Rene is our resident scientist, and the "Lab" part of LabOratory! Originally a Jersey girl, she left to study at Carnegie Mellon University, where she did her undergrad and master's in Biological Sciences and Computational Biology. She worked as a Research Assistant at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  in an environmental toxicology lab and a molecular ecology lab. She is currently a PhD student at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the University of Maine studying climate change and the kelp forests in the Gulf of Maine. When not in the lab, you can find her on stage in local theater productions, baking up nerdy and delicious baked goods in her kitchen, or hanging out with horseshoe crabs on the tidal flats of Cape Cod.