NRC-RAP Postdoctoral Fellow, U. S. Naval Research Laboratory        Sept 2017-present

Center for Bio/Molecular Science & Engineering Washington D.C           

Principal Investigator: Dr. Gary Vora

Projects:DARPA Biological Control Independent Verification and Validation of Hydra neurophysiology; developing portable laboratory for field-forward sequencing and environmental DNA monitoring; and cnidarian genome assembly and annotation 

Research Collaborator, Smithsonian NMNH-IZ D.C. &                             2016 - present

National Aquarium, Baltimore, USA

Principal Investigators: Dr. Allen G. Collins & Jennie D. Janssen

Projects:Detecting cubozoans environmental DNA in aquarium systems (with Japanese collaborators); describing novel cellular structures in the Upside-down JellyfishCassiopea

Scientific Visitor(ORISE) NIH-NIL-NCBI                                                  2017

National Center of Biotechnology Information, Bethesda, USA

Principal Investigator: Dr. Ben Busby

Projects:Assembling and annotating non-model jellyfish genomes

Research Assistant, Deep-Sea Coral Exploration.                                               2007-2011

University of North Carolina Wilmington, 

NOAA National Systematics Lab & Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Program Officer, Canadian Foundation for Climate & Atmospheric Science    2003-2004

Ottawa, Canada       

Field work: SCUBA diving (Certified Open Water Advanced), snorkeling, plankton tows from kayak and canoe, Wilderness First Aid(Remote Medical International)

Ship and manned submersible time: aboard fisheries vessels for marine mammal transacts; aboard U.S.S. research vessels for deep sea exploration expeditions, deploying and retrieving trawls – surface, midwater and bottom – landers, CTD, cores, and data collection in the manned submersible Johnson-Sea-Link. 

Microscopy and imaging: Confocal Inverted, Compound, Dissecting, SEM

Molecular: NGS (Illumina, Ion S5) and Third-Generation Sequencing (MinION Nanopore): library prep, multiplexing, PCR, rtPCR, RNA and protein extraction and digestion, transcriptomics, genomics and proteomics, metabarcoding, and environmental DNA

Bioinformatics and Software: Unix, Trinity Software Suite, EdgeR, TransDecoder, Trinotate, R, Python, ArcGIS, Geneious, FigTree, Scaffold, Adobe Suite, and seqCAB BLAST+, our newly developed bioinformatics tool.

Article

• Peterson, Miles, I., Tan, Kei Chloe, Collins, Allen, Kitano, Satoshi, Kusuoka, Yasushi, Suzuki, Takahito G., Migita, Masao, Iesa, Iffah, Pirro, Stacy, Lindsay, Dhugal, and Ames, Cheryl Lewis. 2022. "A description of a novel swimming behavior in a dioecious population of Craspedacusta sowerbii, the rediscovery of the elusive Astrohydra japonica and the first genetic analysis of freshwater jellyfish in Japan." Plankton & Benthos Research, 17, (2) 231–248. https://doi.org/10.3800/pbr.17.231. 2022
• Ames, Cheryl L., Ohdera, Aki H., Colston, Sophie M., Collins, Allen G., Fit, William K., Morandini, André C., Erickson, Jefferey S., and Vora, Gary J. 2021. "Fieldable Environmental DNA Sequencing to Assess Jellyfish Biodiversity in Nearshore Waters of the Florida Keys, United States." Frontiers in Marine Science 8:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.640527 2021
• Pappalardo, Paula, Collins, Allen G., Pagenkopp Lohan, Katrina M., Hanson, Kate M., Truskey, Sarit B., Jaeckle, William, Ames, Cheryl Lewis, Goodheart, Jessica A., Bush, Stephanie L., Biancani, Leann M., Strong, Ellen E., Vecchione, Michael, Harasewych, M. G., Reed, Karen, Lin, Chan, Hartil, Elise C., Whelpley, Jessica, Blumberg, Jamie, Matterson, Kenan, Redmond, Niamh E., Becker, Allison, Boyle, Michael J., and Osborn, Karen J. 2021. "The role of taxonomic expertise in interpretation of metabarcoding studies." ICES Journal of Marine Science, 78, (9) 3397–3410. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab082. 2021
• Ames, Cheryl L., Klompen, Anna M. L., Badhiwala, Krishna, Muffett, Kade, Reft, Abigail J., Kumar, Mehr, Janssen, Jennie D., Schultzhaus, Janna N., Field, Lauren D., Muroski, Megan E., Bezio, Nick, Robinson, Jacob T., Leary, Dagmar H., Cartwright, Paulyn, Collins, Allen G., and Vora, Gary J. 2020. "Cassiosomes are stinging-cell structures in the mucus of the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana." Communications Biology, 3, (1) Article 67. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0777-8. 2020
• García-Rodríguez, Jimena, Ames, Cheryl Lewis, Marian, José Eduardo A. R., and Marques, Antonio Carlos. 2020. "Histomorphological comparison of testes in species of box jellyfish (Cnidaria; Cubozoa): does morphology differ with mode of reproduction and fertilization?" Organisms Diversity & Evolution, 20, (1) 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-019-00427-x. 2020
• Ohdera, Aki, Ames, Cheryl L., Dikow, Rebecca B., Kayal, Ehsan, Chiodin, Marta, Busby, Ben, La, Sean, Pirro, Stacy, Collins, Allen G., Medina, Mónica, and Ryan, Joseph F. 2019. "Box, stalked, and upside-down? Draft genomes from diverse jellyfish (Cnidaria, Acraspeda) lineages: Alatina alata (Cubozoa), Calvadosia cruxmelitensis (Staurozoa), and Cassiopea xamachana (Scyphozoa)." GigaScience 8 (7):https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giz069 2019
• Tiseo, Gisele R., Garcia-Rodriguez, Jimena, Zara, Fernando J., Ames, Cheryl Lewis, Marques, Antonio C., and Morandini, Andre C. 2019. "Spermatogenesis and gonadal cycle in male Tamoya haplonema and Chiropsalmus quadrumanus (Cnidaria, Cubozoa)." Zoologischer Anzeiger, 279 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2018.12.008. 2019
• García-Rodríguez, Jimena, Lewis Ames, Cheryl, Marian, José Eduardo A. R., and Marques, Antonio Carlos. 2018. "Gonadal histology of box jellyfish (Cnidaria: Cubozoa) reveals variation between internal fertilizing species Alatina alata (Alatinidae) and Copula sivickisi (Tripedaliidae)." Journal of Morphology, 279, (6) 841–856. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.20815. 2018
• Lewis Ames, Cheryl. 2018. "Medusa: A Review of an Ancient Cnidarian Body Form." Results and problems in cell differentiation 65:105-136. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92486-1_7 2018
• Ohdera, Aki H., Abrams, Michael J., Ames, Cheryl L., Baker, David M., Suescún-Bolívar, Luis P., Collins, Allen G., Freeman, Christopher J., Gamero-Mora, Edgar, Goulet, Tamar L., Hofmann, Dietrich K., Jaimes-Becerra, Adrian, Long, Paul F., Marques, Antonio C., Miller, Laura A., Mydlarz, Laura D., Morandini, Andre C., Newkirk, Casandra R., Putri, Sastia P., Samson, Julia E., Stampar, Sé, Steinworth, Bailey, Templeman, Michelle, Thomé, Patricia E., Vlok, Marli, Woodley, Cheryl M. et al. 2018. "Upside-Down but Headed in the Right Direction: Review of the Highly Versatile Cassiopea xamachana System." Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 6:35. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2018.00035 2018
• Ames, Cheryl Lewis, Ryan, Joseph F., Bely, Alexandra E., Cartwright, Paulyn, and Collins, Allen Gilbert. 2016. "A new transcriptome and transcriptome profiling of adult and larval tissue in the box jellyfish Alatina alata: an emerging model for studying venom, vision and sex." BMC Genomics 17 (1):650. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-016-2944-3 2016
• Lawley, Jonathan W., Ames, Cheryl Lewis, Bentlage, Bastian, Yanagihara, Angel, Goodwill, Roger, Kayal, Ehsan, Hurwitz, Kikiana, and Collins, Allen Gilbert. 2016. "Box Jellyfish Alatina alata Has a Circumtropical Distribution." Biological Bulletin 231 (2):152-169. https://doi.org/10.1086/690095 2016
• Ames, Cheryl Lewis, Ryan, Joseph F., Bely, Alexandra E., Cartwright, Paulyn, and Collins, Allen Gilbert. 2016. "Erratum to: A new transcriptome and transcriptome profiling of adult and larval tissue in the box jellyfish Alatina alata: an emerging model for studying venom, vision and sex." BMC Genomics 17 (1):980. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-016-3305-y 2016
• Lewis Ames, Cheryl and Macrander, Jason. 2016. "Evidence for an Alternative Mechanism of Toxin Production in the Box Jellyfish Alatina alata." Integrative and Comparative Biology 56 (5):973-988. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icw113 2016
• Lasley, Robert M., Ames, Cheryl Lewis, Erdman, Robert, Parks, Sheri, and Collins, Allen Gilbert. 2016. "First record of the box jellyfish Tripedalia cystophora (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Tripedaliidae) in the Gulf of Mexico." Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 129 (1):164-172. https://doi.org/10.2988/0006-324X-129.Q2.164 2016
• Pawson, David L., Nizinski, Martha S., Ames, Cheryl Lewis, and Pawson, Doris J. 2015. "Deep-sea echinoids and holothurians (Echinodermata) near cold seeps and coral communities in the northern Gulf of Mexico." Bulletin of Marine Science 91 (2):167-204. https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2014.1064 2015
• Marques, Antonio C., García, Jimena, and Lewis Ames, Cheryl. 2015. "Internal fertilization and sperm storage in cnidarians: a response to Orr and Brennan." Trends in Ecology & Evolution 30 (8):435-436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2015.06.002 2015
• Zapata, Felipe, Goetz, Freya E., Smith, Stephen A., Howison, Mark, Siebert, Stefan, Church, Samuel H., Sanders, Steven M., Ames, Cheryl Lewis, McFadden, Catherine S., France, Scott C., Daly, Marymegan, Collins, Allen Gilbert, Haddock, Steven H. D., Dunn, Casey W., and Cartwright, Paulyn. 2015. "Phylogenomic Analyses Support Traditional Relationships within Cnidaria." PloS One 10 (10):https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0139068 2015

-Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Cellular Biology (BSCI105) University of Maryland, MD USA

-STEM instruction in Elementary schools (Virginia and Maryland)  

-STEM outreach through Q?rius and the Sant Ocean Hall, NMNH Smithsonian Institution

-Extensive English as a Second Language instruction in classroom/tutorials - Japan, Canada and the United States