Happy to share the final version of our study on the evolution of chromatin states across eukaryotes, out today in @natgenet.nature.com Led by @crisnava.bsky.social and @seanamontgomery.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... Some highlights below

Diversity and evolution of chromatin regulatory states across eukaryotes - Nature Genetics

This study introduces iChIP2, a low-input chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing method that profiles histone post-translational modifications (hPTMs) simultaneously across diverse eukar...

nature.com

Very happy to share our new review on visual computation in the cephalopod brain, with @vangeliqueallen.bsky.social, out now! We discuss exciting recent advances in understanding how the radically different brain of cephalopods processes the visual scene. 🐙🔬👀 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

If you are interested in nervous system evolution you may want to read our review with Kei Jokura on nerve nets: "Revisiting nerve nets: functional organization and evolutionary implication" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s44318-026-00879-w […] [Original post on biologists.social]

I've got a new chapter out, Insights Into Retinal Remodeling In Retinal Degenerative Disease: bryanwjones.com/2026/07/insi...

We're hiring 4 postdocs at @unibo.it to study nervous system evolution. Seeking expertise in single-cell genomics, molecular or developmental biology in ctenophores, cnidarians, echinoderms, flies or human stem cells. 2+2 yrs contract. Deadline: 26 Aug. Please share! bandi.unibo.it/s/apos7/proc...

Procedura di valutazione comparativa per titoli e colloquio per il conferimento di n. 4 contratti di ricerca presso il Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali - SSD BIOS-04/A - GSD...

bandi.unibo.it

New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Nearly a decade after starting the project, the first major results from our comparative connectomics work is online! Comparing the head direction circuits of the central complex in bees, ants and flies, recapitulating >300million years of evolution.

@ptrrupprecht.bsky.social providing the new go-to GECI reference. Read when doing calcium imaging. rdcu.be/fwF82

Spike inference from calcium imaging data acquired with GCaMP8 indicators

Nature Methods - In this Analysis, Rupprecht et al. investigate the behavior of GCaMP8 variants in spike inference using several different algorithms. They highlight the role of the...

rdcu.be

Excited to share a new preprint from the lab, by @andrewmatheson.bsky.social and team, where we dive into the superpower of newts: plasticity! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Like many good projects, this started with a serendipitous observation... 🧵1/5

Curious about sharks? The evolution and adaptation of vertebrate visual circuits? 🦈 🐟 🐤 🐁 👁️ I'll be speaking at ICN2026 @neuroethology.org on Friday, or just find me to chat! Special thanks to @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social and Gregor Belušič for the wonderful session within yet another wonderful ICN!

We do an awful lot of looooong video recordings in our lab and have long wanted an easy way to clip, compress and combine videos for our workflows. So here's #croppy! 🦀 I hope others will find it useful too - I'd love to hear if you do! And would appreciate if you give it a star on Github! 🌟

Daniela Rößler@roesslerdaniela.bsky.social · 4w ago

Our postdoc @roald-arboel.com made a thing! #Croppy is #free and awesome for fast and effective #video #editing and it has a #GUI! Need to crop a part of a video? Need to trim a video? Need to combine videos? Need to compress a video? roald-arboel.com/croppy/

Excited for #FENS2026! 🇪🇸 I'll be presenting "Viral strategy for two-photon imaging of avian retina" during Poster Session 07 (Fri 10 July, 09:30–13:00). I develop AAV-based tools for functional imaging of avian retinal circuits. See you in Barcelona! 🧠 #FENS2026 #Neuroscience #TwoPhotonImaging #AAV

Beyond proud of @atal-pande.bsky.social, whose first PhD chapter is out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social! Atal shows that spiders that use their vision to hunt have convergently evolved similar eye arrangements, which imply lots of resampling of frontal space www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hunting ecology predicts eye arrangements in the modular visual system of spiders

Vision is one of the most important senses used by animals and contributes to fundamental behaviors, including foraging, navigation, and mate detectio…

sciencedirect.com

Excited to share that the main project from my PhD is now out in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social! 📄 www.cell.com/cell-reports... @istaresearch.bsky.social

Multifold increase in spinal inhibitory cell types with emergence of limb movement

Frog metamorphosis reveals how spinal circuits adapt to new motor demands. Vijatovic et al. demonstrate that the shift from tail- to limb-based locomotion coincides with expansion and diversification ...

cell.com

I’m happy to share that our paper about the Sepia officinalis genome is out in eLife!🧬 We compared the assemblies of two individuals that had a different predicted number of chromosomes, and found highly repetitive regions that likely prevented a complete assembly. elifesciences.org/articles/107...

Neuropixels + Optogenetics = Neuropixels Opto Combining high-resolution electrophysiology and optogenetics. 960 sites, 28 emitters, 2 colors. Today in @natmethods.nature.com doi.org/10.1038/s415... Thanks to @wellcometrust.bsky.social, @alleninstitute.org, @hhmijanelia.bsky.social & team.

Delighted that a new online talk is up for viewz on Youtube: "Evolution of the Vertebrate Eye". Thanks to Marion Silies and Luisa Ramirez for hosting! www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrYJ....

Tom Baden - Evolution of the Eye

YouTube video by BadenLab

youtube.com

New from the lab: BARseq3! Barcodes + high efficiency spatial transcriptomics and translatomics in the same cells, or just a nice spatial transcriptomics assay. All in a modular, expandable system to enable truly multimodal measurements. Check it out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It does not happen often that a Current Biology review is turned into a YouTube video, but when it is done like this here by Anton Petrov, it is something that should happen more often!👁️👁️👁️ www.cell.com/current-biol... www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LP3...

We Actually Have a Third Eye (And It’s Not Metaphysical)

YouTube video by Anton Petrov

youtube.com

How is the ON and OFF pathway split in the visual system? 🤔 The textbook standard, that bipolar cells are separated simply by the glutamate receptors they express, might be due for an update....a short 🧵

(1/15) Thrilled to share new Evo-Devo work where we address the molecular, cellular & morphometric basis of an extreme axis segmentation program in the Japanese eel — an animal that forms 120 vertebrae.

We received the sad news that my emeritus colleague Peter Detwiler passed away at his home in Prague last week. nbio.uw.edu/people/entry... Peter was an amazing scientist, builder, and artist, who was always very modest about his accomplishments. And he was very kind. A quick example...

Pleased to share our study on brachiopod genomes and bilaterian dorsal–ventral patterning, now out in Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s414... We present the first chromosome-level genome of a brachiopod and show that the core patterning mechanism is deeply conserved across bilaterians.

Brachiopod genome unveils the evolution of BMP signalling in bilaterian body patterning - Nature Communications

A chromosome-level brachiopod genome reveals deep conservation of BMP-mediated dorsal–ventral patterning and neural inhibition, suggesting the spiralian ancestor retained the ancestral mechanism in bi...

doi.org

We started by studying gene reuse in eyes over deep time -- but were astonished to find adaptive molecular convergence to be rampant and not directly related to important traits, including eyes. Led by PD Cory Berger www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I am hiring a postdoc for scRNA-seq research in Lund, Sweden on the visual systems of non-model inverts as part of an ERC project on the evolution and ecology of advanced color and polarization vision. Apply here or share the link with someone who may be interested! 🧪 lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

New paper out in @cp-neuron.bsky.social 🎉 What determines contextual modulation in V1? Why does the visual surround sometimes facilitate and sometimes suppress a neuron's response to its preferred stimulus?

I am excited to share my new paper in @plosbiology.org . Here we show the role of chitin, a polysaccharide, in controlling the shape of the fly corneal lens. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Curvature of the Drosophila corneal lens depends on localized chitin secretion

How does the corneal lens in the fly eye acquire its light-focusing shape? This study shows that centrally located cells produce large amounts of chitin to form the thick central corneal lens, while p...

journals.plos.org

New preprint from the group on the evolution of retinal cell types. Check the summary by Dario @dariotommasini.bsky.social !

Dario Tommasini@dariotommasini.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Inhibitory neurons are among the most transcriptomically diverse class of neurons in the CNS, with some brain regions having 60+ distinct cell types. Do humans share the same repertoire as rodents? Birds? Fish? 1/13

Inhibitory neurons are among the most transcriptomically diverse class of neurons in the CNS, with some brain regions having 60+ distinct cell types. Do humans share the same repertoire as rodents? Birds? Fish? 1/13

Excited to share our new manuscript from the Yoshimatsu and MacDonald labs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... We found that my favourite glial cells can regulate local retinoic acid signalling to specialise cone photoreceptors for high acuity visual function.

After 5 years of developing, a new preprint from the lab - introducing our workflow for comparative insect connectomics, aimed at democratizing connectomics. @erc.europa.eu @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social Read it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...