Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL)

We're thrilled to announce the largest private gift in our 137-year history: a $25 million unrestricted donation from MBL Whitman Scientist Mark Terasaki. His generosity will bolster our renowned research and education programs. 🔬 Learn more: mbl.edu/news/mbl-annou…

Join us on July 17 to hear Rachel Meyers lecture on "RNAi Across Scales: From Model Organisms to Clinical Therapies." Open to the public for in-person and virtual attendance. No registration required for in-person attendance. 🔗 More info here: go.mbl.edu/fel

The Marine Biological Laboratory has received a $3.2 million Research Infrastructure award from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) to enhance its Central Microscopy Facility. 🔗 go.mbl.edu/mlsc2026

A participant in the MBL #Neurobiology course shares his research project that investigates how membrane voltages are generated, controlled, and manipulated. 🔗 Watch the full video here: go.mbl.edu/1qvq4g

Biologists have long puzzled over how organs develop into their final shapes, and the nearly transparent bodies of young sea stars may offer a unique window into the organ development process. 🔗 Read the full story here: go.mbl.edu/sea-star-organs

Tadasu Nozaki of UMass Amherst and an MBL Whitman Fellow is trying to better understand the complex movements that allow chromosomes to pair. 🔗 Read the full story here: go.mbl.edu/nozaki

Unlike other organisms, Clytia medusae can repair damage so rapidly you can actually watch small wounds close within minutes. Larger wounds heal in less than an hour, a rate of recovery humans can only dream of. And no scar tissue is formed. 🔗 go.mbl.edu/jellyfish

Applications are open for the MBL’s Semester in Biological Discovery, a spring semester or quarter program that provides an immersive research experience in discovery-driven biological sciences modeled on the MBL’s world-renowned ARTCs. mbl.edu/sbd

Hit the Networking Jackpot Heading to the Society for Developmental Biology Annual Meeting? Don't miss the MBL Alumni Association Reception! Join us on Friday, July 24, from 8:30–9:30 pm at The Chandelier at The Cosmopolitan. Poster Art by MBL Director Nipam Patel.

Join us on July 10 for a lecture by Mark Barrow, exploring the cultural responses to Rachel Carson’s "Silent Spring" that generated a firestorm of controversy and helped catalyze the modern environmental movement. 🔗 More info here: go.mbl.edu/fel

DEADLINE APPROACHING! ⏰ Apply to Comparative Developmental Biology by July 28. This intensive two-week laboratory course is designed for graduate students in their second or later year of Ph.D studies and post-docs. 🔗 More info here: go.mbl.edu/CDB

Amid the MBL’s bustling summer science scene, a new microscope has come to campus: the ZEISS LSM 990 with the Lightfield 4D Module. Read about it here: go.mbl.edu/zeiss

Armed with new techniques and guidance from leaders in parasitology, participants in the MBL's Biology of Parasitism (BoP) course are preparing to tackle the next generation of discoveries. Read the full story here: go.mbl.edu/BoP2026

⭐️ Did you know we publish a bi-monthly newsletter? Subscribe to The Collecting Net for the latest stories, research highlights, education news, and more. mbl.edu/news/newsletter

This weekend, students in the Embryology course welcomed Denise Montell, Distinguished Professor at UC Santa Barbara, who shared her laboratory's research using the fruit fly to understand how cells migrate, interact, and engulf neighboring cells.

Join us on July 3 to hear Lauren O’Connell discuss how young brains create social behavior and methods of communication to meet needs such as hunger. Free and open to the public for in-person and virtual attendance. 🔗 More info here: go.mbl.edu/fel

Happy #MicroscopyMonday! The video shows a swimming larva of Asterias forbesi, a #seastar that is commonly found along the New England coast. Imaged by Margherita Perillo, a research scientist at the MBL’s Eugene Bell Center.

Connections are at the heart of science. Our Friday Morning Meet & Greets give researchers a chance to pause, connect, share ideas, and build the relationships that spark new collaborations. Because at the MBL, great science begins with great conversations.

New research reveals surprising similarities between sea star and human ovaries, including shared cell types, genes, and signaling pathways that may date back more than 500 million years. Read the full story here: go.mbl.edu/sea-star-ovary

Join us on June 26 and hear Julia Zeitlinger make a compelling case for revisiting a concept that has its origins before the rise of molecular biology and biochemistry: the understanding that biology has a DNA sequence basis. 🔗 More info here: go.mbl.edu/fel

This past Saturday, Embryology students gathered to learn how to bring science stories to life from science communicator and filmmaker John Rubin, co-producer of The Moth Radio Hour and science storytelling coach Viki Merrick, and NPR science desk contributor Ari Daniel Shapiro.