Laboratory of Embryology

Scientific Head: Vladimir Vladimirovich Yushin, a principal researcher, Dr. Sci. Biol., Corr. Member of RAS, has managed the Laboratory since 2003 (until April 1, 2019).

The research team is currently comprised of specialists on various groups of marine animals. We use a variety of research methods from histological, ultrastructural and cytochemical to immunochemical and molecular biological, from underwater surveying to cell culture and computer modeling. This allows for thorough and comprehensive studies of basic patterns of reproduction and development of a wide range of marine organisms, including common and commercially important species.

Objects of research are a wide range of aquatic organisms: algae, sponges, coelenterates, flatworms, nemerteans, nematodes, polychaetes, mollusks, crustaceans, echinoderms, tentaculates, hemichordates and chordates.

Areas of research include: germ and stem cells, gametogenesis and sex determinants; comparative and evolutionary embryology of marine organisms; larval development and metamorphosis of marine invertebrates; ecology of reproduction and development; nonlinear processes and self-organization in morphogenesis of organisms and their cellular systems.

The main place of field research is the Vostok Marine Biological Station. The Station hosts joint developmental biology research projects that are carried out in collaboration with Russian colleagues from Moscow State University, Institute of Developmental Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, St. Petersburg State University, Zoological Institute, as well as with scientists from Belgium, Vietnam, Germany, China, USA, Japan and other countries of the world.

Information provided by the principal researcher V.V. Yushin.