 This recognition of self-organization in biological systems has been highly influential, and helped shape the view of the cytoplasm as a collection of dynamic molecular machines.Kirschner is also interested in the evolutionary origins of the vertebrate body plan.Together with John Gerhart, he was instrumental in developing the acorn worm Saccoglossus kowalevskii into a model system that could be used to study the divergence between hemichordates and chordates, and the evolution of the chordate nervous system.