Academic interests
My field of interest is the origin of multicellularity and the transition from unicellular to multicellular organisms. By looking at spatiotemporal gene expression, and by creating gene regulatory networks, I want to understand how gene regulation in unicellular organisms differs from gene regulation in multicellular organisms. In my masters, I was looking at basal multicellular animals (sponges), but I have in my PhD moved to working on unicellular macroalgae. A bigger emphasis will be given to Acetabularia acetabulum, an umbrella-shaped unicellular green macroalgae that can grow up to several centimetres. A part of my PhD will also be dedicated to investigate how it is possible that this organism can have such a big and complex morphology despite it's unicellularity.
Background
I completed my master in molecular biology at UiO in 2015, with Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi as my main supervisor and Jon Bråte as my co-supervisor. The thesis was given the title "Expression dynamics of long non-coding RNAs in the sponge Sycon ciliatum", where I investigated how long non-coding RNAs are involved in determination and maintenance of the primary body axis of the sponge Sycon ciliatum. Long non-coding RNAs are RNAs that are not translated into proteins, and it is proved that they in several cases are involved in gene regulation.