He is currently Assistant Professor at the Universidade de São Paulo. He graduated from his undergrad at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (2001), and his PhD at the University of Washington (2008). He did a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (2008-2010). He worked as Assistant Professor at the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia (2010-2013). Current research projects include: (1) evolution of stem cells, regeneration and coloniality in marine chordates (i.e. ascidians); (2) troglomorphism in planarians; and (3) evolution of behaviors in nematodes. Former Fulbright Scholar (2002-2004), American Heart Association Fellow (2006-2008), and Max Planck Institute Fellow (2008-2010). Elected Member of the Ecuadorean Academy of Sciences (2016), and Young Affiliate Member for the The World Academy of Science (2013-2018). The Government of Ecuador awarded him a Prometeo Professorship, with distinction (2012). He helped establish the PanAmerican Society of Evo-Devo and the Colombian Society for Developmental Biology. Member of the Board for the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology (2010-2013 and 2018- ). Serves as Associate Editor for EvoDevo and Neotropical Biodiversity, Member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B (JEZ-B), Review Editor of Evolutionary Developmental Biology for Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, and Member of the Board for the Colombian Bulletin of Evolutionary Biology (COLEVOL). (Source: Lattes Curriculum)
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Ascidians possess closely related solitary and colonial species, providing an opportunity to employ a comparative approach to shed light on the evolutionary origins of budding and colonial life histories. It has been documented that colonial ascidians dominate in the tropics and subtropics, whereas in temperate systems, solitaries comprise the majority of the ascidian species. Recent stud…
Prof. Anthony De Tomaso (UCSB) and his research team have contributed significantly for the understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of immunity and asexual development of the colonial ascidian model species, Botryllus schlosseri. His lab is solely responsible for generating some of the major breakthroughs in this species, including the characterization of genes involved in …
Many chordate species have lost the ability to regenerate complete adult structures. However, marine chordates with sedentary and colonial life forms, e.g. tunicates, have remarkable potentials of regeneration possibly related to their ability to reproduc (AU)
Animals with less developed visual abilities, like many organisms that inhabit the subterranean environment, generally rely on chemotaxis to find food. This is the case of the planaria, a model organism that exhibits chemotactic behavior. Recently, a new species of planaria (Girardia multidiverticulata) was described, which represents the first obligate cave-dwelling species in South Amer…
Pluripotent cell progenitors are associated with high regenerative capacities in animals. Its potential to differentiate into any cell type has made possible the evolution of asexual reproduction in some species. The colonial sea squirt Perophora viridis is a species that reproduces sexually and asexually through budding and due to the presence of pluripotent progenitor cells, it also h…
Due to their simplicity, planarian eyes depict the anatomy of the metazoan eye prototype. However, we postulate that eyes of planarians are more variable and complex than generally assumed. Sensory systems have diversified as a result of evolutionary pressures found in the distinct habitats that planarians occupy, including fresh water, terrestrial, caves, and oceanic systems. Among the T…
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Adaptations to dark environments lead to a convergent loss of eyes in different phyla, resulted by changes in classic eye development genes expression. Planarians are an interesting group to study eye development because adult animals can regenerate their eyes within a week after decapitation, recruiting classic eye development genes orthologues. During my PhD project I found that the obl…
For nearly sixty years, colonial ascidians (mainly Botryllus schlosseri) have been used as laboratory models to study chordate origins, including the evolution of the immune system and allorecognition, as well as different aspects of colonial animal biology, including asexual reproduction, budding (i.e. blastogenesis), regeneration, or adult somatic and germline stem cell transmission and…
Colonial organisms, those that reproduce clonally and remain organically attached, can survive changing environmental conditions by adding/removing modules. Additionally, many colonial species survive adverse conditions by going dormant, where modules or whole colonies enter a state of physiological and morphological inactivity. Coloniality arose independently many times in the metazoans,…
| 3 / 3 | Completed research grants |
| 1 / 1 | Ongoing scholarships in Brazil |
| 10 / 7 | Completed scholarships in Brazil |
| 3 / 3 | Completed scholarships abroad |
| 17 / 14 | All research grants and scholarships |
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