Rhode Island Coral on Display:
Hosted by Dr. Koty Sharp’s Lab, Roger Williams University
The research team from Dr. Koty Sharp’s Lab at Roger Williams University participated in the exhibit “About Planet Earth, the Environment and Our Future” at Providence’s Waterfire Gallery. The free exhibit ran from March 29th to May 1st. 2021, and showcased art and science communicating the threats of global climate change. On display was a tank of live colonies of Astrangia poculata, Rhode Island’s newly designated Official State Coral, prepared by Alicia Schickle (SURF ’18, Post-baccalaureate ’19-22).
“RI-INBRE’s support of my research program gave me the research momentum and freedom to start and maintain a large, multi-institutional research and training collaborative, dedicated to studies of RI’s state coral”Dr. Koty Sharp, Roger Williams University
Along with other research stories in the “Science and Society” display, the exhibit highlighted the RI-INBRE-supported research from the Sharp Lab on microbiomes and microplastic pollution in Narragansett Bay, and the lab’s efforts to establish Astrangia poculata as a widely used experimental system to address issues such as coral bleaching and climate change. Dr. Sharp shared “RI-INBRE’s support of my research program gave me the research momentum and freedom to start and maintain a large, multi-institutional research and training collaborative, dedicated to studies of RI’s state coral – where we are able to do investigations both in our wet lab and in molecular biology lab spaces to lead the way on developing the coral Astrangia poculata as a model system for studying coral physiology and animal development.”
On April 23rd, Dr. Sharp and her group led an event during which visitors fed the Northern Star Coral and got an up-close look at the coral animals via microscopy and camera imaging.
Photos by Alicia Schickle and courtesy of the Sharp Lab at Roger Williams University