The lab is very excited to be among the 182 researchers winning an ERC-PoC grant this time around. The project (TaRGet 2.0) will develop a method that uses cell encapsulation into tiny semi-permeable capsules to recover the genome of targeted environmental microbes. While this is an exciting general idea for people working with uncultured aquatic microbes, we will here apply it to the recovery of harmful bloom-forming cyanobacteria. We hope that this method will help with a more precise monitoring of harmful algal blooms, a better understanding of the toxins they produce, and ultimately better strategies to manage these algae, which are predicted to become more common in the future due to global warming. This collaborative project includes colleagues from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Malin Olofsson) and from the Technical University of Denmark (Lars Behrendt).
More info here:
https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/proof-of-concept-grants-2026
https://www.uu.se/en/news/2026/2026-06-30-erc-funding-for-research-on-harmful-algal-blooms

Adam and Fabien are currently visiting Filip Husnik at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) for sampling marine plankton. This is an incredible place with not only easy access to sampling sites but also to a fully equipped lab and cutting edge core facilities. What a treat to be able to experience that!

Adam, a former MSc student in the lab, is back! This time as a PhD student. They will continue our effort to better understand the plastids of Meringosphaera from an evolutionary cell biology perspective. We are so happy to have you back 🙂

Our paper on the discovery of leptophytes, a novel major algal group, is now out in Nature Communications. Compared to the initial preprint, which was exclusively based on plastid MAGs (ptMAGs), this published version presents a leptophyte mitochondrial MAG (mtMAG).

We also deposited a preprint entitled “Environmental phylogenetics supports a steady diversification of crown eukaryotes starting from the mid Proterozoic”. We present a unique phylogenetic dataset of over 75K OTUs, integrating information from the large but often discarded environmental diversity using long‐read metabarcoding data to studying the diversification dynamics of all major eukaryotic groups
from the Proterozoic until today.

We have just published our core lab values and expectations. If you consider joining the lab, please make sure that you have read them and agree with them.

We are looking for a PhD student to work on an exciting plastid endosymbiosis in microbial eukaryotes. This position involves sampling, advanced microscopy such as CARDFISH, ExM and FIBSEM, single-cell transcriptomics and more.

This project is a collaboration between my lab (main location at Uppsala University, Sweden) and the labs of Omaya Dudin (Geneva University, Switzerland) and Filip Husnik (OIST, Okinawa, Japan).

More information on the project and how to apply HERE.
Come join us in Uppsala.

We are very grateful to the Swedish Research Council VR (Vetenskapsrådet) for continuing support of our work on elucidating the plastid symbiosis in the centrohelid Meringosphaera.

Our PhD student Nina is currently onboard the Swedish Icebreaker Oden as part of the Early Career Scientist program at the Canada-Sweden Arctic Ocean Expedition 2025. She will not only collect many key samples for her projects on novel diversity important to better understand the origin of plastids, but also rare and valuable samples for other ongoing projects in the lab. Here is a photo taken by Nina as they leave land off the coast of Svalbard.

In this new OA paper, we describe a new species of photosynthetic Paulinella, only the 4th of the genus, from a brackish beach near beautiful Vancouver (Canada). This paper is part of our ERC-funded project PlastidOrigin. The next steps here will be to obtain a better picture of the diversity of heterotrophic sister lineages by using cultures and molecular/genomic studies. Stay tuned.

When sampling involves digging holes in the sand. Yash and Fabien are traveling around BC in search of elusive heterotrophic Paulinella species, as part of the ERC-supported project PlastidOrigin.