Anna A Monaco
@annaamonaco.bsky.social
Evolution enthusiast and explorer of the dark genome | scicomm advocate | sometimes also artist | she/they🇿🇦🇮🇹 Postdoctoral researcher at MPIMG https://darkgenomevo.wordpress.com
I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...
My Peer Review of The 1%
I wanted to like QED's new 1% ranking. I don't.
open.substack.com
Excited to share the final published version of our work on the evolution of dorsal-ventral patterning in fins and limbs, now up on @currentbiology.bsky.social In review we added new single LARM element deletions to assess their impact on dorsality. Take a look! 🔬🧪🐟🐁 www.cell.com/current-biol...
M. Brent Hawkins@homeobox.bsky.social · last yr.We take for granted that our hands have two sides and can articulate in an endless number of ways. But what about a fish’s fin? Can a fish know something “like the back of its fin,” or have its future told with a fin palm reading? Check out this bluetorial to find out 👇🧪🧬🐟 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
The time for my talk at #EED26 is approaching! Come to the C10 session to learn about hedgehog spines, and what they can tell us about the connection between small and large scale developmental patterning 🦔🧬💻
My years at UniBo will forever be dear to me, and Roberto does fun research. Apply!!
RobertoFeuda@robertofeuda.bsky.social · 3mo agoWe are recruiting 2 PhD students @ the University of Bologna to study neuron evolution in mosquitoes and non-bilaterian animals using single-cell genomics, evo-devo and computational biology. Plus, Bologna is hard to beat scientifically and gastronomically. More info: www.unibo.it/en/study/phd...
This is a very cool demonstration of the possibilities of 10x Flex link.springer.com/article/10.1...! But did you know that you can get near identical results MANY TIMES faster than CellRanger by processing flex data with piscem/alevin-fry or cyto? Both highly efficient & fully, truly open source?/2
10 × Genomics Flex Gene Expression is a powerful tool for single-cell transcriptomics of xenografts models - Genome Biology
The 10 × Genomics Flex Gene Expression protocol is a probe-based method that profiles fixed or frozen material, simplifying sample handling before scRNA-seq. Although probes exist only for human and m...
link.springer.com
After a long hiatus, I finally managed to write a short piece again. With an Easter egg (topical) for Asimov fans.
Born in the dark: the origin of life
The question of the origin of life has haunted thinkers since the dawn of time. A recent study might have brought us closer to understanding the chemical cascade that led to our existence. And at t…
darkgenomevo.wordpress.com
The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 Billion.
First 6 Days of Iran War Cost U.S. $11.3 Billion, Pentagon Says
nytimes.com
1/6 We're hiring! Fully funded postdoc position in my group humantechnopole.it/en/research-...
Legnini Group - Human Technopole
Laboratory for Molecular and Systems Biology of RNA The Legnini Group at Human Technopole combines molecular and systems biology approaches to study gene regulation. We use synthetic biology and opt...
humantechnopole.it
ICE abducted a man in minneapolis on january 6. by january 14, he was dead in a concentration camp in texas. victor manuel diaz was 36 years old. they say he did it to himself. ICE murdered him.
Man arrested by ICE in Minneapolis dies while under federal agency's custody in Texas
A 36-year-old man who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis died while under the custody of federal law enforcement in Texas on Wednesday, according to the agency.
cbsnews.com
Great thread on the Ponzi scheme that is academic publishing. Public funds funnelled into obscene private profits using free labour of (publicly funded) Academics. AI slop contaminating the literature.
Paolo Crosetto@paolocrosetto.bsky.social · 8mo agoSince AI slop is again all over Scientific Reports, a thread on the economics of grey-zone publishing. Why does slop keep getting published? What does it mean for science? How can we stop this? Background readings: Understand the strain: tinyurl.com/2b6wxx5r Stop the drain: tinyurl.com/3jfscscy
🔬 Hot #PhD topic: Single-molecule fluorescence and super-resolution microscopy! Use quantitative nanoscale imaging to map nuclear organization. Apply by Jan 7 to join Johannes Stein’s Lab @jmstein.bsky.social & #IMPRS-BAC #gradschool! 👉 www.molgen.mpg.de/5098010/stei...
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
Remind us @nytimes.com, who is it that is ruining the workplace? www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
As Summers Sought Clandestine Relationship With Woman He Called a Mentee, Epstein Was His ‘Wing Man’ | News | The Harvard Crimson
When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: convicted sex offender Jef...
thecrimson.com
We were very happy to welcome this amazing group of early-career researchers as part of the @Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin! Special thanks to @annaamonaco.bsky.social (Mundlos Lab) and @matthewkraushar.bsky.social for hosting the group and providing an in-depth tour of their labs!
It’s Halloween 🎃 which means spooky skeleton time! ☠️ And what is spookier than making us entirely re-think our concept of cell type? Learn how each domain of bone is shaped by its own pressures, answering to its own ancestral ghosts 👻 tinyurl.com/mt8cwdvk
Three bone bloodlines
The vertebrate skeleton is formed from three embryonic lineages, each contributing to different bone types. While skeletal progenitors converge on shared functions, they retain unique molecular sig…
tinyurl.com
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
My new lab at the @molgen.mpg.de will be following up on some of the nuclear organization aspects of ecDNA so please do reach out if this is of interest :)
To all ERCs looking to dip their toes in data analysis: I cannot recommend this enough!
EMBL Events@events.embl.org · 10mo agoFancy a trip to scenic Barcelona? ☀️ Or maybe to historic Heidelberg? 🏰 You're in luck: #EMBLDataCarpentry lets you combine hands-on data carpentry training with the destination of your choice. Apply by 27 Oct 👉 s.embl.org/dtc26-01-bl 📆 2 – 6 Feb 🌍 EMBL Heidelberg and @barcelonacollaboratorium.com
I’d like to distract you from The Horrors™️ with what I’m pretty sure is a spotted sea hare (Aplysia dactylomela). I found this beauty and 6 of their friends while staring into tide pools like the goblin I am.
I usually write about what fascinates me, but this time it had to be about my concerns. This took a long time to write, I had a lot of thoughts, feelings, and literature to work through. There is still much more I’d like to say, but for now I leave you with this read. tinyurl.com/y6hx838y
The smoke and mirrors of de-extinction
Jurassic Park’s warnings about scientific ambition echo today as biotech companies pursue de-extinction. However, these efforts often overlook ecological realities and distract from pressing conser…
tinyurl.com
Hey a thing I really don’t want to get lost here is that while Tylenol doesn’t cause autism, IT’S FINE TO BE AUTISTIC. Let’s not grant them the premise that autism should be eradicated in our way to correct the science, okay? Okay.
A bit late, but I finally got around to writing an accessible piece about @julianeg.bsky.social 's cover article from July. In case you needed something else to worry about in this day and age! 🦠 tinyurl.com/mrx5tfre #scicomm #devbio #transposons
Awakening monsters in the dark (genome)
Hidden in our DNA are “jumping genes” that usually stay silent. But sometimes they wake up, reshaping bodies in dramatic ways. A strange mutation in mice showed how one rogue element near a key lim…
tinyurl.com
I can’t believe I missed this! Yet another amazing work by Brent on deep regulatory homology in vertebrates and the fin-to-limb transition. An absolute must read 🐠🐟🐡
M. Brent Hawkins@homeobox.bsky.social · last yr.We take for granted that our hands have two sides and can articulate in an endless number of ways. But what about a fish’s fin? Can a fish know something “like the back of its fin,” or have its future told with a fin palm reading? Check out this bluetorial to find out 👇🧪🧬🐟 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
The secret to shrew brain shrinkage? 🤔 Not cell loss, but water loss! Our new paper shows that brain cells shrink by losing water, a wild feat of brain plasticity 🤯 Check the paper! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @labdavalos.bsky.social @batichica.bsky.social
Programmed seasonal brain shrinkage in the common shrew via water loss without cell death
Brain plasticity, the brain’s inherent ability to adapt its structure and function, is crucial for responding to environmental challenges but is usual…
sciencedirect.com
Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum)🦎 can regrow limbs, tail, spinal cord, heart, and even parts of its brain. Axolotls are champions of regeneration and also shed light on limb patterning, wound healing, and developmental plasticity. Image from Prayag Murawala #ModelMonday #DevBio
The peppered moth is a textbook example of natural selection, its colours shifting with the soot-darkened trees of the Industrial Revolution. But the genetic secret behind its “dark” form took 150 years to uncover: a new “jumping gene” that rapidly took over the population. 🦋 tinyurl.com/4zrc4e93
The “dark” secret of industrial moths
The peppered moth has long been a textbook example of natural selection, its colours shifting with the soot-darkened trees of the Industrial Revolution. But the genetic secret behind its “dark” for…
tinyurl.com
