[Home]

Julian Lab: Tubeworms

Biochemical adaptations of marine invertebrates to hydrogen sulfide and free radicals Working primarily with Charles (Chuck) Fisher from PSU, I was able to do some work on deep-sea tubeworms (vestimentifera), which occur at hydrothermal vents and hydrocarbon seeps. Chuck’s lab and more information on his research can be found here. We once stumbled onto some interesting methane worms, too. I've participated in several deep-sea expeditions to hydrothermal vents and hydrocarbon seeps with Chuck. The 1998 cruise, which was to the Juan de Fuca ridge hydrothermal vents, participated in the REVEL Project, and more information about these expeditions can be found at the REVEL web site. Here is a very brief (albeit a bit old) article describing some of the sulfide research for the community newspaper of Tiburon (where the Romberg Tiburon Center is located). This article was written for the general public. If you'd like to go more in depth, here is a nice (but also a bit older) article by Lisa Yuan McCarthy on some of our tubeworm research, which appeared in the Fall 1997 issue of Intersci, an in-house science journal that is part of SFSU's Technical and Professional Writing program.

Updated Jan 2005