Valentina Di Santo

Finally!

This work was led by postdocs Yuchen Gong and Fidji Berio, former student Xuewei Qi, and collaborator Otar Akanyeti with his student Robert Sterling.

The finding suggests that bioinspired robotic swarms may sustain coordination under energy limitation if each agent adjust its locomotion locally rather than relying on changes in formation.

Cohesion was preserved because each fish adjusted its swimming mechanics in a way that kept propulsive efficiency. Collective coordination was maintained through individual kinematic compensation, not through changes in school structure.

As oxygen dropped, tail-beat frequency fell, amplitude increased, and swimming efficiency remained stable. The school held together because each fish adjusted its kinematics rather than its position.

We reduced oxygen stepwise from 95% to 20% while fish swam at the same speed. If hypoxia disrupts collective behavior, we would expect spacing or alignment to shift early. They didn’t. The school remained cohesive until oxygen reached the point where individual fish could no longer sustain swimming.

When oxygen becomes very low, do schools fall apart, or do fish change how they swim to maintain the formation? We tested this in a new project just published in Bioinspiration & Biomimetics:
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

YouTube video by Sciences de la vie - Collège de France Neil Shubin (2) - Denis Duboule (2025-2026)

Catch my new lecture at the Collège de France entitled “The Origin of Walking.” Thanks to @denisduboule.bsky.social for hosting!

💙🧪

m.youtube.com/watch?v=fNim...

“What Grant Reviewers Actually Look For (and What They Ignore)” A close colleague of mine at a major US research university begins the process of preparing a grant proposal by creating something he calls a “storyboard”.  When I was growing up in LA, the concept…

"What Grant Reviewers Actually Look For (and What They Ignore)" jim-olds.org/2025/10/23/w...

Congrats!!

ecoevojobs.net 2025-26

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The University of California leads the nation in academic research, new ranking finds UC San Diego and UC Berkeley lead the way for public university research, with eight UC campuses total among the top 30 influential and impactful public research institutions.

🧪 University of California leads the nation in academic research www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/univers...

The NSF GRFP is back. Students interested in applying to work in my lab at SIO can email me directly with a CV and a letter to outline how their interests and research experience might align with the work we do. I'm recruiting students interested in biomechanics. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo... 🧪 🐟

To be considered for mentorship in my lab, please email me a CV and a letter outlining your interests and fit with our work.
Lab website: www.valentinadisanto.com/join-the-team

Apply for the Scripps Postdoctoral Fellowship! I'm looking to support a strong candidate in fish physiology and/or biomechanics. Deadline: Oct 9, 2025. Eligibility: PhD by Nov 30, 2026 with ≤3 years postdoc experience. 2 years, $74K salary, $6K research allowance 👉 apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04348 🧪 🐟

UC Berkeley's Martin Fish Speciation Lab seeks a part-time lab manager for pupfish research. Requires a biology degree and some lab experience. Flexible hours, multi-year position. Apply: chmartin@berkeley.edu. More info at https://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/martin/ #job

Amazing!

Something exciting just left the gym -- meet Arnold the first generalist musculoskeletal control policy!

The human body has 600+ muscles, yet we seamlessly coordinate them for everything from whispering a syllable to felling a forrest. How? www.arxiv.org/abs/2508.18066

Detox enzymes rose by ~200 %, but escape distances dropped by ~50 %. Energy spent on detox may leave fish less able to evade predators, revealing hidden trade-offs created by harmful algal blooms.

Sub-lethal effects of natural cyanobacterial blooms on fish: Enzymatic activity and swimming performance in Gasterosteus aculeatus Cyanobacterial blooms are intensifying worldwide due to eutrophication and climate change, increasing cyanotoxin exposure to aquatic organisms. This s…

New paper from my postdoc, Francesco Masnadi (co-advised with Agnes Karlson), in Harmful Algae. 🧪 🐟 We looked at how sticklebacks cope with cyanobacterial 🦠 blooms, from toxin accumulation and detox enzyme activity to predator escape responses.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Thank you, Sarah! Beautifully written Outside JEB! @jexpbiol.bsky.social

Blind cave fish navigate through the dark with a sixth sense Humans have five senses: sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. Fish, however, can tap into an extraordinary sixth sense called the lateral line. This sense – which consists of rows of special cells wi...

A bit late to sharing, but this amazing study from @vdisanto.bsky.social @scrippsocean.bsky.social is too good not to share🐟✨ Read about the amazing 6th sense that help blind fish navigate underwater caves in my Outside @jexpbiol.bsky.social 🌌🔦

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Garibaldi fish maintaining its position through subtle fin adjustments in San Clemente Island, CA. CREDIT: Phil Zerofski

Hovering—maintaining a fixed position in the water—is energetically expensive for fish. A study finds hovering is twice as metabolically expensive as resting. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Thank you!

Our research is on the cover of @pnas.org this week! Proud of what we accomplished and grateful for an amazing team (and some truly memorable fishes). 🐟

Link to the paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Some personal news…

Congrats, Neil! 🎉

Pesci: "fluttare" nell'acqua non li fa riposare, anzi! I pesci sembrano sospesi nell'acqua come se fosse la cosa più naturale del mondo. Ma una nuova ricerca smentisce questa visione!

Fluttuare nell’acqua? Non è affatto riposo: i pesci consumano il doppio dell’energia
I pesci quando stanno "sospesi" in acqua, non stanno riposando: anzi! Consumano pure di più!

Hovering in fish is surprisingly hard work Fish often need to hover (stay still in the water) to catch prey, explore, or guard their nests. For a long time, scientists thought that for fish with a swim bladder (which makes them nearly “weightl...

Hovering in fish is surprisingly hard work 🧪 🐟

For Fish, Hovering Is Not Restful Fish make hanging motionless in the water column look effortless, and scientists had long assumed hovering was a type of rest. Now, a new study reveals that fish use nearly twice as much energy when h...

Fish hovering = not so chill 🐟💨

New research led by Scripps Oceanography's @vdisanto.bsky.social found fish use nearly 2X more energy hovering than resting, overturning old assumptions and offering insight for underwater robot design. Dive in to learn more about the study published by @pnas.org. ⬇️