Evolution of neurons and nervous systems / choanoflagellates / sponges / ctenophores. Deputy Director & Group leader at the Michael Sars Centre, University of Bergen. Webpage: https://www.uib.no/en/michaelsarscentre/114773/burkhardt-group
Pawel Burkhardt
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Now published - the #BANC! A full central nervous system (CNS) connectome of a limbed animal at single-synapse resolution, enabling us to follow sensory-motor arcs and understand how the CNS controls the body. rdcu.be/fncjS. #neuroscience. Video by @quorumetrix.bsky.social 1/18
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1/11
When we think about learning, we think about brains.
Neurons. Animals.
But what if learning began much earlier?
Our paper in PRXLife, led by @maorknak.bsky.social explores whether a unicell relative of animals can use environmental cues to anticipate future stress. 🧵
Link: go.aps.org/4vAU56R
Wei-Chung Allen Lee
Video
Inspired by comb jellies, Cteno-Bot is an untethered swimming robot using magnetoactive propulsors coordinated via metachronal waves. Antiplectic beating improves speed, & more propulsors increase efficiency without extra power demand 🤩🌊 #ctenophores
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Wonderful video highlighting the science behind this paper. Congratulations to all the authors involved - excellent research and excellent science communication!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#Ministeria #AnimalOrigins #Evolution #Multicellularity
Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo
Do you know an outstanding aquarist?
We're hiring a Senior Aquarist to help run our cephalopod facility at Columbia University. Our team maintains a colony of 250+ cuttlefish, develops new husbandry techniques (inc transgenics) & studies cuttlefish camouflage and social behavior. 1/3
[Pls repost!]
Long-term aggregation induced by bacteria in the filasteran Ministeria, with increased mating frequency inside aggregates. Truly remarkable observations by JP Gerdt, @multicellgenome.bsky.social and team! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Important new work from Chia-Hsiang Chang, @nachury.bsky.social and colleagues identifying the composition of neuronal cilia in an unbiased way. Lots of surprises herein: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Delighted that our new paper on #Ediacaran early animal life is now out rdcu.be/fnksl @natecoevo.nature.com We show that asexual reproduction, stoloniferous reduces competition for Ediacaran early animals 580-560 million years ago, and that this then reduces early animal diversity
Two great scientists and humans, whose collaboration shows what it’s like to do science as a positive-sum game. Wonderful news for evolutionary cell biology and for you two @dudinlab.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social! 👏
Video
Pawel Burkhardt
Pawel Burkhardt
In situ proteomics and expansion microscopy reveal nanoscale organization of postsynaptic proteins on neuronal cilia.
Congratulations to Gautam Dey (EMBL) and Omaya Dudin (University of Geneva) for being awarded the EMBO Gold Medal 2026 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the #LifeSciences in Europe! 🧪 https://www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-gold-medal-2026-awarded-to-gautam-dey-and-omaya-dudin/
Video
Tessa Montague
Jeremy Reiter
Emily Mitchell
EMBO
Thibaut Brunet
It is easy to think that sea squirts only display simple behaviors and do not significantly interact with their environment 🌊 New research lead by @olegtolstenkov.bsky.social, Sissel Norland and @mchatzigeorgiou.bsky.social proves this assumption wrong 👏⤵
1/10
For decades, cellular aggregation was considered an evolutionary dead end.
Cells could come together temporarily.
But complex multicellular organisms like animals?
Our study, led by JP Gerdt, with Ruibao & @jennahed.bsky.social suggests it may be time to rethink that🧵 #ProtistsOnSKy
New research on the sea squirt Ciona intestinalis challenges the view that animals living fixed in place have simple behaviors and limited responses to their environment.
