The Identity and Evolution of Cell Types

Overview

The list of posters, bus schedule, programme and onsite handout (with logistical information) are now available for download.

Symposium Overview

Cell types are the fundamental units of multicellular life, which have diversified during animal evolution. The ongoing revolution in single-cell genomics/transcriptomics technologies and new insights into the molecular mechanisms specifying cell type identity now allow us to explore this process in unprecedented detail. Our new EMBO | EMBL Symposium will bring together scientists in this emerging field. We will jointly discuss fundamental questions such as the origins of cell types in the evolution of multicellularity, their diversification in divergent animal lineages and the molecular evolution of regulatory networks underlying the specification of cell types and tissues. One focus will be on the evolution of neuron type identity, and the cellular origins of the vertebrate cortex. We will also explore new computational approaches to unravel whole-body single-cell gene regulatory networks that underlie cell type diversification. For the first time, our EMBO | EMBL Symposium will provide a forum for the emerging field of cell type and tissue origination in the single-cell genomics era.

Session Topics

• From cell types to tissue types
• Vertebrate multi-omics
• Regulatory mechanisms of neuron type identity
• The origins of cell types – evolution of multicellularity
• Cell type diversification in animal evolution
• Computational approaches to unravel single-cell gene regulatory networks

Speakers

Speakers and Trainers

Speakers

Stein Aerts

KU Leuven

Belgium

Detlev Arendt

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Clare Baker

University of Cambridge

UK

Marianne Bronner

California Institute of Technology

USA

Pawel Burkhardt

University of Bergen

Norway

Martin Cohn

University of Florida

USA

Oliver Hobert

Columbia University

USA

Manuel Irimia

Centre for Genomic Regulation

Spain

Henrik Kaessmann

Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University

Germany

Nicole King

University of California, Berkeley,

USA

Allon Klein

Harvard University

USA

Cong Liang

Tianjin University

China

Heather Marlow

Institute Pasteur

France

Leonid L. Moroz

University of Florida

USA

Mihaela Pavlicev

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

USA

Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo

Institut de Biologia Evolutiva

Spain

Amos Tanay

Weizmann Institute of Science

Israel

Ulrich Technau

University of Vienna

Austria

Maria Antonietta Tosches

Max Planck Institute for Brain Research,

Germany

Barbara Treutlein

ETH Zürich

Switzerland

Gunter Wagner

Yale University

USA

Scientific Organisers

Detlev Arendt

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Oliver Hobert

Columbia University

USA

Henrik Kaessmann

Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University

Germany

Nicole King

University of California, Berkeley,

USA

Gunter Wagner

Yale University

USA

Conference Organisers

Maryann Heck

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Programme