A group of young women in lab coats on McKeldin Mall

Alexa Bely headshot
Contact Info
Office: 301.405.0225
Lab: 301.405.0239
Office Address: 1108 Bioscience Research Bldg.
Bely Lab website
Alexandra Bely
Professor
Director of Biology Honors Program

Graduate Program Affiliations

Research Interests 

Evolution of regeneration and asexual reproduction; invertebrate biology; freshwater biology.

Education 

  • B.S., University of Maryland, College Park, 1991 (General Biology) 
  • Ph.D., State University of New York-Stony Brook, Department of Ecology and Evolution, 1999 (Advisor: Gregory Wray)
  • Postdoc, University of California–Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, 1999-2002 (Advisor: David A. Weisblat)

All Publications

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Latest Publications via PubMed

Mack JM,Bely AE
Regeneration physiology of invertebrates.
J Exp Biol. 2025 Nov 15;228(22):. pii: jeb250750. doi: 10.1242/jeb.250750. Epub 2025 Nov 19
Mack JM,Bely AE
From Mud to Meat: Comparative Metabarcoding Reveals Two Different Evolutionary Paths to Carnivory in a Group of Meiofaunal Annelids.
Mol Ecol. 2025 Nov;34(22):e70151. doi: 10.1111/mec.70151. Epub 2025 Oct 28
Álvarez-Campos P,García-Castro H,Emili E,Pérez-Posada A,Del Olmo I,Peron S,Salamanca-Díaz DA,Mason V,Metzger B,Bely AE,Kenny NJ,Özpolat BD,Solana J
Annelid adult cell type diversity and their pluripotent cellular origins.
Nat Commun. 2024 Apr 12;15(1):3194. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47401-6. Epub 2024 Apr 12
Mack JM,Klinth M,Martinsson S,Lu R,Stormer H,Hanington P,Proctor HC,Erséus C,Bely AE
Cryptic carnivores: Intercontinental sampling reveals extensive novel diversity in a genus of freshwater annelids.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2023 May;182:107748. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107748. Epub 2023 Feb 27
Álvarez-Campos P,García-Castro H,Emili E,Pérez-Posada A,Salamanca-Díaz DA,Mason V,Metzger B,Bely AE,Kenny N,Özpolat BD,Solana J
Annelid adult cell type diversity and their pluripotent cellular origins.
bioRxiv. 2023 Apr 26;:. pii: 2023.04.25.537979. doi: 10.1101/2023.04.25.537979. Epub 2023 Apr 26
Rennolds CW,Bely AE
Integrative biology of injury in animals.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2023 Feb;98(1):34-62. doi: 10.1111/brv.12894. Epub 2022 Sep 29
Bely AE
Journey beyond the embryo: The beauty of Pristina and naidine annelids for studying regeneration and agametic reproduction.
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2022;147:469-495. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2021.12.020. Epub 2022 Mar 7
Zattara EE,Fernández-Álvarez FA,Hiebert TC,Bely AE,Norenburg JL
A phylum-wide survey reveals multiple independent gains of head regeneration in Nemertea.
Proc Biol Sci. 2019 Mar 13;286(1898):20182524. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2018.2524. Epub