FHL Disease Case Study Assignment

One of the few graded assignments we had at Friday Harbor Labs was to investigate a disease of our choice (the instructors coordinated with each student so that each student would have a unique disease to focus on, although there was in fact a mishap and two students ended up researching the same one, oops!). We gave presentations on it, and then we posted a description of it on a blog, putting our scientific writing skills to use after a few wonderful workshops with guest lecturers. I chose Black Band Disease in coral, which is caused by dysbiosis, when there is an imbalance in the microbiome that causes the host organism to suffer. My post on BBD could use some touch-ups, but I'm still proud of it, and I'm especially proud of the posts that my amazing classmates wrote. There's quite a few parasites, from worms to copepods, and an even wider variety of diseased organisms, from turtles to eelgrass! There's so much I still need to learn about disease in marine environments, and my instructors and classmates' insights were incredibly enlightening.