Biologists Search For New Model Organisms | Quanta Magazine

Emily Singer writes in Quanta Magazine:

"In June, [MBL Fellow Alejandro] Sánchez Alvarado and a few other scientists convened a panel of experts at Woods Hole’s Marine Biological Laboratory to discuss the development of new model species. The researchers want to combine the best of both worlds — narrow and broad — taking advantage of both nature’s diversity and the wealth of tools and knowledge that amass from focusing on specific species. “Most of the biological world lies before us unexplored and unknown,” said Jonathan Gitlin, MBL’s director of research. “If most of what we know comes from seven organisms, imagine what we would know if we had 700.”