Crook Lab News
Recent highlights from the lab
Vivien Enriquez
Masters student Vivien Enriquez (Class of 2019) was accepted to the Biology PhD Program at UCLA, and was awarded the Eugene V. Cota Robles Fellowship for PhD study. Vivien will defend her MS thesis in the Spring and then head off to UCLA to continue her great work on microbiomes. Congratulations Vivien!!
Theo Murphy meeting at Chichley Hall, hosted by the Royal Society
SFSU Physiology faculty members Dr. Robyn Crook and Dr. Megumi Fuse presented their lab groups’ work on comparative models of nociceptive sensitization at the Royal Society at Chichley Hall, Milton Keynes, UK. This conference focused on evolution of pain-like behavior in a wide range of species, and brought together researchers working on humans, rodents and a range of invertebrate models. Look out for a special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B. coming out in the next few months, which will contain contributed articles from conference attendees, including papers from both the Crook and Fuse labs.
Lab Animal Magazine cover, January 2019
In this month’s issue of Nature Lab Animal, journalist Ellen Neff writes in detail about progress on cephalopod husbandry and welfare. The Crook Lab’s work on nociception, pain and anesthesia is featured in detail. The article can be downloaded free of charge here.
Vivien Enrique and Stephanie Bazarini
This week Masters students Vivien Enriquez and Stephanie Bazarini attended the annual SICB meeting, this year in Tampa, Florida. Both students gave oral presentations on their Masters theses. Vivian’s presentation was titled “Effects ofVibrio fischeri colonization on cognition, foraging behavior, and survival in the Hawaiian bobtail squid”, and Stephanie’s presentation was titled “Effects of Ethinyl Estradiol on Injury-Induced Plasticity in Euprymna scolopes”. Congratulations to Vivien and Stephanie for two excellent presentations!
Ryan Howard presents at CIAC 2019
Masters student Ryan Howard and PI Robyn Crook attended the CIAC meeting in Florida from Nov 12-16. Dr. Crook also attended a pre-meeting workshop on policy and welfare of cephalopods in research settings. The lab presented three posters, on learning behavior of Eupyrmna, effects of early-life injury on Euprymna behavior and neural excitability, and on how injury affects camouflage decisions in octopuses. The lab also gave a lightning talk on new work on cephalopod anesthesia, presented by collaborator Dr. Lisa Abbo.
Congratulations to Masters students Vivien Enriquez and Stephanie Bazarini, who had their abstracts accepted for poster presentations at the AAAS annual meeting in Washington DC, in February of 2019. Stephanie will be presenting her work on the interaction of injury and estrogenic pollutants, and Vivien will present her study of behavioral effects of Vibrio colonization on the bobtail squid.
E. berryi eggs from MBL
Thanks to the amazing work being done on cephalopod culture at the Marine Biological Laboratory, the lab received a shipment of Euprymna berryi eggs to raise. This species is similar to E. scolopes but is reported to have higher hatchling survival from eggs. We’re looking forward to seeing how they grow up!
Congratulations to MS students Vivien Enriquez and Stephanie Bazarini, who had their abstracts accepted as talks at the SICB annual conference, January 3-7 2019.
Dr. Robyn Crook spoke at Nerd Nite SF about research on invertebrate pain. Link coming soon!
Congratulations to Masters student Vivien Enriquez, who presented a poster on her thesis work at the SACNAS annual meeting in San Antonio, TX.
Masters Student Stephanie Bazarini and Dr. Crook presented talks at the 9th Annual Aquatic Models of Human Disease Conference at the Marine Biological Laboratory, and also enjoyed some Cape Cod lobsters!
Cephalopod researchers Ludovic Dickel and Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq visited the Crook Lab on their Californian vacation. Professors Dickel and Darmaillacq are well known for their detailed work on cuttlefish cognition at their home institution, University of Caen, Normandy, France. It was an honor to have two very famous cephalopod researchers visiting the Crook Lab. While they were here, we snapped a photo of Ludovic with a very tiny Octopus bocki, which was used in a newspaper article (in french) about their work.
MS student Stephanie Bazarini was awarded a highly prestigious ARCS Foundation Scholarship to support her research in the Crook Lab. Stephanie is examining the role of environmental estrogen in modulating pain-like states after injury, using Euprymna scolopes as a model system. Her work combines behavioral assays and neurophysiological recordings. Congratulations Stephanie!
Dr. Robyn Crook gave a presentation on emerging frontiers in Euprymna culture and cephalopod welfare at a small meeting held at the Marine Biological Laboratory.
Congratulations to Masters student Ryan Howard, whose abstract titled “Effects of Injury and Predation threat on associative learning in Euprymna scolopes” was accepted for a poster presentation at the triennial CIAC (Cephalopod International Advisory Council) conference in St. Petersburg, FL, from 10-17th October 2018.
MS student Hanna Butler Struben successfully defended her thesis titled “The Effects of Injury and Fluoxetine on Spontaneous Behavior and Cognition in Cuttlefish” on Friday, April 27th. Congratulations Hanna! Hanna will be applying for PhD programs in the Fall of 2018.
Journalist, author and researcher Danna Staaf’s story on the lab’s recent breakthrough work on cephalopod anesthesia is published as an In Depth article in Science Magazine this week. Thanks to Danna for getting our work onto the global stage!!
Crook Lab alum Emily Zepeda was awarded a highly prestigious NSF GRFP (Graduate Research Fellowship Program) fellowship for her PhD work at UC Davis. Emily was an undergraduate in the Crook Lab from 2016-2017, where she conducted a study on operant conditioning in Euprymna. Her work was published last year in The Biological Bulletin, and is the first published account of learning and memory in this squid species. Great job Emily!!
Danna is the author of the fantastic book Squid Empire. The lab hosted a visit from her last week, to talk cephalopods, anesthesia and welfare. Look out for an article coming soon from her about the Crook Lab’s recent work!
Congratulations to REU student Kia Seehafer and undergraduates Samantha Brophy and Sara Tom for successfully publishing their research in Frontiers in Physiology. Their paper “Ontogenetic and Experience-Dependent Changes in Defensive Behavior in Captive-Bred Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, Euprymna scolopes” began as an REU summer project for Kia, who came to the Crook Lab from Sacramento State University. Great work for all three authors! Read the open-access full text for all the details.
