Cnidarians, in particular sea anemones and corals, are unconventional and innovative research models that nonetheless possess a variety of biological and physiological characteristics of interest to aging/longevity research: i) an enhanced ability to resist environmental stresses (e.g. ROS, irradiation) that would be harmful to mammalian cells, ii) an extreme regenerative capacity (a complete animal can regenerate missing parts in a matter of days), and iii) their species-specific lifespan, which ranges from a few years to several hundred years.
What’s more, cnidarian genomes have revealed astonishing similarities with those of mammals, enabling important fundamental discoveries relevant to the study of human-related biological processes. Among cnidarians, the Anthozoa sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis is one of the most advanced cnidarian research models, with a variety of molecular and functional genomics tools, including random genome editing techniques (e.g. via Meganuclease), or targeted genome editing, via CrispR/Cas9, allowing targeted functional studies for a diversity of topics related to fundamental as well as biomedical science.
The IRCAN Marine Invertebrate Facility for (anti)Aging Research (ANTIAGE) provides access to such innovative marine invertebrate research models (sea anemone and corals) to study stress response, regeneration and aging/longevity. Using state-of-the-art aquarium and experimentation systems combined with a longstanding, solid and internationnaly recongized expertise, this platform is the only one of its kind in France located within a Medical School.
In 2025, ANTIAGE has received a label from the GIS IBISA.
Expertise/ Service offer/ Applications
All the culture and experimental systems operate in artificial seawater, allowing us to precisely control stable physico-chemical parameters and perform culture and experimentation in reproducible conditions to study the exceptional biological properties of a wide range of cnidarian species (e.g. sea anemones and corals) from temperate to tropical sea waters. Once integrated into the platform, the maintenance of the cnidarians is optimized to ultimately control their sexual life cycle (spawning/
in vitro fertilization) or asexual life cycle (budding/fragmentation). In this way, we minimize the impact on natural populations and maintain stable, reproducible conditions for ambitious research projects in the academic and private sectors.
The ANTIAGE facility consists of 3 zones :
> An animal experimentation zone designed to house juvenile animals, as well as other animals intended for experimental purposes (micromanipulations, treatments, transgenics, etc.), in incubators within crystallizers – a closed, small-volume system. This zone also accommodates the breeding of live prey.
> A marine zone (100% artificial seawater) for cnidarian breeding – Housing Area 1 – hosting corals and sea anemones in large-volume aquariums. It consists of five maintenance systems (2 tropical and 3 temperate) and one tropical experimental system. The aquariums operate in a continuous flow and closed system. These systems are equipped with mechanical and biological filters. Two of the temperate systems function in autonomous flow and are entirely enclosed in darkness, including the lids, to keep the animals in a bleached state.
> A brackish water zone (33% artificial seawater) for cnidarian breeding – Housing Area 2 – specifically dedicated to the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis (wild-type, transgenic, and knockout strains). It consists of two Zerolux systems (one on-site and one pending delivery), each with racks containing 90 tanks per system. These systems operate in a continuous, closed flow and are covered with lids and equipped with mechanical, chemical, UV, and biological filters.
Objectives of the ANTIAGE Facility :
> Provision of innovative cnidarian research models for the scientific community (academic and private), at the local, national, and international levels, focusing on the study of regeneration, stress response, aging, and associated diseases such as hearing loss or cancer.
> The development of innovative marine aquaculture systems for the maintenance and experimentation of cnidarians.
> The housing of marine animals for each user team under conditions that ensure the quality, reproducibility, and sustainability of research experiments, while adhering to animal welfare regulations.
Members
Head: Aldine AMIEL (IR INSERM) & Eric RÖTTINGER (DR CNRS)
Staff: Renaud REBILLARD (TCS CNRS), Valérie CARLIN (TCS INSERM), Marine DANIEL (IE CNRS)
Equipment
The ANTIAGE Facility is equipped with state-of-the-art maintenance and experimentation systems:
Tecniplast® ZEROLUX
These two semi-automated systems have been developed to rear and maintain the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. Each system is composed of 90 1.1l tanks with running Nematostella culture medium holding a total of ~10 000 -12 000 adult polyps.
Tropical (soft coral) aquarium (400L)
This custom-made system is separated in two tanks, one that contains the main colonies and one that is used for clonal reproduction of certain species for subsequence experimentation. The main aquarium is connected to a sump (~200L) that contains a protein skimmer, macroalgae and mechanical / biofilters. Light is controlled with state-of the art LEDs that mimic tropical light conditions and physico-chemical parameters measured constantly and supplemented via an automated system.
Temperate aquarium (200L)
This custom-made system that is optimized to rear, clonally reproduce, and maintain temperate photosymbiotic sea anemones or corals, can be split in 5 separate 40L tanks. The main aquarium is connected to a sump (~120L) that contains a protein skimmer, macroalgae and mechanical / biofilters. Light is controlled with state-of the art LEDs that mimic tropical light conditions and physico-chemical parameters measured constantly and supplemented via an automated system.
Experimental aquarium (200L)
This custom-made system has been optimized to perform experiments on larger photosymbiotic cnidarians (corals, sea anemones). It is composed of four individual tanks that share the same seawater and sump however, parameters (ex. Temperature) can be defined for each tank individually. Light is controlled with state-of the art LEDs that can mimic the light conditions specific for the species undergoing experimentation. Physico-chemical parameters are measured constantly and supplemented via an automated system.
Two stand-alone aquaria (80L each)
These aquaria enable the induction and/or maintenance of bleaching conditions for species of interest. The aquaria are kept dark using black plexiglass, and filtration is done with a mechanical/biological system specific for each tank.
Getting started/Access
Tell us about your project!
For any inquiry, please contact: antiage.ircan@univ-cotedazur.fr
Publications 2025
Optimized husbandry and targeted gene-editing for the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis.
Carvalho JE, Burtin M, Detournay O, Amiel AR*, Röttinger E*.
Development. 2025 Jan 15;152(2):dev204387. doi: 10.1242/dev.204387.
The Rich Evolutionary History of the Reactive Oxygen Species Metabolic Arsenal Shapes Its Mechanistic Plasticity at the Onset of Metazoan Regeneration.
Vullien A, Amiel AR, Baduel L, Diken D, Renaud C, Krasovec G, Vervoort M, Röttinger E, Gazave E
Mol Biol Evol. 2025 Jan 6;42(1):msae254. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msae254.