Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program at UC Davis

Hydra, a simple aquatic animal, undergoes continual self-renewal, lacks senescence, and has robust regenerative capabilities; this is accomplished using the same basic molecular toolkit that vertebrates possess. Celina Juliano and her lab seek to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie these processes in Hydra. By using single cell RNA sequencing technology and collecting thousands of single cell transcriptomes at a single developmental time point, they gain insight into differentiation trajectories and thus obtain an unprecedented view of development. Using this strategy, they are building a molecular map of Hydra homeostatic development.