This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: While a colleague traveled along the East Coast from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico collecting oysters, Northeastern University bioinformatics graduate student Megha Prasad worked away at her computer. She zeroed in on DNA, the molecule containing instructions for making proteins that shape the critters' traits.
It also holds the key to their adaptation to the changing climate. A senior with just one semester to go, Prasad was working as a co-op at Northeastern's Center for Marine Ecological Genomics (CMEG). Helping conservationists restore dwindling oyster populations by identifying the genes behind traits that give them a better shot at survival.
Despite the task at hand, Prasad herself rarely came face-to-face with the mollusks during her workday. Instead, she put her computational skills to use by developing new code that brought AI on board. It made the task of combing through oyster genetic data easier than ever by directing the AI to spot promising mutations related to adaptations in vast stretches of DNA.
She also discovered that some genetic changes scientists previously overlooked actually played an important role in adaptations. "People might be thinking marine biology is about being outdoors, collecting samples in a boat somewhere," she said. "But for me, as a bioinformatician, it was mainly about working on computers.
Just staring at the screen and trying to write the code and debug a lot of it." Established in 2025, CMEG is dedicated to tracking biodiversity. Not the large-scale kind that accounts for the Great Barrier Reef having more than 1,600 species of fish and over 400 types of coral. Instead, CMEG's scientists zoom in on the vast number of mutations, or variations, in marine animals' genes.
They pay special attention to those that equip them with coping mechanisms for environmental challenges. And oysters, for one, have quite a few to grapple with. There was a time when oyster reefs in the Chesapeake Bay grew so tall they became a navigational hazard for incoming ships, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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