About me
I’m Julia Van Etten, a postdoc in the Johnson Lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where I am working on my NSF PRFB project to investigate DNA-transfer driven ecological relationships. I received my PhD from the Bhattacharya Lab at Rutgers University in the Ecology and Evolution Graduate Program. In the past, I have worked on macroalgae culturing, sea urchin molecular development, and coral transcriptomics, and I received my bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and Biology from University of Miami RSMAS in 2016. During my PhD, I studied the role of horizontal genetic transfer in eukaryotes, and specifically as a driver of adaptive evolution in extremophilic red algae. This project was funded by a NASA FINESST grant and the Joint Genome Institute. Outside of the lab, I run Couch Microscopy, a multimedia project, documenting the biodiversity of microorganisms that live all around us but are rarely seen. This work has been featured by NBC, PBS, and other media outlets. I also host the Tiny Living Beings podcast.
Click here to view/download my CV
(updated 09/2024)
Publications
As important as peer-reviewed publications are to the world of science, they are far too esoteric to the non-specialist/non-scientist/future scientist who may be interested in the topics addressed, so for that reason, I will be writing a non-technical summary for each of my publications that can be accessed here.
google scholar page
1. Stephens,TG, Van Etten J, McDermott T, Christian W, Chaverra M, Gurney J, Lee Y, Kim H, Cho CH, Chovancek E, Westhoff P, Otte A, Northen TR, Bowen BP, Louie KB, Barry K, Grigoriev IV, Mock T, Liu S, Miyagishima S, Yoshinaga M, Weber A, Yoon HS, Bhattacharya. “Community-wide interactions sustain life in geothermal spring habitats.” bioRxiv, 2024.
2. Van Etten J, Stephens TG, Chille E, Lipzen A, Peterson D, Barry K, Grigoriev IV, Bhattacharya D. “Diverse fates of ancient horizontal gene transfers in extremophilic red algae”. Environmental Microbiology, 2024.
3. Benites LF, Stephens TG, Van Etten J, McDermott TR, Bhattacharya D. “Hot springs viruses at Yellowstone National Park have ancient origins and are adapted to thermophilic hosts”. Communications Biology, 2024.
4. Van Etten J, Stephens TG, Bhattacharya D. “A k-mer-based approach for phylogenetic classification of taxa in environmental genomic data.” Systematic Biology, 2023.
5. Van Etten J, Benites LF, Stephens TG, Yoon HS, Bhattacharya D. “Algae obscura: the potential for rare species as model systems”. Journal of Phycology, 2023.
6. Bhattacharya D, Van Etten J, Benites LF, Stephens TG. “Endosymbiotic ratchet accelerates divergence after organelle origin”. BioEssays, 2022.
7. Van Etten J, Yoon HS, Cho CH, Bhattacharya D. “Extremophilic red algae as models for understanding adaptation to hostile environments and evolution of eukaryotic life on the early Earth”. Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2022.
8. Van Etten J, Keddis R, Lisa J, Rauschenbach I. “The Diverse World of Protists – An Ideal Community with which to Introduce Microscopy in the Microbiology Teaching Laboratory”. Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education, 2022.
9. Van Etten J. “Red Algal Extremophiles: Novel Genes and Paradigms”. Microscopy Today, 2020. (+ cover art for the issue)
10. Van Etten J & Bhattacharya D. “Horizontal Gene Transfer in Eukaryotes: Not If, But How Much?”. Trends in Genetics, 2020. (Featured article)
11. Van Etten J, Shumaker A, Mass T, Putnam H, Bhattacharya D. “Transcriptome analysis provides a blueprint of coral egg and sperm functions”. PeerJ, 2020.
NEWS
April 2024: Awarded NSF Postdoctoral research fellowship (PRFB) to work on my dream project: Investigating DNA transfer-driven ecological relationships as a Rule of Life!
April 2024: Crime Pays but botany doesn’t podcast guest
April 2024: Awarded “best oral presentation” for my talk “Algae obscura: Combining naturalist skills and novel bioinformatic tools to characterize rare photosynthetic taxa” at the 41st Annual Eastern Regional Photosynthesis Conference at MBL.
February 2024: “Brave new worlds in a drop of water” article published in the Global Water Forum.
December 2023: Winner of Systematic Biology and Oxford University Press’ Publisher’s Award for Excellence in Systematic Research for the paper, A k-mer-based approach for phylogenetic classification of taxa in environmental genomic data.
September 2023: Field Museum Panel
August 2023: Atlas Obscura feature
November 2022: Tiny Living Beings podcast launched
July 2022: winner of the British Phycological Society’s Hilda Canter Lund Award
April 2022: Awarded the University and Louis Bevier Fellowship, Rutgers’ most prestigious phd fellowship, only 15 awarded university-wide annually.
september 2021: “tube-dwelling amphipod” video wins Microscopy Today People’s Choice Award
August 2021: IN defense of plants podcast guest
November 2020: Microscopy Today cover
April 2021: Quoted in The New Scientist
October 2019: short film ‘All We Are’
I WAS SELECTED TO BE ONE OF THE SCIENTISTS IN THE ANNUAL SYMBIOSIS COMPETITION, PART OF THE IMAGINE SCIENCE FILM FESTIVAL HELD IN NYC. HERE, I WAS PAIRED WITH FILMMAKER MARLEINE VAN DER WERF, FROM THE NETHERLANDS AND WE HAD ONE WEEK TO CREATE A SHORT FILM. This project was supported and funded by Labocine, Imagine Science Films, and Science Sandbox (Simons Foundation).
Lab Resources / TEACHING MATERIALS
Course materials used in Intro to Microbiology Lab, General Microbiology Lab, and Applied Microbiology Lab at Rutgers University.
Publication supplement with all course materials found here.
Below is a link to a compilation of videos, tutorials, and protocols I have put together to help train undergrads and carry out experiments for my dissertation project. Feel free to click and copy or use the list for your own teaching/training/learning endeavors! (https://linktr.ee/LabManual)
VIDEOS
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4012-7271