01 September 2022 Ania Karnkowska from University of Warsaw just arrived to the lab. During 6 months she will be working on the project “Impact of microbial interactions on the ecology and evolution of protists” . Welcome Ania!

24 August 2022 New publication available. Divergent genomic trajectories predate the origin of animals and fungi. Nature (2022) Congratulations to Edu and all the team!

17 August 2022 Lukasz Sobala from the Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy (Poland) is visiting us. He will be with us until October performing bioinformatic analysis on the glycosylation machinery of unicellular holozoans and animals. Welcome Lukasz!

29 March 2022 New paper out! Regulation of sedimentation rate shapes the evolution of multicellularity in a close unicellular relative of animals. PLoS Biol 20(3): e3001551

11 March 2022 Aleksandra Kozyczkowska successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “The new model organisms to explore the origin of animal multicellularity. An emphasis on Corallochytrium limacisporum”. Congratulations Ola!

7 February 2022 Fernando Bascón joins the lab as a master student. Welcome Fernando!

3 February 2022 Elena Casacuberta is giving a plenary lecture at the VIII SESBE conference in Vigo (Spain).

17 January 2022 Karolina Grabowska from University of Warsaw is visiting us. She will be in the lab for two weeks learning Nanopore sequencing. Welcome Karolina!

6 January 2022 First publication of the year! Rel/NF-κB transcription factors emerged at the onset of opisthokonts. Genome Biology and Evolution, 2022;, evab289

9 December 2021 New publication! Evolution of a histone variant involved in compartmental regulation of NAD metabolism. Congratulations Michelle!
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 28, pages1009–1019 (2021)

1 December 2021 We welcome Viktoriia Skripskaia and Mariia Tatarkina from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University. They will be isolating DNA from Nucleariids and Ichthyosporeans for further sequencing.

1 November 2021 Today Danielle Matriano is joining the lab as a PhD student. Welcome Danielle!

29 September 2021 Today our latest master of the academic year. Paula Crespo, supervised by Koryu Kin defended her master thesis about the evolution of oxygen-sensing mechanisms. Congratulations Paula!

27 September 2021 A new master successfully defended. Arnau Galán, supervised by Michelle Leger, has investigated the evolutionary history of genes involved in the Hippo pathway. Well done Arnau!

8 September 2021 Gonzalo Bercedo has presented his master thesis about cellular stress response in Capsaspora. He showed osmotic & oxidative stress have a detrimental effect on Capsaspora aggregate formation, among other things supervised by Vika. Great master!

6 September 2021 Àlex Gàlvez successfully defended his master thesis entitled “ Methodological study for ancestral reconstruction” supervised by Daniel Richter. Congratulations!

23 August 2021 Have a look at the latest pre-print available about poly(A)-binding proteins by Vika.
bioRxiv

22 July 2021
New publication! “Stable transfection in protist Corallochytrium limacisporum identifies novel cellular features among unicellular animals relatives” Aleksandra Kozyczkowska, Sebastian R. Najle, Eduard Ocaña-Pallarés, Cristina Aresté, Victoria Shabardina, Patricia S. Ara, Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo, Elena Casacuberta.
Current Biology

19 July 2021 During the next two weeks our lab will be part of Joves i Ciències programme. Núria, Patricia and Meri will be showing secondary school students what protists can tell us about the origin of animals.
28 May 2021 Konstantina Mitsi
successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Eukaryotic diversity through the lens of metabarcoding and metagenomics”. Congratulations!!

25 February 2021 New review publication! “The origin of animals: an ancestral reconstruction of the unicellular-to-multicellular transition” Núria Ros-Rocher, Alberto Pérez-Posada, Michelle M. Leger, Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo.

Open Biology

30 January 2021 Happy new year everyone! We are glad to launch the new MCG web.

8 September 2020 Happy to share that Héctor Romero from Universidad de la República, Uruguay will be among us very soon to continue his sabbatical stage.

2 September 2020 Iñaki presented our work  giving an online seminar at The Francis Crick Institute entitled “The power of unicellular relatives of animals: a new perspective into the origin of Metazoa”.

27 August 2020 New publication! “Integrin-Mediated Adhesion in the Unicellular Holozoan Capsaspora owczarzaki Helena Parra-AceroMatija HarcetNúria Sánchez-Pons, Elena Casacuberta, Nicholas H. Brown, Omaya DudinIñaki Ruiz-Trillo.

Current Biology

20 July 2020 Today Edu is leaving MCGlab after successfully finishing his PhD.  We will miss you Edu!

Edu_bye.jpg

24 June 2020 New publication! “Revisiting the phylogenetic position of Caullerya mesnili (Ichthyosporea), a common Daphnia parasite, based on 22 protein-coding genes”.

 Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

13 June 2020 New publication! “Gene similarity networks unveil a potential novel unicellular group closely related to animals from the Tara Oceans expedition“. Congratulations Alicia & Iñaki!

GBE

9 June 2020 New publication! “Antifungal and antiprotozoal green amino acid-based rhamnolipids: Mode of action, antibiofilm efficiency and selective activity against resistant Candida spp. strains and Acanthamoeba castellanii“. Glad to have contributed to this study lead by Lourdes Pérez from IQAC-CSIC.

Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces

5 June 2020 Slowly and safely we are coming back to the lab. After more than two months Meri & Aleksandra met again in the lab.

Meri&Ola.jpg