Brenna Hutchings, Patrick Erwin, and iMESA Lab collaborators: Grace Kennedy and Bradley Tolar, presented their research on ascidian symbionts in Durham, NC, November 4, 2023

The iMESA Lab had a great time informing the general public of what we do during the UNCW Center for Marine Science Open House, October 7, 2023.
Over 750 people came to learn more about our work, the oceans and ways they can help, LOVE IT!

July 4, 2023, iMESA Lab members Patrick Erwin, Susanna Lopez-Legentil and Brenna Hutchings joined researchers from SOKA, Marie Nydam, and CCU, Lauren Stefaniak and Nick Gulnick, to travel to Belize and collect ascidians from mangroves, reefs and seagrass meadows! We stayed at the amazing Carrie Bow Research Station (Smithsonian) for a week and returned with over 200 samples to analyze in the lab!

On Friday, May 12, 2023, we celebrated the accomplishments of our honor students Payton VanMiddlesworth and Jordan Pilcher at UNCW's Honors Medallion Ceremony.

The iMESA Lab got to talk about Invasive Sea-squirts for 5 hours at the NC Science Festival - Full STEAM Ahead!
Friday April 21, 2023 at UNCW Watson College of Education

On November 11, 2022, the iMESA Lab hosted 3 Hispanic/Latino high school students within the UNCW MI CASA program and introduced them to the cool Science we do!
Click HERE for more information about this great program lead by Centro Hispano

Brenna Hutchings, Brandon Rose and Patrick Erwin assisted to the NC branch meeting of the American Society for microbiology in Boone and presented some of the neat work they are doing on ascidian symbionts and cetacean gut microbiomes1

The UNCW James F. Merritt Million Dollar Club is an exclusive club of researchers who, due to their commitment to excellence, are on the cutting edge of research, teaching, and service, reaching $1M in total external funding during the 2022 fiscal year.

Brenna applied and successfully obtained a Ruth D. Turner scholarships in Marine Biology for her project entitled "Teamwork throughout evolutionary time: characterizing the gut and tunic associated microbiomes of four Belizean ascidian species". Priority is given to proposals involving molluscs, so Brenna's work on the ascidian microbiomes was highly regarded! Congratulations Brenna!!

iMESA Lab members Brenna Hutchings and Susanna Lopez-Legentil went to Belize July 20-28, 2022 to collect sea-squirts from harbors and mangroves!