Diversity and Evolution in Cell Biology

Evolutionary cell biology represents the integration of evolutionary theory, phylogenetics and experimental evolution with comparative cell biology, aiming ultimately to understand how and why cells evolved to be the way they are. This meeting aims to bring together evolutionary biologists and cell biologists investigating diverse aspects of cellular physiology, traversing both spatial scales – from subcellular cytoskeletal dynamics to symbiotic interactions – and evolutionary time. At a time when advances in phylogenetics, imaging, biochemical profiling, and genetic engineering have enabled comparative biology and experiments in non-model systems at an unprecedented scale, we hope to inspire the next generation of evolutionary cell biologists to tackle some of the biggest questions in modern cell biology.