Elora H. López-Nandam

Elora H. López-Nandam is a Researcher in Invertebrate Zoology at the California Academy of Sciences, working in the Coral Regeneration Lab. She collaborates with Steinhart Aquarium biologists on coral husbandry and genomics projects. Her work focuses on coral resilience from molecular to ecosystem scales, including heat-tolerant coral selection, genome stability maintenance, and mutational processes in coral lineages. She leads projects like aquarium-spawned coral genomics and nuclear radiation effects on wildlife genomes.

Her research integrates coral bleaching recovery mechanisms, somatic mutation dynamics, and the impacts of historical environmental stressors. Media features include San Francisco Chronicle coverage of coral spawning at Cal Academy, a Stanford Magazine profile, and BBC's Big Pacific series. She maintains GitHub repositories for coral breeding genomics, somatic mutation analysis, and Marshall Islands radiation studies.

Key projects include developing heat-tolerant coral strains through larval selection and studying nuclear testing effects on wildlife genomes. Her work bridges basic research with applied conservation strategies for marine ecosystems.