Established and emerging models for eukaryotic development and evolution

Chairperson: Jan DE VRIES
Georg-August-University Goettingen, Department of Applied Bioinformatics Goldschmidtstr. 1; Room 2.153, D-37077 Goettingen, Germany
Phone: +49 551 39 23755
Email: devries.jan@uni-goettingen.de 

Vice-chairperson: : Julia MORALES
Station Biologique de Roscoff, CNRS / Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire de Biologie Intégrative des Modèles Marins LBI2M, 29680 Roscoff, France
Phone: +33 (0) 2 98 29 23 69
Email: julia.morales@sb-roscoff.fr 

For more than a century, biology has been shaped by a handful of powerful model organisms that have transformed our understanding of genetics, development, cell biology, and evolution. Today, however, rapid advances in genome sequencing, single-cell technologies, imaging, genome editing, and computational biology are revealing the extraordinary diversity of eukaryotic life and highlighting the need for a broader, more comparative perspective. The conference « Established and Emerging Models for Eukaryotic Evolution and Development » brings together researchers working across the eukaryotic tree of life to explore a new vision for biological model systems. Rather than replacing established models, the conference seeks to redefine what constitutes a model in modern biology, embracing organisms, biological processes, and molecular networks that provide unique insight into fundamental questions.

The meeting will unite scientists studying animals, plants, fungi, algae, protists, and other eukaryotic lineages, fostering dialogue across evolutionary biology, developmental biology, genomics, systems biology, computational biology, and ecology. Through comparative thinking and interdisciplinary exchange, participants will address some of biology's most enduring questions: How do developmental programs evolve? How do cells organize into complex multicellular organisms? Which biological principles are universal, and which represent lineage-specific innovations? 

By emphasizing comparative approaches, development of shared tools and infrastructures, methodological advances and challenges, the meeting aims to accelerate the emergence of the next generation of experimental model organisms and offers a timely opportunity to rethink how we investigate life's diversity.

The following topics will be covered:

• Developmental patterns, mechanisms and evolution of cell biology and development
• Genomics, Evolutionary mechanisms
• Signalling and metabolism
• Genomics and functional approaches, Modelling and integration
• Evolution of biotic and abiotic interactions
• Structuring landscape for Model development

Outstanding invited speakers on these six topics will be complemented by the participation of more junior scientists in selected oral presentations chosen from abstracts. Poster sessions will give an opportunity for younger scientists to present their work in the form of posters.

Invited speakers (provisional titles)

Isabel ALMUDI CABRERO (Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain) TBA 

Elena CASACUBERTA (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain) 
The emergence of new model organisms and rethinking fundamental questions in evolutionary biology 

Bénédicte CHARRIER (IGFL, CNRS, Lyon, France) 
3D growth in brown algae: could a universal cellular mechanism underlie the diversity of growth strategies? 

Susana COELHO (Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen, Germany) 
Unexpected partners: Ectocarpus as a model for reproductive development and host-virus interactions 

Johan DECELLE (LPCV, CNRS, Grenoble, France) 
Metamorphosis of an algal cell inside a host unveiled by subcellular imaging 

Pierre-Marc DELAUX (LRSV, Toulouse, France) 
Evolution of Plant - microbe interactions across timescales 

Jan DE VRIES (University Goettingen, Germany) 
Insights into the evolution of fundamental molecular programs of embryophytes from their closest algal relatives 

Angela FALCIATORE (Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris, France) 
Establishing new diatom model systems to uncover phytoplankton functional diversity and mechanisms of adaptation to changing marine environments 

Amro HAMDOUN (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diegom, La Jolla, USA) 
Genome engineering for ecological developmental biology in sea urchins: From observation to causality 

Aissam IKMI (EMBL Heidelberg, Germany) 
Morphogenesis across the life cycle: from mechanisms to evolution  

Junko KYOZUKA (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan) 
TBA 

Yi-Jyun LUO (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan) 
Decoding animal evolutionary novelties: from genome architecture to cell type evolution 

Ferdinand MARLETAZ (University College, London, UK) 
Two bodies, one genome: the regulatory bases of sea urchin metamorphosis 

Alex McDOUGALL (Laboratoire de biologie du développement, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France) 
Emergence of embryonic shape during early ascidian development 

Katharina MELKONIAN-EZEKIAN (LRSV, Toulouse, France) 
TBA 

Sabeeha MERCHANT (University of California, Berkeley, USA) 
TBA 

Julia MORALES (CNRS, Roscoff, France) 
Translation control mechanisms in development 

Alexandre PAIX (Max Planck Institute Tubingen, Germany) 
Genome editing across biological models, similar but not identical 

Nipam PATEL (MBL Hoods Hole, USA) 
Germline regeneration in the amphipod crustacean, Parhyale hawaiensis 

Hugues ROEST-CROLLIUS (Institut de Biologie de l’ENS IBENS, Paris, France) 
Comparative genomics in the era of biodiversity genome projects 

Anne SIEGEL (IRISA, Rennes, France) 
TBA 

Marine VALLET (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany) 
Beyond host and parasite: chemical ecology of multipartite interactions in the plankton 

Deadline for application: March 7, 2027

Registration fee (including board and lodging)

• 570 € for PhD students
• 790 € for other participants

Application for registration 

The total number of participants is limited to 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Selection is made on the basis of the affinity of potential participants with the topics of the conference. Scientists and PhD Students interested in the meeting should deposit online before the deadline.

• their curriculum vitae
• the proof of their student status
• the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
• the abstract of their presentation

The abstract must respect the following template:

• First line: title
• Second line: list of authors
• Third line: author's addresses
• Fourth line: e-mail of the presenting author

Abstract should not exceed 600 words. No figures.

After the deadline, the organizers will select the participants. Except in some particular cases approved by the Chairperson, it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in- session talk. The organizers choose the form in which the presentations are made. No payment will be sent with application. Information on how and when to pay will be mailed in due time to those selected.