Anna Ferraioli

Happy Ctenophore Day!
These glowing ocean drifters look like jellyfish but aren’t! They’re comb jellies, shimmering creatures that light up the sea with rows of beating cilia 💙🌈
Which species can you identify? 👀 Most are raised in @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social lab
#CtenophoreDay #CombJelly #Ctenophore

New preprint from the @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social lab 🤩 @annaferraioli.bsky.social & colleagues created a 3D model of the ctenophore apical organ, revealing cell-type diversity and exciting new insights into the evolution of central nervous systems 🧠🧪 Congratulations to the team! 👏

Ctenophores possess a unique aboral organ that acts as a multisensory center, controlling complex behaviors. We’ve now created a ctenophore model integrated with our 3D volume EM data. Puts it into perspective.

Check out our recent work here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#ctenophores #volumeEM

Marine biodiversity: Gone with the wind? Our dispatch out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social

New research shows that wind and currents act as invisible barriers, reshaping our view of ocean connectivity. 🌊🪼

authors.elsevier.com/a/1lYLj3QW8S...
@iramaegele.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

Excited to share our new work on the 3D architecture of the ctenophore aboral organ!

We explored its remarkable cellular diversity and integration with the syncytial nerve net, uncovering connectivity and insights into the evolution of sensory complexes.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Neural Connectome of the Ctenophore Statocyst 🤩.

@kei-jokura.bsky.social, @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy team identify a new syncytial nerve net in older animals & differences in innervation patterns. Great collaboration & co-submission to bioRxiv. Exciting times! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Thanks James!!

So glad to see this work on single cell of squid visual system finally published in @natecoevo.nature.com , a long adventure from Okinawa to London !

Do you want to understand how developmental programs are encoded in animal genomes? Join our lab at the @szndohrn.bsky.social for a PhD project to unravel the developmental dynamics in sea urchins during the metamorphosis from larva to juvenile.
Deadline JUNE 14th!
www.szn.it/index.php/it...

Aboral cell types of Clytia and coral larvae have shared features and link taurine to the regulation of settlement Larvae of jellyfish and corals have specialized sensory cells with shared features potentially linked to settlement regulation.

"Aboral cell types of Clytia and coral larvae have shared features and link taurine to the regulation of settlement" Kudos to Julia Ramon-Mateu and Anna Ferraioli @biodev-vlfr.bsky.social, and thanks to our collaborators for their coral larva expertise www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Sponges, ctenophores and the statistical significance of syntenies Shared fusions between ancestral chromosomal linkage groups have previously been used to support phylogenetic groupings, notably sponges with cnidarians and bilaterians to the exclusion of ctenophores...

New entry into the sponge/ctenophore debate.... Have the chromosome fusions separating ctenophores from all other animals been given too much weight? Beautifully clearly written paper covering complex arguments from @rcply.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out our latest work on the evolution of animal genome regulation out today in @nature.com. Nicely summarized below by @ianakim.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is a major output from our ERC-StG project Evocellmap @erc.europa.eu at @crg.eu

Four people stand behind a booth in the Bergen University Museum Whale Hall. A skeleton is visible hanging from the ceiling, there are glass cases with specimens. At the booth, an aquarium, a laptop and scientific drawings are displayed.

An aquarium with comb jellies, lit from the side to highlight their delicate shape, is displayed on a table covered in a black tablecloth.

It was an honor to take part in the celebration of 200 years of knowledge at @universitetsmuseet.bsky.social, together with colleagues from across @unibergen.bsky.social departments 🎉🎂 The Burkhardt group showcased comb jellies in the Museum's majestic whale hall ✨ @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social

It's publication day of my first book: The Tree of Life. The tree of life is a time machine that can take us back 4 billion years to meet our most distant ancestor. It is the magic that lets us tell the origin stories, beginning with this ancient relative, of everything from mushrooms to man.

imMERsion-Sciences is online !
A virtual dive into the heart of Sorbonne University marine stations & their scientific platforms without mask or snorkel !
By #mohamedkhamla @imev-mer.fr
With the support of @embrc-france.bsky.social @alexmcdougall.bsky.social #nathalieturque

immersion-sciences.org

My group is hiring a new Postdoc to work on gene regulation and chromatin in Nematostella. Please RT!
For more information see here:
gahanlab.com
tinyurl.com/34xke35d

Anna Ferraioli @annaferraioli.bsky.social, postdoc in the group of @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social, presented her work characterizing the ctenophore aboral organ at #EMBLAIOneHealth @events.embl.org 🤩👏

A poster in tones of blue and green. At the bottom, the logos of the Michael Sars Centre, University of Bergen, and EMBL with the mention "partner of" above. In the bottom right corner, the hashtag MSS2025. The following text is on the poster: Michael Sars Symposium 2025 Decoding signals and unveiling architectures, from molecules to organisms June 6, 2025, Media City Bergen Speakers: Georgia Rapti (EMBL Heidelberg) Ryan Hibbs (University of California San Diego) Ida Helene Steen (University of Bergen) Jingwei Xu (ETH Zürich) Ross Waller (University of Cambridge) Christopher Lowe (Stanford University) Yuhong Wang (Michael Sars Centre, University of Bergen) Ioannis Riziotis (The Francis Crick Institute, London/GSK) Paola Laurino (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology)

We are excited to announce that registration for the Michael Sars Symposium 2025 is now open! 🤩 Join us on June 6th at Media City Bergen for a day of exceptional talks 🧪 #MSS2025
✨Learn more and register here: tinyurl.com/yc4jxdvz

Thrilled to see #choanoflagellates on the cover of Science Advances🤩. Our latest work "Electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in the closest relative of animals" out now. Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 👏 @jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

🍾Our small #UExM adventure is only starting! #ProtistsOnSky

We are happy to announce that the Moore Foundation will be funding our efforts in creating an Expansion Microscopy atlas of #Microbial #Eukaryotes with @gautamdey.bsky.social @UNIGE
@embl.org

LINK: www.unige.ch/sciences/chi...

1/4

Deep conservation of cis-regulatory elements and chromatin organization in echinoderms uncover ancestral regulatory features of animal genomes Despite the growing abundance of sequenced animal genomes, we only have detailed knowledge of regulatory organization for a handful of lineages, particularly flies and vertebrates. These two groups of...

Thrilled to share this new work resulting from a great collaboration of my lab with the labs of Ignacio Maeso and Veronica Hinman, started with the dear José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta many years ago. Take a look!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our ctenophores say hi to Bluesky 👋🏼

Say hi 👋 to @ruthstyfhals.bsky.social, @annaferraioli.bsky.social, @paulamiramon.bsky.social, @aishwarya12ravi.bsky.social, @iramaegele.bsky.social, @alexandrejan.bsky.social, @robertosantoro.bsky.social from our lab @msarscentre.bsky.social. Exciting science on #choanoflagellates #ctenophores 🌊🔬🧪🧫