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Sea squirt study offers clues for understanding human aging (link is external)
Brief pulses of electrical current can dramatically extend the lives of sea squirts, whose rapid stem cell regeneration and simple immune systems make them a useful analog for understanding aging in humans. The findings point toward new strategies for protecting species from environmental shifts, and mitigating age-related decline.
High-tech imaging center opens at Hopkins Marine Station (link is external)
The newly renovated space offers Stanford researchers the rare opportunity to study the cellular and molecular structures of marine organisms that hold clues to the evolution of life, right on the shores of the ocean where it all started.
The secret lives of plankton (link is external)
Tiny plankton play a huge role in regulating natural systems, but they remain poorly understood. Stanford bioengineer Manu Prakash leads an international effort to develop innovative, low-cost tools that could help enable citizen scientists to monitor oceans and contribute to climate change solutions.
Tiny sensors that detect DNA in seawater (link is external)
With support from a Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Accelerator seed grant, an interdisciplinary team has developed a groundbreaking optical sensor that measures DNA and other key molecules in seawater using light, potentially revolutionizing the study of biodiversity in the enigmatic depths below the ocean’s surface.