Journal impact factors were released yesterday. In our latest @dev-journal.bsky.social Editorial, @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social and I discuss how we are all architects of impact, highlighting that measuring the influence and support journals provide goes beyond a single number. doi.org/10.1242/dev....

The elephant in the room: impact factor

Summary: This Editorial offers an honest look at impact factor trends in developmental biology, explains how Development serves its community, and makes the case that sustaining developmental biology ...

doi.org

Finding molecular tags that localise fluorescent proteins to the cell membrane was the goal of our latest paper, now published in Development @dev-journal.bsky.social. The tags act as address labels, sending proteins to the cell membrane, where they highlight the shape and arrangement of cells. 2/9

Targeting the cell membrane in established and emerging model organisms

Summary: Screening a toolkit of diverse membrane-localising tags identifies candidates that efficiently localise proteins to the plasma membrane in a wide range of animals and choanoflagellates.

journals.biologists.com

I am giving a "Crash Course in Embryo Development" for the general public (no science background needed! pitched around GCSE-level) in London on 21st May www.crick.ac.uk/whats-on/cri... We'll dip into development, with a splash of embryo models, and a pinch of ethics. And it's free! Book online 👍

Crick Crash Course: Embryo development

crick.ac.uk

The ABC of my fave things in this paper: * ABOLISHING both silencing AND leakiness of SynNotch (check out the DTA-based demo of this 😍) while preserving high efficiency, in pluripotent & differentiating cells * BOOSTING signal during #PUFFFIN neighbour-labelling * CITING Robbie Burns (1786) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Mattias Malaguti@matt-mala.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Delighted to introduce KELPE: mESCs with two insulated genomic landing pads, which we use to generate new synNotch and PUFFFIN neighbour-labelling lines. They were named after kelpies, creatures from Scottish folklore, and they look pretty on a kelpie micropattern! #DevBio #SynBio

Delighted to introduce KELPE: mESCs with two insulated genomic landing pads, which we use to generate new synNotch and PUFFFIN neighbour-labelling lines. They were named after kelpies, creatures from Scottish folklore, and they look pretty on a kelpie micropattern! #DevBio #SynBio

bioRxiv Developmental Biology@biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social · 4mo ago

KELPE: knock-in exchangeable dual landing pad embryonic stem cells enable efficient screening of synthetic gene circuits https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.22.713470v1

Want to tell us about your challenges in interdisciplinary research within bioinformatics & biomedicine? Please take our HxC survey! Our aim is to create lasting change and address barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration and creativity app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edinburgh/... Thank you

HxC Survey on Interdisciplinary Work

app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk

Extremely thankful to @acmedsci.bsky.social for the opportunity, and very excited to get started on this project at @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social ! #Springboard25

Academy of Medical Sciences@acmedsci.bsky.social · last yr.

Can we prevent cancer before it starts? 🔬 Our #Springboard25 grant is supporting @matt-mala.bsky.social's research uncovering how healthy skin cells interact with emerging cancer cells, paving the way for new prevention tools🧬 👉 bit.ly/44irB7l @wellcometrust.bsky.social @thebhf.bsky.social

🚨 Just 2 weeks left to apply for our Policy Internship with the Medical Research Council. Gain hands-on experience in science policy, insight into research impact and connect with top UK health leaders 🌟 Open to 3rd and 4th year MRC funded PhD students. 👉 Learn more and apply: lnkd.in/eNrYvPMh

We are highlighting Kate Storey, who served as a Director at @biologists.bsky.social from 2007 to 2022 and co-founded the Company’s Workshop programme, as an extraordinary biologist. #100biologists

Interested in biological research beyond the standard? Join us in Edinburgh for the EMBO Workshop exploring how unconventional vertebrate models are becoming engines for biomedical research! 🦇 🐿️ 🦌 🐒 🦍 🐹🧍‍♀️ 🚨 Abstract submission deadline: 11 April 2025 🚨 meetings.embo.org/event/25-ver...

Beyond the standard: Unconventional vertebrate models in biomedicine

The use of a handful of model organisms has proven essential for scientific discovery and to unlock new therapeutics to combat human disease. As society looks to the future, the gateway to new scient…

meetings.embo.org

In this Review, @bernasozen.bsky.social, Patrick Tam & Martin Pera summarize how recent studies of embryo models have advanced our understanding of cell state transitions of the pluripotent human epiblast and highlights some key remaining questions: doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Happy to share our study on Stat3, now published in Cell Reports! Huge thanks to all collaborators! www.cell.com/cell-reports...

STAT3 signaling enhances tissue expansion during postimplantation mouse development

Azami et al. reveal that STAT3 deletion depletes epiblast cells at implantation, causing a persistent developmental delay of around a day. STAT3 null embryonic stem cells contribute to all embryonic t...

cell.com

Best FACS plot I've ever seen!

Sally Lowell@cellysally.bsky.social · last yr.

A small good thing in these difficult times. The always-impressive Aisling Fairweather treated us to some particularly delicious data in lab meeting today #BakeYourData #NeighbourLabelling

Social Media Volunteers Needed! Developmental Biology is building a social media team (Bluesky X LinkedIn Insta )😎 If you're a passionate developmental biologist & interested in working with other social media enthusiasts for DB, apply today!😆 Deadline Apr 30 docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The 2025 European Summer School in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine will take place 12-19 Sept 2025, on the beautiful Greek island of Spetses. Keep an eye on our website www.stemcellsummerschool.org for updates, or give us a follow 😀 Deadline for applications: 30th May 2025

March in preprints In this latest monthly preprint list, we look back at the #DevBio and #StemCells #preprints that came out in March. (Let us know if we've missed anything!) thenode.biologists.com/march-in-pre...

March in preprints - the Node

Welcome to our monthly trawl for developmental and stem cell biology (and related) preprints. The preprints this month are hosted on bioRxiv and arXiv –

thenode.biologists.com

I'm over the moon for receiving an @acmedsci.bsky.social #Springboard25 award! We will use these funds to apply our synthetic neighbour-labelling tools to human skin organoids, to study communication between diseased cells and healthy neighbours. #EngBio #SynBio #DevBio #SkinResearch #CancerResearch

Academy of Medical Sciences@acmedsci.bsky.social · last yr.

📢 We're making our largest ever investment in early-career researchers Through #Springboard25, we’re investing £7.6m in 62 researchers to drive innovations that improve health and wellbeing 🔬 Congrats to all 2025 awardees! 🎉 👉 bit.ly/springboard2... @thebhf.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social

Here we share our opinions on "Practical considerations for data exploration in quantitative cell biology" journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/... Joanna, Hanna and I worked quite a bit on this piece and I hope you find it useful Many thanks to @jcellsci.bsky.social for publishing it

Practical considerations for data exploration in quantitative cell biology

Summary: We present practical guidelines for data exploration in quantitative cell biology that are designed to help yield reliable conclusions and promote a collaborative, transparent approach to dat...

journals.biologists.com

Hello! My lab is interested in understanding how healthy mammalian cells sense and react to mutant neighbours. We do this by developing and using engineering biology tools to identify and manipulate neighbours of mutant cells. We also love taking colourful microscopy pictures!