{"id":1512,"date":"2024-01-03T11:26:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T16:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mote.org\/?post_type=program&p=1512"},"modified":"2025-06-05T11:52:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T15:52:02","slug":"marine-immunology","status":"publish","type":"program","link":"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine Immunology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research in the Marine Immunology Program focuses on basic and applied research on the health and immune systems of marine vertebrates, including cartilaginous fishes (sharks, skates, and rays), Florida manatees, and sea turtles. Basic immunological research with marine species explores how immune systems from different species and function and has the potential to lead to novel insights into the evolution of the immune system.<\/p>\n

Current research projects explore how certain environmental stressors, such as red tide toxins, or brevetoxins, can impact the immune health of marine species. Such research is critical for endangered and threatened species such as manatees and sea turtles as compromised immune systems can impact a species\u2019 overall ability to survive and reproduce in the wild. Other project areas include research on cytotoxic factors produced by cells of the shark immune system, that have the potential to benefit human health, research on bioactivity of stingray venom, and development of cell lines from marine finfish and invertebrates.<\/p>\n

Dr. Walsh also serves as Quality Assurance Officer and coordinates NSF REU program<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

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\n \n \"\" <\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n \n \"Dr. <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n Dr. Cathy Walsh, Manager of the Marine Immunology Program at Mote <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n \n \"\" <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n Mote senior scientists Dr. Carl Luer and Dr. Catherine Walsh, along with staff biologist Jessica Restivo, look at blood cells from Atlantic stingrays with their new Fluorescent Cell Imager at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota on Tuesday, February 14, 2017.\n\n-------\n\n**Photo Usage**\nPhoto may be used with proper permission and the following credit line: \"Photo by Conor Goulding\/Mote Marine Laboratory.\" <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n <\/div>\n\n \n

 <\/p>\n

Current Projects<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Cytotoxic factors produced by cell cultures of the shark epigonal organ. The goal of this project is to isolate and characterize bioactive factors produced by short-term cultures of shark epigonal cells. These immune cell derived factors have demonstrated inhibitory activity against a variety of human tumor cell lines. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Carl Luer of Mote\u2019s Marine Biomedical Program.<\/li>\n
  • Bioactivity of stingray venom. The goal of this project is to isolate venom proteins and characterize their cytotoxic activity against muscle and skin cells, and various tumor cell lines. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Carl Luer of Mote\u2019s Marine Biomedical Program, and Dr. Craig Doupnik (USF).<\/li>\n
  • Effects of red tide toxins on manatee and sea turtle health. Current focus of this project is to identify biomarkers of red tide toxin exposure in animals naturally exposed to brevetoxins in their habitat, using a proteomics approach. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Kelly Rein (FGCU).<\/li>\n
  • Development of cell lines from marine finfish and invertebrates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":17560,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","areas-of-research":[14,13,11],"research-program-type":[1039],"class_list":["post-1512","program","type-program","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","areas-of-research-biomedical-technology-development","areas-of-research-fisheries-aquaculture","areas-of-research-marine-animal-rescue-rehabilitation","research-program-type-mote-research-programs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMarine Immunology | Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marine Immunology | Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Research in the Marine Immunology Program focuses on basic and applied research on the health and immune systems of marine vertebrates, including cartilaginous fishes (sharks, skates, and rays), Florida manatees, …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-05T15:52:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/BiomedicalImmunologyStingrayResearch_20170214_067W-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/\",\"name\":\"Marine Immunology | Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/BiomedicalImmunologyStingrayResearch_20170214_067W-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-03T16:26:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-05T15:52:02+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/research\/program\/marine-immunology\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/BiomedicalImmunologyStingrayResearch_20170214_067W-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/BiomedicalImmunologyStingrayResearch_20170214_067W-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Mote senior scientists Dr. Carl Luer and Dr. Catherine Walsh, along with staff biologist Jessica Restivo, look at blood cells from Atlantic stingrays with their new Fluorescent Cell Imager at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota on Tuesday, February 14, 2017. 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