STEM CELLS OF MARINE/AQUATIC INVERTEBRATES: FROM BASIC RESEARCH TO INNOVATIVE APPLICATIONS
RESEARCH
The present Action aims at fostering and consolidating the fragmented European community of scientists and institutions involved in marine/aquatic invertebrate stem cells. By sharing the expertise of our members, we are creating a wide and strong network of European research excellence to develop innovative ideas and applications.
This action has a wide geographical network involving 38 institutions from 22 countries (21 COST countries and 1 NNC). In the network there are universities, research institutes and 2 companies. The action is chaired by the management committee (MC), leaders of working group (WG) are in charge of coordinating the work of the members to meet the [defined goals|link to working groups] and the science communication committee (SCC) is responsible for the visibility of this action. Each member country can have up to two representatives (R) and two substitutes (S).
| Name | Institution | Expertise | Research Area | Experimental System | URL |
| Pedro Martinez Serra | University of Barcelona | Developmental and Molecular Biology of Invertebrates. | Evolution of Invertebrates. Development and Regeneration of the nervous system. | Acoel flatworms (Acoelomorpha) | link |
| Simone Blanchoud | University of Fribourg | Microscopy, image analysis, biocomputing | Whole-body regeneration in colonial ascidians | Botrylloides leachii | link |
| Buki Rinkevich | Israel National Institute of Oceanography | Marine biology | Marine invertebrates immunity and developmental biology, reef restoration, cell cultures from marine organisms, genotoxicity, stem cells from marine invertebrates | Botryllid ascidians, corals (Stylophora pistillata),Nematostella | link |
| Juan M Encinas | Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience | Neuroscience | Adult Neural Stem Cells and Neurogenesis in Mammals in Aging and Physiopathological Conditions. | Transgenic mice; imaging; functional morphology and anatomy. | link |
| Olga Petukhova | Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences | Biochemisry and Molecular Biology of Cell Reproduction | Actin cytoskeleton in cell signaling and transcription factor, stem cells and regeneration in marine invertebrate | Asterias rubens | |
| Helike Lõhelaid | Tallinn University of Technology, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology | Lipid mediators, dioxygenases, cell signaling, stress | Biochemistry, molecular biology | Coral | |
| Fabian Rentzsch | SARS, International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology, Norway | Developmental Biology, Neurogenesis, Cnidaria | Nervous system development | Nematostella vectensis | link |
| Sebastian Rakers | Fraunhofer Research Institution for Marine Biotechnology and Cell Technology | Molecular and cellular biotechnology for aquaculture purposes, i.e. cell cultures of fish species; progenitor and stem cell cultures; cryopreservation; integrated aquaculture systems | Animal health and biotechnology as well as aquaculture | In vitro cultures, integrated aquaculture systems, freezing systems | link |
| Sébastien Cambier | Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology | Molecular biology, Ecotoxicology, Cellular toxicology | development of in vitro models, nanotoxicology, freshwater ecotoxicology | Freshwater Invertabrates | link |
| Paola Oliveri | University College London | Systems developmental biology of invertebrates | Cell type specification and evolution. Development and regeneration of biomineralized tissues in echinoderms | Strongylocentrotus purpuratus; Amphiura fifliformis | link |
| Kerstin Bartscherer | Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine | Planarian stem cells, RNA-seq, proteomics | Stem cell-based regeneration | Planarian flatworms | link |
| Ildiko Somorjai | University of St Andrews | Transcriptomics, in situ hybridisation, immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy | Evo-devo at the invertebrate/vertebrate transition; evolution of regeneration; amphioxus regeneration and stem cells (somatic and germline); comparative aspects of development and regeneration | Branchiostoma lanceolatum mainly, other cephalochordates | link |
| Loriano Ballarin | University of Padova | Miscroscopy, histo- and cytochemistry, immunohisto- and immunocytochemistry, in situhybridisation | Evolution of innate immunity, invertebrate immunobiology, stem cells, haemocytes and immune responses, stress responses. | compound ascidians (mainly Botryllus schlosseri), solitary ascidians, bivalves | link |
| Ana Varela Coelho | Instituto Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa | Echinoderm regeneration, proteomics and metabolomics | Echinoderm regeneration, omics of non-model organisms | Marthasterias glacialis | link |
| Daniel Lyons | Ruđer Bošković Institute | Embryonal development, biomineralisation, skeletogenesis, nanomaterials | Impact of nanomaterials on developmental processes in invertebrates, modulation of cellular processes and pathways in biomineralisation, (eco)nanotoxicology | Paracentrotus lividus, Arbacia lixula, Sphaerechinus granularis | link |
| Isabelle Domart-Coulon | French National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) – Lab. MCAM | Marine Cellular biology | coral biology, marine microbial symbioses, biomineralization, tissue morphogenesis, in vitro cultures | Scleractinian coral Pocillopora damicornis, (calcareous sponges) | link |
| Andreja Ramšak | National Institute of Biology, Marine Biology Station Piran | Marine biology, ecotoxicology | Biodiversity and relationships (phylogeny, phylogeography), biochemical biomarkers, genotoxicity | Cnidaria (Scyphozoa, stone corals), bivalves | link |
| Tali Mass | University of Haifa | Coral biology, phsiology and biomineralization | Biomineralization mechanism in corals, coral cell culture | Coral | link |
| Brigitte GALLIOT | Department of Genetics and Evolution; Faculty of Sciences, University of Geneva | Hydra model system, stem cell biology, FACS, cell death, live sensors, autophagy methods, RNA-seq, transgenesis | Tissue repair and regeneration, cellular remodelling, epithelial plasticity, homeostasis and injury responses, organizer and patterning, apoptosis-induced compensatory proliferation, Aging and resistance to aging, autophagy, evolution, de novo neurogenesis | Hydra vulgaris, Hydra oligactis | link |
| Dmitri Krysko | Ghent University | Immunology, cell biology and molecular biology in mammals | Cell death modalities in inflammation and cancer | In vitro mouse and human cancer cell lines, transplantable tumor and sepsis models in mice | link |
| Younes Smani | Institute of Biomedicine of Seville | Microbiology and Infectious diseases | Antimicrobial resistance, Antimicrbial therapy, and Bacterial pathogenesis | In vitro antimicrobial activity assays (microdilution, checkerboard, and time-kill curve), and animal models of infection (sepsis and pneumonia) | link |
| Simon Sprecher | University of Fribourg | Neurogenetics, Developmental Biology | Nervous system and eye development; Cell fate specification; Gene regulation; neural circuits; connectomics | Symsagittifera roscoffensis Isodiametra pulchra Nematostella vectensis (Drosophila) | link |
| Jérôme Delroisse | University of Mons | Evolutionnary biology, Invertebrate morphology, Marine biology, Transcriptomics, Echinoderm biology | Amphiura filiformis, Asterias rubens, Holothuria scabra … | link | |
| Arzu Karahan | Middle East Technical University, Institute of Marine Sciences | Molecular Biology and Genetics | Evolution, population genetics, metagenomics, metabarcoding, genomics of marine species | Colonial tunicates (Botryllus and Botrylloides), bacteria, fish | link |
| Antonietta Spagnuolo | Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn Napoli | Molecular and Developmental Biology. Ecotoxicology | Cell type specification and evolution of nervous system structures. Impact of toxicants on developmental processes | Ciona robusta | link |
| Michela Sugni | University of Milan | Microscoopy (light and electron), immunohisto- and cytochemistry, in situ hybridization, echinoderm cell cultures, biomaterial development | Comparative aspects of echinoderm regeneration and stem cell/dedifferentiated cells, echinoderm endocrinology, echinoderm development, impact of environmental stressors, development of echinoderm-derived biomimetic biomaterials for tissue regeneration | Antedon mediterranea, Echinaster sepositus, Marthasterias glacialis, Coscinasterias tenuispina, Amphiura filiformis, Amphipholis squamata, Ophioderma longicaudum, Paracentrotus lividus | link |
| Tiago H. Silva | University of Minho | Marine biomaterials; isolation, characterization and processing of biopolymers; tissue engineering | Marine biotechnology and regenerative medicine | Biomaterials using compounds from marine sponges, squids, crabs, fish and/or macroalgae | link |
COST is supported by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020
Chairman: Prof. Loriano Ballarin
Vice-Chairman: Prof. Buki Rinkevich