Unraveling the deep evolutionary roots of animal #multicellularity. Co-PI with Elena Casacuberta @IBE_Barcelona @icreacommun. Join us on our journey! #evolution
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We have a new branch in the family tree of animals: Atreyea- a previously unrecognized lineage among the closest unicellular relatives of animals.
Led by @Mitsikons & Michelle Leger, together with a fantastic group of collaborators.
🔗 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.…
#protists
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Evolution can innovate without inventing.
Cell type families retain ancient regulatory “vocabularies”, while individual cell types evolve by reshuffling how those motifs are combined.
New cell types from old regulatory words. We like this! @NatureEcoEvo
doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-0…
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A new sea urchin joins the evo-devo toolkit!
Great to see Mespilia globulus established as a new model. @Ferdix @eLife
One model can reveal a specific mechanism. Multiple models can reveal how evolution works.
🔗elifesciences.org/reviewed-p…
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Nice work @thibaut_brunet et al. It fits a view we find compelling: the ancestor of animals may have switched between different cell states, and perhaps different multicellular entities.
Maybe we should reconstruct an ancestral life cycle!
bit.ly/3VDUhp2
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Interesting piece by @QuantaMagazine on how transposable elements went from "junk DNA" to drivers of genome innovation.
Could this negotiation between selfish elements and host genomes have contributed to the origin of animal gene regulation?
Holozoans may help us find out.
We are in no small part made of virus. Over millions of years, our DNA has accumulated so many viral snippets that they now make up 8% of our total genome. quantamagazine.org/how-virus…
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Very grateful to have been part of such a special and emotional day celebrating Sara Bray & Nick Brown at their Retirement Symposium.
Two outstanding scientists and, even more importantly, truly wonderful people.
Thank you, Sara and Nick, for such a memorable day!
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Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo retweeted
@Ruibao6 's first paper from the lab is out in @Nature. nature.com/articles/s41586-0….
Collab with @multicellgenome & Jennah Dharamshi. How did cells stick together and form the first animals?
The protist Ministeria vibrans suggests cellular aggregation played a role.
@IUBChemistry
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Did cell types exist before animals?
What if the first cell types evolved before the first animals?
We'll use #ichthyosporeans, tiny microbes with the potential to reshape how we think about animal origins.
@IBE_Barcelona @the_prbb @CSIC
🧵
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🚨 Master's internship available at our lab.
Join us to investigate the phenotypic plasticity and life cycles of several #ichthyosporean species using cell biology & microscopy.
Interested? Get in touch with Vika Shabardina or DM us. Link: ibe.upf-csic.es/work-with-us…
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Most people have never heard of #apusomonads.
Yet these tiny protists occupy an important position in the eukaryotic tree of life. And we know so little about them!
We're looking for a Master's student to help uncover their hidden diversity. 🧵 @IBE_Barcelona @the_prbb @CSIC
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🚨 Master's internship available at our lab.
Join us to mine global environmental sequencing datasets and build the first global atlas of this fascinating lineage.
Interested? Get in touch with Guifré Torruella or DM
Link: ibe.upf-csic.es/work-with-us…
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Great preprint on the evolution of TRP channels in #choanoflagellates.
But what caught my attention wasn't simply the diversity of these sensory receptors.
It was something more general about how biological innovation may arise. 🧵
doi.org/10.64898/2026.06.15.…
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Perhaps it reflects a broader evolutionary principle.
The ancestor of animals already possessed a rich molecular toolkit.
Different holozoan lineages then expanded different parts of that toolkit independently.
Evolution was already experimenting long before animals
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Animal sensory systems were not built solely by inventing entirely new components, but by integrating ancient ones into new biological architectures.
Once again, innovation may have been less about invention than about integration.
Congrats to the authors! @Pawel_Burkhardt
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Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo retweeted
The @multicellgenomeLab studies the origin of animal multicellularity, how life went from single cells to complex organisms.
Their recent findings published in @PNASNews and @Nature are expanding the horizons #evolutionary #biology.🧬
👉shorturl.at/TmfiU
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4 research training grants in our institute, 2 in our lab.
#OpenCall 🔬
The @IBE_Barcelona is offering 4️⃣ JAE Intro ICU 2026 research training grants for undergraduate and master’s students 🧬
⏳ Application deadline: September 30
Find out more and #JoinOurTeam 👉 ibe.upf-csic.es/work-with-us…
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