There are just a few days (and spots!) left to apply to this EM course with a focus on marine samples 🌊 do not miss it!

We are excited to share that we are hosting a hands-on course on "Electron Microscopy of Marine Environmental Samples" 🔬🌊 📍Naples, Italy 🗓️ 8th-11th of April 2026 If you are interested, check the program below! Registration is open until the 12th of February. We look forward to seeing you there!

We mourn the passing of Peer Bork, EMBO Member since 2000: https://www.embl.org/news/embl-announcements/in-remembrance-of-peer-bork/

New findings on genomic regulation mechanisms throughout evolution | EurekAlert! www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

EMHOC’s preliminary program is out. Check it out to stay updated!

Vey cool lookibg paper! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Our work on the evolution of the regulatory genome of echinoderms is now out in @natecoevo.nature.com. Led by my former PhD Marta Magri, Danila Voronov & Saoirse Foley. Great collaboration of Arnone, Hinman & Maeso labs, started long time ago with our missed José Luis Gomez-Skarmeta: rdcu.be/eXX8l

I am extremely proud and happy to announce that another paper from my PhD days has just been published in @natecoevo.nature.com on evolution of genome and gene regulation thanks to all the amazing people involved. Check the paper out at: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It’s great to see this finally out; congrats to all - especially @danivoronov.bsky.social! 👏🏻

Don’t forget to apply to this beautiful Electron Microscopy course at @szndohrn.bsky.social in Napoli, Italy by February 12th! 🌊 ☀️ Stay tuned for the preliminary program, in the meantime take a look here: www.szn.it/index.php/it...

I am deeply honored to share that my project NeurEvoFun has been awarded support from the Fondo Italiano per la Scienza (FIS), the Advanced Grant by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, supporting fundamental research inspired by the ERC model. Excited for what’s ahead!

Hawaiian bobtail squid maintain distinct microbiota in different organs, including bioluminescent bacteria in their light organs, by deploying immune factors with tailored expressions in each niche. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/QxLo50XPnyS

Lovely Xmas gift 🎄—our paper is out today in @natecoevo.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...! Huge thanks to everyone who made it possible, especially @aelek.bsky.social and @arnausebe.bsky.social

The "Electron Microscopy Hands-On Course" returns for its 2nd edition in April 8-11, 2026, at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy. Explore the course overview and start your application here: www.szn.it/index.php/it...

What a nice way to end the year - last shift of 2025 on the EMBL beamline P14 on Petra III in Hamburg! With @mlrusciano.bsky.social we did x-ray imaging of sea urchin larvae and had the honor of using the synchrotron ourselves! Many thanks to Angelika Svetlove. @embl.org

In preprints: cell type-specific gene regulation through the lens of echinoderms Periklis Paganos and @arnonelab.bsky.social discuss a recent #preprint by Jonas Maurice Brandenburg, David Aaron Garfield and colleagues doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Glad to see our phoronid genome study featured on the cover of @currentbiology.bsky.social! It shows how genome structure can be used to test competing hypotheses of nested topology and how derived structural changes provide evidence for monophyly. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Bizarre Creature With 'All-Body Brain' Challenges What We Know About Evolution of Nervous Systems

My book 'The Tree of Life' is published in the USA and Canada today. Available as book, on kindle and as audio. I would be really grateful for reposts. www.amazon.com/Tree-Life-So... www.amazon.ca/Tree-Life-So...

I am extremely happy to have contributed to this. Proud of @perievodevo.bsky.social & Jack! 👏🏻

I am beyond excited to share that my postdoc project @szndohrn.bsky.social and the @arnonelab.bsky.social is now available in #ScienceAdvances @science.org. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thrilled to share my newest perspective article with @arnonelab.bsky.social in @dev-journal.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

New preprint out! Evolutionarily conserved transcriptional regulators control monoaminergic neuron development. We uncover how ancient regulatory programs orchestrate the neurons that produce serotonin and dopamine across 550 million years of evolution. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

First neurons didn’t appear overnight. We trace their roots to ancient secretory cells - showing how lifestyle & behavior shaped the evolution of first synapses.🧠🌊 #Evolution #Neuroscience Our latest in @natrevneuro.nature.com Link: rdcu.be/eMX3E @jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

🤯

We‘re thrilled to be involved in this great open science initiative; @mlrusciano.bsky.social really enjoyed testing this tool in sea urchins!

We identified efficient membrane-localising tags in each of the 10 animals we tested. A few tags worked in every species! The project was also an exciting venture into open science – sharing resources openly before publication – and collaborating with >10 labs studying different organisms. 3/4

Project started a year ago, when we gathered a set of 11 tags, made them easy to test as mRNA that can be injected in eggs, and sent to 30 labs around the world. We present the results of testing these tags in animals as diverse as sea urchin, beetle, crustacean, worm, sea anemone & jellyfish. 2/4

How can we see the cells that make up a living organism? Membrane-localising tags can drive fluorescent proteins to the cell's outer membrane, making their outlines visible. But the tags don't work well in all organisms. How do you find one for your species of interest? 🧵 Check our latest preprint

Hot off the press! Our latest work on the evolution of facultative symbiosis in stony corals, focusing on a remarkable Mediterranean species: Oculina patagonica. 🪸 🌊 #evobio #corals #coralbiology www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In the latest paper, @cagricevrim.bsky.social, @berylbiologist.bsky.social‬ & Ko succeeded in imaging the entire course of leg regeneration and @mlrusciano.bsky.social‬ & @almazan.bsky.social developed HCR to identify specific cell types after imaging. elifesciences.org/articles/107... 4/6

Latest paper elifesciences.org/articles/107... closes an important cycle in our efforts to study regeneration: week-long recordings allow us to observe the behaviour of cells during the entire course of regeneration in a crustacean leg – bright objects in movie are fluorescent nuclei of cells. 1/6

Do you want to understand how developmental programs are encoded in animal genomes? Join our lab at the @szndohrn.bsky.social for a PhD project to unravel the developmental dynamics in sea urchins during the metamorphosis from larva to juvenile. Deadline JUNE 14th! www.szn.it/index.php/it...

I’m very excited to share our work on the early evolution of animal regulatory genome architecture - the main project of my postdoc, carried out across two wonderful and inspirational labs of @arnausebe.bsky.social and @mamartirenom.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It's only mid-April, but course season at the MBL is already underway! 🔬 Gene Regulatory Networks for Development started on April 6 and wraps up later this week 🧬 Congrats to this year's cohort! 👏 📲 Read more about the GRN course: bit.ly/3Wi6LQE

Also a blast from the past! Another preprint is now available from my first postdoc in the @arnonelab.bsky.social at @szndohrn.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New preprint from my Postdoc in Zak Swartz’s lab at the @mblscience.bsky.social, in collaboration with Carsten Wolff and @. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Single Nucleus Profiling Highlights the All-Brain Echinoderm Nervous System https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.24.644250v1

Excited to share our latest work! @arnonelab.bsky.social , @John Kirwan, @Ina Arnone. We investigated the impact of light on the phenotypic response to food in sea urchin larvae. Check it out here: www.frontiersin.org/journals/eco.... @szndohrn.bsky.social, #SZN, #seaurchin, #ecoevodevo

🔬 PhD Opportunity in Evolutionary Cell Biology! Interested in how cell types evolve? Join us to investigate placozoan cell types using advanced microscopy, single-cell omics, and functional assays! Apply here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/323665 #PhDPosition #EvolutionaryBiology #CellBiology🧪

Happy to share our new pre-print from @arnausebe.bsky.social lab! We developed iChIP2 to profile hPTMs across eukaryotes. Thanks to David and Julen, and specially to @seanamontgomery.bsky.social, the best teammate I could wish:) Check out what we discovered about chromatin evolution!

Pdx regulation of insulin might be a vertebrate thing.Nice evo-Devo paper on insulin like peptides in amphioxus with a good scRNA-Seq application 🧪#devbio www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Amazing work from the group of my former colleague, for ever friend, Angela Falciatore and colleagues: the "pigment of imagination" rocks! Congratulations! 🎉🍾🥂

Honored and excited to receive an #ERCCoG grant. Big thanks to my colleagues, former mentors and, most importantly, my amazing lab members. Together, we will be exploring cell type evolution across timescales, from population variation (with @xgrau.bsky.social) to regulatory sequences across phyla.

scRNA-seq has revolutionized biology, but it’s not without challenges. We uncovered significant quality issues in widely used reference cell atlases like the Human Cell Atlas and Tabula Sapiens. Up to 85% of cells in some datasets are low-quality or misidentified! 2/8

Thrilled to share this new work resulting from a great collaboration of my lab with the labs of Ignacio Maeso and Veronica Hinman, started with the dear José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta many years ago. Take a look! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Me, collecting data: HAHA YESSSS Me, having to analyze such data: