Dr. Blake Ushijima and his team are focusing on stony coral tissue loss disease, a devastating coral disease that is decimating reefs across the Caribbean. Along with collaborators at various universities, government agencies and the Smithsonian Institute, they are investigating the cause(s) of SCTLD as well as the development of probiotics to treat diseased corals. The end goal of improving the current treatment strategies is to slow or stop the spread of this disease before it can damage additional reefs.