The 2026 GRS/GRC on Visual System Development begins tomorrow. It is going to be a great meeting. Jeremy Kay, Kristen Kwan, Robert Johnston and I are looking forward to seeing you in beautiful Maine. Safe travels to all attendees. See you in a day!
Bob Johnston
@bobbyjeyeguy.bsky.social
Studies human retinal organoids and fly eyes to understand how neuronal diversity is generated. https://www.johnstonlabjhu.com/
So well-deserved!!!
BWJones@bwjones.bsky.social · last wk.It is official: The @moraneyecenter.bsky.social has named @blockintheback.bsky.social as the Vice Chair for Vision Research and Research Director. I could not be more happy for my former institution as they are in the best hands with Kristen. healthcare.utah.edu/moran/news/2...
My Department is HIRING! If you're excited about building an innovative research program and joining a collaborative community of scientists, we'd love to hear from you. Come be my colleague! #AcademicJobs #BasicScience #FacultySearch#AcademicJobs More details here: recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07708
Assistant/Associate Professor- Cell Biology & Human Anatomy
University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!
recruit.ucdavis.edu
It's not often single author primary research papers are published in our field & it's even rarer when the author is a Nobel Prize winner Check out the new work by Eric Wieschaus in @dev-journal.bsky.social Flattening maternal gradients in Drosophila embryo journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Maternal patterning in early Drosophila embryos: how much information can single maternal gradients supply?
Highlighted Article: Comparison of the patterning capacity of Drosophila embryos that have only one of the three maternal gradients known to control anterior posterior patterning.
journals.biologists.com
Come join us! 🔬🐣 The Piacentino Lab at Johns Hopkins @hopkinsmedicine.bsky.social is recruiting a postdoc to study membrane lipids, cell migration, and invasion in neural crest and embryonic models! @socdevbio.bsky.social @ascbiology.bsky.social #devbiol #cellbio #lipids
My home institute, @ucleye.bsky.social, is looking for a new Director! www.veredus.co.uk/job/job-1183a/
Director of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology - REF 1183 | Veredus
University College London Director of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology Location: London Salary: An attractive remuneration package UCL is a world leading, global university with a community of more...
veredus.co.uk
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
Christian Mosimann@chrmosimann.bsky.social · 3mo ago*** 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 🧬🐭🐟🪰🌱❤️
Congrats to Ryan Freund, an undergrad in our lab, who won the JHU McEllroy Award for his research on human retinal organoids, RGCs, and Notch!
Excited to share our new paper! This work explores how Sonic hedgehog signaling helps coordinate retinal patterning and neurogenesis, including regulation of both cell cycle exit and progenitor competence during mammalian eye development journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Roles of sonic hedgehog signaling in retinal patterning and neurogenesis during mammalian eye development
Summary: Temporal disruption of sonic hedgehog signaling reveals stage-specific roles in eye cup patterning and in regulating proliferation, progenitor competence and fate specification during retinal...
journals.biologists.com
I'm so excited and fortunate that Brooke Weingard, Carsten Hoeke, and Danielle Gardon are joining our lab to pursue their PhDs!! Can't wait for their awesome fly and organoid work!
Huge congratulations to Vil Fernandes for being awarded the Lister Prize! Amazing talk as always!
Interesting test for AI: You know what you should prioritize next. Ask your favorite AI to guess what that is. I am giving a talk tomorrow at ARVO and need to prep. It took AI 6 guesses (with some hints) to get there. I'd love to hear how it works for others!
From photoreceptors to visual processing — #Webvision is your open-access deep dive into how we see. Now hosted at our Department, continuing its mission to make vision science accessible to all. Start exploring → www.webvision.pitt.edu #Ophthalmology #Neuroscience
I will be at ARVO and have a poster 3006 - 0256, May 5th at 1:15. Hope to connect with you all vision people!
I had a great time visiting Iowa last week, and it was fantastic to catch up with outstanding alums from our PhD program who are out there doing amazing things! @shyamraji.bsky.social @eannemartin.bsky.social
Raji Shyam@shyamraji.bsky.social · 4mo agoMy home department hosted @blockintheback.bsky.social for a visit and seminar last week. As always, Kristen gave an amazing talk!! Always nice to reminisce out with the fabulous folks at the U! @eannemartin.bsky.social
Our new paper is out! 🎉 Let-7 doesn’t act through a single pathway: it controls neocortical neuron fate and migration via distinct downstream mechanisms, with RBX2 dedicated to migration. A new layer of post-transcriptional control shaping cortical development www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
pnas.org
Check out our new paper where @simonomisz.bsky.social tackles the challenge of understanding the relationship of cell death and the loss of RGCs in human retinal organoids. This paper is an important step in understanding how to design better organoids! www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Blocking apoptosis promotes survival and alters developmental dynamics of human retinal ganglion cells in retinal organoids
Zhang et al. found that two waves of apoptosis occur in developing human retinas and retinal organoids, affecting RPCs and RGCs, respectively. Retinal organoids undergo an additional wave of necrosis ...
cell.com
Thanks so much to Michael and Michel (M&M?) for this awesome summary that makes our work look "epic"!!
Michel Cayouette@michelcayouette.bsky.social · 4mo agoOur Commentary on the very nice recent paper from the @bobbyjeyeguy.bsky.social lab is finally out. A nice way to get a quick summary before diving into the full paper! Hope you like it. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Check out this "epic" summary of our recent paper from Michael Housset and @michelcayouette.bsky.social ! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The hourglass of high acuity vision: Cone plasticity at the intersection of time and space shapes the foveola | PNAS
The hourglass of high acuity vision: Cone plasticity at the intersection of time and space shapes the foveola
pnas.org
Neurodevelopment is such a fun field because so much is new to explore and define. But also that means it can be unclear. In our new review out this week @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social, we try to synthesize the confusing field of neural intermediate progenitors authors.elsevier.com/a/1msKvbotqB...
Here's the link to the online OA version: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
An enteric neuron ionotropic receptor regulates salt stress resistance - Nature
The I3 pharyngeal enteric neuron in Caenorhabditis elegans detects high-salt conditions, and the GLR-9 ionotropic salt receptor expressed specifically in I3 regulates genes related...
nature.com
FASEB Retinal Neurobiology: Celebrate 30+ years of research on cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive vision, retinal function, and degeneration. Join keynote Massimo Scanziani alongside organizers Wei Li and Wei Wei. Submit your abstract by April 13 and register now: hubs.ly/Q047K6gk0
Home - Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing.
Join vision scientists and neurobiologists to explore retinal development, disease, and repair, with insights into visual processing and disorders.
hubs.ly
I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.
Amazing new work from the Hurd lab:Sperm keep their mitochondria but lose their mitochondrial genomes. This new preprint identifies the nuclease responsible — and shows it reads DNA structure, not sequence. tinyurl.com/3npwwk37
tinyurl.com
Well some of us are. Many top neuro journals straight up desk reject model organism papers nowadays. And if you want to get fast, detailed and precise mechanistic answers - some of these are still the best systems.
Science Magazine@science.org · 5mo agoAn analysis of published papers on eight widely studied “model” organisms suggests work on them is fading, but not everyone is worried. https://scim.ag/3PaOvIs
Love eyes? Love awesome science? Love fantastic colleagues? Join us in Maine on August 9-14 for the GRC Visual System Development Conference! It's one of the best!
Excited to share our new manuscript from the Yoshimatsu and MacDonald labs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... We found that my favourite glial cells can regulate local retinoic acid signalling to specialise cone photoreceptors for high acuity visual function.
