“Any recognition I receive is a reflection of the great people I get to work with in my lab, our amazing collaborators, fantastic departmental staff, and my supportive colleagues and mentors,” says Bellono.
The Bellono lab focuses on how unusual organisms adapt to fill their ecological or behavioral niches. They look at how environmental signals are detected by a variety of animals and follow how those signals affect cellular changes which optimize that organism for its environment. Some specific areas of interest include: electroreception in sharks and skates; sensory adaptations in other fishes; physiology in octopuses; how jellyfish and sea anemones sting, and the general experience of visceral sensations.
Bellono joined the MCB faculty in July of 2018, after completing his postdoc at University of California, San Francisco. He completed his PhD from Brown University in 2015.
“This is a great achievement and an important milestone both for Nick, and for the Bellono lab – though it was never in doubt for me, because the whole lab is doing such amazing and creative work,” says MCB Chair Sean Eddy.
“Harvard MCB has been a great environment to be curious, explore, and follow the unexpected,” says Bellono. “I’m looking forward to continuing not knowing what comes next!”
Caption and image provided by Nick Bellono: “Newly appointed associate professor Nick Bellono celebrates with two ferocious beasts – Sunny the chihuahua and Vlad Denic.”
