Thursday May 19
9:00 – 9:10 Welcoming Remarks
9:15 – 10:00 Plenary 1: Cassiopea xamachana: The making of a star!
Cheryl Lewis-Ames – Tohoku University / Smithsonian NMNH
10:05 – 10:25 Fluid dynamics of a nematocyst firing and ejection
Addie Harrison – University of Arizona
10:30 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – 11:05 Cassiopea as a model to study acclimation and adaptation to global change Marie Strader – Auburn University
11:10 – 11:30 Cassiopea sp. exhibit plastic responses to temperature change
Megan Maloney – Auburn University
11:35 – 11:55 Comparing Heat and Cold Stress in Exaiptasia diaphana
Louis Schlecker – Smith College
11:55 – 13:15 Break
13:20 – 13:40 Cassiopea xamachana hosts confer some protective effect to thermosensitive symbionts
Caroline Link – New College of Florida
13:45 – 14:05 Symbiotic state modulates interactive stress response in a cnidarian-algal holobiont
Rachel Wright – Smith College
14:10 – 14:30 Assessing the relationship between symbiont identity and host health in the Cassiopea xamachana holobiont
Victoria Sharp – Pennsylvania State University
Friday May 20
9:00 – 9:20 Variation in flow through the oral arms of Cassiopea
Christina Hamlet – Bucknell College
9:25 – 9:45 Oxygen removal around pulsing soft corals
Matea Santiago – University of Arizona
9:50 – 10:10 A scientometrics review of the genus Cassiopea
Natalia Lopez Figueroa – University of South Florida
10:15 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 10:50 Using the Red Sea upside-down jellyfish Cassioepa to study cnidarian-Symbiodiniaceae symbiosis
Shiou-Han Hung – King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
10:55 – 11:15 Clock enigma in the sea-anemome Nematostella vectensis
Raphaël Aguillon – Bar Ilan University
11:20 – 11:40 How sleep deprivation impacts Cassiopea’s neural network
Michael Abrams – University of California – Berkeley
11:45 – 13:15 Break
13:20 – 13:40 A novel RNAi method to study sleep mechanisms in Cassiopea
Diana Francis – University of California – Berkeley
13:45 – 14:05 Mechanisms regulating circadian and sleep behavior in the upside-down jellyfish of Cassiopea andromeda
Amir Harduf – Bar Ilan University
14:10 – 14:30 Chemical screening reveals pathways involved in bleaching in cnidarians
Justin Darymple – Florida International University
14:35 – 15:20 Plenary 2: Sleep, DNA damage and repair
Lior Applebaum – Bar Ilan University
Saturday May 21
9:00 – 9:20 First-time record of wild ephyrae of Cassiopea spp. with complementary notes to the early life-history traits
Ranjith Lakshmanan – Indian Council of Agricultural Research – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute
9:25 – 9:45 Two Cassiopea species coexist in Florida Keys shallow waters
Kaden Muffet – Texas A&M – Galveston
9:50 – 10:10 Field experiment on the settlement of the upside-down jellyfish (Genus Cassiopea) in a restored salt pond at Jobos Bay National Estuarine Reserve (JBNERR), Puerto Rico
Natalia Lopez Figueroa – University of South Florida
10:15 – 10:50 Break
10:55 – 11:15 Tradeoffs between symbiosis and immunocompetency in Cassiopea sp. polyps following bacterial infection
Madison Emery – University of Texas – Arlington
11:20 – 12:05 Plenary 3: Does Cassiopea Act as an Ecosystem Engineer in Mangrove Habitats?
Brad Gemmell – University of South Florida