Bryson Torgovitsky (D2) recently attended the International Conference for Young Marine Sciences (ICYMARE) 2025 meeting, which was hosted in the coastal city of Bremerhaven, Germany. At ICYMARE, Bryson hosted a workshop entitled “Unboxing R” where he provided a crash-course introduction to the R coding language and the RStudio freeware. The goal of this workshop was the construction of a reproducible access-to-analysis data pipeline and practice with coding for students of the marine sciences. This workshop also followed the completion of the first semester of the Unboxing R seminar series which Bryson also designed and hosts here at Tohoku University.
Bryson Torgovitsky (D2) was recently invited to speak at the TOMODACHI Next Generation Summit 2025 which was held by the TOMODACHI Initiative of the US-Japan Council in Tokyo on August 3rd. The TOMODACHI Initiative is a partnership between the Council and the United States Embassy in Japan which was originally founded as part of the relief efforts after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Today, TOMODACHI continues to serve as an outreach and education program. Bryson is a two-time alumnus of TOMODACHI high school exchange programs and has remained involved in student and alumni events in the years since. Bryson was a speaker for the Sustainability panel alongside two Japanese alumni where he outlined the importance of collaboration between science, citizens, and industry.
Behind every breakthrough and exciting discovery at the International Marine Science Lab is a dedicated, international team. We’re excited to introduce our new “Meet the Lab” page, giving you a closer look at the diverse talents, backgrounds, and personalities that make our research community so vibrant.
Learn about their expertise, their roles, and what makes our lab a place of great work and cutting-edge research.
Get to know our incredible team: You can access the page directly via the link below, or through the new “Meet the Lab” icon in our website menu!
Tohoku University stands at the forefront of tackling some of the most pressing global challenges, particularly those related to our planet’s changing marine ecosystems. The Tohoku University Integrated Report 2024 highlights groundbreaking research and initiatives that aim to understand and mitigate the impacts of environmental shifts on ocean life and beyond.
Unraveling Marine Ecosystems with Environmental DNA
At the heart of marine research is Professor Cheryl Ames, Unit Leader/Principal Investigator at the Advanced Institute for Marine Ecosystem Change (WPI-AIMEC) and Professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Professor Ames’s research, which notably began with her fascination for jellyfish, has evolved into broader marine organismal studies utilizing environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis.
eDNA, collected from the environment (like seawater), provides a snapshot of all organisms inhabiting an ecosystem at a specific time, even revealing the environmental burden imposed by human activities. Professor Ames has developed a compact, portable eDNA detection kit, significantly reducing the time and cost associated with estimating jellyfish distribution over wide areas. This versatile kit can also be adapted to extract biological data from various other marine organisms.
Collaborations are key to this research. Professor Ames’s unit works with octopus fishers and wholesale auction centers in Minamisanriku, Miyagi, collecting eDNA to aid resource management in Shizugawa Bay and contribute to food sustainability. Further efforts are underway in Okinawa to develop rapid eDNA tests, crucial for regions where jellyfish damage impacts human health and tourism
Addressing Earth’s Changes and Shaping Ocean Life
WPI-AIMEC was established with a strong sense of urgency to decipher the mechanisms behind ocean warming and connect this understanding to projection models. The institute acknowledges the increasing vulnerability of marine ecosystems to rapid changes, suchando as rising global ocean temperatures and fluctuating ocean currents. Incidents like the mass outbreak of venomous Portuguese man-of-war in Miyagi Prefecture underscore the unprecedented phenomena occurring in our oceans.
Understanding the ocean requires an integrated approach, encompassing physics, chemistry, biology, and ecosystems, rather than isolated disciplinary studies. Tohoku University facilitates multidisciplinary research, bringing together diverse specializations to explore connections between sub-disciplines and gain a better understanding of the overall mechanisms of the ocean environment. The ultimate goal is to understand the relationship between the ocean and ecosystems, providing options for actions to build a sustainable society capable of adapting to environmental and ecological changes.
WPI-AIMEC aims to leverage AI to integrate various data types, enhancing our understanding of marine environments and the interactions between marine ecosystems and human society. The establishment of a centralized repository for valuable marine samples and their metadata (including eDNA sequences and images) is also a key initiative to invigorate marine ecology research. Outreach efforts include workshops for researchers and engaging elementary school students in eDNA sample collection to foster ocean conservation.
Tohoku University’s commitment to pioneering research in marine science, exemplified by Professor Ames’s work and the WPI-AIMEC initiative, is vital for a sustainable future.
Earlier this month, Dr. Cheryl Ames participated in a highly productive and collaborative meeting in Nice, France, from June 6-8, 2025. This important gathering provided a crucial platform for engaging with international colleagues and advancing the strategic planning for the groundbreaking Ocean Shot Research Grant.
As a Unit Leader at WPI-AIMEC and a co-leader of the selected Ocean Shot project, Dr. Ames was a key figure in the discussions. The project, officially titled “Discovery in the largest frontier: advanced imaging and genomics of open ocean animals,” recently secured $2.75 million USD for a three-year research period, set to begin in 2025. This significant funding was awarded by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Policy Research Institute under its Ocean Shot Research Grant program.
“This is an exciting opportunity to bring marine science researchers together from around the globe to explore the ocean using innovative genomics and imaging approaches. I look forward to seeing all the new species we will discover!”
— Dr. Cheryl Ames
For comprehensive details on the Ocean Shot Research Grant, its team, and scientific objectives, please visit the original announcement on the WPI-AIMEC news page: https://wpi-aimec.jp/en/news/2207/]
In February 2025, the proposal entitled “Discoveries at the Greatest Frontiers: Advanced Imaging and Genomics of Pelagic Animals,” submitted by WPI-AIMEC Unit Leader Prof. Cheryl Ames (Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University) with Ocean Shot team leader Jan Hemmi University of Western Australia, together with Karen Osborn of the University of Western Australia and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and Kakani Katija of Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, was selected for the Ocean Shot research grant program by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Policy Research Institute.
Ocean Shot was established to provide large-scale support for the discovery of marine species and the development of new technologies that drive these discoveries. Through this selection, the team will receive 2.75 million USD for their proposed 3-year research project starting in 2025.
This research project focuses on the midwater zone, located between the ocean surface and the deep sea. Despite being estimated to harbor over 90% of Earth’s biodiversity, this light-limited region is one of the least explored ecosystems due to its inaccessibility. By employing imaging, genomics, eDNA, and AI technologies in dedicated research cruises, the project aims to develop a comprehensive database of marine organisms. Through collecting, curating, compiling and disseminating multiple data types, the project aspires to bring to light the scale of midwater biodiversity, evolutionary processes, and environmental changes on a global scale.
