Bernd Schierwater currently works at the Institute of Animal Ecology and Cell Biology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. His research is in developmental biology, ecology and evolutionary biology. Current projects involve 'early metazoan evolution', 'placozoan systematics and genomics' and 'next-generation biomonitoring of global warming change'.

Rob DeSalle is in the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History. He began as a Drosophila biologist, but more recently has branched out into other insect and invertebrate organisms with phylogenomic approaches. His research group focuses on bioinformatics and biodiversity.