We study sponges to understand how key features of animal body plans -- including polarity, gastrulation and tissues, the germ lineage, nerves and muscle -- may have arisen during evolution. Our work takes a whole organism approach, from ecology to physiology and molecular biology. In the lab we heavily use a practical and tractable model system, sponges hatched from gemmules, with which we can look for genes expressed, manipulate phenotype, and study behaviour and signalling all in the petri dish.

In the field we use SCUBA and more often the unmanned submersible ROPOS (ropos.com) to study the animals in their environment. This powerful tool has allowed us to measure feeding, pumping, and study silica and nutrient content of sponges at great depths.

In the news: New Scientist

Sponge Epithelia: A sheet of sponge pinacoderm cells covering the thin membrane across which we can record resistance .Read more>