The Sars Centre is an EMBL partner European Molecular Biology Laboratory with which it exchanges scientific information about areas of common interest.
[1] As one of the first EMBL partners, the Michael Sars Centre is rooted in the Bergen academic community and serves as a national strategical asset for Norwegian marine life sciences.
Current model species include the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, the tunicates Oikopleura dioica and Ciona intestinalis and the annelid worms Malacoceros fuliginosus and Dimorphilus gyrociliatus.
Research at the Centre involves using marine organisms to study their embryonic development, genomes, cell biology, neurobiology and beheviour, often in an evolutionary context, using advanced molecular and imaging techniques.
Currently studied species include the tunicates Oikopleura dioica and Ciona intestinalis, the annelid worms Malacoceros fuliginosus and Dimorphilus gyrociliatus, the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi and the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta.