In the news

Interview with The Scientist!

With Neither Brains nor Brawn, Jellyfish and Relatives Developed Subcellular Weapons InsteadAnna Klompen explained how cnidarian stinging cells harpooned their way into her heart and could help answer fundamental questions in biology.

Jellyfish photos in the News!

Hydra DNA Reveals There’s More Than One Way to Regrow a HeadResearchers pinpointed the genetic machinery behind some of these tiny creatures’ amazing powers of regeneration.

Jellyfish eyes will enable researchers to peer into inner workings of evolution The latest news and information for the University of Kansas.

Graduate

“I really love the research that I do at KU, and I think it is important to share what I am learning and doing with the public.”

- University Daily Kansan, 9 Oct 2019

NOAA Fisheries - Hollings Fellow Research and Stinging Snot

Australia’s Box Jellyfish: An Unexpected Key to Unlocking the Mystery of Stinging WaterSometimes a summer internship opens the door to a new career. In this case it helped uncover a clue to an age-old mystery—the cause of “stinging water.”

Team of Scientists Uncover Mystery Behind “Stinging Water”Think you can only get stung by touching a jellyfish? Think again. Turns out their “snot” can sting you as well.

Stinging Snot and Mucus Grenades

My first co-first author publication in Nature Communciations describes novel stinging-cell structures called cassiosomes released in the mucus of the Upside-down Jellyfish, Cassiopea xamachana. This "stinging snot" has received lots of attention in various media outlets!

Below are several examples of the media coverage on our paper; others can be found via the Altmetric website.

National Geographic

These jellyfish can sting without touching you, thanks to 'mucus grenades'Cassiopea jellyfish make up for their lack of tentacles by releasing gooey clouds full of autopiloted stingers.

Inverse.com

Study reveals some jellyfish can launch deadly "mucus grenades""A really novel and interesting strategy.”

Newsweek

Upside-down jellyfish create "stinging water" that kills prey by launching mucus "grenades"Upside-down jellyfish are found in warm coastal waters—such as mangroves, bays and lagoons—around the world.

Smithsonian Magazine

These Jellyfish Don't Need Tentacles to Deliver a Toxic StingSmithsonian scientists discovered that tiny 'mucus grenades' are responsible for a mysterious phenomenon known as 'stinging water'

Science News for Students

Ouch! Jellyfish snot can hurt people who never touch the animalA goo shed by at least one species of upside-down jellyfish contains stinging cells. They can cause pain even to creatures that never touch the jelly.

New York Times

You Didn’t Touch These Jellyfish, but They Can Sting You With Tiny GrenadesThe upside-down jellyfish is mostly stationary, so it evolved self-propelling cells that can swim over and sting you on its behalf.

Forbes

These Jellyfish Release ‘Mucus Grenades’, Stinging SwimmersIf you’ve ever gone swimming and felt a strange stinging sensation, it may have been caused by nearby jellyfish’s ‘mucus grenade’.

Sciences News

Jellyfish snot can sting swimmers who never touch the animalResearchers have found mobile cellular blobs coated with stinging cells in mucus from a jellyfish that sits upside-down on the seafloor.

SyFy

Take cover! Jellyfish hurling venom-filled mucus ‘grenades’ can sting without touchingLike the world isn’t a scary enough place these days as is, now we have to contend with jellyfish hurling venomous mucus “grenades.” As much as we’d love to take credit for that description, we can actually thank scientists with an obvious flair for explosive language. That’s the descriptor used in a study published in Nature Communications Biology, led by scientists at the Smithsonian, the University of Kansas, and the U.S.

Discover

Venomous Snot Helps These Jellyfish Sting Without Their TentaclesFor decades, people couldn't figure out why swimming over upside-down jellyfish made their skin hurt. Scientists finally cracked the code.

Collections Up Close - Programming by the KU Natural History Museum

Showing off live jellyfish on the KU Campus (Oct 2019)

I had the opportunity to show off the Cartwright Lab's live jellyfish collection at the KU Natural Hisotry Museum to the Lawrence community and on the KU campus to students at the Union. I was lucky to also be featured in an article by the University Daily Kansan about the program, Collection Up Close!

Tabling events showcase KU Natural History Museum's research, hidden collectionsStarting this month, the Natural History Museum is hosting Collections Up Close, a series of tabling events to show off previously unseen exhibits at the museum.

Craspy in the Crim Dell:

Freshwater Jellyfish at The College of William & Mary

The #CrimJellies returned to the Crim Dell (Oct 2019)

At my Alma Mater, The College of William and Mary, freshwater jellyfish (Craspedacusta sowerbii) bloomed in the Crim Dell fall of 2019, after an almost seven year hiatus! My undergraduate advisor spoke to several reporters about the recent bloom, and included me in a conversation with DailyPress about some of the biology of these freshwater jellies. There is still so much to learn about these jellies and I was happy to discuss some of what we know and a lot about what we do not know!

Medusa jellyfish are blooming in Crim DellMedusas, an adult form of small freshwater jellyfish, are blooming in Crim Dell at William & Mary - something that only happens every 7 years or so, giving students and researchers a rare opportunity to examine these little understood, under-studied creatures.

Outreach Committee - EEB Graduate Student Organization

EEB Graduate Students Outreach Committee and others that contribute to Girl Scouts: Kaila Colyott (Girl Scout Liaison), Andrew Mongue (Girl Scout Liaison), Sally Chang (Co-Chair), Emily Arsenault (GS Module Leader), Anna Klompen (Co-Chair), Kaylee Herzog, Alex Erwin (Girl Scout Liaison), Haifa Alhadyian, Steven Baca, Keely Brown, Matt Girard, Lucas Hemmer, Jacob Hopkins, Jack Hruska, Matt Jones, Amanda Katzer, Eleanor Stewart-Jones (KU Chemistry Club), Cindy Ly,Ryan Ridder, and Paula Roy.

EEB Graduate Student Organization Honored for Outreach Efforts with Girl Scouts (April 2018)

Write up by KUNews about the accomplishments of the Outreach Committee for the KU EEB GSO, which began in 2014. By spring of 2018, the EEB GSO had worked with over 600 Girl Scouts and developed over 10 modules that explore aspect of insect collections, marine biology, paleontology, and exploring DNA.

Additional Write-ups

• Rock Chalk, STEM Hawks! GSKSMO Blog, Oct 2017. (http://gsksmoblog.org/2017/10/rock-chalk-stem-hawks/)

• GSKSMO Community Partner Award. KU EEB Outreach, May 2018. (https://outreachkueeb.wordpress.com/2018/05/06/gsksmo-community-partner-award/)

Undergraduate

Flatworms featured!

I spent the majority of my four years at the College of William and Mary studying the predatory flatworm Stylochus ellipticus. This Chesapeake Bay native consumes oysters and barnacles, thus the common name "oyster leech," but the early life history had been poorly understood. These flatworms are indirect developers, meaning they hatch as a lobed, dispersive larva before metamorphosing into an adult flatworm. There are two types of indirect developing polyclad larva: Müller's and Götte’s. Müller's larva had previously been cultured through metamorphosis, but, Götte’s larva, which includes S. ellpticus, had never previously been cultured to the juvenile stage. My research determined that these previously described non-feeding larvae are actually obligate plankotrophs. Not only do they require food, but very high concentrations of specific algal types. These larvae appear to require high concentrations because, instead of seeking out food, they only consume as much as they can run into, thus the reference to "cookie-monster" behavior.

Undergrad research discoveries: Cookie Monster larvae and speck-sized cannibalsAnna Klompen ’17 and Karina Brocco French ’16 made significant discoveries in Jonathan Allen’s lab in William & Mary’s Department of Biology.

Pictures: Flatworm Affects on Oysters in the BayUndergraduate senior Anna Klompen, left, and Associate Professor Jonathan Allen study flatworms at William & Mary's biology department. As algae growth increases in the bay, this could mean there'll be more adult flatworms preying on oysters, which are struggling to recover in the bay. Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017.

Flatworm larvae are algae-chomping 'Cookie Monsters' in the Chesapeake BayFlatworm larvae are algae-chomping "Cookie Monsters" in the Chesapeake Bay

Video taken by Dr. Jon Allen, undergraduate advisor, of S. ellipticus eggs hatching under the scope. These eggs are about 65 microns in size.

Celebrating early careers awards:

Sigma Xi Funding and NOAA Hollings Fellowship

Sigma Xi Funds Foster Research LegacyAnna Klompen W&M '17, recently was awarded a Grant-in-Aid of Research from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Jon Allen, her undergraduate research advisor, reflects on how this award became a springboard for his own career.

Two sophomores awarded NOAA Hollings scholarshipsTwo William & Mary sophomores were awarded the Hollings Scholarship, one of the programs offered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Hollings Fellowship, NOAA Education Interview - 2016

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