Very pleased to finally share the main story from my PhD, now published in @natcomms.nature.com ! 🎉 Using a sea anemone we discovered and characterised epithelial cell extrusion as the mechanism underlying starvation-induced cell loss. 🔗 Open-access article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Epithelial cell extrusion underlies starvation-induced cell loss in a sea anemone - Nature Communications

Epithelial cell extrusion in a sea anemone shares key hallmarks with bilaterians and is dynamically regulated by nutritional status. During starvation-induced body shrinkage, extrusion likely contribu...

nature.com

Please share, I am hiring an evo devo postdoctoral research fellow! 📍: The Sleight Lab, University of Aberdeen, Scotland (5th oldest University in UK & English-speaking world) 📅: start after 1st December 2026 🐌: Evolution and Development (molluscs) ⌛: 3 year contract sleightlab.com/vacancies/

Great work by PhD student Patricio Ferrer Murguia. His paper reporting the twist mutant in Nematostella is out: doi.org/10.1242/dev.... twist is required to form secondary tentacles, via localized FGFR and mTOR signaling. Later, mutants form stunning epithelial neoplasia with tentacle identity.

I am excited to open my lab at @ibioillinois.bsky.social in Spring 2027! We will use zebrafish & other fishy friends to reveal the genetic basis of large scale changes in the vertebrate body plan, and how this impacts both human health and evolution. Join me at UIUC! 🧬🧫🔬 www.hawkinslaboratory.com

Congrats to @sicb-dpcb.bsky.social 's Wake Award for Best Student Poster: Olivia May Tatro #Gene gain and loss events inform the evolution of symbiosis and lineage-specific traits in #Cnidaria www.linkedin.com/posts/unh-co...

Thrilled to share my first publication from my PhD is now out in Journal of Cell Biology!!!! 😇 💖 Have you ever wondered how multicellular vertices are maintained and remodeled in an epithelia? 💭 Here, we investigate the role of junctional kinase PAK4 in vertex maintenance and remodeling!

Journal of Cell Biology@jcb.org · 2w ago

@babliadhikary.bsky.social, Higashi et al. show that PAK4 drives dynamic vertex remodeling in cells and embryos through spatiotemporal regulation of #myosin II. Inhibition of PAK4 disrupts tissue packing and compromises junctional continuity and barrier function. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Oregon State University's Department of Integrative Biology is currently hiring up to three tenure-track faculty members, with an emphasis on organismal biology. Note: Previous links are no longer active due to a change in our hiring system. oregonstate.wd501.myworkdayjobs.com/OSU_Careers_...

Assistant Professor

Department: Special Instructions to Applicants: To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by 10/1/26. Applications will continue to be accepted after the full consideration date, unt...

oregonstate.wd501.myworkdayjobs.com

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

Discovery of an adhesion GPCR regulating mating in choanoflagellates, by Alain Garcia de las Bayonas & Nicole King. Absolutely stunning work - choano cell biology is going next level www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Prebilaterian Origin of Monoaminergic Signalling is out! This paper represents four years of work, not only mine, but friends and colleagues. I am particularly grateful to Tatiana Mayorova; without her help, this paper would not have been nearly as complete. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Prebilaterian origin of monoaminergic signaling

Monoamines such as serotonin, dopamine, and tyramine regulate physiological and behavioral processes in bilaterian animals, but the evolutionary origi…

sciencedirect.com

Annual killifish continue to surprise us: they make neutrophils before almost every other cell type, even before gastrulation. Neutrophils usually arise from the lateral plate mesoderm (forming in cyan), but in killifish they are already patrolling around the embryo in gold. tinyurl.com/killiphil

Congratulations to @kremnyovs.bsky.social, @tclebedeva.bsky.social and @hejnol.bsky.social - this is a fantastic paper. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Very happy to have been part of this collaboration.

A blastoporal organizer in a ctenophore - Nature

Experiments using the comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi and the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis reveal that the emergence of a core signalling pathway may have been a key innovation enabling the transit...

nature.com

The array of organs in the animal body differ dramatically in their architecture, but cell-cell adhesion mediated by cadherins is a common principle. Our lab usually focuses on epithelia but cadherins are also active in migrating mesenchymal cells like these migrating testis myoblasts 1/n 🧪

What is the evolutionary origin of the organizer? New work from @kremnyovs.bsky.social, @tclebedeva.bsky.social & Hejnol Lab @uni-jena.de reports the blastopore lip of the #ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, a member of the evolutionary sister group to all other metazoans, exhibits organizer activity.

A blastoporal organizer in a ctenophore - Nature

Experiments using the comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi and the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis reveal that the emergence of a core signalling pathway may have been a key innovation enabling the transit...

nature.com

How ancient are the building blocks of animal sensory systems? Key components of animal sensory systems evolved before animals. We find that choanoflagellates possess diverse & spatially segregated TRP channels, pointing to ancient origins of sensory specialization. doi.org/10.64898/202...

1/10 For decades, cellular aggregation was considered an evolutionary dead end. Cells could come together temporarily. But complex multicellular organisms like animals? Our study, led by JP Gerdt, with Ruibao & @jennahed.bsky.social suggests it may be time to rethink that🧵 #ProtistsOnSKy

Repost please !! We have extended the abstract deadline for the 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Conference to June 20. scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu. Get those abstract in !

Guttieres et al. suggest that core molecular interactions of the cadherin–catenin complex are conserved in ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, suggesting this was an ancestral trait foundational to the evolution of multicellular animals. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag123 #evobio #molbio

Evidence for an early cadherin–catenin interaction network in ctenophores

Abstract. The cadherin–catenin complex (CCC) is a calcium-dependent assembly that is essential for the organization and function of animal cells and tissue

doi.org

Do you know an outstanding aquarist? We're hiring a Senior Aquarist to help run our cephalopod facility at Columbia University. Our team maintains a colony of 250+ cuttlefish, develops new husbandry techniques (inc transgenics) & studies cuttlefish camouflage and social behavior. 1/3 [Pls repost!]

Interested in sea anemone embryos and building skills in molecular biology, biochemistry, imaging and bioinformatics? We are at Amherst College and work within a welcoming and supportive environment. Feel free to share and dm for additional details. amherst.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Amhers...

National Egg Day celebrates the humble breakfast egg. But at the Marine Biological Laboratory, we’re taking a different spin and highlighting the eggs that help scientists better understand life itself.

Capolavoro 🎨 alert 🚨! What is the role of gene body methylation in invertebrates? Despite extensive speculation linking it to plasticity and environmental responses, its mechanistic effects and heritability remain unclear. Our take out in @natecoevo.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/

Gene body methylation suppresses intragenic transcription and permits epigenetic inheritance in a cnidarian - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Experiments in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis show a role of gene body methylation in transposable element suppression and that epigenetic inheritance is constrained by chromatin context and tra...

nature.com

New alien friend in the echinox lab: the basket star Astrospartus mediterraneus. A truly bizarre fractal body plan, but sooo beautiful 🤩🥹

There is a straightforward mechanism for the public to comment. Former NIH program office Elizabeth Ginexi has written an exceptionally helpful guide on how to so, with detailed suggestions. 3/n elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...

What We Need to do NEXT: OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB-2026-0034)

What OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule Means in Practice

elizabethginexi.substack.com

Please repost !! SANTA CRUZ DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY CONFERENCE 2026. Deadline to register your abstracts for the meeting is Monday June 1. Please get those abstracts in ! scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

Our latest manuscript on (Harry Potter and) the effect of elevated temperature on embryonic development in flies. Even a small increase in temperature causes developmental defects, indicating problems in the face of global warming! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Elevated temperature fatally disrupts nuclear divisions in the early Drosophila embryo - Nature Communications

Kale et al. show that nuclear divisions are defective at elevated temperature, leading to gastrulation defects and embryo lethality. Their work finds that F-actin – microtubule interactions during mit...

nature.com

A fossil nervous system meets modern neurobiology. We found that a living comb jelly preserves neural architecture remarkably similar to those inferred from Cambrian fossils over 500 million years old 🤩. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our work on Trichoplax locomotion and mechanosensing capabilities is out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social. Congrats Marvin Leria & all co-authors! authors.elsevier.com/c/1n8Ig3QW8S...

We are looking for a new colleague to join us in Galway. The position is in Biochemistry and if research focus lines up we hope the successful person will join us in the Centre for Chromosome biology (chromosome.ie). Reach out if you are interested in applying! tinyurl.com/2jy4rj3r