Pawel Burkhardt

Call for Applications - Max Planck Postdoc Program, apply now!

The Max Planck #PostdocProgram offers top emerging talents a range of attractive measures and opportunities. The current call for applications is open from March 1st until April 13th, 2026. Please share or consider applying! 🙏
www.mpg.de/en/max-planc... #careerinscience #sciencecareer

A poster in tones of blue with white text and pops of pink that reads: Michael Sars Symposium 2026 Living systems in a variable ocean In collaboration with the Computational Biology Unit, UiB June 4, 2026, Media City Bergen SPEAKERS Anne-Claude Gavin, Université de Genève Christian Jørgensen, Dept. of Biological Sciences, UiB Matthew Rockman, New York University Isabella Graf, EMBL Heidelberg Tom Michoel, Computational Biology Unit, UiB Anthony Mathelier, NCMBM, University of Oslo Susanna Röblitz, Computational Biology Unit, UiB Deirdre Lyons, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Boris Lenhard, Imperial College London Jonas Brandenburg, Michael Sars Centre, UiB ORGANIZERS Lionel Christian, Michael Sars Centre, UiB Nathalie Reuter, Computational Biology Unit, UiB Below the text are the logos for the Michael Sars Centre, CBU, University of Bergen, EMBL with the mention 'Partners of', and the hashtag MSS2026

Fantastic news 🙌 Deidre Lyons from @scrippsocean.bsky.social joins the Michael Sars Symposium speaker lineup! Register to attend her talk and many more on June 4 ➡️ tinyurl.com/joinMSS2026
Together with @cbubergen.bsky.social, we have prepared a program you won't want to miss! #MSS2026

After 5 years of developing, a new preprint from the lab - introducing our workflow for comparative insect connectomics, aimed at democratizing connectomics. @erc.europa.eu @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social Read it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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)

🚨 Thrilled to announce that I’ve been awarded a new project by Artsdatabanken, the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre. Project ODIN will investigate Octocoral Diversity In Norway 🌊🪸, tackling it with a synergetic combination of imaging 🔬📽️ and sequencing 🧬💻 tools. Picture: Erling Svensen.

Excited to see this story out as a preprint ✨

Deadline is this Sunday!

MicroSEA (Microbial Sea Eukaryotes) course is a one-week, field-based summer school to train early-career researchers in the diversity, ecology, and single-cell biology of marine protists. MicroSEA course integrates lectures, field sampling, and lab-based practicals in advanced techniques, such as flow cytometry, microscopy, culturing, and molecular analysis. The main objectives of MicroSEA course are: Fostering a deep understanding of marine protist diversity, ecology and biology; Providing hands-on training in advanced single-cell methods that are not commonly available in university programs; Building participants' confidence in designing and conducting research projects from field to data analysis; Promoting international collaborations and peer networking among students and speakers/trainers. The course will take place at the Station Biologique de Roscoff - SBR (France) - 7th to 12th of June, 2026 (arrival on the 6th, departure on the 13th). 20 participants will be selected, including 10 from EuroMarine member institutes. https://opbc.sciencesconf.org/

Protist lovers: Please apply for a week of rhapsody! Learn by doing:

MicroSEA (Microbial Sea Eukaryotes) course is a one-week, field-based summer school to train early-career researchers in the diversity, ecology, and single-cell biology of marine protists. opbc.sciencesconf.org

#protistsonsky

Why You Can’t Remember Being a Toddler This form of amnesia is almost universal, but has long been overlooked.

Why can't you remember being a toddler? Or can you?

Nice feature in Time of our lab's work on infantile amnesia at @tcddublin.bsky.social

Also of the labs of @sarahdpower.bsky.social at MPI Berlin, @franklandlab.bsky.social at Sick Kids, and Nick Turk-Browne at Yale.

time.com/7380496/why-...

@embl.org at its best: collaborative, open, transformative, and just the right amount of crazy. Dreaming of mechanistic cell biology *in the natural environment*? Dream no more, rent the AML.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jepb...

#WeFreezeOnTheBeach #ProtistsOnSky 🦠🌍🧪

A photo of a large red comb jelly on a black background.

Calling all #ctenophore researchers and artists!
Joe Ryan is organizing the Ctenopalooza Ctwo meeting, which we will host at MBARI in California August 23-25. 🦑🧪🌊
www.mbari.org/event/ctenop...
Come swap notes with fellow enthusiasts about the latest news in comb jellies.

From our new paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social: www.cell.com/current-biol... w/ @neurofishh.bsky.social @gkafetzis.bsky.social @denilsson.bsky.social

Looking across animals, the vertebrate eye is an obvious outlier. Why is it so different that other highly visual animals?

Tom Cavalier-Smith in Cornwall UK 23 August 2017, photo by Neal C-S

I am happy to share the unfinished but nevertheless fascinating autobiography of the late Thomas Cavalier-Smith, written in 2020, shortly before Tom passed away in 2021. I thank Ema Cavalier-Smith for sharing the text with me. I recently finished curating […]

[Original post on biologists.social]

Ctenopalooza Ctwo • MBARI Ctenopalooza Ctwo – a meeting of those interested in ctenophores About the meeting The past decade has seen remarkable advances in our understanding of these fascinating animals—spanning genomics, cel...

🧪📍🌊 🦑🍎 We’re excited to announce that we are organizing a second ctenophore meeting — Ctenopalooza Ctwo — to be held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in Monterey Bay, California, on August 23–25, 2026.
Registration is now open!
www.mbari.org/event/ctenop...

Postdoc Opening! 🚨
Thrilled to (belatedly!) share that I’ve received @hfspo.bsky.social grant in collaboration with @KatherinaPetrou "Plant-like solar tracking in a photosymbiotic animal."
We are hiring a Postdoc to join the team
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social!
Apply👇
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQO766/r...

PhD candidate Brian Wehner stands behind an outreach station. On the table, we can see a binocular microscope, an aquarium half-filled with sand in which starlet sea anemones are burrowed, information cards and smaller boxes containing symbiotic anemones.

A small child lays their hand on a table with a black tablecloth, under blue light. An adult is painting motifs on their hand with UV paint. On the table, we can also see a print-out of a sea anemone and fluorescent markers.

A woman looks into a binocular placed on a table. The scene is in the dark, the only light source comes from a small lamp. Behind the table PhD candidate Brian Wehner shows sea anemones to another visitor.

Two plasticized information cards on a table. On the left-hand side, the card is titles 'Threatened underwater collaboration'. It shows schematics of a symbiotic sea anemone and a bleached sea anemone. On the right-hand side, the card is titled 'Stinging cells - poisonous harpoons to feed and fight'. That card has tentacles catching small shrimps, and a close-up of cnidocytes, the stinging cells of jellyfish and sea anemones.

At Bergen Aquarium's Researchers' night last Friday, we shone a (UV) light on cnidarians ✨ We invited visitors to observe fluorescence in symbiotic sea anemones, discover their life cycle and - of course - to get their own UV-paint tattoo 🎨 Very grateful for a fun evening of science!

Exhibition interior at a museum, walls with text and portraits in oilpaint.

interior museum, paintings and a screen with video

museum interior of paintings of landscapes. Light boxes in the front

Welcome to the exhibition: Bergen – Greenland: Forgotten Connections @universitetsmuseet.bsky.social

Are you interested in Comparative Developmental Biology? Great opportunity for grad students and Postdocs to take this 2 week course at the MBL in October 2026.

New paper from my team detailing a greatly expanded genomic database of Asgard archaea revealing of high energy metabolism those related to eukaryotes! Led by @katyappler.bsky.social lots of help from @jameslingford.bsky.social @valdeanda.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415...

It was a pleasure introducing H. E. Ambassador Stefano Nicoletti of Italy to our Centre and community today! Italian researchers from the groups of @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social and @lionlchristiaen.bsky.social shared their work and the beautiful organisms they work with 🌊 1/2

Evolution of monoamine reception and its role in cellular contractility.

How do #sponges coordinate their bodies despite lacking neurons and true muscles?

We show that sponges use monoamines to control water flow in their canals — reminiscent of how adrenaline regulates blood vessels.

My PhD story, now on BioRxiv:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#Evolution

Introducing a Clytia planula cell atlas, and demonstrating broad-level relations with medusa cells via another updated atlas. By @annaferraioli.bsky.social with @juliarmateu.bsky.social and collaborators in a project led by @rcply.bsky.social @biodev-vlfr.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Neural connectome of the ctenophore statocyst Volume EM and connectome reconstruction of the apical organ of a ctenophore combined with high-speed imaging reveals a neuronal coordination of balancer cilia in the gravisensory organ.

In @eLife: Neural connectome of the ctenophore statocyst https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.108420
Version of record of our ctenophore nerve-net connectome paper.

Under cover of darkness, it's a race to eat before being eaten! Attention #teachers #librarians #ocean lovers! Win a copy of THE OCEAN'S HEART, illus. by Khoa Le! Releasing March 3!
📚👍 kathytemean.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/b... #kidlit #picturebook @pbspree.bsky.social @lernerbooks.bsky.social

A 🆕 #Ichthyosporea story
Led by@margaridaaraujo.bsky.social, in Co. @gautamdey.bsky.social & @hiralshah.bsky.social+🔥team across @embl.org & @sciencesunige.bsky.social
We finally have a look at what #microtubules are doing during #cellularization in #Sphaeroforma
▶️ tinyurl.com/MTSARC
#ProtistsOnSky

Please spread the word: the Structural Studies Division @mrclmb.bsky.social is looking for a new tenure-track, independent group leader with an exciting plan in any area of Structural (Molecular & Cell) biology, in discovery biology and/or methods development. 🥳

mrc.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

New paper from my group in @science.org : "A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesise itself and its complementary strand" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Outstanding work by @edogia.bsky.social

RETRACTED: Integrative phylogenomics positions sponges at the root of the animal tree Determining whether sponges or ctenophores root the animal tree has important implications for understanding early animal evolution. Here, we examined support for these competing hypotheses by constru...

This is a beautiful case of how real science happens & serious scientists work. Kudos to both set of authors: “This has been a humbling experience, but one that speaks to the self-correcting nature of the scientific endeavor.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

As Fran was nice enough to highlight this, I thought I'd put up a brief thread. 3 in 10 proteins that our cells make are either embedded in membranes (ion channels, adhesion molecules, etc.) or secreted (insulin, antibodies). They move through the secretory pathway.
1/

Thx for @mollyherring.bsky.social for featuring our recent work with @centriolelab.bsky.social and our quest with @gautamdey.bsky.social & the support of the @moorefound.bsky.social to look for the beauty in every #eukaryote out there using #Expansion #Microscopy #UExM