RSB Director's Seminar: On the quest to understand the origin of animals: tales of undying sponges, hypnotising corals and confusing comb jellies

How do complex multicellular organisms develop from a single cell? How did mechanisms of development evolve through millions of years of evolution? How did the first animals look like?  Has the nervous system evolved once or twice? Have sponges lost neurons? What is a neuron? Why does it matter? How do we teach students that it does? Should we teach students to recognize different animals, or just those that are important for medical research and food security? Can we answer 19th century questions using 21st century technology? Should we lecture as if it was the 19th century? Should we lecture at all? How do we keep the sense of joy in research, teaching and life? Will there be a quiz?*

*This question actually has an answer. Yes, there will be - and there might be a prize for the winner. Bring your mobile device.

Maja Adamska studied biology, with special interest in embryology and evolutionary biology, at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. To obtain training in modern developmental biology, she moved to Germany to work with Eva Bober and Thomas Braun on function of homeobox genes in inner ear development, using a variety of vertebrate models from medaka fish to mice in her PhD project. During postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan in Miriam Meisler’s laboratory she followed complex crosses of mouse mutants to reveal genetic interactions involved in limb patterning. At this time, she became convinced that origin of complex developmental toolkits and processes is as exciting as their current function, so in the next step she joined Bernie Degnan’s group at the University of Queensland to analyze developmental signaling pathways in the first sequenced sponge, Amphimedon queenslandica. This work revealed surprising similarities in patterning of sponge and higher animal embryos.

Maja was a Group Leader from 2007-2015 at the Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology in Bergen, Norway, and joined the 91ÊÓƵin 2015. Since 2017 she is Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow in the Research School of Biology. Her group uses calcareous sponges to gain insight into the evolutionary origin of a variety of key developmental processes, including segregation of germ layers and axial patterning of embryos and adults. Maja is also interested in major transitions in animal evolution, such as emergence of multicellularity and morphological complexity, and their relationship to genomic complexity.