Gary Wessel

About

Professor Gary Wessel leads the Wessel Lab at Brown University, which is part of the Providence Institute of Molecular Oogenesis. The lab focuses on understanding the fundamental process of reproduction, which is considered one of the most important goals of an organism. Their research employs a variety of organisms and experimental approaches to study how reproduction works. Despite the many reproductive strategies tested through evolution, the lab acknowledges that our understanding of these processes remains rudimentary. Recent technological advances have enabled new methods to study reproduction, and the lab embraces a convergence of disciplines to uncover these fundamental mechanisms. The Wessel Lab emphasizes the importance of examining diverse organisms and leveraging their differences to highlight underlying principles of reproduction.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Cell biology
• Paleontology
• Mathematics
• Evolutionary biology
• Engineering
• Chemistry
• Computational biology
• Geometry

Selected publications

• Genomic insights of body plan transitions from bilateral to pentameral symmetry in Echinoderms

  Communications Biology · 2020 · 61 citations

  Echinoderms are an exceptional group of bilaterians that develop pentameral adult symmetry from a bilaterally symmetric larva. However, the genetic basis in evolution and development of this unique transformation remains to be clarified. Here we report newly sequenced genomes, developmental transcriptomes, and proteomes of diverse echinoderms including the green sea urchin (L. variegatus), a sea cucumber (A. japonicus), and with particular emphasis on a sister group of the earliest-diverged echi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Regulation of dynamic pigment cell states at single-cell resolution

  eLife · 2020 · 55 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  family that are expressed selectively in pigment cells of the embryonic and in the coelomic cells of the adult - both cell-types having immune functions. Overall, this study identifies nodes of molecular intersection ripe for change by selective evolutionary pressures.

  DOI

• A single cell RNA sequencing resource for early sea urchin development

  Development · 2020 · 55 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  , from the eight-cell stage to late in gastrulation. We used these datasets to parse out 22 major cell states of the embryo, focusing on key transition stages for cell type specification of each germ layer. Subclustering of these major embryonic domains revealed over 50 cell states with distinct transcript profiles. Furthermore, we identified the transcript profile of two cell states expressing germ cell factors, one we conclude represents the primordial germ cells and the other state is transie…

  DOI

• Germline Stem Cells

  2026-02-11

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Sex Determination

  2026-02-11

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant K02HD001170

  NIH · $365k · 2002

• Mechanisms of specification, quiescence, and regeneration of primordial germ cells

  NIH · $3.2M · 2021–2026

• NIH Grant S10RR027634

  NIH · $500k · 2011

Frequent coauthors

• Nathalie Oulhen

  Providence College

  172 shared

• Julian L. Wong

  John Jay College of Criminal Justice

  119 shared

• Jia L. Song

  Foshan University

  89 shared

• Celina E. Juliano

  University of California, Davis

  89 shared

• Mamiko Yajima

  John Brown University

  82 shared

• Ekaterina Voronina

  University of Montana

  81 shared

• William F. Marzluff

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  62 shared

• David R. McClay

  Duke University

  57 shared

Education

• B.A., Biology and Environmental Sciences

  University of Virginia

  1978

• Ph.D., Developmental Biology

  Duke University

  1986

• Other, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

  University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

  1989

Similar researchers at Brown University

• Weihan Lih-83
• Eric Morrowh-76
• Mark Johnsonh-75