Szu-Hsuan Lee
Who I am
I was born and raised in Taipei, the capital city of the island country of Taiwan. Surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on all sides, I was constantly reminded of how vast and beautiful an ocean is. As my fascination for biodiversity grew, I leaned into marine biology studies as an undergraduate student, which led me to work with marine fish diversity surveys and undertake taxonomic studies of deep-sea fish, and to my first close interactions with the diverse sharks and rays in these habitats. During this time, I witnessed the beauty of marine organisms as I constantly encountered fascinating species, but I also became more conscious of the fragility of marine environments.
Sharks have always intrigued me on account of their unique charisma as apex predators. But having learnt more about their biology, I am even more impressed by how these amazing creatures have survived and how they evolved independently for more than 400 million years and still maintain their important roles in the health of our marine ecosystems. Knowing this led me to pay more attention to their plight as they lose habitat and are overexploited, and strengthened my determination to explore the beauty and resilience of these species.
My firm resolve to study sharks led me to join the Florida Program for Shark Research as a graduate student where, to this day, I continue to explore new techniques to expand the understanding of the mystery of shark biology.
Where I work
I am currently working at the University of Florida in Gainesville. For many people around the world, Florida is synonymous with beaches and ocean – and sharks. Due to the state’s unique geography and reputation, the programme for shark research here presented me with a great opportunity to explore diverse topics. I study the evolutionary history of sharks and rays from species that occur both along the coastline here and, thanks to our global collaborators, around the world. My research projects focus mostly on the Atlantic Ocean, where iconic species such as white and tiger sharks are regularly surveyed, tracked and studied. The extensive knowledge that has already been gained about the species in this area provides us with the foundation to extract the chromosomal information from the blood cells of elusive creatures such as the white shark.
What I do
My PhD project focuses on understanding the evolution of sex chromosomes in sharks and rays. What began as a study of the population structure of the white shark has now evolved into a full exploration of the sex chromosomes in shark and ray species. A typical day is spent in the molecular biology lab, where I prepare whole genomic DNA sequences and bio-informatic analyses. However, my work is not confined to the lab. Recently, I have been travelling with researchers in the field and collecting blood samples from sharks that have been brought on board. I return to the laboratory with these samples as soon as possible and extract the white blood cells. Monitoring the growth of these cells in the laboratory is a crucial step in my goal to obtain information about the sharks’ chromosomes. Although this method is challenging, it offers the significant advantage of not having to extract the embryos or sacrifice large, live-bearing and endangered sharks. My hope is that if I can achieve this for the white shark, these techniques can be applied to many more endangered shark and ray species, and greatly increase our understanding of elasmobranch chromosomes.