Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo

Buenísimo Sergio! & thanks! 📱🦠 But then, we have outsourcing. We argue that animals outsourced metabolic costs (losing genes for amino acids) to their food. Smartphones ffloaded data/processing to the Cloud. The goal of the analogy isn't to fit perfectly, but to show us where the new questions are!

CONGRESO FUTURO 2026 | SÁBADO 17 DE ENERO (IDIOMA ORIGINAL) YouTube video by Congreso Futuro

What do unicellular organisms teach us about cancer? 🦠 Elena took the stage at @congresofuturo.bsky.social (LatAm's biggest science event!) to explain the connection.🎥 Watch Elena's talk:
www.youtube.com/live/eyEYS3a...
@ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @csic.es @prbb.org @icreacommunity.bsky.social

Congrats Roberto!!

🎓Gonzalo defended his PhD on #Capsaspora aggregation & animal origins. Privilege to co-supervise with Koryu—watching a former trainee mentor the next generation is so cool! Thanks Núria, Nick & Cristina for the stimulating discussion! @icreacommunity.bsky.social @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social

Elena presenting our work on animal origins at Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, as part of the #CongresoFuturo #multicellularity #ichthyosporeans @prbb.org @csic.es @csicdivulga.bsky.social @csiccat.bsky.social @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social

The EMBO Journal Launched in 1982, The EMBO Journal is EMBO’s flagship publication, recognised worldwide for its originality, breadth, and enduring contributions to molecular ...

Link: bit.ly/4jKdkpV

What was missing wasn't the parts, but the "Animal Operating System" (Animal OS). We propose the innovation was the integration and repurposing of these pre-existing components. And we use a powerful scientific tool (analogies) to maje our argument. We hope you will enjoy it!

Think of the smartphone. It didn't appear out of nowhere. First came batteries, chips, camera, mp3, etc developed independently for years. Then came integration into one single entitity! The same happened with animals: unicellular ancestors already had most of the mechanisms to be #multicellular

For decades, it was thought animals arose via a rapid burst of genetic innovation. But by sequencing their closest unicellular relatives (our beloved protists), we now know most of those genes originated before animals evolved. We have tons of data on that! 😀

📱Is the origin of animals comparable to the origin of the smartphones? Yes! See our new review in @embojournal.org where we show how important it was the new "Operating System" (animalOS)for animals to evolve! with @ricardsole.bsky.social, Nick and Elena @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @csic.es @prbb.org

Cool!

Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history Sponges have a cryptic Ediacaran history because ancestral sponges were soft-bodied and had low fossilization potential.

Our latest: Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history, led by @meleonora-rossi.bsky.social with help from friends @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social including @anariesgo.bsky.social @evopalaeo.bsky.social Davide Pisani and many others

How did organs originated in the evolution of multicellularity? Despite their obvious importance, we still lack a theory of evolutionary organogenesis. Here's a @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper on how the placenta can offer answers @multicellgenome.bsky.social www.researchgate.net/profile/Oliv...

📝 Abstract deadline: Tuesday, Feb 3, 2026.
Let’s fill #SMBE2026 with #protistsonSky love!

The real drama of life happened "backstage" in the unicellular world. 🎭🧬 #protistsonSky
Our postdoc Vika Shabardina is co-organizing this symposium with Annia (@ankarn.bsky.social). Two brilliant minds leading the evocell way!
Plus, a talk by @vikramalva.bsky.social. 👇

New preprint out! Using ~75k environmental OTUs + 77 fossil calibrations, we reconstructed a Proterozoic timeline of eukaryote evolution. Our results show crown eukaryotes were already diversifying >1.6 Ga, long before the first undisputed fossils (~1.05 Ga).
🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Are you very busy but still want to learn what Aphelids are and why they are important to understand the evolution of Fungi?
Then check out our “Quick guide” on Aphelids published in collaboration with @deemteam.bsky.social, Sergey and Guifré. #protistsonsky
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Endogenized polinton-like viruses in the dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina uncover novel PolB fusion Marine viruses are ubiquitous entities that impact the biology of a large fraction of prokaryotic and eukaryotic diversity. Dinoflagellates are heterotrophic, mixotrophic and photosynthetic eukaryotes...

🎄 Just published 🎉! Our ongoing genome sequencing of the basal dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina uncovered a new lineage of endogenized Polinton-like viruses, OmPLV. Notably, OmPLV encodes ... [cont]
#VirEvol #MicroSky #Mevosky #SymbioSky #ProtistsOnSky

Very nice evidence of the power of convergence evolution in #terrestrialization. Congrats to all authors! @martaalvarez.bsky.social Jordi, Davide, @phil-donoghue.bsky.social & Jialin #metazoans

Indeed! Very nice collaboration with @irenedelrey.bsky.social @sebasn1.bsky.social @konsmitsi.bsky.social @jtrinidad13.bsky.social Montse Elias, Padhu & others to decipher the origin of the #plasmalogen biosynthesis pathway. @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @icreacommunity.bsky.social @csic.es

thanks for your contribution, Will! Sad you are not here but happy you can be at home!

And for the online participants we had the first round of Backstage Interviews led by Vika interviewing Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo and Laura Nuño de la Rosa. #Multicellverse @multicellgenome.bsky.social

@multicellgenome.bsky.social @philipcball.bsky.social @ucciuv.bsky.social @sfelena.bsky.social @pablocarb.bsky.social @ccbiologiquesuv.bsky.social @sesbe-org.bsky.social @tonigabaldon.bsky.social @paucarazo.bsky.social
Thanks @pacoalanaranja.es for the pic that captures the mood of the discussions

📣The #EMBOWorkshop hosted by @multicellgenome.bsky.social Lab has begun!

🔬Three days filled with talks from international experts exploring the #evolution and origins of #multicellularity🦠🧬

#Multicellverse #UnravellingEvolution #DiscoveringLife

gràcies!!!

Thrilled to see choanoflagellates can glide! I think this provide further support to the stunning complexity of the unicellular ancestor of animals, as we have been proposing. Congrats @thibautbrunet.bsky.social ! very nice work. #AnimalOrigins #choanos #multicellularity #protistsOnSky

cool!

Less than a month away! 📣 Our lab is so excited to co-host the #EMBOWorkshop on the evolution of #multicellularity.
Get ready to dive deep into the origins of multicellular life across all kingdoms. 🔬See you in Barcelona (or online) soon!

@prbb.org @csic.es

#PhDposition! Great PI, nice project, wonderful environment.
@IBE_Barcelona #microbes #evolution

No! This is not one of the Magnificent8! But also pretty interesting one! 🙂