Welcome to the porifera.net lab of Dr Michael Nickel. We mainly explore the functional anatomy and physiology of sponges (Porifera), within a broader comparative context of the basal metazoan phylogenetic framework. The lab is part of the Institut für Spezielle Zoologie und Evolutionsbiologie mit Phyletischem Museum at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena since October 2007.

Quick links to some answers:
Who is Michael Nickel? Publications of porifera.net lab? What are the research topics of porifera.net lab?

If you want to know where we are, have a look on this Google Map.

Latest News:

In our latest publication we report a methodological breakthrough for sponge science and experimental evolutionary research in general. In a collaboration with the groups of April Hil (Richmont University, USA), Dennis Lavrov (University of Iowa, Ames, USA) and Gert Wörheide (LMU, München, Germany), we demonstrated the actin gene knockdown by RNAi in two upcoming model demosponge species: our 'pet', the marine species Tethya wilhelma (which was described 10 years ago - Happy birthday T.w. ) as well as the freshwater species Ephydatia muelleri. Knockdown of the genes was not an easy task. However, the 'classic' RNAi technique of feeding dsRNA expressing bacteria did the job. Our next targets will be genes involved in contractility (who would have guessed this after all our previous research ...)

More about the whole story in the original publication:
Rivera, A, Hammel, JU, Haen, KM, Danka, E, Cieniewicz, B, Winters, I, Posfai, Dora, Worheide, G, Lavrov, DV, Knight, S, Hill, M, Hill, A and Nickel, M (2011), "RNA interference in marine and freshwater sponges: actin knockdown in Tethya wilhelma and Ephydatia muelleri by ingested dsRNA expressing bacteria", BMC Biotechnology, 11, 1: 67.

See also:
Press release of Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (in German).

Our latest article (Nickel et al. 2011, J. Exp. Biol 214,1692-1698) is featured in an editorial article inthe section Inside JEB of the Journal of Experimental Biology 214. Read this article here ...

The original article is Nickel, M, Scheer, C, Hammel, JU, Herzen, J and Beckmann, F (2011), "The contractile sponge epithelium sensu lato – body contraction of the demosponge Tethya wilhelma is mediated by the pinacoderm ", Journal of Experimental Biology, 214: 1692-1698.

Our Latest Articles are:

• Rivera, A, Hammel, JU, Haen, KM, Danka, E, Cieniewicz, B, Winters, I, Posfai, Dora, Worheide, G, Lavrov, DV, Knight, S, Hill, M, Hill, A and Nickel, M (2011), "RNA interference in marine and freshwater sponges: actin knockdown in Tethya wilhelma and Ephydatia muelleri by ingested dsRNA expressing bacteria", BMC Biotechnology, 11, 1: 67.
  
  
• Nickel, M, Scheer, C, Hammel, JU, Herzen, J and Beckmann, F (2011), "The contractile sponge epithelium sensu lato – body contraction of the demosponge Tethya wilhelma is mediated by the pinacoderm ", Journal of Experimental Biology, 214: 1692-1698.
  
  
• Hammel, JU, Filatov, M, Herzen, J, Beckmann, F, Kaandorp, JA and Nickel, M (2011), "The non-hierarchical, non-uniformly branching topology of a leuconoid sponge aquiferous system revealed by 3D reconstruction and morphometrics using corrosion casting and x-ray microtomography", Acta Zoologica: Early view.

• Nickel, M (2011), "Chapter 5. The Pre-Nervous System and Beyond - Poriferan Milestones in the Early Evolution of the Metazoan Nervous System", Key Transitions in Animal Evolution (Eds.: R. DeSalle & B. Schierwater), Science Publishers: 85-126.

We recently started SpongeTube - the porifera.net video gallery. Here you find a selection of the most interesting of our time-lapse and 3D rendering videos. Currently. A selection of ten videos is online which comprises material which was published before as supplementary material with some of our papers but also previously unpublished movies. The copyright retains with the movie authors, but please feel free to use the movies for teaching purpose.

http://spongetube.porifera.net