ISSSB-International Summer School on Systems Biology
The Systems Biology approach to discover marine life:
from a big eye to a microscopic picture
27-30 October 2025
Biological systems are complex networks of biological entities such as organs, tissues, cells, organelles, macromolecular complexes, and regulatory pathways at a macro scale.
Oceans represent a perfect example of a biological system made of a huge number of interconnected biodiverse systems, both as species and as niches. Understanding how their connections result in its health and equilibrium requires a wide approach, looking at it from all the possible angles.
Systems biology aims to provide a comprehensive view of the biological systems using an interdisciplinary integrated approach from different scientific areas and technological, experimental and informatic skills.
Based on this holistic view, the school aims to provide participants basic and advanced knowledge on Biodiversity, Ecological interactions, Evolutionary Genomics and Omic disciplines, to be used as an integrated approach applied to oceans for EcoEvoDevo studies and Biotech Applications.
Programme
Monday 27/10/2025
Venue: DaDom musem
08:30-09:00 Registrations;
09:00-09:15 Welcome by the SZN President and the Organizers
Session: Biodiversity and Ecological interactions
Chair: Dr. Angela Sardo
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09:15-10:00 Prof. Chris Bowler:
Tara Oceans: Eco-Systems Biology for the Global Ocean;
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10:00-10:30 Coffee break
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10:30-11:15 Prof. Ferdinando Boero: The ocean makes the world work.
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11:15-12:00 Dr. Domenico D'Alelio: Invisible Connections: Network Thinking in Plankton Ecology;
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12:00-13:45 LUNCH break + student ideas exchange chat.
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Practical Session
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13:45-17:00 Dr. Angela Sardo, Dr. Iole Di Capua, Dr. Fabio Crocetta: Field and laboratory work in biodiversity assessments.
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17:00 Visit at DaDoM
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18:00 Social activity-Aperitif
Tuesday 28/10/2025
Venue: SZN Villa Comunale
Session: Omics approach for Systems Biology
Chair: Dr. Valeria Di Dato
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09:15-10:00 Dr. Luca Ambrosino:
Comparative genomics: sequence alignments and functional annotations.​
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10:00-10:30 Coffee break
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10:30-11:15 Prof. Klaas Vandepoele:
Omics technique: fundamental tools in the Systems Biology approach;
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11:15-12:00 Dr. Lucia Campese:
Ocean Omics.
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12:00- 13:45 LUNCH break + student ideas exchange chat.
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13:45-14:30 Visit to the Aquarium​
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Practical Session
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14:30-17:45 Omics technique: practical exercise.
Prof. Vandepoele K., Dr. Campese L., Dr. Ambrosino L.
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Dr. Ambrosino L.: Functional annotation of biological sequences: a basic BLAST tutorial;
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Prof. Vandepoele K.: Functional analysis of transcriptomics data: Silica depletion in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana.
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Wednesday 29/10/2025
Venue: SZN Villa Comunale
Session: Evolutionary Genomics and EcoEvoDevo
Chair: Dr. Rossella Annunziata
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09:15-10:00 Dr. Juan Pascual-Anaya: Evolution of the vertebrate gene families through independent genome duplications;
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10:00-10:30 Coffee break
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10:30-11:15 Dr. Giacinto De Vivo:
Protein Evolution;
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​11:15-12:00 Dr. Periklis Paganos:
Animal development and evolution from a cell type perspective.
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​12:00- 13:45 LUNCH break + student ideas exchange chat.
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Practical Session
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13:45-17:00 Dr. J. Pascual-Anaya, Dr. De Vivo, Dr. Paganos:
Knowing your genes: Building simple molecular phylogenetic trees; Practice on dedicated software.
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​17:00-19:00 Output of the brainstorming activities carried out during the school: ideas to apply the Systems Biology approach. Students will form two groups, discuss the points, and present the output.
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19:30 Social (Neapolitan Pizza) dinner (not included in the fee)
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Thursday 30/10/2025
Venue: SZN Villa Comunale
Session: Biotech applications/Synthetic biology
Chair: Dr. Ida Orefice
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09:15-10:00 Dr. Giovanna Romano:
The chemical language linking marine ecology to applied sciences;
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10:00-10:30 Coffee break
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10:30-11:15 Dr. Monia Teresa Russo:
From transformation to targeted editing: tools and applications in microalgal genetic engineering;
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​11:15-12:00 Dr. Gerardo Della Sala:
Linking genomics and metabolomics to explore metabolic diversity of marine bacteria.
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12:00-13:00 LUNCH
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13:15-13:40
Sequentia Biotech: BatchX: Bioinformatics at Scale.
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Practical Session
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13:45-17:00
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Dr. Monia Teresa Russo: Genome editing experiment design and analysis;
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Dr. Gerardo Della Sala: An introduction to genome mining using antiSMASH.
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