I'm excited to share this pre-print of my PhD research. Publication hopefully coming soon!

💡How does nutrition regulate cell cycle in stem cells? Check out our new paper from @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social lab & @msarscentre.bsky.social, out now in @plosbiology.org (plos.io/48J2o6P) #SeaAnemone #Nematostella #StemCell #CellCycle #Quiescence #TORsignalling 1/12

New preprint from our lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @olegtolstenkov.bsky.social, Sissel and Rodolfo in collaboration with @appygenetics.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social built a behavioral atlas of the planktonic tunicate Oikopleura dioica across its life cycle.

Have you ever wondered what difference it makes to have 1 or 2 X chromosomes in your cells? ✨ I’m excited to share that our paper is now out! Looking for some X-mas content featuring an actual X? 🎄 Here’s the paper: 👉 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Happy winter solstice from #SunnyBergen!

We are thrilled to invite you to the Michael Sars Symposium 2026 - Living systems in a variable ocean, together with our co-organizers at @cbubergen.bsky.social! Mark June 4, 2026 in your calendars, and watch out for our speaker lineup reveal in the new year 🙌

Optimized husbandry and targeted gene-editing for the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis Read this Techniques & Resources Article by @joao-e-carvalho.bsky.social, @rottingerlab.bsky.social and colleagues: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

@olegtolstenkov.bsky.social and Sissel Norland @msarscentre.bsky.social show that Ciona adults have rich embodied postural dynamics and are able to perceive different sensory stimuli and respond with distinct behavioral outputs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (from last September)

Excited to share our story nutrition and cell quiescence in sea anemones, great postdoctoral work of @eudaldpascual.bsky.social Finally out in @plosbiology.org And thanks to @msarscentre.bsky.social for the nice news piece: www.uib.no/en/michaelsa...

Proud to see the PhD work of @inesfournon.bsky.social out as preprint! 🌸 Cell extrusion DOES exist outside of bilaterians AND is sensitive to feeding status in sea anemones.

Congratulations to @eudaldpascual.bsky.social and @ktgarschall.bsky.social from the @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social lab on a new paper out in @plosbiology.org 🤩👏 The work, supported by @embo.org, looked at cell behavior during starvation in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis 🧵🧪

How do animals with lifelong growth modulate cell #proliferation? @eudaldpascual.bsky.social @ktgarschall.bsky.social @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social show that starvation induces G1/G0 #CellCycle arrest in Vasa2+/Piwi1+ #SeaAnemone cells; cycle re-entry is TOR-dependent @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48J2o6P

How do animals with lifelong growth modulate cell #proliferation? @eudaldpascual.bsky.social @ktgarschall.bsky.social @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social show that starvation induces G1/G0 #CellCycle arrest in Vasa2+/Piwi1+ #SeaAnemone cells; cycle re-entry is TOR-dependent @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48J2o6P

Our paper on the role of neurons in Nematostella head regeneration is now out at @currentbiology.bsky.social Big thank you to all collaborators, it was a pleasure! Ectopic head regeneration after nervous system ablation in a sea anemone: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9

A molecular, spatial and regulatory atlas of the Hydra vulgaris nervous system Read this #LifelongDevSI #OA Techniques and Resources Article by Hannah Morris Little, Abby S. Primack, Jennifer Tsverov, Celina E. Juliano (@julianolab.bsky.social) and colleagues: doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Very happy to see our paper published online natcomms.nature.com. Thank you to @wellcometrust.bsky.social for funding this work during my time with @robklose.bsky.social and David Booth! Thanks also to collaborators @garcialabms.bsky.social @alexdemendoza.bsky.social and the other authors!

If you need to move things fast…

I am very excited to announce the opening of the submission site for the upcoming Conférences Jacques Monod on Developmental Biology, May 18-22, 2026 cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc... @lionlchristiaen.bsky.social and I have an exciting program of speakers and slots for selected short talks, etc.

Very sad news, John Gurdon has died. A developmental biologist's developmental biologist, Nobel prize winner His work is the foundation of much of today's dev & stem cell bio. An inspiration to many, including me. Always asking questions & wanting the answers www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports... This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵

@malinkjosavik.bsky.social was fantastic giving her first talk at a conference!

Fantastic presentation by @malinkjosavik.bsky.social at the Tutzing basal metazoan workshop 👏 She shared her work on starvation and metabolism in Nematostella, conducted in collaboration between the @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social lab and the Dept of Biomedicine @unibergen.bsky.social ✨

How Did Hands Evolve? The Answer Is Behind You. (My story of some surprising evo-devo!) nyti.ms/42Cg8xH

Are digits modified fins, or evolutionary innovations? Read how we tackled this old question from a new angle🧪 A story with @chasebolt.bsky.social, @homeobox.bsky.social and myself, coordinated by @denisduboule.bsky.social from @college-de-france.fr and published in @nature.com today! #InHoxWeTrust

New short paper from our lab @currentbiology.bsky.social, in which we discover of a new mode of cell motility for choanoflagellates: flagellar gliding. www.cell.com/current-biol... - A 🧵

Look at this crazy thing! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our work on the function of miR-51/miR-100 is out! miR-100 is widely conserved across eumetazoans but its function has been mysterious. Emilio Santillán found in worms it regulates signaling and extracellular matrix genes, some of which seem to be conserved targets! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Finally, the excellent postdoc work of Emmanuel Haillot is out, where he dissected the integration of Wnt, MAPK and Notch signaling in defining mesoderm and endoderm identities in the diploblast Nematostella. Strikingly similar to sea urchins. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

At long last, the version of record of our paper on the #platynereis #connectome "Whole-body connectome of a segmented annelid larva" is out. Explore the rich online presentation with all the videos, figures and source data here: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.97964 @eLife @biology […]

Congratulations Dr. Fournon Berodia @inesfournon.bsky.social 🎉🤩 We are very proud of Inés for successfully defending her PhD thesis conducted in the @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social lab. Thank you to opponents @ragkousik.bsky.social & @levayerr.bsky.social for insightful discussions 👏

New preprint from the @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social lab 🤩 @annaferraioli.bsky.social & colleagues created a 3D model of the ctenophore apical organ, revealing cell-type diversity and exciting new insights into the evolution of central nervous systems 🧠🧪 Congratulations to the team! 👏

Nature research paper: The genomic origin of the unique chaetognath body plan go.nature.com/3HAsyyV

Researchers from @imev-mer.fr recently visited us for a workshop supported by the French-Norwegian mobility program Åsgard 🌊 Between seminars, lab demos and discussions, new ideas and plans for long-term collaborations emerged 🤩 Read more about this exciting partnership below ⤵️

Pls. share widely Calling all transposon fans & lovers of genetic innovation MOBILE GENOME welcomes you in Heidelberg, Nov. 4–7 2025 → Vibrant & friendly community → Cutting-edge talks from mechanisms to physiology → Plenty of surprises (TEs never stop innovating) submit abstract by July 29

'Vacations.' The word is 'vacations.'

#MetabolismMondays Meet @kstapornwongkul.bsky.social, #newPI at @imbavienna.bsky.social @vbcscitraining.bsky.social, alumni from @viktri08.bsky.social @embl.org - discussing metabolism of embryonic development using #gastruloids. #theNodeCorrespondents #ecr @the-node.bsky.social #DevBio #stemcell

Latest #MetabolismMondays interview has just dropped 👀 Find out more about #newPI @kstapornwongkul.bsky.social and her research 👇

Open PhD position in my group: protein bioinformatics and protein-lipid interactions. Competences required: experience with protein bioinformatics, good programing skills, machine learning, interest for beautiful protein structures! Deadline: Aug 1st 2025. Official info => tinyurl.com/LTPbioinfo

A single-cell ATACseq atlas of our favourite sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis! By @aelek.bsky.social @martaig.bsky.social

Decoding cnidarian cell type gene regulation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.01.662323v1

Foundations: please step up and take over the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This is an absolutely essential scanned archive of all of the old journals and books from the 1500s to about 1920. Has been indispensable for my research. about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...

Our latest preprint is out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... How do #ctenophores control their sense of balance "without a brain"? We used connectomics to uncover the neural network behind their gravity sensing!

In our new preprint we describe the synaptic #connectome of the nerve net in the ctenophore gravisensory organ. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.26.661250v1 #biology #neuroscience #ctenophore #vem

📢Our Norwegian node, @ncmbm.bsky.social, has launched its group leader recruitment campaign! 🌟Check out all the details are below👇!

Excited to share our new work on the 3D architecture of the ctenophore aboral organ! We explored its remarkable cellular diversity and integration with the syncytial nerve net, uncovering connectivity and insights into the evolution of sensory complexes. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our new paper is out: "The 3D architecture of the ctenophore aboral organ & the evolution of complex integrative centers in animals. We reveal a remarkable cell type diversity, nerve net condensation, a multilayered circuit & gene expression profiles. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #ctenophores

Inspired by visits to Woods Hole @mblscience.bsky.social and Roscoff, we hope to welcome folks in #SunnyBergen to foster exchange and spark discoveries in Marine Life Sciences.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Michael Sars Visitors Program! ✨🧪 To spark new connections, we are opening our doors to visiting researchers who wish to conduct a project in #SunnyBergen. Applications are open, help us spread the word!

Excited to share the lab's 1rst preprint! Rapid high-res immunofluorescence is now possible in cultured & environmental diatoms thanks to 4-fold expansion microscopy. A step-change for comparative cell biology in one of the most important phytoplankton groups on the planet 🥳 tinyurl.com/m9s5su7s 1/2