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Marcelino's Lab at Northwestern University
Climate change effects on coral reefs, coral adaptation and acclimatization to warmer oceans
Our group works on developing and applying optical, phylogenetic, genetic, and epigenetic methods to study the biological effects of climate change on reef-forming corals. A central focus of our laboratory is understanding the mechanism of massive coral bleaching and the physiological, genetic, and transcriptional differences between coral species that are heat-resistant and heat-sensitive. Our main goal is to boost coral adaptation and resilience to a fast-warming ocean via rapid physiological changes to heat stress that increase their likelihood of survival. These processes are driven by genetic differences (“thermal genes”) and changes in gene expression that do not involve alterations in the genetic code (epigenetics).
Coral Reefs worldwide are at risk of collapse by climate change. This will result in devastating impacts to marine fisheries and biodiversity, to planetary-level ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, and to the livelihood of over 500 million people who depend on coral reefs. Read More...
Corals are like greenhouses growing millions of symbiont algae inside their cells which provide the coral with more than 90% of its daily energy requirement. Read More...
We are studying the epigenetic processes underpinning a successful response to heat stress in corals that increases their likelihood of survival. Specifically, we are measuring differences in gene expression between heat-resistant and heat-sensitive corals Read More...
The Marcelino Lab has Postdoctoral Fellow Positions available, in the area of Coral Acclimatization and Adaptation to Climate Change, specifically in the areas of Transcriptomics and Coral Epigenetics, with particular emphasis on chromatin sequencing and chromatin imaging. Learn more about the research here and the requirements here.
Postdoctoral candidates may e-mail a cover letter, CV and references to l-marcelino@northwestern.edu
Marcelino (Principal Investigator) receives funding from CPGE Innovation Fund, The Center for Physical Genomic Engineering (CPGE), Northwestern University for proposal entitled “Changes in Chromatin structure in corals under heat stress”.
New undergraduate researcher Maeve Brady receives McCormick Undergraduate Summer Research Award to work in our lab over the summer. Congratulations Maeve!
New undergraduate researcher Kate Virsik receives Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Summer Research Award to work in our lab over the summer. Congratulations Kate!
Marcelino (Principal Investigator) receives funding from The Resnick Family Social Impact Fund, Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy, Northwestern University for proposal entitled “Physiological Plasticity and Coral’s Adaptive Response to Warmer Oceans”.