PhD thesis - Biologisk Institut - Københavns Universitet

5 PrefacePrefaceThe content of this dissertation comprises three years of research at the University ofCopenhagen from May 1, 2008 to April 30, 2011. The PhD project on thedevelopment of Sipuncula was mainly carried out in the Research Group forComparative Zoology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen under thesupervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Andreas Wanninger. I spent nine months working onbody patterning genes in the lab of Prof. Dr. Pedro Martinez, Department of Genetics,University of Barcelona, Spain. Within these three years, research trips of altogether16 weeks were made to collect, rear, and fix different sipunculan species at the SvenLovén Center for Marine Sciences in Kristineberg, Sweden (6 weeks), at the EspelandMarine Biological Station in Bergen, Norway (4 weeks), and at the Vostok Station ofthe A. V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology in Vladivostok, Russia (6 weeks).Furthermore, PhD courses had a great impact on my scientific knowledge and skills.During my studies I attended the EMBO course Marine Animal Models in Evolutionand Development at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Comparative Embryologyof Marine Invertebrates at the Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington,USA, and Scientific Writing at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. This PhDproject was funded by the European Research Council (MEST-CT-2005-020542) andthe Faculty of Science of the University of Copenhagen.This thesis is composed of four chapters. The first chapter gives a generalintroduction to the topics of the present study, its objectives, and the discussion of theresults in a broader perspective, leading to conclusions and perspectives for futureresearch. Chapters II to IV contain the major findings of this PhD project in threepublished papers.Copenhagen, April 2011Alen Kristof