Jake earned his BS from the University of Minnesota, PhD from Yale, and conducted postdoctoral studies at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. In 2023, he established his lab at Yale University to investigate the origins of animal life and the deep evolutionary history of our nervous system.

Kejue is an associate research scientist in the MCDB department at Yale studying cell type and gene module evolution. He earned his PhD in computational biology with minors in applied math and statistics from Iowa State University with a focus on protein coevolution and homolog detection.

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Dominica received their B.A.s from Smith College and conducted postgraduate research at Yale University. They joined the Musser group as a Gruber Fellow to study the evolution of animal body plans, with particular interest in how it intersects with organismal development, evolution, and theory.

Jamie received her B.S. in Forensic Science and Biology and her M.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of New Haven. She is now a Research Associate in the Musser lab and interested in the evolution of cell types in animals.

Jackson received his B.S. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Yale University and conducted undergraduate research on the C. elegans germline. He joined the Musser lab as a postgraduate researcher to explore the dynamic structure of sponge canals and the evolution of immune systems.

Kat received her A.B. in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology from Harvard University and is now a Yale BBS doctoral student. She loves microscopy and uses this tool  in the lab to answer questions about the evolution and development of animal tissue.

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Sarah joined the lab as a PhD student to study the microbiome of freshwater sponges. She is very passionate about microorganisms of all kinds. When she is not in the lab she is looking for rocks, watching animal documentaries, gaming, or sleeping.

Roy received his B.M.Sc. in Microbiology & Immunology w/ Pathology and M.Sc. in Microbiology & Immunology from Western University in Canada. He is currently disentangling how proteins and organelles became integrated as part of cell-cell communication pathways to coordinate multicellular physiology.