December 15, 2025

We enjoyed our 7th annual Fishmas Celebration with great food and a gift exchange!

December 12, 2025

We are so proud that Dr. Eric Surette successfully defended his thesis "Spatiotemporal establishment of positional identities organize, inform and generate caudal fin shape"!

In McMenamin Lab fashion, we celebrated Eric's incredible originality and passion, and his fantastic progress on the truncate fin phenotype. Eric was surrounded by friends and family, and Lab members past and present. Lab alumni traveled from near and far to cheer him on!

While it is sad to say goodbye, we're thrilled that Eric isn't going too far, and he will be starting a postdoc in the Bernadskaya Lab at UMass Amherst!

October 13, 2025

The Zebrafish Disease Models Society meeting was held at Boston University. Sarah gave an invited talk, and posters were presented by Toshiaki, Nico and John. Thank you to Juanma Gonzalez Rosa and all the organizers for the invitation and a fabulous meeting!

September 5, 2025

We traveled to Dartmouth for the Connecticut Valley Zebrafish Researchers meeting, where Toshiaki gave a talk and Sofia, John, Nico and Eric as well as undergraduates Mica and Tho presented posters. Thanks to the organizers for a great meeting!

August 25, 2025

We are thrilled that Eric's paper on the truncate fin phenotype has been published in PLoS Biology! We showed that a pulse of Shh activity during late embryonic development reprograms the shape that the caudal fin will grow into. We're very excited about this work!

Surette E, Donahue J, Soto Martinez C, Robinson S, McKenna D, Fitzgerald B, Backus K, Karlstrom RO, Cumplido N, McMenamin SK. 2025. Caudal fin shape imprinted during late zebrafish embryogenesis is re-patterned by sonic hedgehog. PLoS Biology. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003336 

August 10, 2025

Tremendous congratulations to Nicolas Cumplido, who has been selected as a 2025 Pew Foundation Latin American Fellow! This competitive fellowship will support Nico's continued postdoctoral work on the roles of retinoic acid in caudal fin development in the lab, and will provide him with additional support after starting his own independent lab!

August 8, 2025

Our annual McMenamin Lab retreat included an in-depth examination of Yamato's koi pond.

July 30, 2025

We enjoyed an ice cream outing to celebrate the acceptance of Eric's paper and Cris' last day as a technician before she starts the BC PhD program in the Fall. 

June 18, 2025

Eric, Sarah and Nico headed to San Juan Puerto Rico for the 20th International Conference of Developmental Biology. Nico and Eric both presented posters of their work and we had an amazing time.

May 30, 2025

Boston College hosted the third annual Boston Area Zebrafish Researchers meeting (BAZaR)! Nico gave a flash talk and Anna presented a flash talk, and Toshiaki, Eric and Tho presented their work in the poster session. Thanks to the organizers Juanma Gonzalez Rosa, Kellee Siegfrid and Gewn Beacham for an amazing meeting!

May 16 2025

Along with Dr. Erica Crespi, Sarah presented a webinar with the theme Hormonal Control of Regeneration hosted by the International Society for Regenerative Biology. Thank you to the organizers for a very fun opportunity to present! The recording can be accessed here for a limited time.

May 2 2025

Congratulations to the McMenamin Lab Undergraduates who presented in the Hamliton Symposium undergraduate research day! Regan, Leah, Kate, Deirdre, Tho and Mica (not pictured) all gave posters of their projects.

April 26 2025

We had a great time at the Northeast Regional Society for Developmental Biology meeting! Nico presented a talk on his new work, Sarah presented in the Education session on teaching developmental biology, and the lab presented posters by Eric, Tho, Anna, Deirdre and Toshiaki! And we got to see Lab Alum Joan Donahue, now a PhD student at U Penn.

February 15, 2025

Welcome to new McMenamin lab PhD student Sofia Uribe!

February 26, 2025

A collaboration with sociologist Dr. Latricia Best was just published in Developmental Biology. We explored the impacts of social inequity on the timing of developmental life history events across human populations, suggesting ways that these concepts can be integrated in developmental biology classrooms. 

McMenamin SM, Best L. 2025. Developmental life history transitions can be shaped by structural inequities. Developmental Biology, 10.1016. 

February 5, 2025

Sarah had an amazing visit to Michigan State University where she had fun giving a symposium and holding her first live gar! Thanks to Ingo Braasch and to Olivia Fitch for the invitation and a wonderful and inspiring trip.