Patrick Steinmetz
@prhsteinmetz.bsky.social
Group leader at Michael Sars Centre, University of Bergen. How food regulates growth in a sea anemone. Also: Wildlife & landscape photography. Hiking. Fishing. Consciousness. Meditation. #EvoDevo #Development #EvoPhysio https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3705-277
Great work by PhD student Patricio Ferrer Murguia. His paper reporting the twist mutant in Nematostella is out: doi.org/10.1242/dev.... twist is required to form secondary tentacles, via localized FGFR and mTOR signaling. Later, mutants form stunning epithelial neoplasia with tentacle identity.
Check the brilliant work by Sanjay Narayanaswamy in Nature Comm. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... He established a scalable Gastruloid protocol and showed that in gastruloids of Nematostella axial polarity and germ layer restoration and sorting depends on a Notch-Wnt signaling feedback loop.
Notch coordinates self-organization of germ layers and axial polarity in sea anemone gastruloids - Nature Communications
Here they show that gastruloids made of embryonic cells of the sea anemone Nematostella can robustly regenerate whole organisms. They show that Notch signaling is crucial to sort out the randomly disp...
nature.com
Bilaterian BMP signaling gradients suggest an ancestral anti-neural role. Study of #cnidarians shows that #BMP signalling promotes neurogenesis; its "anti-neural" function is a side effect of its role in the DV axis @paulknabl.bsky.social @genikhovich.bsky.social @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4dJHoiR
This is cool but also weird. Seriously, infecting HeLa cells with a parasitic eukaryote can tell us anything about how modern cells evolved? No.
Richard Sever@richardsever.bsky.social · 3mo ago"These findings...raise the possibility that mitochondria can be reprogrammed to generate new organelles with specialized functions" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Hello epithelia enthusiasts! I’m @inesfournon.bsky.social and I study epithelial mechanics in sea anemones 🪼 Did you know epithelial cell extrusion had never been described outside bilaterian animals before? Well… not anymore 👀 Read ⬇️🧵1/9
Our study on shape diversity in cnidarians is now published. The final version includes extensive new data that substantially extend the original bioRxiv preprint. Congrats to everyone who contributed to this work! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... @embl.org
Deciphering mechanical determinants of morphological evolution
A comparative analysis of cnidarian larval morphogenesis combined with active surface theory identifies a set of mesoscale mechanical modules that predict species-specific shapes. Manipulating these m...
cell.com
New article from the @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social group highlighted on the cover of Science Advances 🤩👏 The work, led by @annaferraioli.bsky.social, describes in unprecedented details the structure of the comb jelly's aboral organ (AO) 🧵 1/4
Ctenophore research points to earlier origins of brain-like structures
New 3D reconstructions of a key sensory organ in ctenophores reveal an unexpected structural and functional complexity. The findings suggest that an elementary brain may have already appeared in our m...
tinyurl.com
Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating). A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)
Nature Portfolio@natureportfolio.nature.com · 5mo agoA study in Nature shows that the single-celled form of a tiny, aquatic organism can turn into a multicellular version by three different routes. The discovery adds insight to the possible origins of multicellular life, suggesting a previously unrecognized degree of flexibility. 🧪
Salinity tunes mode of multicellularity in a tidepool choanoflagellate www.nature.com/articles/s41... - paper in @nature.com
Clonal-aggregative multicellularity tuned by salinity in a choanoflagellate - Nature
The choanoflagellate Choanoeca flexa forms motile and contractile cell monolayers purely clonally, purely aggregatively or through a combination of both processes depending on environmental condi...
nature.com
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Exciting symposium in June in Bergen with the Michael Sars Centre and CBU. Join us! @msarscentre.bsky.social @cbubergen.bsky.social
Michael Sars Centre@msarscentre.bsky.social · 6mo agoWe are thrilled to announce that registration is now open for the Michael Sars Symposium 2026, co-organized with @cbubergen.bsky.social 🙌 Join us on June 4 in Bergen for a day of fantastic talks, with a focus on living systems in a variable ocean 🌊 🔗 tinyurl.com/joinMSS2026
We are thrilled to announce that registration is now open for the Michael Sars Symposium 2026, co-organized with @cbubergen.bsky.social 🙌 Join us on June 4 in Bergen for a day of fantastic talks, with a focus on living systems in a variable ocean 🌊 🔗 tinyurl.com/joinMSS2026
Norway’s oil fund yielded NOK 2362 billions in 2025, enough to DOUBLE the current budget of Norwegian Research Council for the next 214 years. 🤷♂️ www.nbim.no/no/nyheter-o...
Sterk avkastning i 2025 | Norges Bank Investment Management
nbim.no
Investigate regeneration and repair using whole animals or organ/tissue systems at EMBO Workshop "The molecular and cellular basis of #regeneration and #TissueRepair" in #Krems, AT, 21–25 Sep 2026. Deadline: 20 May https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-tissue-repair #EMBORegeneration #EMBOevents 🧪
very sad news. Peer Bork was one of the leaders of our field, a wonderful scientist, and he's much too young to be gone. www.embl.org/news/embl-an...
In remembrance of Peer Bork | EMBL
EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.
embl.org
Excited to share the final version of our study on Nematostella cell type regulatory programs. Part of our @erc.europa.eu StG project, this was a challenging 5-year effort extraodinarily led by @aelek.bsky.social and @martaig.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Decoding cnidarian cell type gene regulation - Nature Ecology & Evolution
This study reconstructs the gene regulatory networks that define cell types in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, providing a valuable resource for comparative regulatory genomics and the evoluti...
nature.com
I'm excited to share this pre-print of my PhD research. Publication hopefully coming soon!
bioRxiv Developmental Biology@biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social · 7mo agoSustained ERK signaling couples the injury response to organizer formation during Hydra head regeneration https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.27.696609v1
💡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
Prolonged starvation deepens quiescence in Vasa2/Piwi1-expressing cells of a sea anemone
Animals with lifelong growth modulate cell proliferation in response to nutrient availability, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. This study shows that starvation induces a revers...
plos.io
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...
X chromosome dosage in respiratory stem cells is critical for post-embryonic development and survival
Tournière et al. uncover the biological roles of sex chromosome dosage compensation, showing it is broadly dispensable except in the respiratory system during metamorphosis, where X chromosome dose de...
cell.com
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)
The evolution of embodied postural dynamics underlies behavioral diversity in benthic sessile chordate
Benthic animals live on or in the seafloor, a habitat known as the benthic zone. These bottom-dwelling organisms account for the largest fraction of animal diversity in our seas, playing vital roles i...
biorxiv.org
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...
Starved sea anemones put their cells in ‘deep sleep’ mode
New work from the Steinmetz group at the Michael Sars Centre unveils the secrets behind the starlet sea anemone's extraordinary ability to adjust its body size according to food availability.
uib.no
Eudald Pascual@eudaldpascual.bsky.social · 8mo ago💡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
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.
Inés Fournon Berodia@inesfournon.bsky.social · 8mo agoThrilled to share the preprint from my PhD! 🥳 Where I characterised epithelial cell extrusion in a sea anemone 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Big thanks to my supervisor @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social and coauthors @noahbruderer.bsky.social @lionlchristiaen.bsky.social at🇳🇴 @msarscentre.bsky.social ⬇️🧵
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 🧵🧪
Starved sea anemones put their cells in ‘deep sleep’ mode
New work from the Steinmetz group at the Michael Sars Centre unveils the secrets behind the starlet sea anemone's extraordinary ability to adjust its body size according to food availability.
uib.no
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
