Molecular Ecology and Evolution Facility
The purpose of MEEF is to provide laboratories where students and staff can employ molecular approaches to studies in evolutionary biology, systematics and ecology as well as in distinctly applied areas such as fisheries biology and management, aquaculture, agriculture, biological resource management and conservation. The academic staff associated with the Facility and the Laboratory Manager(s) are also involved in some undergraduate-level teaching and in special introductory induction courses for new users.
Our aim is to provide cost effective, easy access to a molecular biology facility for all members of the School of Marine and Tropical Biology and School of Tropical Environment Studies and Geography their students and collaborators.
The facility has a stubstantial equipment base recently augmented by a Strategic Initiative Grant in 2004-5. MEEF senior researchers and postgraduate students utilise a wide range of techniques and organisms they study.
Our Study Species
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Plants
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Animals
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Some Lab Members
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Ainsley Calladine (part time Lab Manager, PhD student)
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Brad Evans (Postdoc, Marine Biology & Aquaculture)
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Caroline Chong (PhD student)
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Charmaine Read (PhD student)
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Christopher Gardiner (PhD student)
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David Blair (Associate Professor, Tropical Biology)
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Dean Jerry (Lecturer, Marine Biology & Aquaculture)
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Emma Gyuris (Lecturer, TESAG)
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James Stuart (Masters Student)
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Jon Luly (Senior Lecturer, TESAG)
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Katie Munkres (MSc student)
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Lauryn Grant (PhD student)
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Lynne van Herwerden (Postdoc), Marine Biology & Aquaculture
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Michelle Boyle (PhD student)
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Michelle Waycott (Lecturer, Tropical Biology)
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Samantha Fox (Lab Manager, Research Assistant)
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Selma Klanten (Lab Manager, Research Assistant)
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Vimoksalehi Lukoschek (PhD student)
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Yvette Williams (PhD student)
Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab
The laboratory opened in 2002 formed from an amalgamation of research groups from the three schools of Tropical Biology, Marine Biology and Aquaculture, and Tropical Environment Studies and Geography. This diverse background established a tradition which continues now as we work on many aspects of systematic, phylogenetic, biogeographic and population biology studies on a wide range of organisms. They include lower and higher plants, invertebrate and vertebrate animals from an equally diverse range of environments.
The lab has some 30 researchers including honours and postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and academic staff. We use numerous molecular technologies starting from extraction and storage of DNA, agarose and acrylamide gel electrophoresis, PCR amplification and E. coli cloning of DNA, DNA sequencing for phylogenetic and population level studies and various fingerprinting methods (including microsatellite, ISSR and AFLP molecular marker techniques) for population level work.
