New Molecular Core Facility Manager

Kristy Hill

Kristy Hill is the new lab manager for Grice Marine Lab’s Molecular Core Facility. She is originally from Greensboro, NC, and she and her fiancé are new to the Charleston area. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science and Policy and Music at Duke University, she was a technician at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

She is excited to be at Grice and is looking forward to assisting faculty, staff, and students apply molecular methods to explore their various research questions. Please call or email her if you are interested in finding out how the Molecular Core Facility might be able to help you. After she finished her Masters, she was a research assistant in the Fisheries Genetics Lab with Drs. John Graves and Jan McDowell, where she worked on the population genetics of fishes, such as rays and spearfishes, using microsatellite markers. She most recently worked at the Smithsonian Institution on a project exploring the diversity of marine bivalve parasites along a latitudinal gradient—from Panama to the Mid-Atlantic, US—using standard molecular diagnostic methods as well as metagenomic methodology Lab with Drs. Gene Burreson and Ryan Carnegie. This experience sparked her interest in using molecular tools to answer ecological questions. After three years, she went back to school and completed her Masters in Marine Science at The College of William and Mary, where she was advised by Drs. Gene Burreson and Kimberly Reece. Her thesis project involved assessing the diversity, molecular phylogeography, and dispersal of a genus of protistan parasites of oysters (Bonamia spp.).

Coral Display

Coral Tanks

The Woodley Lab, located at the Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research (CCEHBR) donated a collection of hard and soft corals for display. Carl Miller provided a variety of different types including mushroom corals that are often referred to as false anemones. All of the corals are in a miniature display tank in the main office, and are fed shrimp on a weekly basis. See the chart below for details.

Scientific NameDescription
Pocillopora damicornissmall, bushy and pink
Seriatopora hystrixsmall green/yellow/brown branching
Stylophora pistillata bright pink, branching
Fungia sp."Disc" corals

Green Garden Fall Workday

The Marine Biology Graduate students gathered at Grice last weekend for a successful garden workday of planting and garden maintenance.  Although the weather was a little overcast, a lot was accomplished. Projects that took place included planting sweetgrass around the cistern and dune sunflowers around the front sign. The sweetgrass plants were donated by Kim Counts of Carolina Clear. Paty Cowden, the College’s Supervisor of Grounds, donated the dunes sunflowers. Our Green Garden Coordinator, Sharleen Johnson, germinated the seedlings  romaine lettuce and komatsuna for planting in the vegetable bed. After harvesting the existing the sweet potatoes, the group also emptied the compost tumbler  and used this to amend the soil. They planted purple coneflower and brown-eyed susans in the perennial flower bed and replaced the turf grass with fogfruit, a ground  that provides nectar and larval food source for butterflies.