2024: A Year of Discovery at MBL

As we look back on 2024, we see a fantastic year of learning and discovery, thanks to our talented scientists, staff, and supporters. Here are just a few highlights.

Ligia Coelho looking at content in a beaker — Ligia Coelho, an alumna of the MBL Microbial Diversity course, is developing purple bacteria as a biosignature to detect life on other planets. Credit: Cornell Chronicle

Education

The MBL's renown research training courses encourage fearless, risk-taking experimentation. "Failure is an option" - and so is success!

Nobel Prizes Awarded to Two Faculty Alumni

Gary Ruvkun, former director of the MBL Biology of Aging course, received a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work to identify microRNA.

John Hopfield, former faculty in Methods in Computational Neuroscience, received a Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to artificial neural network development.

To date, 63 scientists affiliated with the MBL have been awarded a Nobel Prize, almost all of them receiving the prize in Physiology or Medicine or in Chemistry. Other than Hopfield, the one MBL affiliate to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics was Donald Glaser in 1960, for his development of the bubble chamber.

MBL Course Research Published in Top Journals

Faculty Shigeki Watanabe and students challenge a 70-year-old concept of the shape and function of axons (Neurobiology course, in Nature Neuroscience)

Student Ligia F. Coelho explores how “purple bacteria” may cover the surface of some exoplanets (Microbial Diversity course, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters)

Faculty Jay Z. Parrish and students catalog larval neurons in the deadly yellow fever mosquito (Neurobiology course, in Neural Development)

Faculty Ann Clemens and students publish two studies on rat sensory systems and behavior (Neural Systems & Behavior course, in Scientific Reports and in Current Biology)

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Introducing the Undergraduate Semester in Biological Discovery. The MBL’s popular Semester in Environmental Science has a sibling!

The MBL is proud of the diversity of its student body, which augments the opportunity for scientific discovery. In 2024, the MBL courses attracted ~500 top students from 273 institutions and 58 countries. Course directors and faculty were drawn from 272 leading institutions in 22 countries.

MBL Senior Scientists Michael Shribak (left) and Rudolf Oldenbourg with a microscope designed by the late Shinya Inoué, the Shinyascope. Credit: Diana Kenney

Research

MBL research transforms the unknown to the known, from the interior of cells to the ecology of our planet. Here’s a sampling of MBL publications from the last year:

A Fresh Spin on Nuclear Centering (in PNAS)
Using microscopes invented at the MBL, scientists measure the forces that keep the nucleus centered in a living cell.

Beyond Needles (in Development)
The Zak Swartz lab introduces a nature-based approach for delivering miniature research tools into egg cells and embryos.

Behavioral Responses to Environmental Changes (in Current Biology)
Parhyale hawaiensis, a research organism developed in the Nipam Patel lab, adapts its behavior to tidal cycles through plasticity of its circatidal and circadian clocks.

Living in the Deep, Dark, Slow Lane (in Science Advances)
Eight years in the making, the first global appraisal of microbiomes in the Earth’s marine and terrestrial subsurfaces reveals astonishing diversity.

Ocean Currents Act as 'Expressway' to the Depths (in PNAS)
Tiny marine organisms get swept into underwater currents that shuttle them from the sunny surface to the deep, where they play an important role in carbon cycling.

A Reversal of Fortune (in Nature Climate Change)
A 35-year-long soil experiment, full of surprises in the data, indicates the Artic is getting better at storing carbon as its shrubbery expands.

See all MBL publications

Sea Robins in MRC. — Sea robin in the MBL's Marine Resources Center. Credit: Sarah Lawhun

Grants and Awards

MBL scientists and leadership landed numerous federal, state and private grants and fellowship awards for research and education last year. Here are a few highlights:

Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Awards $4.3 Million to MBL to Support Imaging Innovation

Cardon Leads $8.4M Collaborative Project on Marsh Responses to Tidal Oscillations

MBL Awarded State Funding to Expand Educational Opportunities for Massachusetts Public School Students

Scientists Investigate Ways to Transform Seaweed into Energy and Food

Accolades

Three cheers for our community members who received honors and awards in 2024, including MBL Director Nipam Patel, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.