Boston University Department of Biology

Drs. Finnerty and Gilmore's research highlighted in PLoS ONE

Results of collaborative research between the laboratories of Drs. John Finnerty and Tom Gilmore have recently been published in the online journal PLoS ONE.  In this paper, it is shown that a gene (called NF-kB) that is frequently mutated in human cancers is not only present in sea anemones, but is also mutated in wild populations of sea anemones. Their results suggest that sea anemones are adapting to environmental pressure, perhaps due to human activity, through mutations in their NF-kB gene.  Drs. Finnerty and Gilmore have also recently received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to further pursue these studies.