Sebastián R. Najle, a Ramón y Cajal researcher, has joined the Department of Biomedical Sciences at UIC Barcelona, where he will study the basic principles that enable cells to communicate and shape organisms. At the Comparative Cell Biology Laboratory, he will use state-of-the-art tools, such as single-cell sequencing and advanced microscopy, to reconstruct these fundamental processes.
His project explores placozoans, tiny marine organisms regarded as the simplest creatures on Earth. With this model, Dr Najle aims to determine “how a minimal multicellular organism functions”, a line of research with potential long-term applications in biomedicine and regenerative medicine.
According to the researcher, placozoans lead a very simple life: they are asexual – reproducing by binary fission – feed on algae and live in warm, shallow seas, attached to the surfaces of rocks. These characteristics make them easy to maintain in the laboratory and allow them to be studied under controlled conditions.
The project builds upon previous research published by Dr Najle together with other scientists from the Barcelona Centre for Genomic Regulation, in the journal Cell. This paper showed that certain basic components of neurons appeared around 800 million years ago in the common ancestor that these animals share with us; an organism which lived in shallow seas.
Sebastián R. Najle holds a degree in Genetics from the National University of Misiones (Argentina) and a PhD in Biological Sciences from the National University of Rosario. His career as a researcher has focused on the comparative study of highly simple organisms, such as protists and basal animals, using functional genomics and molecular biology tools to understand the origins of fundamental cellular processes.
UIC Barcelona currently has six Ramón y Cajal researchers, one of Spain’s most prestigious and competitive funding programmes, awarded to researchers with outstanding careers.
This contract is part of the RYC2023-045787-I grant, funded by MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the ESF+
