Sailing in @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social ready for summer, our study on the iconic Portuguese man o' war 🪼 is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... We use (epi)genomics to understand a critter that fascinates me since childhood. Massive team effort with @obog.bsky.social, Cummins and Neely groups. 🧵

Very pleased to finally share the main story from my PhD, now published in @natcomms.nature.com ! 🎉 Using a sea anemone we discovered and characterised epithelial cell extrusion as the mechanism underlying starvation-induced cell loss. 🔗 Open-access article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Epithelial cell extrusion underlies starvation-induced cell loss in a sea anemone - Nature Communications

Epithelial cell extrusion in a sea anemone shares key hallmarks with bilaterians and is dynamically regulated by nutritional status. During starvation-induced body shrinkage, extrusion likely contribu...

nature.com

I'm happy to share our latest on #coral single-cell biology: a transcriptomic timecourse of heat stress in Stylophora pistillata, from bleaching to recovery 🪸🌊 This project was spearheaded by Shani Levy and carried through in @arnausebe.bsky.social's lab at @crg.eu. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share that my postdoc work is now out @cp-cell.bsky.social! A collaborative work with co-lead author Catherine Henderson and others in the lab of @pcleves.bsky.social A deep look into how algae form symbiosis with corals and anemones. 🧵 (1/7) www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Co-option of lysosomal machinery shapes the evolution of the intracellular photosymbiosis supporting coral reefs

Corals harbor intracellular algal symbionts in specialized organelles that enable them to build diverse reef ecosystems. Corals and other cnidarians have repeatedly evolved this symbiosis through the ...

cell.com

(1/15) Thrilled to share new Evo-Devo work where we address the molecular, cellular & morphometric basis of an extreme axis segmentation program in the Japanese eel — an animal that forms 120 vertebrae.

Now online! Co-option of lysosomal machinery shapes the evolution of the intracellular photosymbiosis supporting coral reefs

Co-option of lysosomal machinery shapes the evolution of the intracellular photosymbiosis supporting coral reefs

Corals harbor intracellular algal symbionts in specialized organelles that enable them to build diverse reef ecosystems. Corals and other cnidarians have repeatedly evolved this symbiosis through the co-option of lysosomal machinery to simultaneously support photosynthesis and extract photosynthetic products from the algae.

dlvr.it

New in @dev-journal.bsky.social: how tissue shape tells cells what to become Using human stem-cell neuruloids, we show how that physical boundaries encode positional information that drives cell fate patterning in a model of trunk formation A thread 🧵 journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Boundary constraints can determine pattern emergence

Summary: A reaction-diffusion mechanism recapitulates pattern emergence in an in vitro model of neuromesodermal progenitors under a variety of boundary and geometrical perturbations.

journals.biologists.com

Welcome and congratulations to the 60 new members and 11 associate members who have been elected to the EMBO Membership! They join a community of more than 2,200 leading scientists. 🧪 https://www.embo.org/press-releases/seventy-one-leading-scientists-elected-to-the-embo-membership/ #EMBOMembers2026

The paper from my postdoc days @mblscience.bsky.social and @zakswartz.bsky.social Lab is available in @natcomms.nature.com. www.nature.com/articles/s41... With Beverly Naigles, @carsten-wolff.bsky.social and @danivoronov.bsky.social

It hasn't the cultural resonance of the 1st interracial kiss on TV, but the first trans-phylum transplant has to be a milestone in the discovery that ctenophores have a blastoporal organiser. And surgery on ctenophores must be like catching clouds. Paper in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A blastoporal organizer in a ctenophore - Nature

Experiments using the comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi and the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis reveal that the emergence of a core signalling pathway may have been a key innovation enabling the transit...

nature.com

Embryonic ‘organizer cells’ can tell embryos of various phyla what kind of body to build go.nature.com/4vnO1ig

Cell transplant across the tree of life hints at how animals emerged

Embryonic ‘organizer cells’ can tell embryos of various phyla what kind of body to build.

go.nature.com

What is the evolutionary origin of the organizer? New work from @kremnyovs.bsky.social, @tclebedeva.bsky.social & Hejnol Lab @uni-jena.de reports the blastopore lip of the #ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, a member of the evolutionary sister group to all other metazoans, exhibits organizer activity.

A blastoporal organizer in a ctenophore - Nature

Experiments using the comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi and the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis reveal that the emergence of a core signalling pathway may have been a key innovation enabling the transit...

nature.com

How did animal senses evolve? Max Coyle et al. used choanoflagellates to uncover TRPW, ancient ion channels predating animal somatosensory receptors. TRPW links microbial prey ecology to evolution of receptor structure, sensory organelles, & multicellular processing. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How ancient are the building blocks of animal sensory systems? Key components of animal sensory systems evolved before animals. We find that choanoflagellates possess diverse & spatially segregated TRP channels, pointing to ancient origins of sensory specialization. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Thank you @ktgarschall.bsky.social and @eudaldpascual.bsky.social for inviting me to such a nice symposium. I had a great time at #EED2026

Kathrin Garschall@ktgarschall.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Thank you #EED2026 for the exciting update on evo-devo! ✨ Super grateful to @eudaldpascual.bsky.social for cohosting and the brilliant speakers of our metabolism session! 🔥 @krittikas20.bsky.social @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social @jorgelazaro.bsky.social and Cristina Gonzalez-Estevez.

Thank you #EED2026 for the exciting update on evo-devo! ✨ Super grateful to @eudaldpascual.bsky.social for cohosting and the brilliant speakers of our metabolism session! 🔥 @krittikas20.bsky.social @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social @jorgelazaro.bsky.social and Cristina Gonzalez-Estevez.

We also would like to thank the @biologists.bsky.social for supporting the travels of our early career speakers!

The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)

Capolavoro 🎨 alert 🚨! What is the role of gene body methylation in invertebrates? Despite extensive speculation linking it to plasticity and environmental responses, its mechanistic effects and heritability remain unclear. Our take out in @natecoevo.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/

Gene body methylation suppresses intragenic transcription and permits epigenetic inheritance in a cnidarian - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Experiments in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis show a role of gene body methylation in transposable element suppression and that epigenetic inheritance is constrained by chromatin context and tra...

nature.com

A fossil nervous system meets modern neurobiology. We found that a living comb jelly preserves neural architecture remarkably similar to those inferred from Cambrian fossils over 500 million years old 🤩. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#ResultatScientifique🔎| Comment coordonner ses mouvements sans cerveau ni muscles ? Trichoplax révèle des mécanismes inattendus qui éclairent l’évolution des premiers comportements animaux. ✍️Marvin Leria ▶️ buff.ly/eEMsBVE 📕 @currentbiology.bsky.social 🤝 @cnrs.fr @univ-amu.fr

Bilaterian BMP signaling gradients suggest an ancestral anti-neural role. Study of #cnidarians shows that #BMP signalling promotes neurogenesis; its "anti-neural" function is a side effect of its role in the DV axis @paulknabl.bsky.social @genikhovich.bsky.social @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4dJHoiR

📢ERCs! Consider joining us! With @jgahan.bsky.social we have organized a @biologists.bsky.social workshop to discuss the origin of animal cell differentiation. Tons of invited speakers! see below! Looking forward to it!

The Company of Biologists@biologists.bsky.social · 3mo ago

ECRs - there is one month left to apply for a funded place at our Workshop on Rethinking Cell Differentiation and Development: A Unicellular Perspective, organised by Elena Casacuberta & James Gahan jgahan.bsky.social More at biologists.com/workshops/de... #BiologistsWorkshops Deadline: 12 June

#PintofScience La mida (del genoma) importa? Perdre gens, cromosomes remenats i canvi climàtic. Per què aquests mecanismes poden ser claus per afrontar el canvi climàtic i protegir la salut dels oceans. @criscanestro.bsky.social 🔗pintofscience.es 📆 20 maig 📍Ateneu Roig, c/Torrent d'en Vidalet 32

Pint of Science ES

pintofscience.es

ECRs - there is one month left to apply for a funded place at our Workshop on Rethinking Cell Differentiation and Development: A Unicellular Perspective, organised by Elena Casacuberta & James Gahan jgahan.bsky.social More at biologists.com/workshops/de... #BiologistsWorkshops Deadline: 12 June

Had fun writing this with @glyptocrinus.bsky.social! If multicellularity is ancient and so easy to achieve, then what is it exactly that makes few the multicellular clades that dominate ecosystems today -- plants, animals, fungi -- stand out?

Nature Ecology & Evolution@natecoevo.nature.com · 3mo ago

Read the News & Views commentary here 👇 Multicellularity for free www.nature.com/articles/s41... Free to read: rdcu.be/fgdX4

Thank you to organisers @lydiafinley.bsky.social and @wilhelmpalm.bsky.social and everyone who joined us at this week's Workshop on 'Revisiting Metabolic Fundamentals' biologists.com/workshops #BiologistsWorkshops @dmmjournal.bsky.social

🎓 PhD thesis defense by student Pablo Coronel Córdoba, supervised by Dr. Emili Saló and Dr. Teresa Adell 📔 “From Embryogenesis to Regeneration: Wnt/β-catenin Signaling in Planarian Morphogenesis” 🗓️ April 30 🕙 15:00 🏫 Aula Magna @biologiaub.bsky.social

This week on The Abstract: scientists watch a succession story play out for years in a naked mole rat colony. Then: prediction markets as a public health threat, the thorny questions of posthumous reproduction. @beckyferreira.bsky.social has more. www.404media.co/babies-born-...