Dr. Billie Swalla

Egg to Embryo to Chordate: Invertebrates help us unravel gene networks

Have you ever thought about how a fertilized egg goes from one cell to a swimming larvae?  All animal embryos use the same gene networks to establish their tissues, including muscle and nerves. Invertebrate embryos frequently develop into larvae that then metamorphose into adults. I have spent my lifetime studying how marine invertebrates develop through gene networks. How do gene networks get established in embryos and how do they evolve? My lab has studied these questions for over 40 years now. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we work with the beautiful Boltenia ascidian eggs, that have orange myoplasm which determines the muscle. We are currently working with the Boltenia genome and studying how their embryos will survive with increasing water temperatures. Their embryos are very heat sensitive and do not develop properly if they are heated up even a few degrees. Come for the drinks, stay for the fun, learn about genes and gene networks!

Professor Billie J. Swalla was the first female Director of UW Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL) from 2012-2019. She has been a Professor of Biology at the University of Washington for 27 years and is now doing research at FHL as Professor Emerita. Professor Swalla began her career at the University of Iowa, working on cartilage and muscle differentiation and limb patterning in chicken embryos with Professor Michael Solursh.  A summer taking Embryology at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA changed her life and she moved to Postdoctoral studies with Professor William R. Jeffery at the University of Texas at Austin and Bodega Marine Lab at the University of California at Davis. Dr. Swalla is interested in the evolution of chordates and proposed a new hypothesis for a worm-like deuterostome ancestor in 2000, highlighting the importance of studying hemichordates. Her passion is increasing participation and leadership of women, BIPOC and LGBTQ in science.