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A marine worm offers clues about our evolutionary past
The Arendt Group at EMBL Heidelberg focuses on mechanisms of evolution, studying Platynereis dumerilli – evolutionarily ancient marine worms found broadly along European coasts.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2025
science-technology
A cellular atlas of an entire worm
EMBL scientists and colleagues have developed an interactive atlas of the entire marine worm Platynereis dumerilii in its larval stage. The PlatyBrowser resource combines high-resolution gene expression data with volume electron microscopy images.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2021
sciencescience-technology
Living laboratories
Under the innovative Planetary Biology research theme, EMBL scientists aim to understand life in the context of its environment.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2021
sciencescience-technology
Artistic life sciences
Paola Bertucci, from the Arendt Group at EMBL Heidelberg, studies the evolution of Platynereis dumerilii – a species of annelid polychaete worm.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2020
picture-of-the-weekscience-technology
Finding your way around Platynereis dumerilii
EMBL researchers combine multiple datasets to develop expandable atlas of an entire animal
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2020
sciencescience-technology
The evolution of the eye
Model organisms are species that are studied extensively to understand particular biological phenomena and processes, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. The small marine ringed worm Platynereis dumerilii gained…
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2019
picture-of-the-weekscience-technology
Brainy worms: Evolution of the cerebral cortex
Our cerebral cortex, or pallium, is a big part of what makes us human: art, literature and science would not exist had this most fascinating part of our brain not emerged in some less intelligent ancestor in prehistoric times. But when did this occur and what were these ancestors? Unexpectedly,…
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2010
sciencescience-technology
Uncovering secrets of life in the ocean
The best-selling novel The swarm captured the imagination of countless readers with the fascination of marine life. But it also showed how little we understand life in the depth of the ocean. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Max Planck Institute (MPI)…
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2008
sciencescience-technology
Modern brains have an ancient core
Hormones control growth, metabolism, reproduction and many other important biological processes. In humans, and all other vertebrates, the chemical signals are produced by specialised brain centres such as the hypothalamus and secreted into the blood stream that distributes them around the body.…
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2007
sciencescience-technology
The earliest animals had human-like genes
Species evolve at very different rates, and the evolutionary line that produced humans seems to be among the slowest. The result, according to a new study by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL], is that our species has retained characteristics of a very ancient ancestor…
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY2005
sciencescience-technology