Dear all, Registration is now open for the: *** Venice Summer School 2025: Emergence & Evolution of Multi-Level Regulatory Systems This is a FEBS/EMBO Lecture Course that will take place on *** Aug 17 - Aug 22, 2025, at Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli, Venice, IT Organizers: James DiFrisco, The Francis Crick Institute, UK Nicole Repina, Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, CH Johannes Jaeger, University of Vienna, AT Teaching Panel: Daniel S. Brooks, Fresh Pond Institute, USA Thibaut Brunet, Institut Pasteur, Paris, FR James DiFrisco, The Francis Crick Institute, UK Zena Hadjivasiliou, The Francis Crick Institute, UK Johannes Jaeger, University of Vienna, AT Ronald Jenner, Natural History Museum, London, UK Nicole King, University of California, Berkeley, USA Wallace Marshall, University of California, San Francisco, USA MIhaela Pavlicev, University of Vienna, AT Rashmi Priya, The Francis Crick Institute, UK Nicole Repina, Friedrich Miescher Institute, CH Merlijn Staps, Princeton University, USA Ben Steventon, University of Cambridge, UK G�nter Wagner, Yale University, USA *** REGISTRATION is open on EMBO's course website: https://meetings.embo.org/event/25-multi-level-reg-sys Applicants are required to submit an academic CV, and a motivation letter. You are also encouraged to submit an abstract if you would like to present your own work as an elevator pitch on the first day of the course. *** Application/abstract submission deadline: Mar 31, 2025. Applicants will be notified whether they have been accepted (or not) by Apr 30, 2025. The payment deadline for successful applicants is May 31, 2025. --- Course Description: Biological systems comprise multiple levels of organization, from molecules, organelles, and cells, to the multi-cellular structures that form whole tissues, organisms, and ultimately societies and ecosystems. During organismal development, these levels emerge from the dynamic interactions of system components and give rise to complex structures and functions across scales. Similarly, over the course of evolution, the emergence of phenotypes involves more than the transmission of genetic material, as selection works at all levels to generate novel phenotypes. However, we are only at the beginning of understanding how such levels of organization can emerge de novo in evolution or how levels self-organize and feed back on one another during growth and development. This is no simple task, as studying these fundamental questions in evolution and development requires quantification and modeling approaches that cross biological scales, alongside conceptual frameworks for understanding dynamical systems and emergent phenomena. To tackle the issue, we need novel, empirically grounded, systems-biology theories that integrate philosophical, mathematical, and experimental approaches across biological scales. During our lecture course, we will look at the emergence and evolution of multi-level regulatory systems from an interdisciplinary theoretical vantage point to assess the requirements, mechanisms, and consequences of multi-level phenomena. Specifically, we will focus on the following four questions: 1. How do new levels of organization (molecular, organelle, cellular, tissue, organismal, and beyond) originate and integrate in development and evolution? 2. What is the nature of causal-mechanistic interactions between levels of organization? 3. How do we measure and manipulate biological systems across multiple scales? 4. How can we model feedback interactions across different levels of organization in regulatory systems? Over recent years, it has become increasingly evident that dynamical processes, mechanical and physical forces, signaling feedback, and metabolic constraints play critical roles in patterning and coordinating emergent phenotypes. In addition, systems biology and metabolomics approaches, along with single-cell quantification of live or fixed samples, have revolutionized how we can empirically study emergent phenomena. Computational modeling and dynamical systems approaches have shed light on how network components and interactions can lead to spatial and temporal patterning, division of labor, and increased complexity and integration above the level of cells. A synthesis of these interdisciplinary approaches can now allow us to refine and develop new conceptual frameworks for understanding the mechanisms, and consequences, of multi-level processes in evolution and development. --- Follow @VeniceEvoDevo on BlueSky or Twitter for updates. On behalf of the organizers, Yogi Jaeger --- Dr. Johannes Jaeger Freelance Researcher, Philosopher & Educator Project Leader, JTF Project "Pushing the Boundaries", Dept of Philosophy, Uni Vienna Associate Faculty, Complexity Science Hub (CSH), Vienna -- In an attempt to de-google my life, I am shifting my email traffic to yoginho@protonmail.com. Please contact me there from now on. Johannes Jaeger (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to golding@mcmaster.ca)