Néva Meyer’s research addresses questions of annelid and spiralian development to better understand how animal body plans evolved and diversified, particularly nervous systems, which are animal innovations.
Her current research addresses this broad question by examining cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying central nervous system development in a phylogenetically important and understudied group of animals, the annelids, using techniques such as fate mapping, blastomere isolation, imaging, gene and signaling pathway manipulation, and RNAseq.
