​Profile: Cecilia Trani Launches a Cross-Continental Parasite Sleuthing Mission to Map the Parasitic Helminths of Atlantic Forest Felids

When parasite biologist Cecilia Trani stands beside a muddy highway in Misiones, the body of every cat she recovers—whether a jaguar, ocelot, or neighborhood pet—becomes a clue to the hidden web of helminths linking the Atlantic Forest with our own backyards. This year she is transforming those clues into a cross-continental campaign that unites Argentina’s Subtropical Biology Institute, Brown University, and a grassroots network of rangers and veterinarians. The whole region is watching 🤩​

Cecilia Trani supervising the capture and handling of a coati for parasite surveillance at HelmCamp in Argentina

Inside a Year of Conservation at the Kartzinel Lab

Conservation science is changing fast—but the realities of how our work gets done are rarely shared. To mark the end of 2025, the Kartzinel Lab published its first Annual Report to openly document what it takes to connect modern genomic tools with the front lines of conservation: crossing landscapes, institutions, and communities amid growing uncertainty for scientific research.

Alumni Spotlight: Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun

The stuff of legends. That's the only way to describe Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun's legacy as a postdoc in the Kartzinel Lab. Beth joined the lab and the National Park Service in amplifying our collaboration at Yellowstone with the launch of our first NSF awards for the project. Author of several news-making and mind-changing publications, recipient of Brown University's Postdoctoral Excellence Award, mentor and teacher to countless students in the program, and now a fully independent faculty member at the University of Bath in the UK. You will hardly believe the scope of the impact she had on our program and the field writ large... Faculty website: University of Bath In the news: Researchers propose new model for herbivore diets in Yellowstone National Park Post from the lab: Beth wins 2023 Postdoctoral Excellence Award

Reconstructing 10,000 Years of Caribou Diets from Melting Yukon Ice Patches

Dr. Carson Hedberg and team on an expedition to the Gladstone Ice Patch

A prestigious NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Office of Polar Programs that was awarded to Carson Hedberg is powering a new Kartzinel Lab project in the Yukon: using ancient DNA preserved in towering alpine ice patches to reconstruct thousands of years of change in caribou diets since the end of the last Ice Age. By sequencing genetic traces of food that have been locked inside caribou dung and literally frozen in time, Carson is asking how these animals have weathered past climate shifts—and what this can tell us about prospects for their future.

Hannah Hoff awarded Blavatnik Family Graduate Fellowship

Outstanding scholarship & innovation in the life sciences. Hannah Hoff, PhD candidate in the lab, has accepted a Blavatnik Family Graduate Fellowship in Biology & Medicine at Brown University. This is a highly competitive and well-deserved honor. Hannah has helped lead our work in Yellowstone National Park since 2021.

Feature: Montana Stone’s award‑winning photo

Zorro by Montana Stone

The magazine Medicine@Brown featured Montana Stone's award-winning photo of "Zorro" -- a culpeo fox -- taken at our long-term ecological research site in Fray Jorge National Park in Chile.

Profile: Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun postdoc takes Prize Fellowship to launch a new lab

Story behind the science: Field training with Save the Elephants

Profile: Anna Jackson, Lab Manager

Anna Jackson with a spotted ground squirrel, the subject of her conservation genomics MSc thesis

The lab has been most fortunate to follow the leadership of Anna Jackson, who has been our Lab Manager since early 2024. ​Anna brings years of experience in molecular ecology across multiple institutions together with teaching and leadership experience through her MSc work and service in the Peace Corps. Anna was selected from an internationally competitive application pool and we look forward to enjoying a very productive and rewarding collaboration with her over the long term. Anna's leadership is integral to the success of all of our work, and she has been particularly active in projects based at Yellowstone National Park, Fray Jorge National Park, and the development of our program in Molecular Parasitology. You can find a free list of essential Lab Protocols that Anna curates for our site, Contract with Anna for your next project, or Train with her in the lab either on campus at Brown or through one of our international workshops like HelmCamp 2026!

Profile: Dr. Mary Burak and her conservation research in African savannas

Since 2023, we have been most fortunate to collaborate with Dr. Mary Burak on conservation research in African savannas. Mary joined the lab as a Fulbright Scholar based in Kenya, with continuing support provided by a Voss Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. Together these prestigious awards provided three years of support Mary to connect Brown University with its research on African savannas. Mary collaborates with a number of major NGOs, including Save the Elephants, The National Museums of Kenya, and Mpala Research Centre to address critical data needs for the conservation of large carnivores and herbivores across Kenya.  Mary is based in Nairobi. She completed a PhD in Os Schmitz's lab at Yale University in 2023.

Caroline Dressler wins the James F. Kidwell Prize in Genetics & Population Biology

Caroline accepts the 2023 Kidwell Prize from Dean Achilli. Photo Credit: William Holmes

Senior all-star Caroline Dressler won the 2023 Kidwell Prize! This is the top senior prize in our area of biology. Caroline was recognized for outstanding academics, a top-notch Honors thesis, consistent leadership at Brown, and a community-minded commitment to education. It was an honor to contribute to her journey -- we look forward to publishing more papers together and following her journey for years to come. Congrats, Caroline!

​Andy Luo wins Fulbright Scholarship

Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun wins 2023 Postdoctoral Excellence Award

Congratulations to Beth, for the much-deserved honor of a 2023 Postdoctoral Excellence Award in Research and Teaching from Brown University. Our lab and the entire university community are fortunate to collaborate with such a talented and dedicated leader in the field!

Beth’s scientific research is world-class. She is developing cutting-edge CRISPR-based techniques that are poised to become foundational tools in the fields of molecular ecology, food web ecology, and conservation biology. While other research wunderkinds sequester themselves, Beth has done just the opposite; she is the linchpin of the Kartzinel lab. She has expertly mentored numerous graduate and undergraduate students in the lab, but her standout achievement was in BIOL1515/2015 last Fall where she masterfully blended cutting-edge science research with creative learn-by-doing pedagogy. Beth gave those students access to authentic and impactful research experiences in the classroom that are wholly unique. I have no doubt that every undergrad from that class that goes on to a career in science will point to that semester as a pivotal experience

Dr. Haldre Rogers joins a class at Brown University

Haldre Rogers joined my class in the lab on PCR Day to join in our efforts to study bird diets from Pacific islands. From left: Hannah, Haldre, Chloe, Owen

We were honored to have Haldre Rogers join the lab during her visit this week. We are huge fans of Haldre -- not only did she give a phenomenal EEOB departmental seminar, but she hung out for a few days to work with us and connect with students. Each year that I teach my 'Conservation genomics' course, we partner with external collaborators to address a real-world conservation problem through our semester-long research projects. This year, one group has entered a collaboration with Haldre and her network of collaborators to better understand the ecology of bird loss in the Northern Mariana Islands. By the end of the year, we plan to report back on the diets of remnant bird populations using dietary DNA metabarcoding methods. We just finished PCR week, and Haldre joined us to do some pipetting!

Profile: Hannah Hoff and her work on Yellowstone plant-herbivore interactions

Hannah scouting field sites at Yellowstone, summer 2022

Since 2022, Hannah Hoff has been a core member of the Kartzinel Lab at Brown University. We were lucky to get to work with Hannah beginning in the summer before she entered our graduate program to focus on ecology and conservation in our partnership with Yellowstone National Park.

Ezequiel Vanderhoeven receives Rufford Foundation award

Feature: Bianca Brown in Brown Alumni Magazine

Photo from Brown Alumni Magazine Feature

It’s been a year. For 13 months, Brown students were isolated, masked, and tested both literally and figuratively. Each one of them performedexceptionally, making it through COVID with determination and resilience, but we can’t fit 2,505 stories into this 10-page feature. So we’re focusing on just seven of the countless exemplary students who earned bachelor’s and advanced degrees this year. Despite having a final year at brown so challenging that it’s literally one for the history books, they’ve created, achieved, and helped others.

Profile: Chrishen Gomez joins the lab

Chrishen Gomez is the recipient of a prestigious 2019 Merdeka Award Grant from Malaysia, which was established “to reward citizens and organizations who have made outstanding contributions in their respective fields to the people of Malaysia.”

Tyler Kartzinel named ESA Early Career Fellow

Tyler Kartzinel: Elected for outstanding contributions at the interface of ecology and molecular biology, and for his pioneering use of DNA metabarcoding to elucidate the structure of complex terrestrial food webs.

​Bianca Brown wins NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP)

Congratulations to Bianca Brown for her big win - a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) to support her ecology and evolution PhD research!