The main funding for the project has been obtained from public and private sources, and will go towards all laboratory and travel expenses as well as provide part of the investigators' salaries.

The funds raised through this campaign will be used as part of my own salary during the visit to the marine biological station in the second half of 2018, when the anatomical dissections and mRNA isolation from regenerating animals will be executed.

Additional Information

The ascidian (sea squirt) Ciona is a solitary, sedentary, filter-feeding marine animal of cosmopolitan distribution. Its translucent, soft, U-shaped body is covered with a characteristic thin leathery tunic. It is attached to submerged structures by a basal stalk, while the opposite end has two openings, the oral and the atrial siphon. Water is drawn into the ascidian through the oral siphon and leaves the animal through the atrial siphon, which also serves to release gamets. Ciona is hermaphroditic but cannot self-fertilize. Its life cycle is relatively short: the free-swimming larva (tadpole) hatches after 18 hours post fertilization and metamorphoses within a few days. Juvenile development takes about ten days. Young adults mature and become reproductive after the next few months. The animals survive for up to a year.

Ascidians have powerful regeneration capacities. In colonial ascidians (e.g. Botryllus schlosseri), an individual zooid can be replaced by stem cells migrating from the remaining zooids. Solitary (non-colonial) ascidians can regenerate parts of their body, including the siphons and even the brain. The Ciona brain regenerates within about 5 weeks after ablation.

Recently, the major locations (niches) containing all stem cells in the adult Ciona body have been identified. The stem cells are located in niches within the epicardium (a tissue associated with the heart), the basal stalk (a body growth zone), the intestinal tract, the gonads, and in lymph nodes lining transverse blood vessels of the branchial sac, a massive pharyngeal structure that is the respiratory and food filtering organ of Ciona. No stem cells were detected within or in the immediate vicinity of the brain, suggesting that the brain regenerates using cells from a distant source.

Ciona has many advantages for brain regeneration research. It has a small brain consisting of only about a thousand cells, yet is organized similarly to the vertebrate brain; it has a small genome that has been sequenced and genes with homologues to vertebrate genes are present; there is an extensive toolkit to sudy Ciona, including techniques to trace stem cells into regenerating organs, to produce chimeric animals, and to edit the structure of genes. Ciona also benefits from a long history as a model organism in developmental biology.

This research will be carried out at Station Biologique de Roscoff, where Ciona is abundant and gravid throughout most of the year. Moreover, their animal facility staff have recently devised a protocol for rearing - to our astonishment and delight - the happiest, healthiest-looking Ciona culture in the world.