Edel Sheerin was awarded funding from the Antarctic Science Foundation to sequence a reference genome for the seastar Glabraster antarctica. This resource will significantly enhance her research on connectivity of this species in the Southern Ocean, allowing greater inferences on past population size and deeper insights into source sink population dynamics. This work is fundamental to understanding benthic invertebrates’ response to climate change. Well done Edel!
Biggest congratulations to honours student Joshua Lesicar who has been awarded a 2026 Rhodes Scholarship! Josh is an Honours student with Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future based at James Cook University under the supervision of Jan, Sally and our collaborator Nerida Wilson. He is using genomic techniques to investigate the dispersal abilities of Doris kerguelensis, an Antarctic nudibranch.
Josh’s Rhodes Scholarship will cover all University and College fees, a personal stipend and a return airfare. He will undertake a Doctor of Philosophy in Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford from October 2026.
Eva attended the Society for Marine Mammalogy Australia/New Zealand Student Chapter Student Conference in Auckland recently, presenting on her whole-genome analyses of dugongs throughout their range in Australia.
It was a great opportunity to connect with other early-career researchers, exchange ideas on marine conservation, and gain feedback that will help refine ongoing genomic work. The highlight of the event was participating in a hands-on necropsy of a common dolphin, part of a 40-year effort to preserve tissue samples and find out the cause of death in marine mammals around New Zealand.
Sophie presented her poster on extracting DNA from unculturable Coral Symbionts at Queensland Museum in Townsville. She won first prize for her poster from a very competitive field
Jan Strugnell and Sally Lau were part of the Octopus and Ice Sheet team who won the Aspire Scholarship Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research! Together with their colleagues Dr Nerida Wilson (Western Australian Museum and CSIRO), and Professor Nick Golledge and Professor Tim Naish (Victoria University of Wellington) they were honoured for their research, published in Science, using octopus DNA to discover that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet likely collapsed during the Last Interglacial. The findings are the strongest evidence to date that sustained global warming above 1.5C will result in unstoppable collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Their research was funded by the Australian Research Council.
Joe Perkin’s latest research, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, provides the first comprehensive assessment of harmful dinoflagellate communities in Hervey Bay, a high-risk region for harmful algal blooms (HABs) in eastern Australia. Using DNA metabarcoding, the study identified a diverse range of toxic and non-toxic species, including several high-risk taxa detected in Australian waters for the first time. The findings highlight the ecological complexity of dinoflagellate communities and underscore the urgent need for continued monitoring in vulnerable coastal ecosystems.
A bubble plot from Joe’s paper showing toxic dinoflagellate abundance (total reads) across locations and substrates, including Karenia and Gambierdiscus.
Joe’s paper received a lot of attention in the media including ABC news! Great work Joe!
With Nadja’s review on the role of chromosomal inversions in the management of marine environments hot off the press in Molecular Ecology, she travelled to Brisbane to present this work as a poster at the ICCB conference.
The implications of chromosomal inversions (and other recombination-blocking, large variants) for management are complex. Nadja made this figure to summarise the various scenarios and their consequences.
Edel Sheerin spoke about Life on the seafloor of a sub-Antarctic sunken continent at Pint of Science at Heritage Exchange in Townsville and told the crowd what we know about the creatures of the remote Kerguelen Plateau and how cutting-edge genomics will reveal more about their past, present and future.
Edel wowing the crowd about the wonders of the Kerguelen Plateau.
Edel Sheerin was delighted to have the opportunity to attend the recent Kerguelen Plateau Symposium in Concarneau, France! She presented findings of her literature review on the ‘Evolutionary origin and connectivity of the Kerguelen Plateau benthos over space and time’. This work synthesises the available literature to understand what we know about the benthic invertebrates to date and emphasises the importance of further research given the position of the Kerguelen Plateau as a future gateway to Antarctica. Edel was gratefully supported by a travel grant from the KPS committee.
Joseph Perkins recently attended the eDNA Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, supported by a bursary from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. He presented his research, Toxic Traces: DNA metabarcoding detects ciguatoxin-producing dinoflagellates along the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and was honoured with an award for his oral presentation. His work highlights the power of DNA metabarcoding in monitoring toxic dinoflagellates and understanding the risks associated with ciguatera poisoning and seafood safety.
