Happy #FluorescenceFriday! ✨🔬 A peek inside a developing quail embryo, where the brain and heart are already taking shape. A tiny embryo doing some seriously impressive developmental heavy lifting. 💪❤️ 📷 @vanderspuy.bsky.social

The kinetochore is essential for cell division across species, but its components and organization evolve dramatically. How can that be? Our first foray into this fascinating question is up now on biorxiv: 🧪 1/12 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Kinetochore diversification in Naegleria reveals plasticity in the kinetochore-microtubule interface

The kinetochore--the molecular machine that couples chromosomes to spindle microtubules--performs an essential, tightly regulated function, yet varies dramatically across eukaryotes. Microtubules are ...

biorxiv.org

Reminder! The 2026 African Turquoise Killifish Conference is coming to MDI Bio Lab Oct 1–3! Researchers studying aging, regeneration, development & disease are invited to join this hybrid meeting focused on collaboration and scientific discovery. #genesky #scicomm #devbio

African Turquoise Killifish Conference 2026

A three day conference to facilitate scientific exchange and connections among the African turquoise killifish community.

mdibl.org

Looking for a postdoc to join our project studying actin and membrane dynamics during cell migration. If interested, please reach out to me via email: rytis.prekeris@ucdenver.edu

We're excited to present a single-cell atlas of vertebrate cranial motor neuron development, the first story from my postdoctoral work in the Moens lab, up now on bioRxiv!

We are excited to share our collaboration with @pheereynolds.bsky.social, Robert Hindges & team on retinal plasticity, now out in Neuron! This work shows how visual experience during early development changes the anatomical and functional properties of amacrine cells and ultimately behavior!

Early visual experience elicits cellular and functional plasticity in the retina and alters behavior

The understanding of experience-dependent plasticity in the vertebrate retina is largely incomplete. Reynolds et al. discovered that raising animals in differently patterned visual environments change...

cell.com

Join us on a journey into the dynamics of cells during embryo development. We are offering a fully funded PhD position to investigate cell behavior using cutting-edge quantitative live imaging at the interface of Development, Immunity, and Tissue Biology. embryobioimaging.com

I am excited to present our newest report on a severe outbreak of transmissible cancer in clams in the Pacific Northwest, with a lot of unexpected twists. Led by Sydney Weinandt and Zach Child. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2611852123 1/14

Atlantic to Pacific: Outbreak of bivalve transmissible neoplasia detected in hybridizing soft-shell clams and eDNA in Puget Sound | PNAS

Bivalve transmissible neoplasias (BTNs) are transmissible cancers that have arisen in multiple bivalve species, including Eastern soft-shell clam (...

pnas.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

What if an embryo made immune cells before it finished building the tissue they usually come from? In our new preprint, we show that annual killifish embryos specify neutrophils before germ layers are fully resolved. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Huge thanks to my PI, @ohnolog.bsky.social ! 🧵

Early immune cell development precedes gastrulation in annual killifish

During embryogenesis, cell types arise in a predictable order because developmental regulators act sequentially. But how evolutionary changes in morphogenesis reshape the signaling environments that a...

biorxiv.org

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

Is there a size limit for cells ? How can cells replicate inside the architecture of their environment? Why do cells self-destroy ? This 15-minute movie vimeo.com/1173229237 shows our 2026 edition of the Living Architectures project at the @museeorsay.bsky.social

Cell scaffold microtubules regulate tissue macrophages' migration & other roles as they participate in epithelial surveillance & wound repair 📹 @errricpeterman.bsky.social et al @uwbiology.bsky.social in @jcellsci.bsky.social ➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2026/6/18 with @antdlewis.bsky.social

Another reason to support your non-profit society journals!

Michael Okun@michael-okun.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇

Paying peer reviewers works. Expanded Fast & Fair experiment @biologyopen.bsky.social: • 5.5 vs 37.7 working days to decision with reviews • ~3 vs ~9 reviewer invitations per manuscript • no reduction in editor-assessed review quality • similar acceptance rates www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We are looking for science writers to write a “Science Spotlight” mini-review of a recent high-impact zebrafish paper for the next issue of the IZFS @izfs.bsky.social News Splash. For this mentored science writing experience, DM me and we can start working together!

Happy #fluorescencefriday (and start of vacation!) to all those who are celebrating Lifeact-labeled epidermal stem cells closing a wound after in vivo adult zebrafish skin injury

Dendritic atoh1a+ cells serve as Merkel cell precursors during skin development and regeneration Read this #LifelongDevSI #OA Research Article by Evan Craig, Jeremy Rasmussen @jraslab.bsky.social and colleagues at @uwbiology.bsky.social: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

🔎 New from the @jraslab.bsky.social at UW! They used #Langerhans cells within the adult #zebrafish epidermis as a model to investigate roles of microtubules in immune cell tissue surveillance, phagocytosis, and directed migration. 🦓🐟 See it in @jcellsci.bsky.social : https://bit.ly/49fmQhf

Congratulations to @errricpeterman.bsky.social for the second-ever journal cover from the lab!

Journal of Cell Science@jcellsci.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Issue 18 is complete Explore our ToC: journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13... On the cover: macrophages (white) migrating towards a scratch wound in a zebrafish skin explant (α-catenin, magenta). From @errricpeterman.bsky.social @jraslab.bsky.social et al. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

A small primer on the #NobelPrize awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi today. This prize was for combining two separate fields of immunology research - genetic research on IPEX and immunology research of regulatory T cells (#Tregs), with enormous impact on biology/medicine

cover image yeeeeeeeeehawwwww #flourescentfriday check out our work in the most recent issue of @jcellsci.bsky.social !

Latest paper from the lab! 👀 Check out this macrophage (labeled with a microtubule reporter in blue) avoid an epithelial obstacle (labeled with a nuclear reporter in pink) as it migrates to a wound (off screen to the left) ⬅️ Video credit: @errricpeterman.bsky.social

Journal of Cell Science@jcellsci.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Eric Peterman @errricpeterman.bsky.social, Jeffrey Rasmussen @jraslab.bsky.social @uwbiology.bsky.social & colleagues discover that microtubules regulate tissue-level navigation in skin-resident macrophages. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/... Article: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Thank you @jcellsci.bsky.social for this research highlight "Microtubules help macrophages navigate the epidermal maze" as a companion to our manuscript from @errricpeterman.bsky.social ! journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Microtubules help macrophages navigate the epidermal maze

Specialised macrophages called Langerhans cells respond rapidly to skin damage, migrating to wounds to promote tissue repair. Due to their fast migration and presence in a superficial tissue, these ce...

journals.biologists.com

Congrats to @errricpeterman.bsky.social on leading our latest paper now published in @jcellsci.bsky.social ! Eric found multiple roles for microtubules in tissue-resident macrophage homeostasis and function -- including in helping macrophages navigate around epithelial obstacles during wound repair👇

Eric Peterman@errricpeterman.bsky.social · 11mo ago

now online! check out our work describing roles for microtubules in tissue-resident macrophages during directed cell migration. thanks to @jcellsci.bsky.social for a stress-free publication process journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

My awesome Drosophila colleague Akhila Rajan at Fred Hutch (Seattle) is recruiting both a staff scientist and a postdoc to study fat–brain communication, innate immunity, mitochondrial signaling, and brain senescence. Great team, great environment. Apply here: careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/30062/j...

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Fred Hutch is dedicated to the elimination of cancer and related diseases as causes of human suffering and death.

careers-fhcrc.icims.com

Our postdoc ad is up on the SDB website! Come to Portland and study regenerative neurogenesis in planarians and zebrafish: www.sdbonline.org/resource?Res...

In a new @uwbiology.bsky.social publication, the @jraslab.bsky.social describes the discovery of a transitional cell type, dendritic #MerkelCells, that connects keratinocyte progenitors to mature touch-sensitive Merkel cells. 📰Press release: https://bit.ly/4mj1xPE 🥼Abstract: https://bit.ly/43Zd3cn

🗞️ Fresh off the press! #MC3Memos newsletter vol 2 is here—packed w/ stories, latest advancements, & opportunities within the Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MC3) Institute. 📰 mc3institute.uw.edu/news/mc3-memos-vol-2 @fredhutch.bsky.social @uwmedicine.bsky.social #merkelcellcarcinoma #cancerresearch

Way to represent @uwbiology.bsky.social !

Society for Developmental Biology@socdevbio.bsky.social · last yr.

🐌💫 Snail embryos never looked so fabulous! Tubulin (white), phospho-histone H3 (pink), and F-Actin (cyan) light up this early stage like a cytoskeletal disco ball. Image from Clemens Cabernard & Adam von Barnau Sythoff 🪩🧬 #FluorescenceFriday