The team was created in 2003 and is part of the “Laboratoire de Biologie de Villefranche sur Mer” set in the “Institut de la Mer de Villefranche sur Mer” on the Cote d’Azur in France. We initially began studying egg activation at the moment of fertilization and the meiotic cell cycle in ascidian eggs. Our main interest now includes analysis of cell division and cell mechanics in the ascidian embryo in order to understand how embryonic shape is generated.
A recent activity of the team is to exploit the usefulness of the embryos of Phallusia mammillata and other marine invertebrates for marine toxicity testing.