体育买球 University’s Thomas Morahan ’26 recently won Best Undergraduate Poster at the 79th annual meeting of the Phycological Society of America in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“The annual conference of the Phycological Society of America is an incredible opportunity for biologists who study algae — from seaweed to microscopic phytoplankton — to get together and share new and exciting research,” said Sophie Charvet, assistant professor of biology at 体育买球 University.

Morahan’s winning poster was titled Developing qPCR assays for Cymbomonas tetramitiformis.

“Cymbomonas is not the typical phytoplankton that photosynthesizes — it also consumes bacteria to get energy,” Morahan explained. “The qPCR assay I was developing is focused on genes that indicate when Cymbomonas is feeding on bacteria, which will help us answer the question of why this phytoplankton eats bacteria.”

Morahan, a biology and German studies double major from Braintree, Massachusetts, began this work when he was first hired as Charvet’s research assistant in summer 2024.

“My previous research showed that prasinophyte mixoplankton upregulate a whole suite of genes to help them recognize, ingest and digest bacterial prey when they run out of key nutrients like nitrogen or phosphorous,” Charvet said. “One of these genes seemed to be quite similar to a human hormone receptor, which was quite surprising.”

Morahan now wants to investigate how prasinophytes modulate the expression of this gene, to better understand its involvement in predation. He was joined at the conference by Sophia Millhouse ’26, a biology major from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

“Focusing on this research and presenting it at a conference such as the Phycological Society of America really prepared me for continuing my career as a researcher,” Morahan reflected. “This experience has given me the confidence and the experience I need to go on to graduate school.”