Stephan Q. Schneider｜Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica

Spiralians comprise one of the largest groups in the animal kingdom, yet much of its biology especially on the molecular level remains unknown. The research endeavors in my lab encompass fundamental processes of spiralian development and cellular differentiation. These include various events throughout the life cycle like the maternal to zygotic transition and gene regulatory network (GRN) regulation to determine cell fates and cell types in embryos and larvae. Focusing on core cellular mechanisms like asymmetric cell division and ciliogenesis, we utilize comparative genomic and molecular genetic analyses to gain insights into evolution and function of developmental and morphological features. 

1. Signaling pathways and gene regulatory networks. Our current works are focused on Wnt/beta-catenin -and BMP pathways, and their link to cell lineages and cell fates. To understand how these pathways impinge on early GRNs we utilize embryonic perturbations to study genome-wide responses by stage-specific and single cell transcriptomics.
2. Ciliogenesis and ciliary cell types. Spiralians are champions of motile ciliary diversity. To exploit this diversity we identify the molecular components of the ciliary machinery, the ciliome, in a broader range of spiralians.  Complementary we put our lab model system, the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii, to work to understand development and differentiation of ciliary cell types. 
3. During the last decade Platynereis dumerilii emerged as the most advanced spiralian model enabling the molecular dissection of unique aspects of spiralian biology like asymmetric cell division and cilia-based larval motility. As part of the international Platynereis community we develop various resources and techniques like PdumBase, a research tool to study gene expression throughout the life cycle.