This epic paper, which has been a heroic 10 year journey for the lead author, Ricardo Barrientos, is finally out in Cell today! Many thanks to all co-authors, especially Billie Meadowcroft and Andela Saric for their beautiful MD simulations www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Basement membrane turnover controls cell shape

Basement membranes are scaffolds of proteins, like collagen, that give organs shape. During development, basement membranes must adapt to the growing organ. We infer how fast the basement membrane ada...

cell.com

Congratulations, @jeffreyafarrell.bsky.social, on winning the @socdevbio.bsky.social #2026SDB Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award! Learn more about Jeff's science and career in his @dev-journal.bsky.social interview with @saanjbati.bsky.social.

Transitions in development – an interview with Jeffrey Farrell

Jeffrey Farrell is an Earl Stadtman Investigator at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), USA, where he heads the Unit on Cell Specification and ...

doi.org

Looking for weekend reading? New review by @kei-jokura.bsky.social and @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy revisits nerve nets, their functional organization, and evolutionary implications link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Together with @thanbichlerlab.bsky.social, we are looking for an ambitious PhD student to develop fluorescence imaging for anaerobic bacteria. Check out this and other positions that are announced as a part of the M4C Excellence cluster here: stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/2...

👏 Congrats to EMBL Group Leader @gautamdey.bsky.social on an ERC Proof of Concept Grant to develop a new way of selecting cells for more efficient and versatile evolutionary biology studies. bit.ly/3Rd3H9m @erc.europa.eu

Jana combines evolutionary genomics, quantitative cell biology and experimental evolution with exceptional creativity to tackle big questions in cellular evolution. It has been a privilege & a joy to have her in the lab these years - I can’t wait to see what she does next in her wonderful new home

Jana Helsen@helsenjana.bsky.social · 3w ago

I am starting my lab at the University of Geneva next January! Incredibly excited to soon be joining the MOCEL department as an Asst. Professor. The lab will use evolutionary cell biology to study chromosomes, centromeres & speciation 🧬🔬🌱 Intrigued, want to join or collaborate? 🔗 helsenlab.org

In September we will have the pleasure of hosting Karla and @fmikus.bsky.social from the labs of @dudinlab.bsky.social and @gautamdey.bsky.social. If you are around Granada please join us for their talk! They will present ExÂME, an incredible initiative to build a 3D atlas of protists diversity!

Facultad de Ciencias@fcienciasugr.bsky.social · 4w ago

🔬 Seminario: Microscopía de expansión: una nueva perspectiva sobre la diversidad de la vida 🗓️ 8 de sep ⏰ 11:00 am. 📍 Salón de Grados @fcienciasugr.bsky.social 🗣️ Dra. Karla Azucena Juárez y Dr. Félix Mikus 🔗 fciencias.ugr.es/facultad/not...

More than a decade since CRISPR-Cas9 knock in came on the scene, it's remained underutilized in emerging models. Using transposase, and a split-FP system, we built an optimized knock in system for use in the genetically-enabled urchin, Lytechinus pictus. bit.ly/4wswLsd

What kinds of living protocells could be created? In this @royalsocietypublishing.org paper, we made a systematic exploration, from Rashevsky and Turing chemical protocells to Ganti's chemoton, Szostak's ribocells, transduction-driven cells & minimal cells royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

1/11 🤩Sooooo happy to see this work on a new new group #algae. Looks like #centrohelids - predatory ancient eukaryotic lineage sometimes harbor vertically-inherited plastids from #dictyochophytes. Amazing work, @annewalraven.bsky.social, glad to be on board! More below:

Anne Walraven@annewalraven.bsky.social · last mo.

Very excited that the preprint of the main paper of my PhD is now out! We show that Meringosphaera is the first centrohelid with permanent plastids: doi.org/10.64898/202... @zlatogursky.bsky.social, @pjkeelinglab.bsky.social, prof. Rachel A. Foster, and @fburki.bsky.social #protistsonsky

@zjmaggiexu.bsky.social's story on suctorian trap structure adaptation is now online in @currentbiology.bsky.social , with new evolutionary analyses and modeling! This fall, Maggie will keep exploring predatory protists as a PD in @nbellono.bsky.social group; keep an eye out for her she's amazing!

Scott Coyle@cellraiser.bsky.social · 9mo ago

How do cells adapt morphology to function? In a 🔥 preprint by @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social , with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @amyweeks.bsky.social , we identify a self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit that optimizes the feeding trap structure of the suctorian P. collini. 🧵 tinyurl.com/4k8nv926

I know it seems like a heretical idea, but one way to figure out if a preprint is really interesting (to you) is... to read the preprint. Then, in the spirit of sharing, send a note to authors: a simple kudos or a more detailed question. I do this a dozen times a year. It's awesome. Try it.

#ISEPpapers 28: January to June 2026 www.isep-protists.com/post/iseppap... Your twenty-eighth digest of papers and preprints published by members of the International Society for Evolutionary Protistology is here! #Protists #Algae #Microbes #Evolution

#ISEPpapers 28: January to June 2026

Your twenty-eighth digest of papers and preprints published by members of the International Society for Evolutionary Protistology is here!

isep-protists.com

Double preprint! 👇 Check out our latest studies on timing, heterogeneity and collective behaviour (with a fun tiny bonus on evolution!) 1. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 2. arxiv.org/abs/2605.13234

Cellular timing heterogeneity regulates phase transitions in living matter

Rigidity transitions govern tissue organization in ways reminiscent of inert materials. Yet, living tissues are composed of active units with autonomous timing mechanisms, raising the question whether...

biorxiv.org

Lena Schindler@lena-schindler.bsky.social · last mo.

I am thrilled to share my PhD work with @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social @embl.org: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... A fun collaboration with Bernat Corominas-Murtra, Adrián Aguirre-Tamaral, @bart-smeets.bsky.social , Jef Vanghel and Tom Belpaire! Read the story in the comments below ⤵️

I am thrilled to share my PhD work with @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social @embl.org: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... A fun collaboration with Bernat Corominas-Murtra, Adrián Aguirre-Tamaral, @bart-smeets.bsky.social , Jef Vanghel and Tom Belpaire! Read the story in the comments below ⤵️

A very pleasant surprise to see that we got the cover for this paper 🥳 @natphys.nature.com

Nicoletta Petridou@nicolettapetridou.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Here the published version of our work on uncoupling different types of tissue phase transitions during development! Find out more on how contact surface tension-driven rigidity transitions trigger tricellular junction formation and initiate epithelial organization! @natphys.nature.com

Expansion microscopy is revolutionary but application to actin cytoskeleton has been challenging. Not anymore....we combine IntAct + U-ExM to get an unprecedented 3D nanoscale view of actin isoforms in expanded cells. Read the full revised paper here: plos.io/4vansgr

IntAct-U-ExM enables super-resolution imaging of isoform-specific actin networks across species

A previous study in PLOS Biology developed IntAct, a tool to study isoform-specific actin localization, dynamics and molecular interactions across species. In this Update Article, IntAct is coupled wi...

plos.io

Saravanan Palani@syncellbiolab.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our new paper in @plosbiology.org introduces IntAct-U-ExM enabling isoform-specific imaging of actin at nanoscale across yeast, mammalian cells & primary neurons. Fabulous work spearheaded by @anubhavdhar.bsky.social along with an amazing team! #actin #U-ExM journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... We are raising the alarm because continuing observations of one of our most important components in the climate system are becoming unsustainable.

Amoc collapse could change Europe’s climate 10x faster than expected. We aren’t ready

The system of ocean current that moves heat in the Atlantic Ocean plays a key role in regulating climate. Today’s monitoring of it may be discontinued

theguardian.com

Acclaimed cartoonist Joe Sacco breaks silence after publisher withdraws new book about India sectarian riots | The Independent: www.the-independent.com/asia/india/j...

Joe Sacco speaks out after publisher withdraws book on India sectarian riots

Author says Penguin Random House India sought five pages of changes that amounted to ‘finding excuses’ not to distribute book

the-independent.com

Why is the universities crisis being ignored? Essential piece by @gsoh31.bsky.social for Arguably on the “grim dribbling away of one of Britain's great triumphs and economic advantages” – and why so few politicians seem to care. www.arguably.uk/p/the-quiet-...

The quiet collapse of British universities

One of our great triumphs and economic advantages is fading away

arguably.uk

A few snapshots from the @embo.org workshop “The Rules of the Game: biophysical and molecular principles in cellular evolution” — and an excuse to thank everyone who made it such a fun, stimulating, and inspiring few days at @gimminstitute.bsky.social #EMBORulesOfTheGame

Interested in how #fungi came about on this planet? If so, take a look at my new article that just came out in @annualreviews.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1146/annu...

The Origin and Early Evolution of Fungi: Challenges, Inferences, and Principles

Fungi are widespread on our planet and essential for life as we know it, but how did they come about? Their last common ancestor lived hundreds of millions of years ago, but its characteristics, and t...

doi.org

A lovely time chatting about interesting work @events.embl.org #EESMechanobiology! as senior editor @natcellbio.nature.com & as advisory editor npj Biological Physics & Mechanics. Got a quick selfie w/ @embojournal.org senior scientific editor Ieva Gailite at #MeetTheEditor session on Wednesday 😁🤳🏽

Very excited to be sharing our new paper, just out in Nature Cell Biology! The big question we investigate: How do migrating cells put their front 🔴 and back 🔵 in the right place?

Our latest: Minimal essential requirements for neural tube self-organisation How does a single cell give rise to a tissue with the right cell types in the right proportions? We deconstruct and rebuild a self-organising tissue from first principles A thread🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Minimal essential requirements for neural tube self-organisation

The reliable generation of diverse cell types in precise proportions is essential for the formation of functional tissues during embryonic development. Three-dimensional organoid models derived from p...

biorxiv.org

Our beautiful special issue on plant evolution is out @currentbiology.bsky.social ! www.cell.com/issue/S0960-...

After a long hiatus, happy #MicroscopyMonday! Here are some amoebae squeezing themselves into narrow channels (part of a video for our preprint pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41377514/). Sound effects by Dillon (my 4 month old who may have had a little to do with the bluesky hiatus!)

Congratulations, Gautam Dey and Omaya Dudin! The two collaborators have received the 2026 EMBO Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of evolutionary cell biology. www.embl.org/news/awards-... @gautamdey.bsky.social @dudinlab.bsky.social @embo.org

🤩🎉 Huge congratulations to @gautamdey.bsky.social & @dudinlab.bsky.social Amazing science & a beautiful example of how to achieve this together with creativity, generosity, and real intellectual partnership. So happy for you both & for all of us inspired by you! 🎉 Kudos @embo.org for this choice.

EMBO@embo.org · 2mo ago

Congratulations to Gautam Dey (EMBL) and Omaya Dudin (University of Geneva) for being awarded the EMBO Gold Medal 2026 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the #LifeSciences in Europe! 🧪 https://www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-gold-medal-2026-awarded-to-gautam-dey-and-omaya-dudin/

Two great scientists and humans, whose collaboration shows what it’s like to do science as a positive-sum game. Wonderful news for evolutionary cell biology and for you two @dudinlab.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social! 👏

EMBO@embo.org · 2mo ago

Congratulations to Gautam Dey (EMBL) and Omaya Dudin (University of Geneva) for being awarded the EMBO Gold Medal 2026 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the #LifeSciences in Europe! 🧪 https://www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-gold-medal-2026-awarded-to-gautam-dey-and-omaya-dudin/