The GSA gave me the opportunity to write an article in GENETICS reflecting on my journey as an immigrant in the USA and how those experiences have shaped my life and career. Thank you to all of my mentees, friends, and family who have supported me along the way 🙏 academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

A second life

Abstract. The Genetics Society of America Mentorship Award recognizes members of the scientific community for exceptional mentoring of geneticists at any c

academic.oup.com

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...

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...

An abundant membrane protein in the NCAM superfamily is required for epithelial organization in sea anemone embryos | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

How do animals with lifelong growth modulate cell #proliferation? @eudaldpascual.bsky.social @ktgarschall.bsky.social @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social show that starvation induces G1/G0 #CellCycle arrest in Vasa2+/Piwi1+ #SeaAnemone cells; cycle re-entry is TOR-dependent @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48J2o6P

We can now properly credit to @swinburnelab.bsky.social 🤩 Welcome to Bluesky! 🧪

Zebrafish Rock!@zebrafishrock.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Synchronized development of zebrafish embryos immobilized by snake venom (alpha-bungarotoxin). Credit to Dr. Ian Swinburne. #ZebrafishZunday

"10/10 would morph-a-gen" the motto for this year's Dev Bio class at Amherst College. for the love of #development and #embryology @socdevbio.bsky.social

Our paper on the role of neurons in Nematostella head regeneration is now out at @currentbiology.bsky.social Big thank you to all collaborators, it was a pleasure! Ectopic head regeneration after nervous system ablation in a sea anemone: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Ectopic head regeneration after nervous system ablation in a sea anemone

Via genetic ablation of neurons, Mazloumi Gavgani et al. show that the nervous system is essential for defining axial polarity during whole-body regeneration in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis.

cell.com

Had the pleasure of working with @mohannad-dardiry.bsky.social to rethink what it means to develop for life. Many thanks to @dev-journal.bsky.social! @embl.org #LifelongDevSI

Development@dev-journal.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Phenotypic plasticity as the foundation of lifelong development In this #LifelongDevSI Hypothesis, @mohannad-dardiry.bsky.social & @aikmi.bsky.social (@embl.org) challenge the paradigm of organismal terminal differentiation doi.org/10.1242/dev....

First neurons didn’t appear overnight. We trace their roots to ancient secretory cells - showing how lifestyle & behavior shaped the evolution of first synapses.🧠🌊 #Evolution #Neuroscience Our latest in @natrevneuro.nature.com Link: rdcu.be/eMX3E @jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

The evolutionary origins of synaptic proteins and their changing roles in different organisms across evolution

Nature Reviews Neuroscience - Recent studies have shed further light on the evolutionary origins of chemical synapses, In this Review, Colgren and Burkhardt explore how ancient proteins were...

rdcu.be

Our most recent study shows that stem cells in Schmidtea mediterranea do not rely on physical contacts or fixed structures to maintain their identity and regenerative potential. @stowersinstitute.bsky.social @cp-cellreports.bsky.social @vilcekfoundation.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-reports...

How can we see the cells that make up a living organism? Membrane-localising tags can drive fluorescent proteins to the cell's outer membrane, making their outlines visible. But the tags don't work well in all organisms. How do you find one for your species of interest? 🧵 Check our latest preprint

A toolkit for testing membrane-localising tags across species

Transgenic markers and tools have revolutionised how we study cells and developing organisms. Some of the elements needed to construct those tools are universally applicable (e.g. fluorescent proteins...

biorxiv.org

🚨 Late preprint alert! Why do biological process rates scale nonlinearly with temperature, deviating from the straight line on an Arrhenius plot? The key may lie in their inherent complexity! More in thread and here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Enhanced RNA quality control maintains long-term regenerative ability in planarians. Read this #LifelongDevSI #OA Research Article by Michael Zelko, Josien C. van Wolfswinkel and colleagues: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports... This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵

Hydra body axis balance: a fight between two transcription factors This Research Highlight showcases the work from Jaroslav Ferenc, Marylène Bonvin, Panagiotis Papasaikas, Jacqueline Ferralli, Clara Nuninger and Charisios D. Tsiairis: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

We knew that cnidarians have stunning regenerative capacities. But the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the self-organization of gastruloids of Nematostella surprised us. A story of cell sorting and Notch signaling. Please check out the work of Sanjay's PhD work: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Finally, the excellent postdoc work of Emmanuel Haillot is out, where he dissected the integration of Wnt, MAPK and Notch signaling in defining mesoderm and endoderm identities in the diploblast Nematostella. Strikingly similar to sea urchins. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations Dr. Fournon Berodia @inesfournon.bsky.social 🎉🤩 We are very proud of Inés for successfully defending her PhD thesis conducted in the @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social lab. Thank you to opponents @ragkousik.bsky.social & @levayerr.bsky.social for insightful discussions 👏

our unexpected results on the importance of a neural cell adhesion molecule in sea anemone epithelialization and gastrulation are just posted in the following preprint. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Depletion of a neural cell adhesion molecule disrupts both epithelial and germ layer identity in sea anemone embryos

Assembly of cells into epithelial layers marks the early steps of tissue organization and embryonic development in most animals. Although several conserved proteins are known to be essential for epith...

biorxiv.org

A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis

Sea slugs steal foreign chloroplasts and store them in specialized organelles that facilitate photosynthesis and eventual digestion to mediate starvation resistance.

cell.com

Mark your calendars for May 18-22, 2026- in Roscoff, Brittany, for the next iteration of the Developmental Biology Conference Jacques Monod!

Bardin Lab@bardinlab.bsky.social · last yr.

Coming back in 2026- a Jacques Monod Conference in Roscoff centered on Developmental Biology! This edition will be: “Developmental regulation: from molecular to ecological niches” @lionlchristiaen.bsky.social and I hope to see you there! Info and dates coming soon.

We thought we were just studying mesoglea biogenesis…Turns out Nematostella has been hiding a sophisticated backup pressure valve! Work driven by the talented PhD student Soham Basu! @embl.org‬ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The last part of @paulknabl.bsky.social 's PhD is now available at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Paul showed that BMP signaling is active in the diffuse nervous system of the sea anemone Nematostella and the box jellyfish Tripedalia. Moreover, suppression of BMP signaling in Nematostella leads...

The anti-neural role of BMP signaling is a side effect of its global function in dorsoventral patterning

In Bilateria with centralized nervous systems (e.g. in vertebrates or arthropods), the minimum of the BMP signaling activity gradient defines the position of the central nervous system. BMP-dependent ...

biorxiv.org

It's #MicroscopyMonday, so let's take a peek into the 🔬 This movie was taken by Shinya Inuoe, who built the polarizing microscope that allowed scientists to see mitotic spindle fibers live for the first time. Dr. Inuoe premiered his research at MBL.

Intriguing findings from our Sendai collaborators Ruka Kitsui and Ryusaku Deguchi. While C. hemispherica spawns at dawn, Clytia IZ-D species spawns at dusk. This is not triggered by dark but, unexpectedly, by light-mediated extension of an autonomously-running 20h cycle. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

How many cells do you need to establish PCP? The magic number is 3! Beautiful work by Lena Basta in Danelle Devenport's lab. Happy to have contributed. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Epithelial polarization by the planar cell polarity complex is exclusively non–cell autonomous

For cells to polarize collectively along a tissue plane, asymmetrically localized planar cell polarity (PCP) complexes must form intercellular contacts between neighboring cells. Yet, it is unknown wh...

science.org

Happy to announce our latest paper! A fresh look at the sponge Aggregation Factor, a glycoprotein complex involved in self-recognition and adhesion. Previously thought to be sponge-specific, we report compelling structural links with proteins found in all animals! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Tanya's @tclebedeva.bsky.social paper on endomesoderm specification in the beta-catenin-negative area of the Nematostella embryo is out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

β-catenin-driven endomesoderm specification is a Bilateria-specific novelty - Nature Communications

Lebedeva et al. show that unlike Bilateria, the embryo of the cnidarian Nematostella specifies its endomesoderm in the β-catenin-negative domain. In contrast, subsequent β-catenin-dependent axial patt...

nature.com

🧬 February's most-read Genetics paper looks at how #RNA travels between cells to control genes across generations #epigenetics: buff.ly/ulMGsBH Have a paper people should see? See what our Editors look for: buff.ly/HmuOWDp