14 September, 2021
Job advt: Postdoctoral Fellow in Assisted Evolution in CoralsPostdoctoral Fellow in Assisted Evolution in Corals
16 May, 2021
Our research featured in Extreme E new YouTube videoOur current research was featured in Extreme E's new YouTube series (Ep 02). We describe the challenges Red Sea corals are facing due to climate change and explore how our research here at KAUST is contributing to the knowledge of coral resilience to increasing ocean temperatures.
20 May, 2021
Our recent work, featured in Nature genetics cover pageDinoflagellate endosymbionts of cauliflower coral The image shows a fluorescence microscopy close-up of polyps of the cauliflower coral Stylophora pistillata and their dinoflagellate endosymbionts. The coral host exhibits green fluorescence due to natural GFP expression, and the symbiotic Symbiodinium microadriaticum dinoflagellates are visible because of their red fluorescence from excited chlorophyll.
29 April, 2021
How reef-building corals got their bonesAranda lab graduate Xin Wang identified that coral ancestors had the genetic toolkit to make skeletal structures and only took simple evolutionary steps to begin building reefs.
29 April, 2021
Coral symbionts have a genome like no otherNew publication from Aranda group about the weird and wonderful genome of dinoflagellates. It looks nothing like other eukaryotic genomes.
15 September, 2020
New publication out from Aranda LabA new publication titled "Temperature transcends partner specificity in the symbiosis establishment of a cnidarian" was published in 'THE ISME Journal'. This was part of thesis work done by Marcela Herrera, a Ph.D student from our lab.
Click here to read !
11 February, 2020
Intergenerational epigenetic inheritance in reef-building coralsOur lab has just published a paper in Nature Climate Change, detailing the transmission of epigenetic information from corals to their progeny. This work, involving Yi Jin (co-first), Xin and Mani (sole PI), sequenced and analysed DNA methylation patterns from eight corals across three developmental stages.
16 May, 2019
Documentary "Climate change: Could Red Sea corals save the world’s reefs?" by Alexis Barbier-Bouvet and this team featuring our lab's research published on France24Documentary "Climate change: Could Red Sea corals save the world’s reefs?" by Alexis Barbier-Bouvet and this team featuring our lab's research published on France24
23 April, 2019
Maha defends her PhD thesis !Maha Cziesielski came to KAUST in 2014 as an intern in the Coral Symbiomics lab. During her internship she worked on the cnidarian symbiosis model system, the small sea anemone Aiptasia. Like corals, Aiptasia lives in symbiosis with the algae Symbiodiniaceae. She quickly developed an interest for the fine tuned and highly complex molecular mechanisms that underlie cnidarian symbiosis. Thus, she returned to KAUST in 2015 to begin her PhD studies.
11 March, 2019
KAUST Research Conference: "Securing a Future for Red Sea Ecosystems"The KAUST Research Conference: "Securing a Future for Red Sea Ecosystems" brings together experts from academia, industry and government to discuss the current state of research and to develop feasible strategies to improve current mitigation and restoration methods. This event aims to produce a set of targeted strategies that are sustainable, socioeconomically acceptable and aligned with public, academic, industry, and government interests.
01 March, 2019
Aranda Lab @ASLO conference in Puerto RicoAranda Lab presents at the ALSO conference in Puerto Rico recent studies in epigenetics and assisted evolution.
14 December, 2018
GRADUATIONS GALORE !It's a week of graduation celebrations at Aranda Lab !!. As many as five students graduated this year from our lab, successfully stepping into next stage of their career! Smiles all around :-)
22 November, 2018
Aranda Lab awarded with Competitive Research Grant 2018Post-doctoral fellow Arun Prasanna and Prof. Manuel Aranda won research funding through “Competitive Research Grant (CRG)” starting 2019.
18 November, 2018
Eric Guoxin Cui successfully defends his Ph.D. thesisThesis title: Unravelling the metabolic interactions of the Aiptasia-Symbiodiniaceae symbiosis.
14 November, 2018
Céline Cousteau, granddaughter of Jacques Yves Cousteau, visits Aranda LabDiving into the Red Sea Research with Céline Cousteau
17 October, 2018
Prof. Manuel Aranda will be one of the panelists at the SciCafe eventAssistant Professor Manuel Aranda from @RSRC_KAUST will be one of the panelists at the Sci-Café event on the theme of Extreme Marine Environments. Watch live on our KAUST Official Facebook page on Wednesday, October 17 at 4:00pm.
07 October, 2018
PhD student Maha wins fourth place in the Falling Walls lab competition at KAUSTShe presented her work on epigenetics, particularly histone modifications, and how this knowledge can aid us in training corals to have higher thermal resilience.
06 October, 2018
Prof. Manuel's insight on teaching coral to toughen up to help reefs survive climate changeManuel Aranda, a marine scientist at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia and the author of two studies published in June and August in the journal Science Advances, thinks the first warming event activates genes that prime the coral to cope with the next round of heat stress.
13 September, 2018
First PhD student graduated from Coral Symbiomics Lab !Wang Xin defended his thesis with presentation focussing on "How corals got bone -- comparative genomics reveals the evolution of coral calcification"
30 August, 2018
PhD student Maha co-authored a book chapter in YOUMARES 8The chapter is called: For a World without Boundaries: Connectivity between marine tropical ecosystems in times of change. It is focused on understanding climate change impacts such as rising sea levels, acidifcation and temperature on mangroves, seagrasses and coral reefs. We then discuss how these three ecosystems are connected and hence, a downfall in one will lead to loss and degradation in another.