Pawel Burkhardt

@[email protected]
116 Followers
84 Following
58 Posts

Group Leader
Michael Sars Centre, University of Bergen, Norway

When and how did the first neurons & nervous systems evolve? How did this key event led to the vast marine biodiversity we see in today’s oceans?

#choanoflagellates | #sponges | #ctenophores | #multicellularity | #animal #origins | #evolution | #neuroscience | #neurons | #synapse

LAB WEBSITEhttps://www.uib.no/en/michaelsarscentre/114773/burkhardt-group
YOUTUBEhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UClA6LQB3qnHhQesTJD7x9qg
ORCIDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9826-057X
GOOGLE SCHOLARhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cqYOjG0AAAAJ&hl=en
Pawel BurkhardtJun 30, 2025
Show threadGaspar JekelyJun 30, 2025
Also check the beautiful paper by Anna Ferraioli ‪@annaferraioli.bsky.social‬ Pawel Burkhardt's lab ‪@pawelburkhardt.bsky.social‬ with volumetric reconstructions of the aboral organ from a one-day-old larva. https://bsky.app/profile/pawelburkhardt.bsky.social/post/3lsnl5ee6sc23
paper: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.26.659588v1
Pawel BurkhardtJun 30, 2025
Gaspar JekelyJun 30, 2025
In our new preprint we describe the synaptic #connectome of the nerve net in the ctenophore gravisensory organ. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.26.661250v1 #biology #neuroscience #ctenophore #vEM
Pawel BurkhardtJan 25, 2025
Lukas VFN 🇪🇺Jan 14, 2025

Tiny microbe colonies communicate to coordinate their behavior https://www.uib.no/en/michaelsarscentre/175104/tiny-microbe-colonies-communicate-coordinate-their-behavior

Electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in the closest relative of animals https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr7434

"A new study reveals evidence of electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in #choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of #animals. This elaborate example of cell communication offers key insights into the early #evolution of animal #multicellularity and nervous systems."

#Protists #Microbes

Tiny microbe colonies communicate to coordinate their behavior

A new study published in Science Advances reveals evidence of electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of animals. This elaborate example of cell communication offers key insights into the early evolution of animal multicellularity and nervous systems.

University of Bergen
Pawel BurkhardtJan 9, 2025
Sally LowellJan 9, 2025

Slime Moulds!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002691y?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

In Our Time - Slime Moulds - BBC Sounds

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the remarkable world of slime mould.

BBC
Pawel BurkhardtJan 8, 2025
Thrilled to see #choanoflagellates on the cover of Science Advances 🤩. Our latest work "Electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in the closest relative of animals" out now. Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr7434
Work supported by @MSarsCentre, @UiB, #evolution #neuron #multicellularity 👏👏👏 Jeffrey Colgren
Pawel BurkhardtDec 3, 2024
Albert CardonaDec 2, 2024

Flies get love blind: Katrin Vogt @katvogt wrote a dispatch on two papers on dopamine and courtship in #Drosophila, by the Rezaval lab and the Crickmore lab, on how flies become unaware of threats leading into copulation, and how they awaken from this condition afterwards:

"Behavioral neuroscience: Flexible integration on the fly", Vogt 2024
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098222401426X

#neuroscience #Drosophila #courtship #dopamine

Behavioral neuroscience: Flexible integration on the fly

Integrating noisy stimuli over time is crucial to making appropriate decisions. New studies in Drosophila revealed that threat responses can be flexib…

Pawel BurkhardtNov 13, 2024
The choanoflagellate Barroeca monosierra on the cover of
@mbiojournal 🤩. Our work shows that this large colonial choano from Mono Lake harbors live bacteria. Beautiful picture by @Kayley_Hake #choanoflagellates
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.01623-24
Pawel BurkhardtNov 13, 2024
Marie WaldeNov 5, 2024

The #Roscoff Culture Collection 🇨🇵 of #marine #microorganisms 🌊 🦠 is seeking a #postdoc to work on ex situ microbiome interactions (EU projects #MICROBE and #BlueRemediomics 🇪🇺).

One objective is to define synthetic #microbiomes to promote the growth of selected #microeukaryotes (#microalgae, saprotrophs) and for optimal production of #metabolites of interest.

https://roscoff-culture-collection.org
https://www.microbeproject.eu
https://blueremediomics.eu
#protists #microbiology #job #bretagne #france

Welcome to the Roscoff Culture Collection | Roscoff Culture Collection

Pawel BurkhardtNov 10, 2024
Albert CardonaNov 10, 2024

"Why do we have so many excitatory neurons?" Alice Wang et al. 2024.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.24.614724v2

From the Priebe and Vogelstein's lab.
#neuroscience

Pawel BurkhardtNov 5, 2024
Thrilled to see our latest work on ctenophore reverse development featured on the cover of @PNASNews 🤩 Work supported by @MSarsCentre, @UiB, @ERC_Research #ctenophores #evolution #rejuvenation👏👏👏@JoanJSoto & stunning 📸 from @Alexandre4_Jan
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2411499121