DISCOVER HOW WE SEE THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE FROM A CELL TYPE PERSPECTIVE

Eleven young scientists share their research, perspectives, and PhD life at 10 different research organisations from 6 European countries, all connected through the EvoCELL network and a common interest in the genome, cells, and animal evolution.

EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany

Institut de génomique fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNR-IGFL, France

Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche sur Mer, CNRS-OOV, France

Genomix4Life, Italy

Museum für Naturkunde, MfN Berlin, Germany

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Norway

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Italy

University College London, UCL, UK

University of Exeter, UK

Uppsala University, Sweden

Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg, ZMBH, Germany

Latest Posts:

Live from the Lab: Stories of Animal Ancestors

Have you ever wanted to travel back in time and understand how animal life came to be? This series might be your best chance. Join researchers as they ask the same overarching question: what did animal ancestors look like? In an attempt to answer this question, we will discuss modern methods in science, take a look at the fossil record, how cells shape the bodies of different animals and how they evolve. Bring along your burning questions on the origins and evolution of animal life and join in the discussion.

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Lockdown with Pesto

Hi all, Long time no see! As the, real, wet, messy science is on hold due to a global pandemic I decided to sketch something for the category “off science”. So, embrace yourself for cuteness and lightness! And meet Pesto, the black kitten. Part 1:Part 2:

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A short introduction of our scientists and their projects:

Pause for a pint in pandemic times

How we zoom in on each other in challenging times, how I joined Norwegian pint to talk about Red sausages and past&present

Ines Fournon Berodia

Hello Fellows! I am one of the two newest additions to the EvoCELL ITN and will embark myself in a short-term Early Stage Research position involving sea urchins, at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. Having studied my Bsc in Biology and a Msc in Marine Biology I have a...

How I learned to stop worrying, and care for research

Why Molecular Biology? I've always enjoyed searching for Biology. At kindergarten, I've had watched the 1st Jurassic Park movie being released in 1993, and that opened my youthful eyes to a completely different world. I couldn't even read properly at that age, but it...

Luca Santangeli

My interests in biology have always been very broad, spanning from the smallest chemical and molecular interactions to animal’s biology, behaviour and the big picture of evolution. I find astonishing how evolution led to the biodiversity of our planet and shaped...

Charlie Hillier

I am interested in exploring the relationship between cell types across species in order to understand their evolutionary lineage, and the evolution of novel functionality. Do cell types follow a phylogenetic relationship in a way analogous to animal evolution? If so,...

Hey everyone, i’m Periklis!

Hey everyone! I’m Periklis and this is my first attempt to blog post about my PhD-life experience so far. I’m from beautiful Greece and

Zooming in on Platynereis

      Platynereis dumerilii - Platy, for short - is a marine worm that has long been the focus of neurobiologists and evolutionary biologists alike. Since it evolved more slowly than its more popular invertebrate counterparts (e.g. the fruit fly), Platy...

Clytia hemisphaerica

Clytia hemisphaerica is a hydrozoan of the Campanulariidae family. This species was chosen some years ago as a promising model for molecular and cellular studies in development and evolution thanks to its phylogenetic position, the ease of culturing all life cycle...

Hello lovely people out there!

My name is Siri (yes it is!) and this is my first blog post as a EvoCELL PhD student at the Natural History Museum in Berlin. To be honest, I find it quite hard to find something smart to say about what I am doing right now. I’m one and a half months into my PhD and...

Oh, you study biology?

HELLO COLD WORLD!! I feel like this is as much of a big deal for me as the “young adult transition” portrayed in the Paramore song with the same name.. (And currently, it is indeed cold outside). I’m Petra and I'm glad you came across this blog. I’m a fresh PhD...

Laura Piovani

The Lophotrochozoa, one of the three main branches of Bilateria, includes very diverse animals such as annelids, molluscs and flatworms. Despite their divergent adult forms, they have striking developmental similarities and a distinctive larva (the trochophore)....

Kevin Nzumbi Mutemi

Perhaps naive or foolish, but I would love to understand why nervous systems emerged in nature? What selection pressures drive the diversity in nervous system organization? How do such features facilitate animal behavior, physiology and ecology? Plus, the nervous...

Petra Kovacikova

The moment I began to disentangle the events of early development of living organisms at DevBio courses, I knew I did not want to let go of that tingling fascination and amazement I felt. Now I get to look closer at the origin of programme specifying the new progeny....