The main focus of the lab involves understanding how stony corals catalyze the precipitation of their biomineral. I seek to address the questions: Where and when is the biomineral formed? And what is the biophysical basis for the precipitation reaction? In addition, I target my study on how calcifying marine organisms respond physiologically and morphologically to changes in their environment and to better understand the role of algal symbionts (genus Symbiodinium) in coral (host) calcification.