Research in the Aguilera Lab delves into various aspects of animal development and evolution (EvoDevo) as well as responses to environmental changes. While our primary focus is on aquatic invertebrates, we are also deeply engaged in studying other marine animals and lesser-known marine clades. Our work integrates a diverse array of cutting-edge techniques, including morphological, molecular, and computational approaches. These methods encompass immunolabeling, confocal and electron microscopy, advanced imaging, gene isolation and cloning, in situ hybridization, genome mining, phylogenetic reconstruction, phylogenomics, single-cell RNA sequencing, transcriptomics, genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics.

We are actively generating chromosome-level genomes and building an extensive database of transcriptomes and epigenomes for several target species. These resources facilitate targeted gene mining and support a wide range of research questions. As the database and the variety of species studied in the lab continue to grow, they enable comprehensive comparative studies across diverse taxa.

As we expand our team, projects, and research focus, we warmly invite individuals passionate about developmental biology, evolution, and unique animal groups to connect with us and contribute to our work.