The talk will be followed by a Teatime in Yun Taku Restaurant from 16:00.

Title: Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates…:  our experience with an alternative model organism

Abstract: Our knowledge of modern biology is based on the study of just a handful of species, which, due to technological investments that have been made, have become increasingly unavoidable. Neglecting, sometimes forgetting, almost all other life forms has been a consequence of this. The problem seems insoluble, but new scientific disciplines fortunately required moving beyond classic laboratory species. One of them is evo-devo, a fairly recent combination of two traditional disciplines, evolutionary biology and developmental biology. Questions on the evolution of animal development led several of us to choose Oikopleura dioica, a species little known to the general public but of considerable importance in marine ecosystems. The first results were a little shocking, but that was not the end of our surprises…

Profile: Daniel Chourrout has established the Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology in 1997 and been its director until 2020. This institute is a Partner of EMBL, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory since 2023. His own research is focused on the evolution of chordate development, using tunicates as model systems. Before moving to Norway, Daniel Chourrout was heading the Laboratory of Fish Genetics at INRA (French Institute of Research for Agriculture). His training is in Genetics from the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris.

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Meeting ID:     974 5592 5078
Passcode:    992437

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