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They were thousands of miles from home when they realized something was missing. 

It was early January and Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Director Nipam Patel was in the small village of Quintay, Chile, together with MBL Research Scientist Matthew Parent. With them was a microscope they had shipped all the way from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to use in a hands-on developmental biology course. This was no commercial scope. This was a custom, home-built device, constructed on an optical breadboard91�������הa plate specifically designed for prototyping optical equipment. Parent had just unpacked the microscope91�������יs various pieces and Patel was preparing samples to test it. 

91�������לAnd then Matthew discovered that the power supply hadn91�������יt been packed into the case, and it was still sitting [at the MBL],91�������ם Patel said. 

The course was set to begin in a handful of days. The story of what happened next is filled with the ingenuity, collaboration, and commitment to education that defines the MBL. 

See A Need, Fill A Need

It began in Woods Hole in 1988, when Roberto Mayor, a PhD student from Chile, came to the MBL to attend the Embryology course. 

It would not be overdramatic to say the experience changed his life. Mayor was completing his doctorate degree in mouse development at the time, but after learning about amphibian development at the MBL, decided to pursue that subject for his postdoctoral work. Now a renowned developmental biologist at University College London, Mayor continues to study amphibians to this day. 

But his time at the MBL didn91�������יt just alter Mayor91�������יs career trajectory91�������הit also opened his eyes to the impact that courses like Embryology could have on a student. The seeds it planted would start to sprout after Mayor completed his postdoctoral work in the United Kingdom and returned to Chile to find an alarming reality. 

91�������לI was the only one doing developmental biology using molecular biology, I mean modern approaches, in the whole country,91�������ם he said. 91�������לThere was nobody else. And a very similar situation was likely in all Latin America, although we did not know what was going on in our neighbor countries at that time. 

91�������לSo, there was really a need for teaching developmental biology at a higher level.91�������ם 

That was the motivation Mayor needed to start a 91�������לmini Woods Hole course,91�������ם as he called it, which kicked off in his home city of Santiago in 1999 with the help of a group of developmental biologists at the University of Chile. 

The course, which takes place biennially, is officially named the Practical Course in Developmental Biology. In a 2021 paper in The International Journal of Developmental Biology, Mayor explained its basic format: 91�������לa combination of laboratory experiments using different animal models and lectures given by world leading developmental biologists that cover the paradigms, questions, and technologies of modern developmental biology.91�������ם 

He noted this structure has stayed the same despite the name and location of the course changing over time. It moved to its current location in Quintay in 2010, taking up residence in a marine biological station owned by Andrés Bello University (UNAB). 

Over the years, resources for the course have been provided by UNAB, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the MBL, Universidad Mayor, and other organizations. The MBL91�������יs contributions have taken various forms (including funding the course in a year when EMBO did not), but perhaps none have required more resourcefulness than the microscope that traveled south this past January.