Cephalopods, like squid, have three hearts. @gertjanveenstra.bsky.social explores how they develop & what we can learn about heart evolution. Gill (brachial) hearts form first, followed by a central, systemic heart, and they develop differently than vertebrates in terms of gene activation. #gfe2026

The Epstein files have exposed a moral rot in the circus of scientific public intellectuals. Sadly but unsurprisingly, also leading scientists visited Epsteins island for the sex parties. Robert Trivers,Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Krauss, Martin Nowak, Larry Summers, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins...

Philip Ball@philipcball.bsky.social · 6mo ago

There hasn't been much media coverage outside the science media of the Epstein scientists. So I wrote about them here for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social. As many in science know, John Brockman was central in linking Epstein to scientific "public intellectuals". www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...

Today it was announced that Sir John Gurdon passed away. His ground-breaking discovery was that differentiated cells can be reprogrammed. He was a creative and distinguished developmental biologist, a kind person with a great inquisitive mind and original ideas www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

Nobel Laureate Professor Sir John Gurdon dies aged 92

It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the Gurdon Institute.

cam.ac.uk

While academic publishing may not be broken, it isn’t built to serve science either. It runs on a chain of perverse incentives, but everything we need to rebuild it is already in our hands. #OpenScience #AcademicSky buff.ly/oSesI1s

long-time coming, multi-lab paper on the evolution of gene regulation in the tetrapod heart. I actually did the mouse and chick embryo heart dissections for this one! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Did you know that cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish) have three hearts? Did you ever wonder how that is possible? For the first answer to that question, come to the today's afternoon session of #2025ICDB meeting (Saturday 21 June 7PM) #2025SDB @socdevbio.bsky.social

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

🔈 Excited to welcome Gert Jan C. Veenstra as an invited speaker at #ICDB2025! Gert Jan leads research on gene regulation during embryonic and heart development, utilizing stem cells and model organisms to unravel the complexities of pluripotency and differentiation. 🧬❤️🧪

The 20th International Conference of Developmental Biology kicks off Looking forward to five days of exciting developmental biology #2025ICDB #2025SDB @socdevbio.bsky.social

🔈 Excited to welcome Gert Jan C. Veenstra as an invited speaker at #ICDB2025! Gert Jan leads research on gene regulation during embryonic and heart development, utilizing stem cells and model organisms to unravel the complexities of pluripotency and differentiation. 🧬❤️🧪

Just concluded three exciting weeks at MBL @mblscience.bsky.social at Woods Hole for work of my team with that of Carrie Albertin's on heart development in cephalopods. Beautifully located, MBL is a terrific place with an environment conducive to collaborative ground-breaking discovery.

Universities are not passive beneficiaries of government largesse. It is the federal government that depends on universities to conduct the research that keeps our nation healthy, safe and economically competitive.I discuss in the Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Universities and the government: Which needs the other more?

From public health to high-tech innovation, universities are the workhorses of national progress.

washingtonpost.com

New study outlines a cardiac #differentiation roadmap, mapping cell states that mimic the human fetal heart. ow.ly/lCkh50V8o2w @isscr.org @cellpress.bsky.social @gairdnerawards.bsky.social @sickkidsvs.bsky.social

Our latest work on stem cell-based modeling of human heart development is now out! Excited to see the outstanding and notable work of Rebecca Snabel with our collaborators Carla Cofiño Fabrés and Robert Passier in print. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cardiac differentiation roadmap for analysis of plasticity and balanced lineage commitment

Stem cell-based models of human heart tissue and cardiac differentiation employ monolayer and 3D organoid cultures with different properties, cell typ…

sciencedirect.com

#CellPlasticity—the ability of cells to change their identity—is vital for tissue growth and repair. But when it goes unchecked, it can fuel #cancer. Our latest study examines how to block #LiverCancer by actively suppressing plasticity. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #CancerBiology

This thread ... LIFE OF PIs ... is being brought to you by one and only Buster Keaton ... I hope you will enjoy it. #LifeOfPI

All you ever wanted to know about mollusks 🐙🦑🐚🐌 and then some ... 1800 pages of wonderful biology 😍 Arrived yesterday

Is endothelium a type of epithelium? I am @icfortunato.bsky.social & I would like to discuss this with a short🧵 focused on cell-cell junctions, specifically adherens junctions.

Your reminder that many of the muscles, nerves and bones you use to hear and talk with correspond to gill structures in fish. 🧪 #evolution #paleontology

Light-sheet image of a two-chambered embryonic #zebrafish heart. Credit to @noelresearchlab.bsky.social #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

Interesting work by Jonathon Muncie-Vasic, Benoit Bruneau et al. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Heart tube morphogenesis is regulated by segment-specific gene regulatory networks controlled by MEF2C

The transcription factor MEF2C plays a critical role in the development of the linear heart tube, but the specific transcriptional networks controlled by MEF2C remain largely undefined. To address thi...

biorxiv.org

SOX and POU are crucial Transcription Factors in animal development, believed to be innovations of this group. Here we find them in unicellular relatives of animals. And hold tight, you can use a choanoflagellate 🦠 SOX gene to make a full chimeric 🐁 ! Read more here 🧵: rdcu.be/d0dPN 1/6

The emergence of Sox and POU transcription factors predates the origins of animal stem cells

Nature Communications - The pluripotency program is maintained by transcription factors from the Sox and POU families. Here they identify SOX and POU factors from unicellular relatives of animals...

rdcu.be

A mechanism for why durable weight loss is so difficult: epigenetic memory of fat cells www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is my first post on BSky, trying this after losing interest in Twitter/X and Mastodon not really catching on. Will mainly post about my core scientific interests: * Developmental Biology and EvoDevo: Heart development, Stem cells, Early embryonic development * Gene regulation, Chromatin