A fantastic start to our first @wellcometrust.bsky.social Cytoneme Network Workshop @lsiexeter.bsky.social, bringing together our Exeter and Manchester teams. Excited to uncover the unifying principles of contact-mediated signalling of Wnt, Notch, & Dpp in Drosophila, fish & mice. Cytonemes rock!

#DBfeature A tribute to Gail R Martin, mouse geneticist and mentor extraordinaire (April 12, 1944 - Feb 9, 2026) By Alexandra Joyner doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2026.05.007

Back where it all started! Great to visit my old PhD lab and catch up with Michael. Fascinating to see the impressive progress in brain regeneration research using #zebrafish. Thanks for the warm welcome and inspiring discussions. Always a pleasure to come back!

Fantastic presentations of PhD students, postdocs, ECRs, and PIs from all the zebrafish groups in Exeter at #EZM2026 - well done everyone! Exeter is becoming a central hub for research using zebrafish as a model organism in the UK and Europe. #LSIZebrafsihHub @lsiexeter.bsky.social @exeter.ac.uk

Exeter is making waves at #EZM2026! Fantastic to see so many brilliant Exeter posters from development & disease to imaging&gene editing; great science & great people. From the West Country to Europe: Exeter is becoming a real zebrafish hotspot. Come say hi! @exeter.ac.uk @lsiexeter.bsky.social

No better way to head to #EZM2026 than with a freshly published success! Our eLife paper is now out: elifesciences.org/articles/107.... We show optimised prime editing in zebrafish for precise DNA substitutions and insertions. Huge thanks to the fantastic team #Zebrafish #GenomeEditing #eLife

Optimised genome editing for precise DNA insertion and substitution using prime editors in zebrafish

Nickase and nuclease Prime Editors offer complementary routes for precise zebrafish genome editing, balancing accuracy for substitutions with efficiency for short insertions.

elifesciences.org

The LSI Zebrafish Hub is very excited to welcome Prof Alex Schier - @schierlab.bsky.social - from the @biozentrum.unibas.ch for our Joint LSI/Biosciences Distinguished Seminar @lsiexeter.bsky.social tomorrow! Please come along & join us! #zebrafish #developmentalbiology @zebrafishrock.bsky.social

After months of experiments, failed injections, unexpected results, and those rare moments when everything suddenly works - our manuscript is finally submitted. Read our newest story about a journey of tiny vesicles carrying big biological messages, now in bioRxiv. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It was a pleasure to showcase our most recent data on cytonemes to the cell biology community in Bristol, including a long discussion about morphogen distribution mechanisms. Zebrafish cell biology rocks!

Zebrafish Rock!@zebrafishrock.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Excited to welcome @scholpplab.bsky.social from University of Exeter to balmy Bristol for a masterclass on all things WNT & cytonemes! It was a delightful talk featuring #zebrafish 🤩🐟 You can learn more about his lab's interests from their many reviews on cytonemes & intercellular communication ⬇️

PL retweet. Developmental Biology Course (Quintay). More information: biodesarrollo.unab.cl

Today’s lab meeting came with proper birthday celebrations for our two birthday girls and, thanks to Jess, not one but two cakes. A very strong experimental design: double cake input, significantly improved lab morale output. Cake really does make all data sweeter.

Wonderful PhD Day @lsiexeter.bsky.social today - full of great science, interdisciplinary projects, lively discussions and lots of laughter. Huge congratulations to our PhD students Jess Bansey and Lizzy Sears for winning Best Talk & Best Flash Talk Award. Very proud of you both! 👏 #PhDLife #ECRs

Very happy to share that I have joined the Heidelberg CRC/SFB 1324 “Mechanisms and Functions of Wnt Signalling” as a DFG Mercator Fellow. Looking forward to linking our work @lsiexeter.bsky.social with @cosheidelberg.bsky.social. Wonderful to hear Gemma's excellent presentation on cytonemes.

How many fish researchers fit into a tiny elevator? Answer; apparently all of us! Unexpected outcome: massively improved team spirit! 🐟📸

Breaking... Very good news. A first step towards...? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

UK to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme

Exclusive: British students will be able to participate in EU-wide scheme from January 2027, sources say

theguardian.com

We should party.

Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 6mo ago

OOOOH Researchfish Is going extinct 🐡🐟🐠 help.researchfish.com/en_US/resear...

Important changes in the UKRI funding landscape. Thanks, Matt, for the update.

Matthew Freeman@mjafreeman.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I watched much of Ian Chapman's (Head of @ukri.org) appearance this morning at @ukparliament.parliament.uk Science, Innovation and Technology Committee.. A few points and new information that bioscientists may find interesting... A 🧵

We are delighted to launch the Centre for Cellular Life, a new partnership between the @lsiexeter.bsky.social and SKLMB, Tsinghua University. Interdisciplinary science will drive collaborative research, researcher mobility and doctoral training to tackle how cells function in health and disease.

Back in my old uni city. Where the memories are strong, the coffee tastes familiar, and the colleagues somehow look the same 😄

End-of-year lab meeting powered by Jellycat-style cake creatures 🐟🧁. Smiling faces, great results, and a lot to celebrate from 2025. Here is to the same momentum in 2026 (and more cake from Lizzy et al.). 🍰

Great to see our collaboration between @tsinghuauniversity.bsky.social and the @lsiexeter.bsky.social taking shape after a fantastic visit to Beijing. We have established a strong foundation for joint research projects starting in 2026. Thanks to Li Yu and Fan Zhou for the excellent organisation.

Looking for a PhD? 3 days left to apply for a fully funded China Scholarship Council & University of Exeter studentship! Join the Living Systems Institute—where Maths, Physics, Bio and Biomed meet—and carry out cutting-edge interdisciplinary research. tinyurl.com/y3ufdnxf @exeter.ac.uk

Last chance to apply for one of the LSI PhD projects intake Sept 2026! Deadline tomorrow, 26.11.2025, noon. www.exeter.ac.uk/research/ins... @exeter.ac.uk @lsiexeter.bsky.social

We’ve got a couple of PhD projects open. Including one with the lovely @adamgrieve.bsky.social and @scholpplab.bsky.social on Rhbdl proteins in #zebrafish which is open to UK and international students tinyurl.com/fishprotease

Funded PhD SWBio DTP- (STANDARD) Brains, Blades, and Zebrafish: Dissecting Rhomboid Protease Roles in Neuronal Development and Signalling at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Funded PhD SWBio DTP- (STANDARD) Brains, Blades, and Zebrafish: Dissecting Rhomboid Protease Roles in Neuronal Development and Signalling at University of Bristol...

tinyurl.com

Thrilled to share that we have been awarded a Wellcome DA to explore cytoneme-based cell communication in development! A fantastic collaboration with Kyle @kylewedgwood.bsky.social at @lsiexeter.bsky.social, and Hilary Ashe & Cerys Manning at Manchester - exciting times ahead! tinyurl.com/2ytm6y2w

Exeter researchers awarded £3.5M to uncover how cells communicate during development

Researchers at the Living Systems Institute (LSI), University of Exeter, have been awarded a £3.5 million Wellcome Discovery Award to investigate how cells exchange information to coordinate the forma...

tinyurl.com

🚨 Exciting opportunity for 🇨🇳 students! Apply for a PhD scholarship via CSC to join my lab @UniofExeter studying cytoneme-mediated cell communication 🧫🐟 All projects are in collaboration with top Chinese universities: Tsinghua, Zhejiang & Kunming 🌏 📅 Deadline: 1 Dec 2025 携手探索细胞交流的奥秘，让科学没有距离！加油！💪🇨🇳✨

LSI-Exeter@lsiexeter.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Fully Funded PhD Opportunity! Join the LSI @exeter.ac.uk - where Maths, Physics, Bio & Biomed unite under one roof. Funded by the China Scholarship Council & University of Exeter, this is your chance to do cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in a vibrant PhD community. tinyurl.com/y3ufdnxf

As a science communicator who built my professional career out of understanding "Science Twitter": I'm confident Bluesky will be the scientific community's social media home for a while Tell your friends at #ASHG25 to get over here, whether they're on X or not!

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈@whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 10mo ago

WOW! Our survey of scientists who stopped using Twitter and started using Bluesky is now the #1 most-shared on social media article in the history of the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology! Thanks for reading it, everyone! @sicbjournals.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/icb/... 🧪

Deadline approaching – 15 Oct! A brilliant PhD opportunity for all keen zebrafish enthusiasts, gene jockey and microscopy aficionados 🐟🧬🔬 If you find joy in embryos, lasers, and watching cells do clever things — this is your moment.

Steffen Scholpp@scholpplab.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Want to help prevent aggressive NF1 cancers using cutting-edge models? The GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP is offering a fully funded 4-year PhD @lsiexeter.bsky.social @exeter.ac.uk to develop a humanised zebrafish model for NF1 resilience. Apply by 20 Oct 2025 www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin... #PhD #biomed

Such sad news. An amazing scientist, an amazing person, and a wonderful and inspiring lecturer. Will be greatly missed. www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

Nobel Laureate Professor Sir John Gurdon dies aged 92

It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the Gurdon Institute.

cam.ac.uk

Back from the London Zebrafish Research Network — a truly inspiring afternoon. Many thanks to @cvagenapantoula.bsky.social, @kkalyviotis.bsky.social and Eleni for putting together such an interactive programme, full of excellent talks - Tim 👏 - and great discussions. Zebbie research at its best!