Stanford University has opened the Molecular and Cellular Biodiversity Imaging Center at Hopkins Marine Station, a project led by biology professor Christopher Lowe from the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. The center is equipped with advanced imaging technology, including two new confocal microscopes that allow researchers to examine marine organisms at cellular and molecular levels. This facility also features a makerspace for developing new technologies.
Lowe emphasized the importance of studying marine life to understand biological evolution: “If you want to understand the fundamentals of how life evolved on the planet and how animals solved basic biological problems, then the ocean is the natural place to go and start to figure that out,” he said.
The center was established through renovations funded by Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences and Doerr School of Sustainability. It includes meeting areas, traditional stereo microscopes, temperature-controlled dark rooms, and high-resolution confocal laser scanning microscopes like Zeiss LSM 900 and 980.
Assistant professor Vanessa Barone highlighted the rarity of such equipment in marine stations worldwide: “There are very few marine stations in the world that have this kind of equipment on hand,” she noted. She hopes it will attract researchers globally to conduct experiments at Hopkins.
The facility aims to support diverse research fields within Stanford’s schools, such as Engineering and Medicine. A third room is dedicated to visiting scientists working on innovative research technologies. Manu Prakash from Stanford previously developed instruments like the “planktoscope” at Hopkins.
Lowe sees potential for foundational research at Hopkins Marine Station to lead advances across various disciplines. He cited past work on jellyfish leading to green fluorescent protein development as an example.
The center enables studies near where marine organisms live, eliminating previous logistical challenges of transporting specimens for imaging. Lowe stated: “We are a portal to the extraordinary biodiversity that’s hard to access except through a marine station.”
Both Lowe and Barone are affiliated with Stanford Bio-X; Lowe is also part of Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, while Prakash holds positions in bioengineering and environmental institutes at Stanford.
