Deirdre Lyons, PI
Deirdre (Dede) became interested in questions about the origins and evolution of animal body plans as an undergraduate at Mount Holyoke College working with Stan Rachootin and Rachel Fink, and as a research assistant at UCLA under David Jacobs and Ruth Gates. She got her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology at U.C. Berkeley studying the control of asymmetric cell division in the leech Helobdella with David Weisblat. For her post-doc she joined David McClay’s lab at Duke University to study Gene Regulatory Networks in sea urchin embryogenesis. She took the MBL Embryology course in 2009 and began a long term collaboration studying the embryology of the slipper snail Crepidula with Jonathan Henry. Dede established her own research group in the Marine Biology Research Division of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the Fall of 2016 and there she and her group study a range of echinoderm and spiralian animals using comparative gene regulatory network analysis, live cell imaging, and functional studies.
email: d1lyons@ucsd.edu
Grant Batzel, Graduate Student
Having endured many snowy winters in the Midwest and then in New England, Grant attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he graduated with a B.S. in Marine Biology. During his junior year, he studied biomineralization in marine worms as part of an undergraduate research project in the lab of Mike Hadfield. This sparked an interest in calcareous structures in marine invertebrates and how those structures develop. After graduating in 2015, Grant continued in Mike’s lab as a research assistant, before starting his doctoral work with Professor Lyons at SIO. During his free time, he enjoys scuba diving, intertidal collecting, and spending time with his cat.
Scripps Student Spotlight: Grant Batzel
email: gbatzel@ucsd.edu
Stephanie Neal, Graduate Student
Stephanie first became fascinated with the development while completing an REU with Dr. Elaine Seaver at the Whitney Lab for Marine Biosciences, UF. She continued her training with Dr. Athula Wikramanayake while finishing her B.S. in Marine Science and Biology at the University of Miami. She then continued her scientific training as a Lab Assistant in Dr. Kristen Koenig’s lab at Harvard University. Stephanie joined the Lyons lab in 2020 and will be investigating the Gene Regulatory Networks (GRN) that govern the development of Crepidula. In her free time Stephanie likes to Scuba dive, read, knit, and roller skate.
email: sneal@ucsd.edu
Heidi Tate, Masters Student
Heidi is interested in how diverse invertebrate body plans came about, primarily from experiences in scuba diving and tidepooling. She completed her B.S. in Marine Biology and Chemistry at Dalhousie University, Canada. While there, she explored a variety of research topics, including sea sponge and seabird physiology. She also conducted research on coral genetics and disease as an intern at the Mote Marine Laboratory. Heidi joined the Lyons lab for her Masters degree to research questions related to the evolution and development of biomineralization in echinoderms. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, and writing.
email: htate@ucsd.edu
Antonia (Nia) Bock, Lab Research Assistant
Antonia (Nia) loves working with marine invertebrates of all kinds and making connections between the molecular mechanisms of their development and function and broader questions of evolution and ecology. Her love for marine science began during a high school internship with the Crystal Cove Conservancy, and after two years studying ecology with the Cleland lab at UCSD, she shifted her focus to molecular biology with the Burton lab at SIO. Her master's research with the Burton lab examined shifts in gene expression due to dietary changes in copepods. Her side project examining potential pauses in development at elevated salinities led her back to the questions and techniques of developmental biology, which are essential to understanding everything from the roles and interactions of genes to how diverse life evolved. She joined the Lyons lab in March 2021, where she assists with all things Crepidula and Berghia, ranging from husbandry to microinjection. Outside of lab, Nia enjoys knitting stuffed animals, reading (mainly sci-fi), and cycling around San Diego.
email: akbock@ucsd.edu
Rebecca Lopez-Anido, Lab Research Assitant
Rebecca is fascinated by the diverse body plans, developmental pathways, and cell lineages found in marine invertebrates. She was previously an REU fellow in the lab of Dr. Elaine Seaver at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience. In the Seaver lab, Rebecca examined critical signals during early development in the annelid Capitella teleta and absolutely fell in love with spiralian development. Rebecca also explored her interests in environmental studies during her time in the fish genetics lab of Dr. Barry Chernoff at Wesleyan University and the marine science lab of Dr. Heather Hamlin at the University of Maine. Rebecca recently earned her B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University. As a member of the Lyons lab, Rebecca is excited to work with diverse organisms and delve into critical evolutionary developmental biology questions. Outside the lab, Rebecca loves to hike, run, cook, and read.
Neville Taraporevala, Undergraduate Student
Neville is an undergraduate student pursuing his B.S. in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. He is currently studying the feeding behavior and reproductive development of the nudibranch Berghia stephanieae. He also works as a lead guide for Outback Adventures and at the Outback Climbing Center at UCSD.
email: nftarapo@ucsd.edu
Abegail Bigasin, Undergraduate Student
Abegail is an undergraduate majoring in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution at UC San Diego. She is currently working alongside Jessica Goodheart to develop a transcriptome for Berghia stephanieae and analyze differentially expressed genes within the Berghia's transcriptome. She also works with the culturing and rearing of Crepidula atrasolea in the lab.
email: abigasin@ucsd.edu
Lauren Serrano, Undergraduate Student
Lauren is an undergraduate Marine Biology major at UC San Diego. She is currently working with Maryna Lesoway as an animal care assistant, with observing and feeding Crepidula atrasolea as one of her primary responsibilities. Eventually, she will help establish automated culturing aquaria for these snails at SIO. Outside of lab, Lauren enjoys reading, cooking, and going tidepooling.
email: lserrano@ucsd.edu
Luisa Coronado, Undergraduate Student
Luisa (she/they) is an undergraduate student at UC San Diego majoring in Marine Biology. She is currently working with Vanessa Barone who’s work involves cell fate specification in Patiria miniata and Lytechinus pictus and how the physical contacts between cells in an embryo can influence the types of cells they become. They will be developing methods for lab cultures of these animals with the aim of generating transgenic lines. In their free time Luisa enjoys cooking, baking, and embroidering.
email: lcoronad@ucsd.edu
Lab Alumni
Vanessa Barone, Postdoc
I wonder at the variety of animal forms and the many different ways an embryo can develop. How do embryonic cells organise into such complex structures? How do they communicate and what are the cues they use to take decisions on the function and shape they will acquire? And how do new shapes evolve to produce new animal forms? To answer these questions I focus on how the mechanical interactions between embryonic cells determine what cell type they will become, linking the shape and function of tissues. I use live imaging of whole embryos and cultured cells to observe cell differentiation in real time: coupling experimentation and theoretical modelling I hope to understand how cell differentiation is regulated by cell mechanics. Vanessa recently received a Human Frontier Science Program Postdoc Fellowship. Dr. Barone is currently on the faculty at Stanford University. Barone Lab Website
email: vbarone@ucsd.edu
Maryna Lesoway, Postdoc
Maryna is interested in how the diversity of organisms came to be. How does a single cell become a complex multicellular organism? What is the role of the environment on shaping development of embryos, larvae, and adults? How does development change over evolutionary time? How do transitions between different types of development happen? Using a range of approaches at multiple levels of biological organization, Maryna works primarily with calyptraeid gastropods, better known as slipper limpets. Their interesting biology (e.g., multiple modes of development, sex change) and experimental accessibility makes them an ideal system for answering such questions.
Maryna holds a PhD in Biology from the McGill-STRI Neotropical Environment Option, a joint program between McGill University, Montreal, Canada and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. She was supervised by Ehab Abouheif (McGill) and Rachel Collin (STRI). Previously, she worked with Jonathan Henry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a FQRNT Postdoctoral Fellow. Maryna is currently building gene regulatory networks and genetic tools in the black-footed slipper snail, Crepidula atrasolea, to continue exploring the nexus of evolution, development, and ecology.
Website: marynalesoway.com
email: mlesoway@ucsd.edu
Park Masterson, Lab Research Assistant
Park worked with nudibranchs, snails, and echinoderms in the Lyons Lab. She graduated with her Bachelor's degree in Biology from Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2017. Prior to working in the Lyons Lab she worked with the San Diego Police Department's Forensic Biology Lab, learning the techniques involved in the identification, processing, and analysis of human DNA in a criminal case work setting. She also assisted in the lab of Dr. Mary Montgomery at Macalester College, aiming to tag maternal effect genes skn-1 and glh-1 in C. elegans using Cas9 based gene editing. Having played four years of collegiate basketball herself, outside of the lab Park coached for the San Diego Sol Basketball Club as well as working as an assistant coach for the Rancho Bernardo High School Varsity Girls Basketball Team. Park is now the Assistant Women's Basketball Coach at the North Dakota State College of Science!
Jessica Goodheart, Postdoc
Jessica’s interest in evolutionary biology stems from curiosity surrounding the origins of the fantastic amount of invertebrate biodiversity alive today. In particular, her research strives to develop and test hypotheses relating to macroevolutionary patterns at multiple levels of biological organization (genes, cells, tissues, etc), with a focus on the ability of gastropods to acquire chemicals and structures for defense. Jessica is a current Scripps Postdoctoral Scholar working on the development and underlying molecular mechanisms of the theft of nematocysts (cnidarian stinging organelles) in Berghia stephanieae, which they take from their prey Exaiptasia diaphana. She is also leading the charge on the Berghia genome. Jessica completed her PhD in the Behavior, Ecology, Evolution and Systematics concentration area at the University of Maryland, College Park under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Cummings and Dr. Allen Collins, and she was previously an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Todd Oakley in the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Website: https://jessicagoodheart.weebly.com/
email: jgoodheart@ucsd.edu
Hereroa Johnston, Postdoc
Hereroa’s research focuses on understanding the logic behind the unfolding of genomic information, acting as a blueprint for building complex functional organisms, notably by studying gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Under the mentorship of Eric Röttinger during his PhD, Hereroa dissected the gene interactions underlying head reformation of the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis, an emerging model in the regeneration field. Moving to another marine invertebrate, the nudibranch, Berghia stephanieae, Hereroa joined the Lyons lab team to investigate the GRNs involved during early development in molluscs. Specifically, to study the neurogenesis of this promising embryonic model in the context of neuronal circuitry, as part of a BRAIN Initiative U01 grant from the NIH NINDS.
email: htjohnston@ucsd.edu
Carl Whitesel, Masters Student
Carl is a Masters Student in the Marine Biology BS/MS program. Carl is studying neural development through metamorphosis as part of the Berghia BRAIN project. He is currently working to describe the neuroanatomy of B. stephanieae through immunohistochemistry, and answer how metamorphosis causes drastic changes to the nudibranch neuroanatomy, and why these changes occur. Carl is broadly interested in metamorphosis, developmental neurobiology, and morphogenesis.
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/profiles/cwhitese
email: cwhitese@ucsd.edu
Deka Ismail - STARS Student Researcher
Jake Montgomery - Undergraduate Volunteer
Fayth Tan - Undergraduate Volunteer
Bryant Tran - SURF Undergraduate Volunteer
Milagros Esmerode - SURF Undergraduate Volunteer
Eliana Meza-Ehlert - High Tech High Volunteer
Evelyn Tapia Tolentino - High Tech High Volunteer
Amelia Berry - High Tech High Volunteer
John Boyce - High Tech High Volunteer