James Gahan.
Group leader.
James received his PhD in Biochemistry from University of Galway in Ireland in 2016. Following this, he spent 5 years as a Postdoc in the Michael Sars Centre at the University of Bergen in Norway where he worked on chromatin regulation in the nervous system of the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis. He then received a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral fellowship from the Welcome Trust to work on chromatin-based gene regulation in Choanoflagellates and was based at the University of Oxford, UK. In addition, he spent 1 year as a visiting scholar in UCSF. In 2023, James was awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council and, since April 2024, is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Chromosome Biology in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences at the University of Galway. Read more about James here:
Pathway to Independence – an interview with James Gahan | Development | The Company of Biologists

Maria Eleonora Rossi

Postdoctoral Researcher

Eleonora’s research focuses on using an integrative approach combining phylogenomics, comparative transcriptomics, and genomics, to reconstruct the evolutionary history of early animals. She obtained her PhD at the University of Bristol (UK) at the Paleobiology Research Group where she used sponges (Porifera) as a model system, to investigate the genetic mechanisms underlying biomineralization, and light receptors, to give us an insight into early animal evolution. After the PhD she joined briefly the University of Edinburgh where she worked on providing a timescale for the origin of placental mammals using both molecular and morphological data.
Here at the Gahan Lab, her research has moved to choanoflagellates, the sister group of animals, where she will try to understand the evolution of gene regulation.

Niño Posadas

PhD student

Niño, who hails from the Philippines, is fascinated by how different modes of gene regulation and host-microbe interactions have influenced early animal evolution and ecological success. For his PhD project, he seeks to describe the role of chromatin bivalency in driving temporal cell differentiation in choanoflagellates.

Matthias Achrainer

PhD Student

Matthias, originally from Austria, is interested in the evolution of multicellularity and complexity and is fascinated by gene regulation and chromatin organisation. He studied molecular cell and developmental biology in Innsbruck, where he worked on Hydra. His PhD project will focus on understanding the role of lamin genes in choanoflagellates.

Patricia Suárez Ara

Postdoctoral Researcher

Patricia is interested in the origin of animals from the point of view of their close unicellular relatives. She got her PhD in the Multicellgenome lab at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, Spain. There, she focused on researching the phenotypic plasticity of the unicellular relatives of animals. In the Gahan lab, she will get closer to the root of animals and shift to exploring gene regulation, studying Polycomb mediated repression in the choanoflagellate S. rosetta!

Selia Namouchi

PhD Student

Sélia completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in biology at the Université Côte d’Azur in France, focusing on genetics and developmental biology. She has been passionate about genetics and epigenetics since the beginning of her studies.
For her PhD, Sélia will study how the Polycomb system regulates gene expression during early development, with a special focus on PCGF variants. She will work with Nematostella vectensis, a sea anemone that retains all PCGF variants and that represents the only non-mammalian system in which the role of this complex diversity can be studied

Sinéad O’Halloran

Research Assistant

Sinéad recently graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from University of Galway. Sinéad is intrigued by how the morphological complexity of Bilateria emerged and the different modes of gene regulation that influence this. After working on nuclear membrane proteins in S. rosetta during her final year research project, she now maintains and manages the Nematostella culture facility and works to develop new transgenic tools to lineage trace neural cells.

Joe Tuohy

PhD Student

Joe is interested in how gene regulation shaped early animal development and evolution. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Galway, working on the cnidarian Hydractinia for his undergraduate thesis. In the Gahan lab, he is working on Nematostella vectensis and is investigating how the Polycomb complexes regulate gene expression and chromatin during development. This includes using a mix of functional genomics and chromatin-based profiling approaches.

Clifton Lewis

Postdoctoral Researcher

Clifton obtained his PhD in Genetics from the University of Leicester (UK), where his research focused on embryonic neurogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster using single-cell genomics approaches. In the Gahan Lab, Clifton is interest in understanding the developmental dynamics of chromatin in the cnidarian model Nematostella vectensis. He will employ a range of molecular and genomic techniques to functionally dissect how the chromatin landscape is generated and maintained during development.