Michael Sars Guest Seminar Series

14 January, 2022
Guest Speaker - Meg Veruki
Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen 
"Structure and function of neurons in the inner retina"
Host: Lynagh Lab 

21 January, 2022
Guest Speaker - Ragnhild Irene Jacobsen
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
“Of mice and worms: identifying inputs to single neurons, and chasing bioluminescent signals in the sea”
Host: Christiaen Lab

29 April, 2022
Guest Speaker - Øyvind Fiksen
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen
"Ecological mechanics in the ocean: encounter rates, physiology and behaviour​​​​​​"
Host: Christiaen Lab

6 May, 2022
Guest Speaker - Ditte Andersen  
University of Copenhagen
"A Drosophila Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor (TNFR) restricts cytoplasmic TRAF3 levels to control gut metabolism and tissue homeostasis"
Host: Steinmetz Lab 

15 June, 2022
Guest Speaker - Joe Thornton
Department of Ecology & Evolution,The University of Chicago 
"Evolutionary histories of an ancient transcription factor"
Host: Lynagh Lab

17 June, 2022
Guest Speaker - Aino Hosia
University Museum of Bergen, Department of Natural History
"Exploring the diversity of Medusozoa and Ctenophora"
Host: Burkhardt Lab

26 August, 2022
Guest Speaker - Shashank Gandhi
UC Berkeley, USA
"From embryos to organoids: neural crest at the heart of development"
Host: Christiaen Lab

23 September, 2022
Guest speaker - Clive R Bramham
Department of Biomedicine, UiB
"Arc as a master regulator of synaptic plasticity: toward a molecular understanding of how the brain works."
Host: Lynagh Lab

30 September, 2022
Guest speaker - Manfred Alsheimer
Biozentrum, University Würzburg, Germany
“Guiding chromosomes and shaping nuclei: The exceptional role of the nuclear envelope in meiosis and sperm differentiation.”
Host: Chourrout Lab

14 October, 2022
Guest speaker - Srinivasa Subramaniam, PhD
University of Florida Scripps, U.S.
"Decoding hurdles in Huntington disease"
Host: PhD/Postdoc Committee

21 October, 2022
Guest speaker - Aissam Ikmi
EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
"Design principles of early animals: a cnidarian view."
Host: Steinmetz Lab 

28 October, 2022
Guest speaker - Radu Aricescu
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK
"The wide wild world of GABA_A receptors"
Host: Burkhardt Lab

4 November, 2022
Guest speaker - Kaisa Haglund
Oslo University Hospital, Norway
"Molecular mechanisms of cytokinetic abscission in vivo."
Host: Lynagh Lab

11 November, 2022
Guest Speaker - Thibaut Brunet
Pasteur Institute, France
“The origin of animal morphogenesis: insights from choanoflagellates.”
Host: Burkhardt Lab

25 November, 2022
Guest Speaker - Cordelia Imig
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
"Dissecting the molecular mechanisms that determine signaling and functional heterogeneity of chemosensitive gut endocrine cells."
Host: Burkhardt Lab

2 December, 2022
Guest Speaker - Nadine Vastenhouw
University of Lausanne, Switzerland
"The spark of life. A role for nuclear organization in transcription regulation."
Host: Valen Lab

8 October, 2021
Guest speaker - Nils Halberg
Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen
Epigenetic Control of Obesity-induced Tumor Initiation in Breast Cancer

12 November, 2021
Guest speaker - Charalampos Tzoulis 
Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen 
NAD replenishment therapy for Parkinson’s disease: from the lab bench to trials of experimental therapy

19 November, 2021
Guest speaker - Aurelia Lewis 
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen
PI3K signalling in the nucleolus

26 November, 2021
Guest speaker - Sushma Grellscheid
Department of Biological Sciences and CBU, Department of Informatics, University of Bergen
Cell Biology Meets Soft Matter Physics to Characterise the Mechanical Properties of  Biomolecular Condensates

3 December, 2021
Guest speaker - Iain Johnston
Department of Mathematics and Associate Group Leader, CBU, University of Bergen
Corals, crops, ctenophores... avoiding organelle mutational meltdown across eukaryotes

28 February, 2020
Guest speaker - Robert Lucas
University of Manchester
Animal opsins, from functional characterisation to optogenetic application

27 January, 2020
Guest Speaker - Martin How
University of Bristol
Polarization as an alternative to colour in animal vision

21 February, 2020
Guest speaker - David McClay
Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University
Top down and Bottom up approaches to understand morphogenesis

20 February, 2020
Guest speaker - Evelyn Houliston
Institut de la Mer de Villefranche, IMEV
Gastrulation in the hydrozoan Clytia

14 February, 2020
Guest Speaker - Kenneth H Wolfe
UCD Conway Institute
Origin of yeast’s natural genome engineering system, mating-type switching

26 November, 2019
Guest Speaker - Roberto Feuda 
University of Leicester
Towards a system-level understanding of the evolution of the nervous system

22 November, 2019
Guest Speaker - Uli Technau 
University of Vienna
The evolution of mesoderm and its derivatives - lessons from a diploblastic sea anemone

25 October, 2019
Guest Speaker - Jakob Vinther
University of Bristol
Comb Jelly origins — A palaeontological perspective

18 October, 2019
Guest Speaker - Andrea Pauli 
Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP)
Small proteins with big roles – from coordinating cell migration to mediating species-specific fertilization

27 September, 2019
Guest Speaker - Karen Echeverri
Marine Biological Laboratory, The University of Chicago
Molecular mechanisims of regeneration: lessons from axolotls

3 May, 2019
Guest Speaker - Ass. Prof. Scott Nichols 
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Denver
Evolution of epithelial organization and dynamics in animals
Host: Burkhardt group

26 April, 2019
Guest Speaker - Dr. Audrey Dussutour
IVEP team, University of Toulouse, France
Decision making and learning abilities in non neural organisms, evidence from slime molds
Host: Burkhardt Group

12 April, 2019
Guest Speaker - Nicole King (PI) 
Life Science Addition, University of California, Berkeley
Light regulated morphogenesis in a shape-shifting choanoflagellate
Host: Burkhardt/Hejnol group

29 March, 2019
Guest Speaker - Kristen Koenig (PI)
Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University
Cephalopod lens development and the evolution of visual system complexity
Host: Hejnol group

22 March, 2019
Guest Speaker - Group Leader Arnau Sebe-Pedros 
Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona
Early metazoan cell type diversity and regulation by single-cell RNA-seq analysis
Host: Hejnol group

22 February, 2019
Guest Speaker - Group Leader Ines Drinnenberg 
Institut Curie, Paris
Histone repertoire changes are associated with changes in genome organisation: Loss of CenH3 in holocentric insects
Host: Gahan/Garschall

15 February, 2019
Guest Speaker - Prof. Brigitte Galliot
Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Hydra, a model for regeneration and slow aging
Host: Simona Chera

1 February, 2019
Guest Speaker - Prof. Eugen Kerkhoff
University Hospital Regensburg
Actin/myosin functions in exocytic transport processes
Host: Burkhardt Group

4 December, 2018
Guest Speaker - Leonid Moroz, Ph.D.
The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida
Genealogy of Neurons: Deciphering Brain Evolution through the Lens of Single-cell genomics
Host: Burkhardt Group

30 November, 2018
Guest Speaker - Benyamin Rosental, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Assistant Professor
Comparative Immunology lab Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Evolutionary origin of the mammalian hematopoietic system found in a colonial chordate
Host: Rentzsch Group

16 November, 2018
Guest Speaker - Ass. Prof. Andrew Swan, PhD
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Windsor, Ontario Canada
APC/C-Cort, a meiosis-specific Anaphase Promoting Complex, contributes to sex determination in Drosophila
Host: Thompson Group

9 November, 2018
Guest Speaker - Heather Marlow, Group Leader
Genomics and Epigenomics of Animal Development, Department of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Institut Pasteur, Paris 
Transcriptomic programs underlying cell fate determination in the sea anemoneNematostella vectensis
Host: Steinmetz Group

12 October, 2018
Guest Speaker - Prof. Dr. Annika Guse 
Guse Lab, Centre for Organismal Studies Heidelberg, Heidelberg University 
Uncovering the molecular mechanisms of coral-algal symbiosis using Aiptasia as a model system
Host: Steinmetz Group

20 September, 2018
Dr. David Garfield
Department of Evolutionary Biology, Humboldt-Universität, Germany
Characterising developmental robustness and evolution from single-cells to population genetics
Sars Group Leader candidate

20 September, 2018
Dr. Elizabeth Hambleton
Centre for Organismal Studies, Universität Heidelberg, Germany 
Molecular mechanisms and evolution of animal-algal symbiosis
Sars Group Leader candidate

20 September, 2018
Dr. Laurel Hiebert
Villefranche-sur-mer Developmental Biology Laboratory, France 
The origins of life history stages and modules in nemerteans and ascidians
Sars Group Leader candidate

20 September, 2018
Dr. Timothy Lynagh 
The Pless Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 
Evolution of neurotransmitter receptors
Sars Group Leader candidate

20 September, 2018
Dr. Jacob Musser 
European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg Germany 
Single-cell RNAseq in sponges sheds light on the first animal cell types
Sars Group Leader candidate

20 September, 2018
Dr. Christina Zakas
Department of Biology, New York University, USA 
Finding the genetic basis of evolutionary transitions in development using a polychaete model
Sars Group Leader candidate

8 June, 2018
Guest Speaker - Dr. Maike Kittelmann
Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University
Resolving synapse and organelle formation with 3D Electron microscopy
Host: Burkhardt Group

1 June, 2018
Guest Speaker – Prof. Francesc Cebrià
Professor Titular, Departament de Genètica, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona 
Regulation of stem cell differentiation during planarian regeneration
Host: Rentzsch Group

22 May, 2018
Guest Speaker – Dr. Jordi Solana
Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University
Using single-cell technologies and planarians to study stem cells, their differentiation and their evolution.
Host: Rentzsch Group

4 May, 2018
Guest Speaker – Prof. Uri Frank
Centre for Chromosome Biology, School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway 
Hydractinia i-cells and their roles in regeneration and sexual reproduction.
Host: Rentzsch Group

20 April, 2018
Guest Speaker - Dr. Yehu Moran
Senior Lecturer and Group Leader, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Studies on cnidarian microRNAs shed new light on the evolution of post-transcriptional regulation
Host: Rentzsch Group

19 March, 2018
Guest Speaker - Dr. Néva Meyer 
Assistant Professor of Biology, Clark University
Function of BMP signaling in the annelid Capitella teleta and implication for nervous system evolution
Host: Hejnol Group

9 March, 2018
Guest Speaker - Prof. Dr. Gregor Bucher 
Dept. of Evolutionary Developmental Genetics, Georg-August-University Göttingen
Beyond bicoid: The Tribolium model system reveals a novel mechanism of axis formation
Host: Rentzsch Group

23 February, 2018
Guest Speaker - Prof. Dr. Christian Mosimann 
SNSF Assistant Professor, Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zürich
Decoding the emergence and cell fate control of the lateral plate mesoderm
Host: Steinmetz Group

29 September, 2017
Guest Speaker - Prof. Dr. Jan Huisken
Director of Morgridge Medical Engineering Morgridge Institute for Research, Wisconsin
Quantifying embryonic development with a smart and gentle light sheet microscope
Host: Valen Group/Krause

27 September, 2017
Researcher candidate - Oleg Tolstenkov
Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Scienses, Goethe University, Frankfurt
Enlighten the worm crawling: Optogenetic dissection of neuronal circuit controlling locomotion in C. elegans
Host: Glover Group

22 September, 2017
Guest Speaker - Henrik Bringmann, Group Leader 
Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
Control and regenerative functions of sleep
Host: Chatzigeorgiou Group

15 September, 2017
Guest Speaker - Prof. Vincent Laudet
Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls-sur-mer UPMC/CNRS 
A natural (and molecular) history of metamorphosis and thyroid hormones
Host: Hejnol Group

30 August, 2017
Research Fellow candidate - Emmanuel Haillot
Department of Genetics, Development & Cell Biology (GDCB) University of Iowa, USA
Establishment of the dorsal-ventral axis in the sea urchin embryo Paracentrotus lividus and the annelid embryo Platynereis dumerilii
Host: Hejnol Group

25 August, 2017
Postdoc candidate - Kathrin Garschall
Department of Ecology and Evolution University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Uncovering the Genetic Basis of Aging and Longevity in D. melanogaster
Host: Steinmetz Group

30 June, 2017
Guest Speaker - Prof. Frank Hauser
Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen
Evolution of GnRH-like neuropeptide signaling systems in protostomes
Host: Hejnol Group

29 June, 2017
Guest Speaker - Prof. Maurice Elphick 
The Organismal Biology Department, Queen Mary University of London
The evolution and comparative physiology of neuropeptide signalling: insights from echinoderms
Host: Hejnol Group

23 June, 2017
CANCELLED Guest Speaker - Nadine Vastenhouw, Group Leader
Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden
Transcriptional control in time and space
Host: Hejnol Group

16 June, 2017
Guest Speaker - Prof. Tatjana Sauka-Spengler
Radcliffe Department of Medicine, Oxford University
Pioneering chromatin for neural crest specification
Host: Hejnol Group/Martìn Duràn

2 June, 2017
Guest Speaker - Prof. Erich Bornberg-Bauer
Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, The Westfalian Wilhelms University of Münster
Emergence of de novo protein coding genes from ‘dark genomic matter’ – – fact or fiction?
Host: Chourrout Group/Henriet, Hejnol Group/Martín-Durán

12 May, 2017
Guest Speaker - Prof. Mark Blaxter
The Blaxter Lab, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, The University of Edinburgh
Ghosts of symbioses past: fossils of Wolbachia in nuclear genomes reveal the complex history of a dynamic nematode–bacterial symbiosis
Host: Chourrout Group/Henriet

8 May, 2017
Guest Speaker - James Gagnon
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology – Schier Lab Harvard University
Whole organism lineage tracing with genome editing
Host: Valen Group

5 May, 2017
Guest Speaker - Prof. Graham Budd
Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University
New perspectives on the Cambrian explosion - hunting down the first animals
Host: Steinmetz Group

27 April, 2017
Sars 20th Anniversary Ceremony

26 April, 2017
Dr. Charlotte Aumeier
Biosciences and Biotechnology Institute of Grenoble
Actin-microtubule synergy determines symmetry
Sars Group Leader candidate

26 April, 2017
Dr. Elizabeth Williams
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen Germany
Environmental and neuropeptidergic regulation of marine invertebrate metamorphosis
Sars Group Leader candidate

26 April, 2017
Dr. Eivind A.B. Undheim
Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland Australia
Exploring an arsenal: towards a holistic understanding of venom evolution
Sars Group Leader candidate

26 April, 2017
Dr. Ildiko Somorjai
Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland, Univ. of St. Andrews 
Amphioxus: conservation and novelty of a living fossil
Sars Group Leader candidate

26 April, 2017
Dr. Anastasios Pavlopoulos
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, USA 
Multi-level studies of developmental morphogenesis
Sars Group Leader candidate

26 April, 2017
Dr. José M. Martín-Durán
University of Bergen, Sars Centre, Hejnol Group 
The diversification of animal development
Sars Group Leader candidate

26 April, 2017
Dr. Pawel Burkhardt
Marine Biological Association, Plymouth UK 
Choanoflagellates and the evolutionary origin of synapse signalling complexes
Sars Group Leader candidate

7 April, 2017
Guest Speaker - Dr. José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta, PI
The Gómez-Skarmeta Lab, Centro Andaluz de Biologia del Desarrollo, CABD/CSIC/UPO
Evolution of regulatory landscapes
Host: Hejnol Group/Martìn Duràn

17 April, 2017
Guest Speaker - Prof. Greg Wray, PI
Wray Lab, Duke University
Rapid evolution of larval morphology in sea urchins through rewiring of a developmental gene regulatory network
Host: Chourrout Group/Henriet