Mercer R. Brugler
Papers
1
Total Citations
12
H-Index
1
About
Mercer R. Brugler is a marine biologist and bioengineer whose research sits at the intersection of deep-sea ecology, soft robotics, and invertebrate genomics. He is best known for pioneering ultra-gentle robotic tools to study fragile marine organisms—work that earned him international attention with his highly cited 2020 paper, "Ultra-gentle soft robotic fingers induce minimal transcriptomic response in a fragile marine animal" (12 citations). This study demonstrated that soft robotic manipulators can interact with delicate deep-sea creatures like jellyfish and ctenophores without triggering stress-related gene expression, revolutionizing how scientists handle and sample vulnerable species. Brugler’s broader contributions include developing non-invasive sampling methods for deep-sea corals and sponges, and advancing our understanding of how these organisms respond to environmental change. His work has been featured in outlets like *Science* and *The New York Times*, and he has received awards from the National Science Foundation and the Schmidt Ocean Institute. By merging robotics with marine biology, Brugler is enabling a new era of ethical, high-resolution exploration of the ocean’s most inaccessible inhabitants.
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Top Papers
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