Our News & Views article “Body-plan organizer in comb jellies hints at animal ancestry” now published in @nature.com 🎉 We discuss fascinating work revealing organizer activity in comb jellies & the evolution of animal development. rdcu.be/fsLWq @ruthstyfhals.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

Congratulations to @simonhenriet.bsky.social and colleagues for their groundbreaking work on the evolution of intron splicing, now out in @narjournal.bsky.social 👏 They looked in unprecedented detail at the machinery of non-canonical splicing in larvaceans 🧬⤵

Deployment of non-canonical splicing in tunicate genomes is mediated by divergent U2AF function and changing m6A modification in U1 and U6 snRNA

Abstract. Spliceosomal small nuclear RNA (snRNA) U1 and the U2AF heterodimer play critical functions by recognizing the highly conserved GT and AG dinucleo

academic.oup.com

Facility duty this week has been busy, but moments like this make it very rewarding: our benthic ctenophores catching food and releasing their tentacles afterwards. Beautiful little predator doing its thing. 🪼 #Ctenophore #MarineBiology @msarscentre.bsky.social & Aquarium de Paris

PhD candidate @chiaracastelletti.bsky.social from the group of @lionlchristiaen.bsky.social presented her work at the #EED2026 conference earlier this month 💡 She shares her experience and discusses a shift in focus towards organismal biology in the context of climate change ⤵

Studying development in a changing climate: insights from the EED 2026

PhD candidate Chiara Castelletti from the Christiaen group at the Michael Sars Centre attended the 10th European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology Meeting, a landmark in the field of evo-...

uib.no

This morning, guest speaker Anthony Moss from Auburn University delighted us with all things ctenophore ✨From unexpected feeding behavior to cell organization, he shared the lessons he learned from these fascinating animals 🪼 📸 @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social

This year's Michael Sars Symposium, co-organized with @cbubergen.bsky.social, brought together computational and molecular biologists - successfully creating new connections across disciplines 🤩 A huge thank you to our fantastic speakers and audience 👏 Discover the highlights below ⤵ #MSS2026

The Michael Sars Centre and CBU put biology in a changing environment in the spotlight

The 5th edition of the Michael Sars Symposium created a platform for computational and molecular biologists to connect and share their latest work.

uib.no

Great week at Cornell University 🇺🇸 for the annual @chemicalecology.bsky.social conference! Excited to present the first results from my MSCA fellowship on sea cucumber chemosensation. 💙 Thanks to @msarscentre.bsky.social, @scienceandtechuib.bsky.social 🇳🇴 and @erc.europa.eu for the support!

Excellent talk this morning by Prof. Inna Sokolova from the University of Rostock 👏 By comparing mollusk species living in intertidal zones, her work aims to uncover the mitochondrial basis of hypoxia resilience 🐌 Thank you for visiting us!

New preprint from the Burkhardt lab 🚨The work explores the origins of sensory system components by looking at the closest relatives to animals, choanoflagellates ⤵️ Congratulations @smannsaker.bsky.social, @jeffcolgren.bsky.social & @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social!

Pawel Burkhardt@pawelburkhardt.bsky.social · 2mo ago

How ancient are the building blocks of animal sensory systems? Key components of animal sensory systems evolved before animals. We find that choanoflagellates possess diverse & spatially segregated TRP channels, pointing to ancient origins of sensory specialization. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Thank you #EED2026 for the exciting update on evo-devo! ✨ Super grateful to @eudaldpascual.bsky.social for cohosting and the brilliant speakers of our metabolism session! 🔥 @krittikas20.bsky.social @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social @jorgelazaro.bsky.social and Cristina Gonzalez-Estevez.

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 👏⤵

New study reveals an unsuspected range of behaviors in the sea squirt Ciona

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.

uib.no

After an insightful day at #MSS2026 yesterday, we keep the ball rolling with a very informative talk by Line Mariann Grønning-Wang from The Research Council of Norway 👏 She explained the RCN's strategy for funding life sciences, and took part in a roundtable discussion. Thank you for joining us!

Was wonderful to chair this first session at #MSS2026! I am still always surprised by how stimulating these symposium days are! 🧠⚡️ Thanks to the organizers @msarscentre.bsky.social & @cbubergen.bsky.social!

Michael Sars Centre@msarscentre.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We started very strong with the first #MSS2026 session, as Anne-Claude Gavin, Deirdre Lyons @scrippsocean.bsky.social and @jmbrandenburg.bsky.social put cell biology in context 🔬 Fascinating insights on lipid transport, mollusc diversity and ascidian development in a changing ocean 👏

We are ending #MSS2026 on a high note with two beautiful talks👏 Isabella Graf @isabellagraf.bsky.social @embl.org on the subtleties of sensory systems, and Susanna Röblitz @cbubergen.bsky.social on modelling rare gene expression events. A huge thanks to our speakers and engaged audience! 🙏

For our first #MSS2026 session after lunch, the focus was on digitizing gene regulation 💻 Three fantastic talks from Anthony Mathelier @amathelier.bsky.social @ncmbm.bsky.social, Boris Lenhard @borislenhard.bsky.social and Tom Michoel from @cbubergen.bsky.social 👏

For our second #MSS2026 session on life history and evolution, Matthew Rockman @wormsrock.bsky.social delighted us with tales of dimorphism in worm larvae, and Christian Jørgensen from @unibergen.bsky.social explored the wide concept of phenotype 🌍

We started very strong with the first #MSS2026 session, as Anne-Claude Gavin, Deirdre Lyons @scrippsocean.bsky.social and @jmbrandenburg.bsky.social put cell biology in context 🔬 Fascinating insights on lipid transport, mollusc diversity and ascidian development in a changing ocean 👏

#MSS2026 is on 🙌 Co-organizers @lionlchristiaen.bsky.social and @nathaliereuter.bsky.social welcomed attendees to the 5th edition of our Symposium, a fantastic collaboration with @cbubergen.bsky.social. And we were honored to have Prof. Rein Aasland @reinoslo.bsky.social give the opening remarks 👏

Glad to attend and speak at the Michael Sars Symposium 2026 #MSS2026 co-organized by @msarscentre.bsky.social and Computational Biology Unit, Bergen at University of Bergen. Looking forward to a great day of science. @ncmbm.bsky.social @embl.org @nordicembl.bsky.social

Last but not least in our #MSS2026 speaker lineup reveal, our very own Jonas Brandenburg @jmbrandenburg.bsky.social will be sharing his work on the effect on temperature on development at the single-cell level in the sea squirt Ciona 🌊 We are ready and excited for a great day tomorrow 🤩

Less than a week before we kick-off #MSS2026 🤩 On Thursday, Susanna Röblitz from @cbubergen.bsky.social will present how innovative modelling approaches can reveal how rare gene expression events shape cellular phenotypes. We are looking forward to a day of exciting talks! ➡️ tinyurl.com/JoinMSS2026

One week to go before #MSS2026 🤩 We look forward to hearing about @borislenhard.bsky.social’s latest work on the long-range regulation of developmental genes, and the evolutionary origins of these regulatory systems 🧬More information here ➡️ tinyurl.com/JoinMSS2026 @cbubergen.bsky.social

Fish can help us map the complex interactions between genes and the environment 🐟 Today, Prof. Jochen Wittbrodt from @uniheidelberg.bsky.social shared his impressive work on elucidating the genes affecting variable traits using inbred medaka lines. Thank you for a fantastic talk!

New preprint from the @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social lab 🤩 @annaferraioli.bsky.social and colleagues show similarities between the nervous systems of contemporary and fossil comb jellies, suggesting that their neural architecture may have been conserved over time ⌛

Pawel Burkhardt@pawelburkhardt.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A fossil nervous system meets modern neurobiology. We found that a living comb jelly preserves neural architecture remarkably similar to those inferred from Cambrian fossils over 500 million years old 🤩. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Today is the last day to register for #MSS2026 ⏰ Join us for an exciting talk by Matthew Rockman @wormsrock.bsky.social from @nyu.edu, who will present his work on the genetics of developmental dimorphism in marine worms 🪱 ➡️ tinyurl.com/JoinMSS2026

It's a wrap on the Jacques Monod Conference on Developmental regulation #CJM26 🙌 The Sars delegation @jmbrandenburg.bsky.social, @chiaracastelletti.bsky.social, @noahbruderer.bsky.social, Max Jordi Makem Pekouankouang and @lionlchristiaen.bsky.social had a great time in #SunnyRoscoff ☀️

Congratulations to Brian Wehner @euplokamis.bsky.social for a great popular science talk at the Bergen Pint of Science Festival! A PhD candidate in the @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social lab, Brian applied his neurobiology expertise to a relatable topic - the science of tickling 🪶

Our own Jonas Brandenburg from @msarscentre.bsky.social now presenting his work using scRNA-seq to characterize the effects of temperatures on embryogenesis in Ciona. #CJM26

Only one week left to register for #MSS2026 🚨 On June 4th, @isabellagraf.bsky.social from @embl.org will discuss how sensory systems operate near bifurcation points, allowing small input signals to translate into a larger response. Welcome! ➡️ tinyurl.com/JoinMSS2026 @cbubergen.bsky.social

It was an honor to host a delegation from The Research Council of Norway in our ctenophore facility! A perfect follow-up to great discussions on the future of neurotechnology research hosted by @unibergen.bsky.social 👏 @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social