🚨 @prelights.bsky.social just covered our new study with @lakatoslab.bsky.social on how mechanotransduction guides human cortical patterning and cell fate! 🤝Great work by @alexjkingston.bsky.social @imperiallifesci.bsky.social @scicambridge.bsky.social! ❓Great questions @kanishka03.bsky.social!

preLights@prelights.bsky.social · 2w ago

Mechanical forces don’t just shape the cortex, they instruct it 🧠 @kanishka03.bsky.social highlights recent work of @alexjkingston.bsky.social & colleagues @lakatoslab.bsky.social @srinjan.bsky.social #preprint #DevBio #preLight ⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/highlights/o...

Our work on the role of the proteasome in developmental tempo is out!!!! 🐭⌛️👤⏳ Six years after identifying an association between protein stability and developmental tempo, we now demonstrate a causal link between protein turnover and developmental tempo through proteasomal degradation

Developmental Cell@cp-devcell.bsky.social · 3w ago

Online now: Proteasome-dependent protein degradation shapes developmental tempo in mouse and human neural progenitors #biology #science

Proud to share our latest bioRxiv with Lakatos lab @lakatoslab.bsky.social showing how niche-specific mechanotransduction guides human cortical patterning and cell fate acquisition. How does a tissue's mechanical environment shape which cells it makes, and when? 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A human corticospinal organoid-slice connectoid model informs enhancer strategies for post-injury axon regrowth: Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports...

A human corticospinal organoid-slice connectoid model informs enhancer strategies for post-injury axon regrowth

Gibbons et al. present a human corticospinal organoid slice-based connectoid model, with physically separate but functionally coupled cortical and spinal regions. Allowing cell-type-specific observati...

cell.com

Congrats @alexjkingston.bsky.social!!

Alex Kingston@alexjkingston.bsky.social · last mo.

Pleased to say that the first half of my PhD project is now out in preprint format! Using cortical organoids to model the mechanical transitions involved in early neurogenesis, we find that nuclear mechanotransduction is a crucial regulator of the timing and outcome of neuronal differentiation:

Delighted & excited to share our latest preprint on non-canonical enhancers in human pluripotent stem cells, the result of a fantastic and fun collaboration with @guenesdoganlab.bsky.social‬: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 below

Non-canonical enhancers control gene expression and cell fate in human pluripotent stem cells

Enhancers are key gene regulatory elements that ensure the precise spatiotemporal execution of developmental gene expression programmes. However recent findings indicate that approaches to identify en...

biorxiv.org

My interview as part of @dev-journal.bsky.social Development's Pathway to Independence is live! I had a great time chatting to Saanjbati Adhikari - thank you. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Anzy Miller

Anzy Miller, former Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow supported by Nancy Papalopulu (The University of Manchester, UK), is interested in the mechanisms involved in the generation of human pancrea...

journals.biologists.com

We wrote this introductory review on how concepts from dynamical systems can help us understand developmental biology, hope it’s useful to somebody! It was a lot of fun to put together, and great to collaborate with brilliant colleagues across theory and experiments

Pau Formosa-Jordan@pauformosa.bsky.social · last yr.

Introducing five concepts from dynamical systems to decode developmental regulatory mechanisms, have a read! @perez-carrasco.bsky.social‬ @roederlab.bsky.social @mpipz.bsky.social This effort started in a morphogenesis meeting @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social‬ in 2023. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Our new preprint 🧬🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... BRD4-NUT forms liquid-like condensates that locally constrain nucleosomes via BRD4-mediated crosslinking— physical control of #chromatin by #LLPS transcription condensates. @semeigazin.bsky.social @katsuminami.bsky.social @masaashimazoe.bsky.social

This Friday 27th June, we have another exciting set of talks at our monthly Cell and Developmental Biology Networking Event @imperiallifesci.bsky.social with Daniela Dietrich joining us from Bristol and our very own Annabelle Wurmser from my lab. Please do join us!

📣 We are advertising for a postdoc to join our team at the University of Edinburgh! Our lab studies gene regulatory mechanisms in development, and how genetic changes may impact these processes to alter development and shape human craniofacial form and function 🧬🧪

📢 Don’t miss the first Cancer Biology and Medicine talk of 2025 tomorrow! Cancer stem cells, evolution and heterogeneity Prof Brian Huntley @scicambridge.bsky.social Thurs 9 Jan, 9:30-10:30 TC lecture theatre, School of Clinical Medicine @cambridge-scm.bsky.social All welcome!

Happy holi, the festival of UMAPs

Wanna learn what we know about why we need to sleep? Here's a fun podcast I recorded for the excellent @npr.org "Seeking a scientist" show, conducted by Kate the Chemist. Enjoy! @imperiallifesci.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social www.kcur.org/podcast/seek...

Why do we need to sleep?

Humans spend one-third of their life sleeping, yet the purpose and function behind this regular state of unconsciousness remains a biological mystery. Sleep researcher Giorgio Gilestro is trying to un...

kcur.org

Don't forget to come to Prof Doryen Bubeck's inaugural lecture, "Big Questions, Tiny Machines"! Open to all!! 📅 Wed, 12 March 2025 Understanding how pathogen proteins interact with human defence systems means we can develop new ways to prevent disease. @doryenbubeck.bsky.social #OurImperial

We are looking to recruit a highly motivated postdoc with cell or molecular biology expertise. Excellent #epigenetics, #chromatin training & networking opportunities @qmulepigenetics.bsky.social DM me for inquiries pl apply/share tinyurl.com/m6jnksk5

a cartoon of homer simpson and bart simpson sitting on a couch with the words join us above them .

ALT: a cartoon of homer simpson and bart simpson sitting on a couch with the words join us above them .

media.tenor.com

New paper from our lab is out! We investigated the function of the NuRD subunit CHD3 in cranial neural crest specification. CHD3 variants are the cause of Snijder-Block-Campeau Syndrome, which manifests with craniofacial anomalies and intellectual disability 1/n

bioRxiv Developmental Biology@biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social · 2y ago

CHD3 regulates BMP signalling response during cranial neural crest cell specification https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.14.638260v1

New #preprint from the Basu & Stewart labs! We discover a non-catalytic role for H3K4me3 methyltransferase MLL2 in modulating 3D chromatin organisation and mobility as pluripotent cells are primed for differentiation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Next friday February 7th, we have another exciting set of talks at our monthly Cell and Developmental Biology Networking Event @imperiallifesci.bsky.social with Ben Steventon joining us from Cambridge @bensteventon.bsky.social and our very own Floriane Tissot from the Lo Celso lab.

Our new paper is finally out, showing that the same enhancer sequences - and likely the same transcription factors recruited to them - affect the activity of distal enhancers and their looping over to target gene promoters. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Genetic coupling of enhancer activity and connectivity in gene expression control - Nature Communications

Here, the authors study the effects of expression quantitative trait loci on enhancer activity and promoter contacts in primary monocytes isolated from male individuals, suggesting an inherent genetic...

nature.com

Exciting stuff, congrats to all involved!

Jan Huertas@janhuemar.bsky.social · 2y ago

Exciting new preprint alert! 🚨 The Collepardo lab, teaming up with Huabin Zhou and the Rosen lab we took a deep, high-resolution look into chromatin condensates! [1/6] #Chromatin #MD @rcollepardo.bsky.social @juliamaristany.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are hiring! 3-year BBSRC-funded postdoc position available. TEs, epigenetics, pregnancy: if you love one or more of these keywords, apply through the link below. Please spread the word.

Basu lab hosted their first department social today @imperiallifesci.bsky.social My lab put together this amazing cell of food alongside fun games like cell fate charades. So proud of our masters students who coordinated everything from start to finish!!

🚨Abstract deadline- 13th December! 🚨 Join us next March in Liverpool for our Spring Meeting, joined with the BSCB and part of the Biologists@100 @biologists.bsky.social 🎉 Not to be missed! We have annual meetings grants! Next deadline is the 10th of Jan. +Info here : bsdb.org/membership/#...