Frank Grosveld, born in 1948, passed away last Friday. He was a colossal scientist in the transcriptional control of gene expression during development and helped us understand the complex regulation of beta-globin genes. His work will remain as a reference. May he rest in peace.

🚨Can embryos regenerate their tails? A question I had. With support from @biologists.bsky.social, Val Wilson, Elly Tanaka and Wouter🙏, I visited Vienna to start by cutting axolotl embryo tail buds. The answer: Not always!😮...Sparking a fun and exciting collaboration that is only the beginning.

Wouter Masselink@woutermasselink.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🚨 New preprint 🚨 Massive shoutout to first author @abinagui.bsky.social !!! The common view is that regenerative competence declines with age. We challenge this idea by showing that axolotl tail regenerative competence is emerges during a defined embryonic window. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨Save the date for BSDB 2027! What a great line up...in beautiful Edinburgh! ...Become a BSDB member, join the meeting... See you all then!

British Society for Developmental Biology@bsdb.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Save the date! The 2027 BSDB Spring Meeting will take place on 19 - 22 April in Edinburgh. An exciting programme with a fantastic lineup of speakers showcasing developmental biology across scales! More details soon!

😍 Really beautiful summary!

Alex Neaverson@alexneaverson.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I illustrated my way through the @bsdb.bsky.social Spring Meeting a couple weeks ago - here's my illustrated summary of the conference! I sketched (almost) all the speakers and glimpses of the science that made it such a great few days.

Honoured to have been awarded the 2026 British Society for Developmental Biology Lewis Wolpert Medal - means so much; as i was Lewis’s last PhD student,recognition for continuing his legacy of public engagement & impact of our research on Thalidomide & Primodos survivors. bsdb.org/2026/03/24/2...

Excited for BSDB's 2026 Meeting organised by @abinagui.bsky.social @vmetzis.bsky.social, @gastruloids.bsky.social & co? Our Reviews Editor @ingridtsang.bsky.social & the Node's Community Manager @andreamurillo.bsky.social will also be attending - come and chat to them about our journal & the Node.

Study of 8M biomed & life science articles finds those led by women spent 7 to 15 days longer in review than those led by men. Over a career, women's papers could spend 350 to 750 additional days in review. Delays could slow promotion, esp to full professor. www.the-scientist.com/women-s-rese...

Peer Review Timelines Show Gender Gap, Large Study Reports

A study of millions of life science papers revealed that manuscripts with women in key authorship roles spent longer between submission and acceptance.

the-scientist.com

Institut Pasteur (@pasteur.fr) is recruiting new young PIs to open new groups in the Institute. Deadline is February 9th! Don't miss the opportunity!

🚨DEADLINE TOMORROW FRIDAY 16th JANUARY If you are interested in DevBio, *don't think about it twice* 👇STEPS: 1)Submit an abstract bsdb.org/meetings/ 2)Become a @bsdb.bsky.social member if you aren't already bsdb.org/about-us/#me... 3)Apply for travel grants bsdb.org/membership/#... See you there!

I think the latest cover helps to remind us that Development is not just a faceless brand of a journal eager to line shareholder pockets - it's a group of people who share a love for #devbio and, in my experience, really are trying to do their best for their community. #not-for-profit

Development@dev-journal.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Issue 24 is complete! Marking the end of #biologists100, the cover features members of our community, including some featured 'extraordinary biologists' #100biologists, as well as our Editors and in-house team. Thank you to all our authors and reviewers, past and present, for their contributions.

Breaking... Very good news. A first step towards...? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

UK to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme

Exclusive: British students will be able to participate in EU-wide scheme from January 2027, sources say

theguardian.com

Join us in Sheffield! We are keen to support early career researchers in applying for independent research fellowships (IRFs) to join our friendly and collaborative environment, in areas related to developmental biology, stem cells and regenerative biology, and neuroscience.

I am absolutely delighted to share the invited speakers for our upcoming @bsdb.bsky.social "Molecules to Morphogenesis" meeting! Registration and abstract submission is now open - join us! bsdb.org/meetings/ March 23-26, 2026 - UK

🚨DevBio enthusiasts!! Registration & abstract submission is open for our 2026 BSDB annual meeting: Molecules to Morphogenesis! @bsdb.bsky.social 👇👇 To REGISTER click HERE 👇👇 bsdb.org/meetings/ Don't forget to join the BSDB for reduced rates and access to conference/travel grants :D!

Our first extraordinary biologist featured this week is Katherine Brown, @biologists.bsky.social Publishing Director and former @dev-journal.bsky.social Executive Editor, who has been closely involved with @prelights.bsky.social since its inception. #100biologists @katherine-brown.bsky.social

Nice work from Val Wilson & co on neuromesodermal progenitors SOX2/TBXT co-expressing cells are self-propagating bipotent NMPs Increasing TBXT levels (not SOX2/TBXT ratio) switch NMPs from neural- to mesoderm-biased www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Brachyury expression levels predict lineage potential and axis-forming ability of in vitro derived neuromesodermal progenitors

Neuromesodermal progenitors (NMPs) produce the spinal cord and musculoskeleton in the elongating anterior-posterior axis. In vivo, NMPs possess dual potency, coinciding with regions coexpressing SOX2 ...

biorxiv.org

A toolkit for mapping cell identities in relation to neighbors reveals conserved patterning of neuromesodermal progenitor populations @PLOSBiology.org

A toolkit for mapping cell identities in relation to neighbors reveals conserved patterning of neuromesodermal progenitor populations

by Matthew French, Rosa P. Migueles, Alexandra Neaverson, Aishani Chakraborty, Tom Pettini, Benjamin Steventon, Erik Clark, J. Kim Dale, Guillaume Blin, Valerie Wilson, Sally Lowell Patterning of cell fates is central to embryonic development, tissue homeostasis, and disease. Quantitative analysis of patterning reveals the logic by which cell-cell interactions orchestrate changes in cell fate. However, it is challenging to quantify patterning when graded changes in identity occur over complex 4D trajectories, or where different cell states are intermingled. Furthermore, comparing patterns across multiple individual embryos, tissues, or organoids is difficult because these often vary in shape and size. This problem is further exacerbated when comparing patterning between species. Here we present a toolkit of computational approaches to tackle these problems. These strategies are based on measuring properties of each cell in relation to the properties of its neighbors to quantify patterning, and on using embryonic landmarks in order to compare these patterns between embryos. We perform detailed neighbor-analysis of the caudal lateral epiblast of E8.5 mouse embryos, revealing local patterning in emergence of early mesoderm cells that is sensitive to inhibition of Notch activity. We extend this toolkit to compare mouse and chick embryos, revealing conserved 3D patterning of the caudal-lateral epiblast that scales across an order of magnitude difference in size between these two species. We also examine 3D patterning of gene expression boundaries across the length of Drosophila embryos. We present a flexible approach to examine the reproducibility of patterning between individuals, to measure phenotypic changes in patterning after experimental manipulation, and to compare of patterning across different scales and tissue architectures.

dlvr.it

We are featuring Sally Lowell, Director of @biologists.bsky.social and current chair of the Company's Sustainability Committee, as our 50th extraordinary biologist. #100biologists @cellysally.bsky.social

We are proud to recognize & thank ‪The University of Edinburgh for its support of bioRxiv & medRxiv. Their commitment helps sustain open access to preprints in biology & medicine, ensuring timely and globally-available sharing of scientific knowledge. Thank you! 💚 #bioRxiv #medRxiv #OpenScience

"Because I had a long incubation time, I’m more resilient to the stress that comes with an academic career" Thank you Eve Seuntjens @eveseuntjens.bsky.social for sharing your career journey and your advice to people currently in the endless postdoc period #AcademicLife Read our interview with Eve:

Because I had a long incubation time, I'm more resilient to the stress that comes with an academic career - the Node

No such thing as a standard career path – an interview with Eve Seuntjens

thenode.biologists.com

Experimental embryology postdoc available in my lab at the @biology.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk working on the evolution of vertebral counts. Reach out if you’re passionate about EvoDevo, enjoy lab work and microscopy and are into or could get into cichlid fishes. Deadline on the 16th June. Please share!

This. Company of Biologists & their journals supports scientists, not shareholders @biologists.bsky.social

Michael Way@drmichaelway.bsky.social · last yr.

We support the scientific community - basically we're the good publisher who gives back which is why you should submit papers to our journals rather than supporting share holders!

Did you attend Biologists @ 100 in Liverpool last week? Then help out and fill in the feedback form- get your thoughts heard!

The Company of Biologists@biologists.bsky.social · last yr.

We enjoyed at Biologists @ 100 hearing about researchers’ experience of sustainable practices in science. You can still share your thoughts on how we could support you to make research more sustainable. Have your say in our feedback form here: www.biologists.com/100-years/su... #biologists100

Incredibly transformative for young people. So far I benefited from BSDB travel grants to go to conferences, attended a CoB workshops in 2019 & got a Development travel fellowship in 2023 to visit another lab to explore new ideas! Couldn’t have done this without the @biologists.bsky.social support!

Sally Lowell@cellysally.bsky.social · last yr.

Now @steveroyle.bsky.social tells us the many ways that not-for-profit publisher @biologists.bsky.social supports and funds the activities of biologists. Stark contrast to some other publishers, who suck £££$$$ out of science and into the pockets of shareholders #biologists100

Another highlight of #biologists100 meeting the man, the myth the legend @richardsever.bsky.social founder of bioRxiv, whose ideas on sci publishing influenced me & so many others @biologists.bsky.social

Exhausted at the thought of having to resubmit your paper to a new journal after rejection? 🙁 Did you know you can transfer your paper+reviewers reports from any journal to any of @biologists.bsky.social journals, and get a quick decision, from editors who are working biologists 😃 #biologists100

I spoke at #biologists100 about Fast & Fair— a peer review model built not on speed alone (7 working day turnaround), but on the quiet heroism of academic editors @biologyopen.bsky.social who believe science deserves better

Alissa Armstrong@armstrongflylab.bsky.social · last yr.

The fast and fair initiative works - quality reviews and decisions within 7 days. Submit your manuscripts to @biologyopen.bsky.social

Please do- I am biased but it is really a fantastic role. Do reach out online if you have questions or, even better, come chat to @lebektamina.bsky.social and I at #Biologists100 in Liverpool!

Katherine Brown@katherine-brown.bsky.social · last yr.

If you’re a PhD or postdoc developmental biologist in the UK who cares about the field and the community, please nominate yourself to join the BSDB committee. Great opportunity to get involved, have real input and give back to the community @bsdb.bsky.social #biologists100

Are you enjoying all the exciting science at #biologists100? Want to spread the love of developmental biology to your friends and family? Together with @bsdb.bsky.social, we've produced a documentary video to showcase the fascinating world of #DevBio: 🎥

BSDB - The Fascinating World of Developmental Biology (full length)

In this half-hour long documentary we showcase some of the beauty, as well as the translatability, of developmental biology research being undertaken current...

youtu.be

The 2025 @bsdb.bsky.social Wolpert Medal goes to Pleasantine Mill @cilialab.bsky.social 🎉 In this interview, Pleasantine talks about why it’s important, now more than ever, for scientists to engage in community work: thenode.biologists.com/an-interview...