Welcome to the oliveira lab
Yeshiva University • New York City
How do bioluminescent organisms produce light at the molecular level?
Bioluminescence, the emission of light by living organisms, is one of nature’s most fascinating phenomena.
Although decades of research on light emitting enzymes and their substrates have driven major advances in enzymology, calcium signaling, and evolutionary biology, the molecular mechanisms underlying light emission in most bioluminescent species remain poorly understood.

Research
Our goal is to deepen the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of bioluminescent reactions and generate tailored, next-generation imaging and reporter technologies.
We harness bioluminescent diversity - from South American rainforests to polar regions - to discover, characterize, and engineer novel luciferases and photoproteins.
Our research is supported by the National Science Foundation (MCB-2529875).



Group Members
Anderson G Oliveira, PhD
Principal Investigator
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Yeshiva University, NY
Postdoctoral researcher
OPEN POSITION!
Graduate Students
Gabriella Galeazzo (USP/Brazil)
Drashti Kavad
Undergraduate Students
Allison Cohen
Eliana Samuels
Emma Shields
Maya Menashe
Elana Kavesh
Former members
Postdoctoral fellows: Daichi Yano • Danilo T. Amaral • Graduate students: Luiza S. Perin • Zaruhi Karapetyan • Chia-Yu Hsu • Vivek Pachava • Ruksaad Raiyaan • Sandra Mendonza • Kashafat Safina • Gabriela V. Moraes • Jeremy D. Mirza • Undergraduate students: Rachel Gelb • Sarah Ofman • Emmanuella Borukh • Rachel Kaplan • Leora Kronenberg • Liora Rahmani • Adiel Arastehmanesh • Esther Miller
Selected Publications
A full list of Oliveira Lab publications is available on PubMed
Soares, D. M. M., Galeazzo, G. A., Sgro, G. G., de Moraes, G. v., Kronenberg, L., Borukh, E., Migotto, A. E., Gruber, D. F., Sparks, J. S., Pieribone, V. A., Stevani, C. V., & Oliveira, A. G. (2025) Velamins: green‐light‐emitting calcium‐regulated photoproteins isolated from the ctenophore Velamen parallelum. The FEBS Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/febs.70096
Duchatelet, L., Galeazzo, G. A., Coubris, C., Bridoux, L., Rezsohazy, R., Melo, M. R. S., Marek, M., Amaral, D. T., Dupont, S., Garbuglio De Oliveira, A., & Delroisse, J. (2025) Insights into the bioluminescence systems of three sea pens (Cnidaria: Anthozoa): from de novo transcriptome analyses to biochemical assays. Open Biology, 15(4). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.240262
Amaral, D. T., Kaplan, R. A., Takishita, T. K. E., de Souza, D. R., Oliveira, A. G., & Rosa, S. P. (2024) Glowing wonders: exploring the diversity and ecological significance of bioluminescent organisms in Brazil. In Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences (Vol. 23, Issue 7, pp. 1373–1392). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-024-00590-x
Stevani, C. v., Zamuner, C. K., Bastos, E. L., de Nóbrega, B. B., Soares, D. M. M., Oliveira, A. G., Bechara, E. J. H., Shakhova, E. S., Sarkisyan, K. S., Yampolsky, I. v., & Kaskova, Z. M. (2024) The living light from fungi. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews, 58, 100654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotochemrev.2024.100654
Zagitova, R. I., Purtov, K. v., Shcheglov, A. S., Mineev, K. S., Dubinnyi, M. A., Myasnyanko, I. N., Belozerova, O. A., Pakhomova, V. G., Petushkov, V. N., Rodionova, N. S., Lushpa, V. A., Guglya, E. B., Kovalchuk, S., Kozhemyako, V. B., Mirza, J. D., Oliveira, A. G., Yampolsky, I. v., Kaskova, Z. M., & Tsarkova, A. S. (2023) Conjugated Dienoic Acid Peroxides as Substrates in Chaetopterus Bioluminescence System. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24119466
Perin, L. S., Moraes, G. V., Galeazzo, G. A., & Oliveira, A. G. (2022) Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates as a Bioassay for Toxicity Assessment. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(21). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232113012
Oliveira, A. G., Amaral, D. T., Hannon, M. C., & Schulze, A. (2021) First Record of Bioluminescence in a Sipunculan Worm. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.762706
Moraes, G. V., Hannon, M. C., Soares, D. M. M., Stevani, C. V., Schulze, A., & Oliveira, A. G. (2021) Bioluminescence in Polynoid Scale Worms (Annelida: Polynoidae). Frontiers in Marine Science, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.643197
Tessler, M., Gaffney, J. P., Oliveira, A. G., Guarnaccia, A., Dobi, K. C., Gujarati, N. A., Galbraith, M., Mirza, J. D., Sparks, J. S., Pieribone, V. A., Wood, R. J., & Gruber, D. F. (2020) A putative chordate luciferase from a cosmopolitan tunicate indicates convergent bioluminescence evolution across phyla. Scientific Reports, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73446-w
Galeazzo, G. A., Mirza, J. D., Dorr, F. A., Pinto, E., Stevani, C. V., Lohrmann, K. B., & Oliveira, A. G. (2019) Characterizing the Bioluminescence of the Humboldt Squid, Dosidicus gigas (d’Orbigny, 1835): One of the Largest Luminescent Animals in the World. Photochemistry and Photobiology, 95(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/php.13106
Falaschi, R. L., Amaral, D. T., Santos, I., Domingos, A. H. R., Johnson, G. A., Martins, A. G. S., Viroomal, I. B., Pompéia, S. L., Mirza, J. D., Oliveira, A. G., Bechara, E. J. H., Viviani, V. R., & Stevani, C. V. (2019) Neoceroplatus betaryiensis nov. sp. (Diptera: Keroplatidae) is the first record of a bioluminescent fungus-gnat in South America. Scientific Reports, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47753-w
Kotlobay, A. A., Sarkisyan, K. S., Mokrushina, Y. A., Marcet-Houben, M., Serebrovskaya, E. O., Markina, N. M., Somermeyer, L. G., Gorokhovatsky, A. Y., Vvedensky, A., Purtov, K. V., Petushkov, V. N., Rodionova, N. S., Chepurnyh, T. V., Fakhranurova, L. I., Guglya, E. B., Ziganshin, R., Tsarkova, A. S., Kaskova, Z. M., Shender, V., Oliveira, A. G.,… Yampolsky, I. V. (2018) Genetically encodable bioluminescent system from fungi. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(50). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803615115
Kaskova, Z. M., Dörr, F. A., Petushkov, V. N., Purtov, K. V., Tsarkova, A. S., Rodionova, N. S., Mineev, K. S., Guglya, E. B., Kotlobay, A., Baleeva, N. S., Baranov, M. S., Arseniev, A. S., Gitelson, J. I., Lukyanov, S., Suzuki, Y., Kanie, S., Pinto, E., Mascio, P. D., Waldenmaier, H. E., Oliveira, A. G.,… Yampolsky, I. V. (2017) Mechanism and color modulation of fungal bioluminescence. Science Advances, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1602847
Oba, Y., Suzuki, Y., Martins, G. N. R., Carvalho, R. P., Pereira, T. A., Waldenmaier, H. E., Kanie, S., Naito, M., Oliveira, A. G., Dörr, F. A., Pinto, E., Yampolsky, I. V., & Stevani, C. V. (2017) Identification of hispidin as a bioluminescent active compound and its recycling biosynthesis in the luminous fungal fruiting body. Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, 16(9). https://doi.org/10.1039/c7pp00216e
Oliveira, A. G., Stevani, C. V., Waldenmaier, H. E., Viviani, V., Emerson, J. M., Loros, J. J., & Dunlap, J. C. (2015) Circadian control sheds light on fungal bioluminescence. Current Biology, 25(7). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.02.021
Contact
Oliveira Lab
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Stern College - Yeshiva University
245 Lexington Avenue
New York, 10016
Email: a.oliveira (at) yu (dot) edu