🚨 IT’S FINALLY HERE #2026SDB starts TODAY! 🧬🎰 The countdown is over, and it’s time for the developmental biology community to come together in Las Vegas! Get ready for exciting science, new ideas, and plenty of opportunities to connect. See you at #2026SDB! 🎉

🚨 1 DAY until #2026SDB! 🪰 That’s about how long it takes a Drosophila embryo to develop and hatch into a larva. A lot can happen in 24 hours, and tomorrow, the developmental biology community comes together in Las Vegas! 🧬🎰

🚨 2 DAYS until #2026SDB! 🐣 That’s about the time it takes a chick embryo to develop a beating heart. ❤️ Development never stops, and neither does our countdown! Pack your posters, questions, and best science. Las Vegas, here we come! 🎰🧬

🚨 3 DAYS until #2026SDB! 🐟 That’s about how long it takes a zebrafish to go from fertilization to hatching. That’s a lot of development, and we’re almost ready to hatch some exciting new ideas in Las Vegas! 🧬🎰 See you soon!

✨For this #FluorescenceFriday we are highlighting 10 amazing images of development from the Young Embryologist Network 2026 Image Competition! Follow the hashtag #yenimagecompetition for full details. 📷🔬

🌼 We look forward to hosting Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social, a postdoc at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, at #2026SDB in Las Vegas! Nicholas has been awarded the SDB Trainee Science Communication Award, check out his website to find out more! 🔬

✨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! 🔬

Today on #ModelMonday we have a spotty squid hatchling! 🦑 The Atlantic-dwelling longfin inshore squid has huge axons which allowed Hodgkin and Huxley to discover nerve impulses propagate by action potential. Today they are an important model for cephalopod development. 🔬 📷 by Rita Alonaizan

A 10.5 day old mouse embryo, whole mount immunofluorescence, neurofilament (green 💚) and TFAP2a (red ❤️) 📸 Image credit: Riley McMahon (Children's Medical Research Institute) #FluorescenceFriday #DevelopmentalBiology #Neuroscience #Immunofluorescence #Microscopy #ScienceArt✨ 🧬

✨ Excited to host invited speaker Roberto Mayor (@mayorlab.bsky.social) at #2026SDB in Las Vegas! 🎰🃏 His research explores morphogenesis, focusing on how cells migrate, interact, and generate diverse cell types during development. 🧬✨ #devbio

Excited to host invited speaker Alexandra Joyner at #2026SDB in Las Vegas! 🎰🃏 Her research explores the genetic regulation of development and how signaling pathways shape tissue patterning and organ formation. 🧬✨ #devbio #developmentalbiology #genetics #SDB2026

What can we learn from model organisms? 🧬 🧫 Regeneration (Hydra, Stentor) 🌱 Stem cell niches (plant meristems) 🌸 Patterning (Mimulus) 🐟 Novel structures (sea robins) Diverse systems + fundamental questions. 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.yd... #ModelMonday

A window into early development! 🔬✨ This 2-photon image of a Ciona neurula embryo reveals a nuclear SoxB1 reporter (grey) and a membrane Msxb reporter, color-coded along the anterior–posterior axis, highlighting the organization of the developing nervous system. 📷: Laurence Lemaire #FluoresceFriday

🧬✨ At #2026SDB in Las Vegas, join us for a talk by Lee Niswander 🎰 Her lab uses mouse embryonic development to uncover how the nervous system, limbs, and other organs form, and how disruptions in these processes lead to major birth defects 🐭🔬

🪱✨ Join us at #2026SDB in Las Vegas to hear from Ricardo Zayas! 🎰 His lab uses freshwater planarians to study how entire organisms regenerate from tiny body fragments 🌱🧬, focusing on adult pluripotent stem cells (neoblasts) that drive tissue renewal and regeneration. 🔬 @zayaslab.bsky.social

🐻Tardigrades💧✨ Tiny but extraordinary! These microscopic animals can survive extreme conditions by entering a dormant state called cryptobiosis, making them a fascinating model to study stress tolerance, desiccation, DNA repair, and the limits of life. 🧬🚀📸 Image by Bob Goldstein Lab. #ModelMonday

🌳Like a glowing tree in the making ✨ The embryonic mouse kidney is already building an intricate network of tubules 🩵 while interstitial cells 🟡 help shape the surrounding landscape 🔬💧Proof that even future plumbing can be beautiful 📷 Image by Ewa Langner #FluorescenceFriday

❤️✨ Excited to welcome invited speaker Deborah Yelon to #2026SDB in Las Vegas! 🎰 Her lab studies how the vertebrate heart forms and functions, using zebrafish to understand the cellular and genetic mechanisms that drive cardiac development and regeneration. 🐟🫀🔬✨

🧠✨ Excited to welcome invited speaker Helen Willsey to #2026SDB in Las Vegas! 🎰 Her lab studies how autism-associated genes influence embryonic development and contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders and related conditions. 🧬🐸🔬✨

🐟 Nothobranchius furzeri ⏳ The African turquoise killifish lives fast and develops faster! Its embryos can enter diapause, making it a powerful model to study developmental arrest, environmental adaptation, aging, and lifespan biology 🧬✨ 📸 Image by Alexander Schier lab. #ModelMonday #DevBio #Aging

⭐️ A stony coral, Montipora capitata, primary polyps, one month of age. Autofluorescence of symbiotic algae (magenta) and GFP (green). 🔬 📸 Credit: Emma Rangel-Huerta from Stowers Institute for Medical Research #FluorescenceFriday #devbio #cnidarians 🪸

✨ We look forward to hosting Lesley Weaver from Indiana University at the #2026SDB in Las Vegas! 🎰 Her lab studies how inter-organ communication and hormone signaling regulate adult stem cells and maintain tissue homeostasis. 🪰✨ #devbio #drosophila 🪸

✨ We look forward to hosting Alfredo Varela-Echavarria from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México at the #2026SDB in Las Vegas! The Varela-Echavarria lab studies the mechanisms of regeneration in garden slugs. 🐌 ✨ #devbio #regeneration 🪸

The sea urchin, Lytechinus variegatus, is a model for development. One urchin produces a ton of gametes and embryos are easy to manipulate in the lab for experiments.🔬 📸 Credit: Kristen Boddy from the University of North Carolina Wilmington #ModelMonday #DevBio 🪸

For this #FluorescenceFriday we have something a bit different. An SEM image of a sterlet sturgeon neurula embryo labelled with SOX9 which decorates the cranial neural crest - a transient embryonic tissue that shapes vertebrate faces. 🔬 #DevelopmentalBiology 📸: Jan Štundl

✨ Looking forward to hearing from Paul Trainor at #2026SDB in Las Vegas! Paul’s work at the Stowers Institute on neural crest development in mammals (sometimes fish and chameleons) has helped bring attention to understudied craniofacial conditions. 🔬 #devbio #Stowers25

✨ Excited to host Karen Sears (UCLA) at #2026SDB in Las Vegas! Karen has introduced diverse species including bats and opossums into the study of comparative embryology to understand the rules that govern mammalian development and its evolution. 🔬 #devbio

✨Rare model organisms can teach us how to build a body differently. In snail embryos blastomeres can be as big as the rest of the embryo! 🐌Phrontis vibex blastula stained for tubulin (gray), phalloidin (blue) and histone (magenta). 🔬 #ModelMonday #DevBio 📸: Clemens Cabernard

Emoticons: E9.5 mouse embryo sections through otocyst, hindbrain and pharyngeal endoderm resemble eyes, nose, and smile of an emoticon. 📸 Image credit: Ankita Thawani (Baylor College of Medicine) #FluorescenceFriday #Embryology #DevelopmentalBiology #Microscopy #ScienceArt✨ 🧬

✨ Excited to host invited speaker Nipam H. Patel at #2026SDB in Las Vegas! 🎰🃏 His research explores the evolution of developmental mechanisms and how diverse body plans, patterns, and colors arise across species. 🧬✨ #devbio