We’re excited to share that Madeline Baird, an undergraduate researcher in the Roberts Lab, will present her research at the 2025 Mary Gates Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Her poster presentation, titled
“Application of Metabolic Assays to Characterize Thermal Tolerance in Pacific Oyster (Magallana gigas) Early Life Stages,”
investigates how parental immune priming affects offspring resilience in a changing ocean. Collaborating with the Jamestown Shellfish Hatchery, Madeline reared juvenile oysters from immune-challenged parents and assessed growth, survival, and metabolism under a wide range of temperatures.
Using high-throughput resazurin metabolic assays, she found that immune-primed offspring showed greater thermal tolerance—especially between 36°C and 40°C—highlighting a potentially important role of metabolic flexibility in inherited stress resilience.
🔬 These findings support the idea that non-genetic inheritance may help oysters adapt to increasing marine heatwaves—an insight with valuable implications for aquaculture and conservation.
Madeline’s work was supported by the USDA, Washington Sea Grant, and the UW Population Health Initiative, which recognized her with a 2025 Population Health Recognition Award.
We’re proud to support Madeline’s research and scientific growth, and we look forward to seeing where her work leads next!
🧪 View her research, lab notebook, and more:
👉 https://linktr.ee/madsmarine
See her in in the lab!