Daniel E. Martínez

Professor of Biology; On leave Fall 2024
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Daniel Martínez, one of the world’s leading scholars on hydroids, specializes in evolutionary developmental biology and the evolution of aging. His long-term work suggesting the theoretical “immortality” of the freshwater hydra has brought him national attention.

    In 2010, he received a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for research on “Mechanisms underlying lack of senescence in members of the genus Hydra.” In 2013, he received a grant from The Immortality Project at the University of California Riverside to study the implications of hydra’s unlimited lifespan on medicine and increasing human longevity.

    Research Interests

    • Mechanisms of aging in hydra
    • Evolution and biogeography of hydra

    Areas of Expertise

    BIOLOGY

    • Genetics
    • Evolution of Aging
    • Molecular Evolution
    • Evolution of Development
  • Work

    Work

    With D. Bridge, L. Masuda-Nakagawa, and P. Cartwright, "Cnidarian Homeoboxes and the Zootype," Nature, 393:748-749, 1998

    With D.M. Bridge, C.T. Ha, A. Nemir, A. Renden, M.M. Rorick, A. Shaffer, D.M. Underkoffler and A.E. Wills, "Variations on a theme? Polyp and medusa development in Podocoryna carnea," Hydrobiologia, 2004

    "Mortality Patterns Suggest Lack of Senescence in Hydra," Experimental Gerontology, 33, 217-225, 1998

    "Senescence and Rejuvenation in Asexual Metazoans," in Reproductive Biology of Invertebrates, Vol. XI, Progress in Asexual Reproduction (R.N. Hughes, ed., Oxford & IBH Publishing, New Delhi, 2002)

    "Zootypes," in Encyclopedia of Evolution (M. Pagel, ed., Oxford University Press, 2002)

    With K.H. Kaestner and W. Knšchel, "Unified Nomenclature for the Winged Helix/Forkhead Transcription Factors," Genes & Development, 14, 142-146, 2000

    With J. Levinton, P. Klerks, C. Montero, C. Sturmbauer, L. Suatoni, and W. Wallace, "Running the Gauntlet: Pollution, Evolution and Reclamation of an Estuarine Bay" in Aquatic Life Cycle Strategies: Survival in a Variable Environment (M. Whitfield, J. Matthews and C. Reynolds, eds., Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 1999)

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D.
    State University of New York, Stony Brook

    Licenciado
    Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bah’a Blanca (Argentina)

    Recent Courses Taught

    Human Genetics for Non-Majors with Lab

    Introductory Genetics with Lab

    Molecular Evolution: The Tree of Life, with Lab

  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    National Science Foundation, Grant, 2001-05; Grant 2005-2007

    National Science Foundation, Grant, "Collaborative Research: Assembling the Tee of Life-An Integrative Approach to Investigating Cnidarian Phylogeny," 2005

    US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Grant, 1998-2002

    Mellon Faculty Grant, 1999