Hervé obtains a prestigious HFSP grant

Awardee: Hervé Turlier (CIRB – CNRS/Collège de France/Inserm)
Title: Evolutionary Biophysics of Spiralian Asymmetric Divisions

Collaborators: Vanessa Barone (Stanford University), Jose Martin-Duran (Queen Mary University of London)

Summary:

Hervé Turlier and his international team have received a prestigious HFSP (Human Frontier Science Program) award for their groundbreaking research on how cells acquire different destinies during the earliest stages of life. Focusing on a large group of marine invertebrates known as spiralians (like some worms and mollusks), the project explores a unique cellular structure called the polar lobe, which only one of the two daughter cells inherits during the first division of the fertilized egg. This creates size asymmetry and influences the cell’s fate.

Interestingly, this mechanism evolved independently in different species, making it a valuable model for studying how new biological traits emerge. The team will study up to 12 marine species, using tools from evolutionary biology, cell mechanics, and computational modeling to uncover how polar lobes form, what molecules are involved, and how this mechanism may have evolved into more typical forms of asymmetric division.

This innovative evolutionary biophysics approach could provide new insights into how genetic programs and mechanical forces work together to shape the beginning of life—not just in marine embryos, but potentially in human development as well.

Link to the list of HFSP awardees
Link to the news in French on CNRS Biology website