how does a sponge obtain food how does a planarian move

These are worms that I originally collected in Bermuda about 11 years ago, and we’ve had tens of generations of these worms that have been nurtured in the lab, and we utilize them in experiments at the bench to look at how the process of regeneration works.

We keep cultures of this worm alive in the lab, generation to generation. So, my lab actually studies a live animal. So what kinds of materials do you work with specifically, and how do you curate materials such as these? You are a curator at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, but you don’t necessarily work with preserved specimens in jars as so many of the curators at the MCZ do. Mansi Srivastava, thank you for being here. I wanted to learn more about this work, and what it might tell us about ourselves. She studies marine worms called three-banded panther worms, which have the capacity to regenerate literally any part of their bodies, from cells to organs. Today, I’m speaking with Mansi Srivastava, an Associate Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard. My name is Jennifer Berglund, part of the exhibits team here at the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, and I’ll be your host. Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond.

How does a sponge obtain food how does a planarian move