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Niakan Lab@niakanlab.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We have a postdoc position available in the lab and would like to spread the word. Please apply if you are interested! www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

Great to see this out! 🎉 link.springer.com/article/10.1... from @inaharasimov.bsky.social Also, very happy to report that the preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... was selected as top 1% of bioRxiv papers in the last year! www.qedscience.com

In-situ cryo-ET of mouse embryos reveals cytoplasmic lattices contain ubiquitin-charged E2-E3 ligase assemblies - The EMBO Journal

Cytoplasmic lattices (CPLs) are filamentous assemblies essential for mammalian embryonic development. They are known to regulate organelle organization, spindle assembly, and protein homeostasis, but ...

link.springer.com

What regulates the urge to sleep? William Joo and colleagues identified brain regions that reflect how long mice have been awake. Strikingly, inhibiting one of these regions reduces sleep by 70%, without the major behavioral deficits associated with sleep deprivation. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Wake-activated neuronal populations that regulate sleep drive - Nature

Whole-brain activity mapping, targeted cell manipulations and electrophysiology in mice identify wake-activated neuronal populations that are crucial for sleep drive and can persistently red...

nature.com

Our work on the role of the proteasome in developmental tempo is out!!!! 🐭⌛️👤⏳ Six years after identifying an association between protein stability and developmental tempo, we now demonstrate a causal link between protein turnover and developmental tempo through proteasomal degradation

Developmental Cell@cp-devcell.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Online now: Proteasome-dependent protein degradation shapes developmental tempo in mouse and human neural progenitors #biology #science

We are happy to announce the nine outstanding researchers from across the country who have been awarded our prestigious Faraday Discovery Fellowships, which support outstanding mid-career research leaders in the UK. royalsociety.org/news/2026/08...

Second cohort of exceptional research leaders awarded Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellowships | Royal Society

Nine pioneering researchers have been announced as this years' recipients.

royalsociety.org

We have a postdoc position available in the lab and would like to spread the word. Please apply if you are interested! www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

Cytoplasmic lattices are a highly abundant and essential structure in mouse oocytes and embryos. Our in situ structure from early mouse embryos provides a new insight into their molecular achitecture and function. Check it out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Carter Lab@carter-lab.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Excited to share our work on the structure and function of cytoplasmic lattices within mouse embryos. A collaborative effort with @niakanlab.bsky.social and work led by @kashishsingh.bsky.social and @inaharasimov.bsky.social . It is now out on BioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Scientists at Cambridge's @loke-ctr.bsky.social have, for the first time, used base editing to study gene function in human embryos. In future, the findings could help to improve IVF success rates and better understand early pregnancy loss. Read more: https://bit.ly/4aQOAZD

Congrats to Oliver Bower, @inaharasimov.bsky.social and everyone involved on the publication of our latest findings! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Recently was Qiulin’s viva and he passed without corrections! We are so proud of all the hard work and dedication that led to this achievement! Thanks so much to everybody that joined the celebration!

Excited to share our work on the structure and function of cytoplasmic lattices within mouse embryos. A collaborative effort with @niakanlab.bsky.social and work led by @kashishsingh.bsky.social and @inaharasimov.bsky.social . It is now out on BioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Very excited to share our newest findings! A very long team effort pursued by multiple team members -to frantically reproduce everything over and over-, we show mTOR-Polycomb synergy at promoters of developmental master regulator TFs in ESCs prior to their expression. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Really exciting to see our new review published! This review explores the evolutionary history of the extra-embryonic endoderm, an evolutionarily ancient tissue co-opted to form the yolk sac, and explores how in vitro models are uncovering its biology. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1242/dev....

The vertebrate yolk sac: evolutionary origins and current advances in in vitro models

Summary: This Review examines the evolutionary history of the extra-embryonic endoderm, an evolutionarily ancient tissue co-opted to form the yolk sac, and explores how in vitro models are uncovering ...

doi.org

A human embryo implantation model from the @Rugg-Gunn Lab *key for understanding the early extraembryonic-maternal interactions Congrats to everyone involved! It’s been great to see this project develop. Huge credit to the @babrahaminst.bsky.social authors 🥂🍾 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Modeling human embryo implantation in vitro

Building an in vitro model of receptive endometrium allows investigation of human embryo implantation and early post-implantation development and recapitulates the earliest stages in establishing the ...

cell.com

Babraham Institute@babrahaminst.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Learn more about this research in our interview with Peter Rugg-Gunn 🧪 youtu.be/2NYsWPp1UYk?...

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐭! 🎉 “𝐗𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐗-𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬” 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐑𝐱𝐢𝐯! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

XIST Drives X-Chromosome Inactivation and Safeguards Female Extraembryonic Cells in Humans

Dosage compensation of sex chromosomes through X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) is required for mice extra-embryonic tissue growth and embryo development. The species specificity in mechanisms and timi...

biorxiv.org

Thrilled to see this published! Well done Ahmed on spearheading a project revealing mitotic errors in human embryos arise much later than anticipated. Thank you to collaborators @bensteventon.bsky.social Leila Muresan and all of the wonderful teams at Bourn Hall and Create Fertility clinics!

Nature Biotechnology@natbiotech.nature.com · 12mo ago

Live imaging of late-stage preimplantation human embryos reveals de novo mitotic errors - @niakanlab.bsky.social @loke-ctr.bsky.social go.nature.com/3JdRdu8

We are recuiting two new Associate Professors here in Oxford Biochemistry. Come join us! Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! tinyurl.com/mr3m7bd3

Looking to pursue cutting-edge research in early development, maternal-fetal interaction, or placental biology? See 👇 - Funded PhD www.trophoblast.cam.ac.uk/phd-students... - Next Generation Fellowship www.trophoblast.cam.ac.uk/next-generat... - MPhil www.mphil.bio.cam.ac.uk/mphil-pathwa...

Hot off the press! Cell-type-specific functionality encoded within the intrinsically disordered regions of OCT4 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cell-type-specific functionality encoded within the intrinsically disordered regions of OCT4 - Nature Communications

Here they perform a systematic dissection of OCT4 and reveal how intrinsically disordered regions can be used to serve specific functions during reprogramming and embryonic development. This can be exploited to engineer more efficient and specific reprogramming factors.

nature.com

How do #stemcells integrate information to coordinate fate decisions? Delighted to finally see our work showing how growth factors regulate the mechano-osmotic state of the #nucleus and #chromatin to control #pluripotency exit out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... see 🧵 👇

Mechano-osmotic signals control chromatin state and fate transitions in pluripotent stem cells - Nature Cell Biology

McCreery, Stubb et al. show that mechano-osmotic changes in the nucleus induce general transcriptional repression and prime chromatin for cell fate transitions by relieving repression of specific differentiation genes.

nature.com

One of our favourite tabs is Resources: we're listing all of our datasets, codes, beginning to upload and make accessible raw imaging data and lab protocols. Please check it out, we hope this is useful! niakanlab.com/resources/

Niakan Lab@niakanlab.bsky.social · last yr.

🚀 Exciting news: our new lab website is live! 🌐 Check it out here: niakanlab.com We’ll be sharing updates on our research, publications, outreach, resources etc. Curious to hear what you think! ✨ #LabLife #Research #StemCells #DevelopmentalBiology

🚀 Exciting news: our new lab website is live! 🌐 Check it out here: niakanlab.com We’ll be sharing updates on our research, publications, outreach, resources etc. Curious to hear what you think! ✨ #LabLife #Research #StemCells #DevelopmentalBiology

Niakan lab

niakanlab.com

Today we had our lab retreat at the Eddington Postdoc Centre for the first time in a while!🧪 We had so much fun combining workshops and team-building activities, and we definitely made the most of our time together. Do you do retreats in your lab? What are they usually like? We will read you below!👇

Last Friday, we said goodbye to our amazing summer student, Yiping! Thank you for your hard work and bringing great energy to our team this summer. Wishing you the best in your next chapter!☀️

Our protocol with all the details you'll need to detect and quantify phospo-SMAD proteins in your (human) embryo, is finally out today @cp-starprotocols.bsky.social. Thanks again to my wonderful co-author @toddfallesen.bsky.social and the @niakanlab.bsky.social. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Protocol for immunofluorescence detection and quantification of phosphorylated SMAD proteins in human blastocysts

The transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) signaling superfamily includes NODAL and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling, which lead to the phosph…

sciencedirect.com

This project has been very special to me. I want to thank James @lab-turner.bsky.social who gave me the chance to build my own research line outside of the lab's main focus on sex chromosomes, and to our collaborators Chris Barrington, Clare Critcher, Waz Varsally, Greg Alanis @niakanlab.bsky.social

Very happy to see this nice collaboration with @niakanlab.bsky.social bear fruit. Beautiful work by @clairesimon.bsky.social culturing human embryos in the presence of FGF/ERK stimulation/inhibition. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Suppression of ERK signalling promotes pluripotent epiblast in the human blastocyst - Nature Communications

The authors show human embryo lineage specification in the blastocyst is driven by differential FGF/ERK signaling, which segregates yolk sac-fated hypoblast and embryonic epiblast. They establish naïv...

nature.com

Very sorry to hear of the passing of Roger Pedersen. He was an outstanding developmental and stem cell biologist & helped to establish the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. Our thoughts are with his family. obgyn.stanford.edu/in-the-news/...

Very sorry to hear of the passing of Professor Roger Pedersen, whose visionary leadership helped establish the @scicambridge.bsky.social. I will never forget how Roger personally taught my group how to dissect early post-implantation mouse embryos; watching him at the microscope was truly inspiring

#announcement please share 📢 We're delighted to launch registration for the Annual Meeting 2025 'The Placenta at Term' bit.ly/annualmeetin... And, applications open for Placental Biology Course, returning in-person, in Cambridge bit.ly/placentalbio... 25 places, application deadline 21 March!