researchers often develop a close affinity with their particular model. Our ‘A day in the life’ series gives insights into what it is like to work with a given organism, day in, day out, as well as showcasing the particular questions the organism is most suited to address.

Recent posts

A day in the life of two Sea Star labs

Posted by , on 13 November 2023

Margherita Perillo, Zak Swartz and Jamie MacKinnon from the MBL describe a day in the life of working with the sea star.
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A day in the life of a Trichoplax lab

Posted by , on 14 December 2022

Marvin Leria, a PhD student at Aix-Marseille University, describes a day in the life of a Trichoplax lab.

A Day in the Life of a Killifish Lab

Posted by , on 25 September 2022

What is a Killifish? My name is Andrew Thompson, and I am an assistant professor and principal investigator of the Xtremo-Devo Lab at Western Michigan University. In our lab, we …

A day in the life of an onychophoran lab

Posted by , on 7 August 2019

What are onychophorans and why do we study them? My name is Sandra Treffkorn, and I recently finished my PhD in the department of zoology lead by Georg Mayer at …

A day in the life of a Termite lab

Posted by , on 31 May 2019

How do genes and their environment interact during development and evolution to generate phenotypic diversity? To answer these questions in the Miura lab, by focusing on diverse animal taxa, we …

A day in the life of a Kabuto-mushi (rhinoceros beetle) lab

Posted by , on 10 December 2018

I am Shinichi Morita, a postdoctoral researcher in Teruyuki Niimi’s lab at the National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan (Fig. 1A, B). Our research interests focus on the evolutionary novelties …

A day in the life of a colonial tunicate laboratory

Posted by , on 28 August 2018

Have you heard of an animal that can lose most of its body tissues and the remnant tissues aggregate to regenerate the lost parts and recovery its original form? Do …

A day in the life of a Capitella teleta lab

Posted by , on 10 July 2018

It’s undoubtedly the middle of summer here in Saint Augustine, Florida. Daily temperatures are soaring into the 90s, and we’re grateful if the humidity dips below 70%. Thankfully, the Seaver …

Featured movie: going underwater with Parhyale, from Erin Jarvis’ post

Updated on 14 October 2021