Please share, I am hiring an evo devo postdoctoral research fellow! 📍: The Sleight Lab, University of Aberdeen, Scotland (5th oldest University in UK & English-speaking world) 📅: start after 1st December 2026 🐌: Evolution and Development (molluscs) ⌛: 3 year contract sleightlab.com/vacancies/
Berta Verd
@bertaverd.bsky.social
Evolution of developmental processes. Associate Professor @OxfordBiology & Fellow @JesusOxford. @SteventonLab, @CRGenomica & #embryo17 alumna. Working mother.
Just approved an order for standard lab consumables. Prices have nearly doubled since starting the lab. Meanwhile, the bar for publishing keeps rising, requiring ever more costly experiments, while grant budgets barely changed. Hard to see how this is a sustainable trajectory for academic research.
C.H. Waddington's lasting achievements in development and evolution Jonathan B. L. Bard examines some of Waddington's research papers that show why he is one of the few pre-molecular-age developmental biologists still widely remembered and how they remain significant. doi.org/10.1242/dev....
C.H. Waddington's lasting achievements in development and evolution
ABSTRACT. C.H. Waddington (1905-1975) was a British biologist and perhaps the major figure in developmental biology between the 1940s and 1960s. He is one of the few pre-molecular-age developmental bi...
doi.org
Annual killifish continue to surprise us: they make neutrophils before almost every other cell type, even before gastrulation. Neutrophils usually arise from the lateral plate mesoderm (forming in cyan), but in killifish they are already patrolling around the embryo in gold. tinyurl.com/killiphil
For the first time ever, the EMBO Young Scientists’ Forum is coming to Dubrovnik, #Croatia, 28–30 October 2026. 🧪 Sign up now! Early bird registration deadline: 15 July 2026 https://event.fourwaves.com/eysf #EYSF2026 #LifeSciences #EarlyCareerResearchers
Our @jesusoxford.bsky.social @biology.ox.ac.uk student, Bethan Sheldon, reflects on her field course in Borneo.
"Waking up on our first morning in the Danum Valley, we saw a young orangutan high in the canopy ... In that moment, it truly hit that we had made it to a rare area of pristine forest in Borneo" New blog by undergraduate Bethan Sheldon on this year's field course in Borneo 👇
Applications are open for the international course “Developmental Biology” organized by the Institut Curie in partnership with @sorbonne-universite.fr 📅 Oct. 19–28, 2026 (Paris) ⏳ Jul. 19 & Sept. 18 🔗 training.institut-curie.org/courses/developmental-biology-2026
Fish #devbio strongly represented by @nordenlab.bsky.social, @zenlabpasteur.bsky.social, @campaslab.bsky.social, @cantautbelarify.bsky.social, @rashmi-priya.bsky.social, @bertaverd.bsky.social among others 🐟🤩
Applications are open for the international course “Developmental Biology” organized by the Institut Curie in partnership with @sorbonne-universite.fr 📅 Oct. 19–28, 2026 (Paris) ⏳ Jul. 19 & Sept. 18 🔗 training.institut-curie.org/courses/developmental-biology-2026
🚨Online ECR Seminar TOMORROW- 24.06.26 | 16:00 UK Jan Rombouts (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Chandrashekar Kuyyamudi (Harvard University). Please share & to attend online please register to our 📧: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...
First pre-print from the lab, a collaborative effort led by Jess Bourn @bournsupremacy.bsky.social, a fantastic PhD in my group. We resolve a key problem in development + evolution: how do we quantify heterochrony and link temporal variation to phenotype? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Quantitative mapping of heterochrony to species-specific phenotypes
The genetic program of animal development is conserved, but its rate of execution varies across species. Heterochrony, shifts in the relative timing of developmental events, generates phenotypic varia...
biorxiv.org
Our new preprint by the super talented and persevering @callumbucklow.bsky.social on the integrated evolution of body elongation and vertebral shape. I guess it's not all about modularity after all!
New preprint now available on BioRxiv ( doi.org/10.64898/202...)! Thank you to @bertaverd.bsky.social, Roger Benson and my other co-authors, Hannah Ugboma, Katharine Criswell and Mexford Mulumpwa.
New preprint now available on BioRxiv ( doi.org/10.64898/202...)! Thank you to @bertaverd.bsky.social, Roger Benson and my other co-authors, Hannah Ugboma, Katharine Criswell and Mexford Mulumpwa.
Whole body elongation drives coordinated vertebral shape evolution in Lake Malawi cichlid fishes
Understanding how anatomical structures evolve requires disentangling the roles of integration and modularity in shaping morphological variation. The vertebral column, a serially repeated and regional...
doi.org
Dream job alert 🎉 Are you a talented videographer with a passion for nature? Join our team! Apply online ➡️ www.bto.org/jobs 📆 Full time. 📝 £33,954 per annum. 📍 Thetford, Norfolk (Hybrid). ⚠️ Application deadline: 5 July.
Fully-funded 4-year PhD-position available! The PhD-student will investigate the effects of restocking European eel. The position will be based at SLU Aqua in Stockholm, Sweden. Application deadline is July 6. Info about the PhD-position and link to apply: www.slu.se/en/about-slu...
Here is the announcement of a Symposium @college-de-france.fr on 26 June on Information Flow and Computation in Biological systems. A great line of speakers on a variety of topics from embryogenesis to neuroscience, immunology and microbiology. Free entrance, come if you are in Paris end of June 🤩
Whole genome duplications over 450 million years ago enabled the emergence of different kinds of brain cells 🧠 These cellular innovations are shared across vertebrates - from primitive fish to mammals - and form the basis of the sophisticated brains seen today 👇
Ancient genome duplications laid the foundations of complex brains
bit.ly
We have a fully funded PhD position on European eel! Please spread! 🐟 🪱 Main supervisor Josefin Sundin @josefin-sundin.bsky.social at SLU Aqua Stockholm (scholar.google.com/citations?us...). Apply through the portal: www.slu.se/en/about-slu...
Congratulations to Gautam Dey (EMBL) and Omaya Dudin (University of Geneva) for being awarded the EMBO Gold Medal 2026 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the #LifeSciences in Europe! 🧪 https://www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-gold-medal-2026-awarded-to-gautam-dey-and-omaya-dudin/
📢 We are looking for a Junior Group Leader to join us at @institutcurie.bsky.social! Having joined the department just over a year ago, I can honestly say that it is an exceptionally stimulating and supportive scientific environment, filled with outstanding colleagues — all in the heart of Paris.
Congratulations to #HFSP Awardee Sonomi Yamaguchi, recipient of an Inspiration Prize in the 5th Marie Sklodowska Curie Award! 🎉 The award recognizes outstanding women researchers with exceptional scientific achievements and future potential.🧪 📑 zurl.co/1wtaS #sts
From Whole Body to Single Cell. At www.DeepPiction.com we can see where disease begins and identify ways to make therapies safer & more effective. We’re excited to share our new paper at @nature.com! Our goal is to advance drug discovery for #Cancer, #LongCovid, #Inflammation, and more.
Nature research paper: A deep-learning framework reveals whole-body perturbations at cell level go.nature.com/3Pjox61
🔈 Heading to Euro Evo-Devo #EED2026 in Glasgow? Don't miss out our Fish Satellite Meeting! Co-organized with Mike Dorrity @mwdorr.bsky.social, Ralf Schneider @ralfschneider.bsky.social, Laure Sanders @lsaunders.bsky.social and Joost Woltering, and with a list of outstanding speakers 👇
Join our Symposium S08 – Integrative Perspectives on Craniofacial Evo-Devo, at #EED2026 ! Invited speakers: Agáta Horáčková, Markéta Kaucká, Joseph Keating, Hiroki Higashiyama Contributing speakers: Taro Nojiri, Laura Wilson, Joshua Gross, Irene Soto Bajo, Richard Dearden, Tatjana Haitina
EuroEvoDevo #EED2026 in Glasgow starts next week! I am organizing Symposium S08: Craniofacial Evo-Devo on 10 June from 9:00. Hope to see you there!
Join our symposium, next week at #EED2026 ! Invited speakers: Katie Pelletier, Erica Nadolsky, Rebecca Green and Jukka Jernvall Contributing speakers: Luisa F. Pallares, Tobias Gerber, Chiara Castelletti, Alistair P. McGregor and Tom Van Dooren Funding from @biologists.bsky.social
Professor Tim Coulson FRS is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is a biologist working at the interface of ecology and evolution, developing theory to explore how ecological change influences evolution, and vice versa. #RSFellows https://royalsociety.org/people/timothy-coulson-9070/
Looks like the 2027 Dev Bio GRC is shaping up to be another good one: www.grc.org/developmenta...
2027 Developmental Biology Conference GRC
The 2027 Gordon Research Conference on Developmental Biology will be held in Lucca (Barga), Lucca Italy. Apply today to reserve your spot.
grc.org
Updated GRC Developmental Biology 2027 flyer/poster with the latest roster of invited speakers. 🌱🐟🧬🐭🪰🧪🧫 Come join us to discuss the latest in #devbio at the Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort, Jan 17-22 ! #GRCDevBio2027
*** GRC Developmental Biology 2027 - Jan 17-22 @ Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort *** Join us for a fabulous 2027 Gordon Conference on all things #devbio & the trainee-led GRS! More info on registration, abstract submission, et al., here: www.grc.org/developmenta... #GRCDevBio2027 🧬🐭🐟🪰🌱❤️
From this thursday May 28th onwards, Claude Desplan @NYU will give four seminars as a guest Professor @college-de-france.fr Dont' miss this great colleague and teacher, on a super interesting and timely topic! Free access, no registration and an air-conditioned auditorium🤘
“These results demonstrate that body elongation in cichlids necessitates integrated, multivariate changes in axial morphology [and] highlight the importance of morphological integration in facilitating coordinated evolutionary responses in anatomical systems.” New from @bertaverd.bsky.social et al🐠
Whole body elongation drives coordinated vertebral shape evolution in Lake Malawi cichlid fishes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.09.723978v1
I am looking for a Post-doc in Oxford to work with me on morphogenesis at the cellular scale, with particular emphasis on growth processes and their mechanical and dynamical consequences. Please circulate my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... This bristle is created by a single cell! Let's model it.