The Kelley Lab

While our feed is usually about lab accomplishments, we are deeply saddened to share the sudden and unexpected passing of Postdoctoral Researcher Carlos Garita-Alvarado. Carlos was a postdoctoral researcher in our lab and Eric Palkovacs’s lab. He joined us in January 2025 and brought to the labs his love of fish biology. He was interested in fish evolution and aquatic ecology, especially the selective pressures underlying morphological and behavioral diversification in freshwater fish.

https://news.ucsc.edu/2025/03/in-memoriam-garita-alvarado.html

Blair Perry was interviewed by National Geographic in article titled “Hibernating bears could hold a clue to treating diabetes” regarding his recent work published with Michael Saxton in iScience. Their work identified 8 key proteins that prevent bears from developing diabetes despite massive weight fluctuations and seasonal insulin resistance. Great work, Blair! There has been other exciting press on the article:

PC: Robert Hubner, Washington State University.

Blair Perry was interviewed by HealthDay News to discuss his research on bear hibernation, insulin resistance, and its impacts for humans dealing with type 2 diabetes. Blair and Michael Saxton’s full study, “Serum plays an important role in reprogramming the seasonal transcriptional profile of brown bear adipocytes” was recently published in iScience. Congrats to Blair and Michael!

Other related news on the article:

• https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/the-remarkable-science-behind-fat-bears-that-holds-important-lessons-for-human-health-20221010-p5boho.html
• https://www.opb.org/article/2022/09/29/how-a-unique-adaptation-in-hibernating-bears-could-innovate-treating-diabetes/
• https://www.euronews.com/2022/10/08/good-news-90-per-cent-of-plastic-in-oceans-could-be-gone-by-2040-and-a-breakthrough-for-al

PC: Bob Hubner, Washington State University.

Blair Perry presented his postdoctoral work at Parsons North Brewing Co. in Columbus, OH! Looks like it was a “beary” good time!

Congratulations to Ellie Armstrong, Blair Perry, and Joanna Kelley for their article “A beary good genome: Haplotype-resolved, chromosome-level assembly of the brown bear (Ursus arctos)” published this month in Genome Biology and Evolution! Link to the full article here.
Brown bear at sunset, Katmai National Park, Alaska, USA. Photo Credit: Dave Shumway, ForTheLoveOfBears.org

Congratulations to Graduate Student Tait Algayer for her Natural Resource Conservation Endowment Fund Award!

Congratulations to Graduate Student Kerry McGowan for receiving the Exceptional Service award from the School of Biological Sciences. Kerry has gone above and beyond in her contributions to the department!

Dr. Joanna Kelley’s ongoing research into the genetic changes occurring during grizzly bear hibernation is featured in Washington State Magazine’s spring issue! The article also discusses the research of collaborators Dr. Heiko Jansen and Dr. Charles Robbins. Read the full article here.

Ellie recently presented her grizzly bear research at the PacBio Plant and Animal Genomics Day. Congratulations, Ellie!

Kerry was awarded a 2022 NASA Space Grant Fellowship to study evolutionary rate divergence in poeciliid fishes. Congratulations, Kerry!