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 a modern Lernaean Hydra…
Posted by Eleni Chrysostomou, on 3 July 2017
I am Eleni Chrysostomou, a PhD student in Uri Frank‘s lab at the National University of Ireland, Galway. The Frank lab’s general interest is development and regeneration, stem and germ …A day in the life of an Oikopleura Lab
Posted by Alfonso Ferrández, on 23 May 2017
The recent bloom of genomic data from all of life’s kingdoms is revealing a novel perspective of gene loss as a pervasive source of genetic variation with a great potential …A day in the life of a larval-microbe lab
Posted by tjcarrier, on 21 March 2017
Hello, my name is Tyler Carrier and I am a second year PhD student in the laboratory of Adam Reitzel at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Broadly speaking, …A day in the life of a mayfly lab
Posted by isabelalmudi, on 5 January 2017
I am Isabel Almudi, a postdoctoral researcher in Fernando Casares’ lab, at the Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD) in Seville, Spain. In the lab we are focused on studying …A Day in the Life of a Coral Lab
Posted by YuuriY, on 8 November 2016
Hi, I’m Yuuri Yasuoka, a postdoc in the Marine Genomics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). Okinawa is a subtropical Japanese island surrounded by …A day in the life of a ctenophore lab
Posted by Burkhardt Group, on 1 September 2016
Who are we? Hi, my name is Ruairi Kavanagh and I’m a Master’s student at Plymouth University. For my dissertation I am based in The Marine Biological Association (MBA). I …A day in the life of a sponge lab (yes, there are labs devoted to these animals!)
Posted by emiliolanna, on 24 August 2016
Forget about those large amounts of bottles containing thousands of flies, those huge piles of boxes containing different lineages of mice or large tanks filled with happy-hopping frogs. Also, forget …A day in the life of a cricket lab
Posted by Yhamada, on 14 July 2016
I am Yoshimasa Hamada, a Research Fellow in Okayama University Graduate School in Japan, working with Prof. Kenji Tomioka, Prof. Hideyo Ohuchi, Prof. Sumihare Noji and Dr. Tetsuya Bando. Our …Featured movie: going underwater with Parhyale, from Erin Jarvis’ post
A day in the life of one lab starts at 6.30 AM at the Point View Marina in Rhode Island – read Cat Munro’s piece to find out which hard-to-catch animals they are after
Is your model missing? Let us know – we’d love you to write a ‘day in the life’ for us
Browse the zoo!
- Arabidopsis
- Ascidian
- Axolotl
- Bat
- Butterfly
- C. elegans
- Capitella
- Chick
- Cnidarian
- Colonial tunicate
- Coral
- Cricket
- Ctenophore
- Drosophila
- Embryonic stem cells
- Gar
- Honeybee
- Hydractinia
- Lamprey
- Larval-microbe
- Lizard
- Marchantia
- Maize
- Mayfly
- Moss
- Mouse
- Oikopleura
- Onychophoran
- Parhyale
- Planarian
- Platynereis
- Rhinoceros beetle
- Sea urchin
- Shark
- Siphonophore
- Skate
- Spider
- Sponge
- Termite
- Turtle
- Xenopus
- Zebrafish
We’ve collated various model organism databases and useful links over on our Resources page