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

Kaitlyn Loubet-Senear studies how gene networks (GN) evolve to adapt to external effectors for robust development. By comparing the African turquoise killifish (with unique stages of early dev) with model organisms, Kaitlyn shows that the GN is more similar to that of mice than zebrafish. #2026SDB

I am excited to be in Vegas for #2026SDB! We will have posters presented by PhD candidates from the lab on zebrafish ENS development: Hannah Johnson, Poster Session A #111 (A11) Onyekachi Idigo, Poster Session A #116 (A16) Both present on Thursday July 23 from 7:15-10:15 pm! 🐟🎣🍿

Zebra Football Dance

ALT: Zebra Football Dance

static.klipy.com

Vegas baby! We are presenting posters at #2026SDB @socdevbio.bsky.social. Stop on by to learn about our newest work with #cilia and #notochord

#2026SDB #Devbio I suspect @jbwallingford.bsky.social may have some info on where this masterpiece came from...

✨Jeffrey Farrell @jeffreyafarrell.bsky.social is a Stadtman Investigator at the NIH. He has led seminal work constructing single-cell RNAseq atlases for entire embryos using zebrafish. We are excited to host Jeffrey at the #2026SDB in Las Vegas! 🔬

When your favorite artist comes out of nowhere with a track about chick development, it really feels like you’re living in a simulation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDCI...

The Word Becomes Flesh

YouTube video by Boards of Canada - Topic

youtube.com

Receiving your third just-in-time for a grant you submitted 16 months ago.

My image "The phases of gastrulation" made it to the top 10 in this year #YEN2026 image competition! I took this video of a gastrulating 🐸 embryo while testing a new microscope in the lab. One of the rare #devbio theme videos I got. Check out the others here: thenode.biologists.com/results-of-t...

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

We're excited to present a single-cell atlas of vertebrate cranial motor neuron development, the first story from my postdoctoral work in the Moens lab, up now on bioRxiv!

Neutrophils are basically fireworks in reverse. Happy 250th birthday, America! 🎆🇺🇸

Phil Abitua@ohnolog.bsky.social · last mo.

Remarkably, these cells look and act like neutrophils in other vertebrates — transcriptionally and behaviorally. They are just way ahead of schedule. Here, you can see them responding to a wound before organogenesis even begins.

What if an embryo made immune cells before it finished building the tissue they usually come from? In our new preprint, we show that annual killifish embryos specify neutrophils before germ layers are fully resolved. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Huge thanks to my PI, @ohnolog.bsky.social ! 🧵

Early immune cell development precedes gastrulation in annual killifish

During embryogenesis, cell types arise in a predictable order because developmental regulators act sequentially. But how evolutionary changes in morphogenesis reshape the signaling environments that a...

biorxiv.org

Last month was another record for bioRxiv submissions. The pandemic surge and lag now clearly in the past and the growth continues. Thanks as ever to all the authors, readers affiliates, funders and amazing internal openRxiv team who make this happen!

I am excited to present our newest report on a severe outbreak of transmissible cancer in clams in the Pacific Northwest, with a lot of unexpected twists. Led by Sydney Weinandt and Zach Child. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2611852123 1/14

Atlantic to Pacific: Outbreak of bivalve transmissible neoplasia detected in hybridizing soft-shell clams and eDNA in Puget Sound | PNAS

Bivalve transmissible neoplasias (BTNs) are transmissible cancers that have arisen in multiple bivalve species, including Eastern soft-shell clam (...

pnas.org

A High-Affinity Nanobody Recognizing mNeonGreen Enables Versatile Biochemical, Cellular, and in vivo Applications. by Steffen Frey and team: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Side hustle level-up! My book, IN THE BEGINNING, will be published by @harperonebooks.bsky.social in 2027! It's about the human embryo, how it gets built, and what it means for where we come from and where we're going. @harpercollins.bsky.social (1/2) @socdevbio.bsky.social #devbiol #scicomm

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

Excited to share the final published version of our work on the evolution of dorsal-ventral patterning in fins and limbs, now up on @currentbiology.bsky.social In review we added new single LARM element deletions to assess their impact on dorsality. Take a look! 🔬🧪🐟🐁 www.cell.com/current-biol...

M. Brent Hawkins@homeobox.bsky.social · last yr.

We take for granted that our hands have two sides and can articulate in an endless number of ways. But what about a fish’s fin? Can a fish know something “like the back of its fin,” or have its future told with a fin palm reading? Check out this bluetorial to find out 👇🧪🧬🐟 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Abitua Lab on a tear at the Northwest Developmental Biology Meeting!

My lived experience www.science.org/content/arti...

NIH research grant funding rates plummeted in 2025

Agency acknowledges young investigators are losing out as result of multiyear funding policy imposed by White House

science.org

Someone told me after class that they enjoyed the lecture I spent 12 hours preparing over the weekend while ignoring my parental duties. Thank you.

See you at Gastrulation Revolutions

MadScientist@mads100tist.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Gastrulation Reloaded begins with @jeromegros.bsky.social talking about how this meeting came to be 🧪

Rich Losick’s Farewell Publication Reexamines a Molecular Biology Milestone 🧪 🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @cryptogenomicon.bsky.social @craigphunter.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @harvardmagazine.bsky.social @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social

Rich Losick’s Farewell Publication Reexamines a Molecular Biology Milestone - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology

Richard Losick, Maria Moors Cabot Professor of Biology, Emeritus in Harvard’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, is about to publish what he describes as his “last paper”—though […]

mcb.harvard.edu

Working on a gigantic gorgeous grant.

The more I look at this 3d rendering, the more it looks like an Ames window.

Phil Abitua@ohnolog.bsky.social · last yr.

Some B-roll from Eliza Barkan’s new preprint out of the Trapnell Lab. I think it will be a fin-tastic resource for the zebrafish community, especially for those trying to get a handle on the signaling pathways involved in specific cell types. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

PASEDB 2025 Service Award: Chris Amemiya University of California-Merced, USA. School of Natural Sciences. For significant contributions to the evo-devo community and PASEDB organization Do you want to learn more: amemiyalab.com

Some B-roll from Eliza Barkan’s new preprint out of the Trapnell Lab. I think it will be a fin-tastic resource for the zebrafish community, especially for those trying to get a handle on the signaling pathways involved in specific cell types. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I met a Searle Scholar who had done six rotations... talk about resilience.

Syd Sattler took home the Best Graduate Student Talk award at the 58th annual NWDB meeting—a proud PI moment to remember! 🥲