Our Dispatch "Evolution: Ancient monoamines in a neuron-less animal" out in @currentbiology.bsky.social. Monoamine signaling and behavioral responses in placozoans suggest this system predates bilaterians. authors.elsevier.com/a/1nYJl3QW8S... @annaferraioli.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

Front porch & guitar helps with writing - hope you all get to play, 🎸frens! @thelovelylab.bsky.social @slewzeus.bsky.social @burgesslab.bsky.social @benoitbruneau.bsky.social @docdellaire.bsky.social @fish4walking.bsky.social @wbderry.bsky.social @fspasqualini.bsky.social @lucksmith.bsky.social

Officially recruiting postdocs at GW. If you are interested in genetic novelty, structural variation, or evo genetics please get in touch! We have data sets on mulitple organisms with large population sizes (Drosophila, Megalonaias nervosa) and species in decline (fireflies, mussels, elephants).

Very happy to see the first story from my PhD now published! Genetic variants causing coding mutations in alternative isoforms are more common than we thought, plus a novel DPP9 isoform 🧬 @wbickmor.bsky.social @eliasfriman.bsky.social @simonbiddie.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Disease-associated genetic variants can cause missense effects in tissue-specific protein isoforms - Nature Communications

Isoforms are seldom considered in genetic variant interpretation. Here the authors map common and rare variants to alternative isoforms, which can be highly expressed and tissue-specific. A common DPP...

nature.com

Giovanna Weykopf@gweykopf.bsky.social · last yr.

Genetic variants can cause protein-coding mutations that result in disease. What about in alternative isoforms? Excited to share my first first-author pre-print! Here we show many variants reside in tissue-specific isoforms, causing coding mutations. 1/ https://bit.ly/455I6T6

#AQMHD2026 Registration will open soon. Please repost and stay tuned!

Issue 14 has closed and issue 15 is open The front cover shows sleeping sperm whales releasing bubbles as they hang suspended vertically in the water journals.biologists.com/jeb/issue/22...

And it's finally out!!! www.nature.com/articles/s41... go.nature.com/4fuaJzW Congrats to first author @moisesdisante and the research teams in my Synthetic Physiology Lab @unipv.bsky.social @berterolab.bsky.social and @florianjug.bsky.social .

#CALIPERSv2 🚀 preprint is locked—journal submission next. Final polish, more hiPSC reference lines, and fresh light-sheet data. Still, a great collaboration led by @moisesdisante with the team @LabPhysiology and the amazing @berterolab.bsky.social and @florianjug.bsky.social group members! 1/N

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...

Moran Eye Center Names Kristen M. Kwan, PhD, Vice Chair for Vision Research

The John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah has named Kristen M. Kwan, PhD, Vice Chair for Vision Research. In this leadership role, she will help guide the strategic direction of the Moran...

healthcare.utah.edu

deeply honoured and humbled. This really reflects the fantastic scientists that have come through the lab and made wonderful discoveries

Gladstone Institutes@gladstoneinst.bsky.social · 6d ago

Benoit Bruneau will receive the American Heart Association's highest scientific honor in November. @americanheart.bsky.social @benoitbruneau.bsky.social

I am recruiting Ph.D. students this cycle. Students interested in deep-sea fishes and phylogenetic comparative methods are an especially good fit.

Addition to my office deco after #2026SDB! #devbio #zebrafish #zerbafish

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Echinacea #butterfly #butterflies #bloomscrolling #naturephotography #gardenwildlife

Wait, what?! #genetics 🧪

Jeff Groh@jeffgroh.bsky.social · last wk.

Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Now past @socdevbio.bsky.social prez @rrbehringer.bsky.social winning on the slots in Vegas! #2026sdb #devbio

Happy Monday! Come learn how jellyfish swim. In a review led by fluid dynamics maestro Alex Hoover, we outline how neuromechanical modeling will help us understand how modulation of neural activity allows jellyfish to jet and pirouette through fluids www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Great wrap-up of #2026SDB - if you are hungry for more #devbio, consider joining us for the upcoming Gordon Research Conference & trainee-led Gordon Research Seminar in Developmental Biology, Jan 17-22 at Il Cioccio! 🧬🐟🐀🧪🌱🧫🦎🪰🪱

Note: “Letters of collaboration should be limited to stating the intent to collaborate or provide material support as described in the application and should not contain endorsements or additional information about or evaluations of the proposed project. “

I-75 Scientist@flscitriguy.bsky.social · last wk.

Oh, and Forms J are coming... grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Alex recently wrote a retrospective about the history of engrailed as part of @dev-journal.bsky.social's series marking 40 years since the discovery of the homeobox. #2026SDB

Conserved roles of engrailed: patterning tissues and specifying cell types

Summary: This Primer gives an overview of the essential roles of engrailed genes across species in establishing positional information during development, including the subdivision of territories into...

doi.org

Congratulations to @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social, winner of the @socdevbio.bsky.social Trainee Science Communication Award at #2026SDB. Check out Nick's not-for-profit organisation for engaging the public with developmental biology: Open Flower

Open Flower

Flower Genetic Design

openflower.bio

@socdevbio.bsky.social #2026SDB

Christian Mosimann@chrmosimann.bsky.social · 2w ago

#2026SDB with amazing fluorescent imaging again. However, every session I attended so far has talks with red-green LUTs. 6-8% of us have color vision issues, especially for red-green. More visible color combos are easy to generate. As scientists, we can do better. 🧬🪰🐭🐟🧫🦎 #WeTheColorBlind #devbio

Chemist & X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin's meticulous research was instrumental in uncovering DNA's molecular structure. Most famous for her role in the DNA double helix discovery, her work also revolutionized our understanding of viruses & coal. She was born #OTD in 1920. #WomenInSTEM 🧵

Our latest: Hummingbird and hawkmoth wing shape: Analyzing functional convergence in analogous structures, by Benton Walters @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social, with help from Yuming Liu, Iman Fadel @ferronhg.bsky.social @emilyrayfield.bsky.social and myself.

Hummingbird and Hawkmoth Wing Shape: Analyzing Functional Convergence in Analogous Structures

Synopsis. Similar wing planform shapes have independently evolved in both hummingbirds and hawkmoths, indicating convergence. Functional analysis of bird w

academic.oup.com

UC Davis will no longer pay the difference so that GRFP recipients earn the same as other students. So mid-PhD students will lose nearly 25% of salary & new students will make less than their peers. Apply for the GRFP, it’s a wonderful help to your career. Just don’t come here if you get one.

#2026SDB with amazing fluorescent imaging again. However, every session I attended so far has talks with red-green LUTs. 6-8% of us have color vision issues, especially for red-green. More visible color combos are easy to generate. As scientists, we can do better. 🧬🪰🐭🐟🧫🦎 #WeTheColorBlind #devbio

Rotating 'GREEN' Text in Red Circle

ALT: Rotating 'GREEN' Text in Red Circle

static.klipy.com

At #2026SDB, @hamdounlab.bsky.social is turning a classical developmental model, the sea urchin, into a modern system by developing genetic tools (including knockouts & stable transgenesis) in the space-faring Lytechinus pictus. E.g. @dev-journal.bsky.social papers: doi.org/10.1242/dev.... and ⤵️

Stable germline transgenesis using the Minos Tc1/mariner element in the sea urchin Lytechinus pictus

Summary: The creation of the first germline transgenic sea urchin is expected to significantly improve the utility, reproducibility, and efficiency of sea urchin research.

doi.org

Day 2 #2026SDB #DevBiol Great talk by @hamdounlab.bsky.social on developing a more genetically favorable sea urchin. The winner is: Lytechinus pictus! (And dev bio!)

I am very excited to announce that I will be starting my own group at @manchester.ac.uk in January 2027 thanks to a Wellcome Career Development Award 🥳

Overturning a decades-old policy, the US government will soon limit international students to no more than four years in the United States unless they can secure an extension from the US government go.nature.com/4pIa9lC

International PhD students to face strict limits on time in the US

Trump administration takes action to address ‘forever students’.

go.nature.com

Please join us on Saturday at #2026SDB @socdevbio.bsky.social for the Special Interest Symposium, “Understanding the Spectrum of exposure impacts on development.” We will be joined by Drs. Ben Lovely, Krist Antunes Fernandes @kristantunes.bsky.social, and Clement Chow @clementychow.bsky.social. 🤩

Our Executive Editor, @amjeve.uk, and Community Manager for @the-node.bsky.social, @andreamurillo.bsky.social, are in Las Vegas now for #2026SDB. Drop by @biologists.bsky.social booth #20 to speak to them and pick up your freebies. Sign up for news for one of our coasters or a charging adapter.