New preprint from my PhD is out! We show that loss of miR‑219 disrupts neural border gene programs and prevents neural crest specification. Excited to finally share it 🚀 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #xenopus #miRNA #genomics

MicroRNA miR-219 is required for neural border and neural crest development in Xenopus neurulas

Neural crest (NC) multipotent stem cells give rise to many tissues including most of the peripheral nervous system, pigment cells and the craniofacial mesenchyme and skeleton. During gastrulation and ...

biorxiv.org

Wrote a short piece on Transposable Elements as catalysts of evolutionary innovation for a forthcoming special issue of @naturerevgenet.bsky.social on, duh, Evolutionary Innovation! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Transposable elements as catalysts of evolutionary innovation - Nature Reviews Genetics

In this Comment, Cedric Feschotte highlights evidence from diverse lineages showing that transposable elements are key drivers of evolutionary innovation, repeatedly introducing regulatory and coding ...

nature.com

Looking for small pot of funding approx £5,000 to conduct some exciting genomics for a pilot transposons and climate resilience project in vulnerable species. If anyone knows of any pots available to UK-based researchers please let me know :) #funding #research #academia #NERC #UKRI

Some polar bears in Svalbard are fatter than expected, and others in Greenland are showing signs of genetically adapting to climate change. Will it be enough to save them? 🧪 #arctic #climatechange It was fascinating digging into this for @livescience.com www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

Some polar bears are adapting to their melting habitat. Will it be enough to save the iconic species?

Bears in Svalbard, Norway, are fatter than expected, and others in Greenland are showing signs of genetically adapting to climate change — but the signs elsewhere are not good.

livescience.com

🐻‍❄️ Some polar bears are adapting to climate change at a genetic level – and it could help them avoid extinction, according to research by @alicegodden.bsky.social, researcher at the @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social, spotlighted in @uk.theconversation.com ⬇️

Polar bears are adapting to climate change at a genetic level – and it could help them avoid extinction

Polar bears are expected to become extinct but there are some signs their DNA is changing and they are adapting to new temperatures.

theconversation.com

✨Reimagining #Women’s #Health at Norwich Science Festival! Join us on 14 Feb, 10:30–12:00 The Forum, #Norwich for an inspiring conversation with clinicians & researchers 🎟️ Free, booking essential #NorwichScienceFestival #UEAResearch @biouea.bsky.social @theforumnorwich.bsky.social #Menopause

Reimagining Women's Health | Norwich Science Festival

Join members of the University of East Anglia’s Women’s Health Network and leading experts from across Norfolk for an engaging and inspiring look at the future of women’s healthcare.

norwichsciencefestival.co.uk

1/6 New preprint! Do changes to insulin/IGF-1 signalling (IIS) that extend lifespan also protect the germline, or do they come with a mutational cost? led by @eduxbury.bsky.social with @alicegodden.bsky.social @immler.bsky.social Johnny de Coriolis Hanne Carlsson www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Lifespan-extending downregulation of insulin signalling reduces germline mutation load

Reduced insulin/IGF-1 signalling (IIS) robustly extends lifespan and enhances somatic stress resistance across taxa, yet its consequences for germline genome integrity remain unclear. Here we combine ...

biorxiv.org

Delighted to see our work picked up by @theguardian.com this is a real window of opportunity for us to reduce carbon emissions to give the bears a hope at survival before it really is too late.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 8mo ago

Changes to polar bear DNA could help them adapt to global heating, study finds

🐻‍❄️❄️ New paper alert! From me Ben & @immler.bsky.social “Diverging transposon activity among polar bear sub-populations inhabiting different climate zones” (Godden, Rix & Immler, 2025). 👉 link.springer.com/article/10.1... A thread 🧵. #climate #transposons #TESky #polarbear #ursus @biouea.bsky.social

Diverging transposon activity among polar bear sub-populations inhabiting different climate zones - Mobile DNA

Mobile DNA - A new subpopulation of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) was recently discovered in the South-East of Greenland. This isolated colony inhabits a warmer climate zone, akin to the predicted...

link.springer.com

🐟 We’re looking for a zebrafish line similar to Tg(vasa:eGFP) that could potentially be shared with us in the UK. This would greatly support some exciting experiments we have planned. If anyone is able to help or point us in the right direction, we’d be very grateful! 🐟 @zebrafishrock.bsky.social

Gave a talk at UEA Norwich Med School: “Selfish Elements and Selective Sperm: Impact of Haploid Selection on Zebrafish Fitness.” Part of my broader focus on genomics and fertility/reproduction for all—exploring how genetics shapes reproductive success. Great discussion! @slicescienceuea.bsky.social

A PhD project on historical genomics in the declining red squirrel in Britain is available in my group, through the @aries-dtp.bsky.social. Use historical genomes to track the effects of decline and genetic rescue in this charismatic species. aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...

Historical genomics of the declining red squirrel in Britain | Aries

Dr Anders Bergström, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia Professor Cock van Oosterhout, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia Dr Selina Brace…

aries-dtp.ac.uk

🚨 New preprint alert! Our latest work from @immler.bsky.social lab 🐟🧬 Sex-specific responses of small RNAs and transposable elements to thermal stress in zebrafish germ cells #TESky #TE #piRNA #miRNA #zebrafish #DanioDigest 🔗 Read here www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A thread 🧵...

Sex-specific responses of small RNAs and transposable elements to thermal stress in zebrafish germ cells

Environmental fluctuations influence heritable phenotypes through complex molecular mechanisms. In zebrafish (Danio rerio), the interplay between temperature variation, transposable element (TE) activ...

biorxiv.org

📢🚨Please share! We’re hiring! 📢🚨Have a strong interests in wildlife ecology and gut microbiome bioinformatics? 3 year Senior Research Associate for NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant. Apply here: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/18.... Informal enquiries welcome! drgldavidson.github.io/ACMEresearch

🧬 Our latest paper out in Scientific Reports! We explored how Gum Arabic (a dietary fibre) affects the microbiota–gut–brain axis and whole-organism fitness in zebrafish. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... @immler.bsky.social @biouea.bsky.social What we found ⬇️

Gum Arabic modulates the microbiota-gut-brain axis and affects general fitness in zebrafish - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Gum Arabic modulates the microbiota-gut-brain axis and affects general fitness in zebrafish

nature.com

Our new paper is out in Dev Biol! 🎉 🐸🧬 We show #miR-196a directs #neural crest fate in #Xenopus by repressing immature neural #ectoderm — evidence #miRNAs can potentially drive, not just fine-tune, early patterning 👉 Read more here: doi.org/10.1016/j.yd... @devbiol.bsky.social @biouea.bsky.social

Big thanks to the organisers and chairs for accepting my abstract, this was such a great session to be a part of 🧬🔥🌎🐟

Amanda Bretman@amandabretman.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Now @alicegodden.bsky.social tells us about sex specific activity of TEs, miRNAs and gene expression in the germline under heat stress in zebra fish 🐟

Thanks to all those that attended the @sortee.bsky.social led symposium at #ESEB2025 and for those that met up on Wednesday!! If you’re interested in joining SORTEE and supporting open science in EcoEvo, consider becoming a member! sortee.org/join/

Join

Join Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology (SORTEE)

sortee.org

Screaming into the blue void: anyone out there interested in some long-read #pacbio #european #wolf #sequence data? We have too much data from a pilot to not use, but it is too little data to assemble a #T2T on our own. Open to #collaboration. Get in touch!

a wolf is standing in the snow with its mouth open and looking at the camera .

ALT: a wolf is standing in the snow with its mouth open and looking at the camera .

media.tenor.com

Now on my way to #ESEB2025, Barcelona here we come!

Today’s the day! Our 2025 Research Colloquium, celebrating the research taking place here in BIO, starts at 09:30 in the Thomas Paine Study Centre. A fantastic day of talks awaits us, including our guest speaker Jean-Baptiste Raina of the University of Technology, Sydney! #UEABioResearch #UEAScience

🔍 From the origins of life to cutting-edge genomic tools, the hashtag#ESEB2025 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝. With more than 50 symposia led by international experts, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭. 📖 Explore the full list of symposia: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/da5JU3mv

Registered for #EISingleCell25 yet? 🧬 🖥️ We'll be hearing Dr Pascal Barbry, Research Director at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, about integrating different #singlecell techniques to compare and understand healthy and pathological lung function.

Norwich Single-Cell and Spatial Symposium

Now in its eighth year, and extended to a two-day event, the Norwich Single-Cell and Spatial Symposium at Earlham Institute covers single-cell and spatial genomics technologies and their application…

buff.ly

With a published genome & advancements in gene editing, the field of #zebrafish genetics has exploded in recent decades. We take a look back at major achievements in this infographic. For more, read this book chapter by @varshneylab.social et al (2015)($) doi.org/10.1016/bs.a... #ZebrafishFunFacts 🧪

🧵 🧪 1/ Female #ReproductiveBiology is, unfortunately, notoriously understudied. So maybe it’s no surprise that a supposedly useless ‘developmental leftover’ in the ovaries could turn out to be...not so useless after all. Meet the rete ovarii 👇 buff.ly/VudxQ2U

Introducing the brand new Starter Pack of staff, PhD students and related accounts, from the School of Biological Sciences, UEA. Follow us... #UEAScience go.bsky.app/PLSJXMz

🔬 My latest work w/ @immler.bsky.social et al: Env. stress alters sperm sRNAs, linking gene expr. + transposons in #zebrafish offspring. @heredityjournal.bsky.social 🧬 Social stress shapes RNA/TE activity across generations #Sperm #miRNA #piRNA #Transposons #TEsky @biouea.bsky.social rdcu.be/eeAwB

Environmentally induced variation in sperm sRNAs is linked to gene expression and transposable elements in zebrafish offspring

Heredity - Environmentally induced variation in sperm sRNAs is linked to gene expression and transposable elements in zebrafish offspring

rdcu.be

Need to electroporate and/or live image avian embryos? We hope our new preprint will help you get started: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Open EGGbox: an open-source 3D-printed embryonic Gallus gallus toolbox for electroporation and culture/live imaging of avian embryos ex ovo 🧪🐣 #devbio

Pleased to share my latest pre-print from my PhD work 🚨MicroRNA miR-196a controls neural crest patterning by repressing immature neural ectoderm programs in Xenopus embryos. 🐸🧬 @biouea.bsky.social #miRNA #Xenopus #neuralcrest #ectoderm #RNA-seq www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

MicroRNA miR-196a controls neural crest patterning by repressing immature neural ectoderm programs in Xenopus embryos.

Neural crest (NC) cells form a multipotent stem cell population specified during neurulation, which undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and migrate extensively in the developing embr...

biorxiv.org

🚨Our new paper @immler.bsky.social @biouea.bsky.social 🚨 FishPi: a #bioinformatic prediction tool to link #piRNA and #transposable elements Read now in Mobile DNA >> rdcu.be/d7Jub ✅ Covers many species (more to come) ✅ GUI based software #TESky #zebrafish #transposons @zebrafishrock.bsky.social