sgkennedy
New Member
Hey All,
My name is Scott and I joined reef2reef a few minutes ago. I've had a saltwater tank for 10 years and enjoy the hobby immensely. My day job is Professor of Genetics at a snooty ivy league medical school based in Cambridge/Boston Massachusetts. This day job is actually why I decided to join reef2reef. A few months ago I had an asterina starfish contaminant in my tank and this started me reading about these amazing creatures. As most of you probably know, some species of the genus asteroideans can divide asexually by fissiparity, which just means they rip themselves in half (or drop a leg) and then the pieces regenerate full starfish. Truly remarkable. I am wondering if asterina might make a useful model system for molecular biologists like me to study how cells and tissues regenerate. The reason I think this is worth doing is that understanding more about how tissues regenerate is very likely to have major implications for how we treat people suffering from a variety of injuries and diseases. Anyways, to date there has been very little research done on the asterina species that divide by fissiparity, so you guys are the world's experts. I would love to hear what you know about them. These are the traits that would make a species the perfect model system; small as possible, easy and cheap to feed, tolerant of low quality water, fast asexual growth, and capable of sexual reproduction (with short life-cycle). If you guys have run across asterina with some or all of these qualities, please do let me know. Most importantly, I am curious if anybody has an active infection (and lives near boston) as I would love to get some of these guys to start my own cultures. In the interest of full disclosure, if you do end up giving me your contaminating asterina, some will likely give their lives for science and the study of tissue regeneration. So only respond, if you are ok with this. I will certainly understand if you aren't. Finally, if you know of somebody that has had or is having an asterina infection...maybe direct them to this post. Hope all is well and I look forward to being part of reef2reef. Scott.
My name is Scott and I joined reef2reef a few minutes ago. I've had a saltwater tank for 10 years and enjoy the hobby immensely. My day job is Professor of Genetics at a snooty ivy league medical school based in Cambridge/Boston Massachusetts. This day job is actually why I decided to join reef2reef. A few months ago I had an asterina starfish contaminant in my tank and this started me reading about these amazing creatures. As most of you probably know, some species of the genus asteroideans can divide asexually by fissiparity, which just means they rip themselves in half (or drop a leg) and then the pieces regenerate full starfish. Truly remarkable. I am wondering if asterina might make a useful model system for molecular biologists like me to study how cells and tissues regenerate. The reason I think this is worth doing is that understanding more about how tissues regenerate is very likely to have major implications for how we treat people suffering from a variety of injuries and diseases. Anyways, to date there has been very little research done on the asterina species that divide by fissiparity, so you guys are the world's experts. I would love to hear what you know about them. These are the traits that would make a species the perfect model system; small as possible, easy and cheap to feed, tolerant of low quality water, fast asexual growth, and capable of sexual reproduction (with short life-cycle). If you guys have run across asterina with some or all of these qualities, please do let me know. Most importantly, I am curious if anybody has an active infection (and lives near boston) as I would love to get some of these guys to start my own cultures. In the interest of full disclosure, if you do end up giving me your contaminating asterina, some will likely give their lives for science and the study of tissue regeneration. So only respond, if you are ok with this. I will certainly understand if you aren't. Finally, if you know of somebody that has had or is having an asterina infection...maybe direct them to this post. Hope all is well and I look forward to being part of reef2reef. Scott.
