1/8 Breathing seems automatic. But it's a finely tuned motor behavior that has to be controlled. In this preprint, I map the circuits that match a fly's respiration to the metabolic demands of flight and mitigate the risk of dehydration. 🧵🪰 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Back on the east coast trail 🤩 #newfoundland

Cellular biologist Marilyn Farquhar discovered critical structural components of cells, including tight junctions & desmosomes. A pioneer in electron microscopy, she served as the first female president of the American Society for Cell Biology, 1981-82. She was born #OTD in 1928. #WomenInSTEM

Hot of the press- great collaboration with our friends @lmescu.bsky.social and F. Casares @cabd-upo-csic.bsky.social - building the insect eye is a feat of engineering! @uclnews.bsky.social @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk

UCL Faculty of Life Sciences@ucllifesciences.bsky.social · 4w ago

New research from @fpichaud.bsky.social and University of Seville researchers found that developing fruit fly retinas behave like metamaterials, folding from flat cellular patterns into precise 3D structures. www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science... #UCLLifeSciences #Biomaterials #Metamaterials

Game on, Nige.

The awesome trio of @lmescu.bsky.social @fpichaud.bsky.social and Fernando Casares (and their teams) are on fire Fly eyes represent 'programmable metamaterials'; human engineering principles pre-exist in biology www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A natural programmable metamaterial controls 3D curvature of compound eyes - Nature Communications

This article uncovers a natural, programmable metamaterial in the developing Drosophila eye. The precise 3D curvature of the adult compound eye is programmed during development by a microscopic, 2D tr...

nature.com

So grateful for the new Kathy Matthews Endowment for the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center. A wonderful tribute by Kathy's husband, Lawrence Washington, that will help preserve Kathy's legacy and support the fly community for years to come. biology.indiana.edu/news-events/...

Major gift to establish endowment for IU Drosophila Stock Center

IU Biology news: The IU Stock Center maintains thousands of documented, living genetic strains of Drosophila melanogaster, a small fruit fly that has served as one of science’s most powerful tools for...

biology.indiana.edu

@ucl embracing the real robotic revolution! Fun but not very interactive!

Rainbow!

This week's theme is 'People of London' - a celebration of ALL the people who make and have made London the beautiful city it is. ------ 'The London Underground' (from 'This Is London', 1959) by Miroslav Šašek

Helicopter- car !?

Preparing a new talk for our UK Drosophila meeting in Scotland - lovely Edinburgh this evening!

Huge congratulations to Vil Fernandes for being awarded the Lister Prize! Amazing talk as always!

Meet our Preprint Editors We are pleased to welcome our first group of Preprint Editors to our editorial team, responsible for handling our 'In preprints' articles. #preprints journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/ed...

Lister prize lecture - congratulations to our @ucl.ac.uk colleague Vil Fernandes🎉

Lunch with a view

The polymath @rogerhighfield.bsky.social gave this year's @royalsociety.org David Attenborough Prize Lecture He discussed how more science communication seems to lead to less public confidence, and the neural basis for this paradox You can watch it here royalsociety.org/science-even...

David Attenborough Prize Lecture: The Battle for Reality | Royal Society

The Royal Society David Attenborough Prize Lecture: The battle for reality delivered by Roger Highfield

royalsociety.org

NEWS: The ERC Scientific Council has listened to the concerns from members of the research community about changes to the re-submission rules, intended to manage the surge in demand for grants. The Scientific Council will readjust some of the changes: link.europa.eu/TBqRQJ

ERC Scientific Council readjusts rules for reapplication

The ERC Scientific Council has listened to the concerns from members of the research community about the recent announcement on changes to the re-submission rules. The changes, intended to manage the ...

link.europa.eu

The CODA workflow works for: - any tissue type (eye, kidney, pancreas, brain,...) - any disease (cancer, fibrosis, diabetes,...) - any species (human, mouse, rhesus macaque, ...) It can be integrated with any spatial omic technique (CODEX, Visium, IF, IHC,..) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

CODA: quantitative 3D reconstruction of large tissues at cellular resolution - Nature Methods

CODA: a method for 3D reconstruction of large serially sectioned tissues.

nature.com

Denis Wirtz@deniswirtz.bsky.social · 4mo ago

For those attending AACR26 in San Diego, I will demonstrate how CODA can map whole tumors, organs, and organisms in 3D and at single-cell resolution. I will also show how CODA can integrate spatial transcriptomics, spatial proteomics, IHC, IMC, etc. April 17, 3:30 pm, Convention Center

It’s official: the UK is rejoining Erasmus! 👏🇪🇺

If you are a UCL student you can register for the hopeful Sustainability Leadership Conference next week. I'll be there but dont let that put you off 🤓 studentsunionucl.org/sustainabili...

Made it ! 2 days of great Matrix biology 🎉

🚨 Open for applications - Director of Scientific Core Facilities & Services! Shape the strategic future of our core facilities and work with leading experts on cutting-edge cancer discovery and translational research 🧑‍🔬🔬🧪 💷 ~£100,000 ⏰ 17.5.2026 Apply 👉 www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk/career/mi-26...

If you know a graduating undergraduate looking for the chance to spend 1-2 years in a lab before graduate school, we're hiring! Our lab explores morphogenesis, defining how the cell adhesion & cytoskeletal machinery work together to allow cells to change shape & move tarheels.live/peiferlab/ 1/n RT

Great turnout - Together Alliance March

Join us to establish your lab @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk - very supportive environment & state-of-the-art imaging, mass spec and genomics tech platforms!

UCL Faculty of Life Sciences@ucllifesciences.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Interested in joining a dynamic, interdisciplinary research department as a Tenure Track Fellow? Please submit your expression of interest by April 13, 2026. Further details here: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Made it! Looking forward to 3 days of great developmental biology.

We are looking for a new group leader to join the IGH (Montpellier, France). I can’t wait to meet my future colleague! Apply :-) More infos here: igh.cnrs.fr/join-igh-as-...

Join IGH as Group Leader - IGH

The Institute of Human Genetics invites applications for a Principal Investigator position in its main research areas. Read more...

igh.cnrs.fr

Beautiful #devbio talk today at our @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social Seminar Series by @leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social Sarah Bowling!

Wow! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Here we report all five canonical nucleobases—purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine and uracil)—in samples returned from the C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu

A complete set of canonical nucleobases in the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu - Nature Astronomy

Samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu contain all five canonical nucleobases (A, G, C, T and U). Their presence in Ryugu and Bennu supports the hypothesis that carbonaceous asteroids contributed to...

nature.com