Rethinking Cell Differentiation and Development: A Unicellular Perspective Workshop

Date: 6-9 December 2026

Location: Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK

Organisers: Elena Casacuberta and James Gahan

One of the central questions in developmental biology is how different cell fates are generated from a single founding cell. Although great strides have been made in our understanding of this problem in animals, the evolutionary origins of this process are not understood. It is known that many unicellular organisms progress through different cell stages during their life cycle, known as temporal cell differentiation, and it has been hypothesized that spatial cell differentiation (as seen in animals) evolved from this more ancient differentiation-mode. A full understanding of how this occurred has been hampered by a lack of information on the basic principles underlying temporal cell differentiation in the closest relatives of animals, the unicellular holozoans.

In recent years, several studies have revealed that many of the genes and pathways directly related to development and cell fate in animals were already present in their unicellular ancestors. Moreover, many examples have shown the formation of specialized cell types in response to specific environmental ques and transient multicellular structures have been reported in many unicellular holozoan lineages. Therefore, recent discoveries strongly point towards an earlier origin of several developmental processes, including cell differentiation, than was previously thought and make a strong case that understanding the mechanisms underpinning “development” in these unicellular lineages will be key to understand the emergence of definitive animal cell differentiation and development.

The Workshop will consist of sessions of talks and discussions centred around various aspects of development to unicellular holozoans. Each session will contain a mixture of researchers working on unicellular holozoans and those working on other eukaryotic systems who will provide alternative insights. Through these sessions the Workshop will build knowledge aiming to produce a white-paper document outlining the emerging conceptual framework in the field, the major outstanding questions as well as seeding collaborative efforts to address these questions.

Organisers & speakers

Elena Casacuberta Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Spain
James Gahan University of Galway, Ireland

Detlev Arendt EMBL, Germany
David Booth University of California, San Francisco, USA
Thibaut Brunet Institut Pasteur, France
Pawel Burkhardt University of Bergen, Norway
Susana Coelho Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Germany
Omaya Dudin University of Geneva, Switzerland
Nicole King University of California, Berkeley, USA
Lucie Laplane CNRS, Université Paris, France
Eric Libby Umeå University, Sweden
Aurora Mihaela Nedelcu University of New Brunswick, Canada
Àlex de Mendoza Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo The Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Spain
Florentine Rutaganira Stanford University, USA
Arnau Sebé-Padrós Centre for Genomic Regulation, Spain
Hiroshi Suga Prefectural University of Hiroshima, Japan
Katrina Velle UMass Dartford, USA
Renske Vroomans University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

We offer 10 funded places for early-career researchers (PhD, postdocs and PIs in the first three years of their first appointment) to attend our Workshops along with the 20 invited speakers. We just ask that you pay for your own travel costs. If you would like to attend please complete the online application form and include a one page CV and a letter of support from your supervisor. If your supervisor would prefer to send the letter directly to us please ask them to email it to workshops@biologists.com

All attendees are expected to actively contribute to the Workshops by asking questions at presentation sessions and taking part in discussions, as well as giving a short talk on their research.

The early-career research deadline is on Friday 12 June 2026. For more information, visit the Company’s Workshops page

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