In the mid 1900s, not everyone even believed that genes played a significant role in development. C.H. Waddington’s iconic epigenetic landscapes helped to change that. New data both confirms and complicates his ideas. www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-lif...

How Does Life Unfold? A Landscape Metaphor Comes Into Its Own. | Quanta Magazine

C.H. Waddington’s powerful image of embryonic stem cells specializing on a rolling landscape has captivated biologists since the 1950s. Experimental data is finally confirming, and complicating, his v...

quantamagazine.org

DNA → RNA → protein. From single mRNAs to an entire developing vertebrate embryo, we can now watch this last step unfold in real time. Our paper is out today! 🐟🔬 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Real-time single-molecule imaging in zebrafish embryos uncovers noncanonical translation

Precise spatiotemporal control of protein synthesis is essential during embryogenesis, yet directly measuring translation kinetics in vivo remains challenging in vertebrates. In particular, it remains...

science.org

Prescient reporting on Zhuo-Hua Pan being overlooked for his pioneering work in optogenetics, by @annaintegrated.bsky.social

Anna Vlasits@annaintegrated.bsky.social · 5d ago

Related to the #NobelPrize in #Optogenetics: I'm reflecting on the question "who invented X?" in science. 10 years ago I wrote about the people who were working on optogenetics, the patent debates and the role of race and prestige. I don't know the answer, but... www.statnews.com/2016/09/01/o...

BREAKING NEWS The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”

We built a fully functional LegoAFM for imaging! 🤩... Today presented at #TürenAuf Tag der #SendungMitDerMaus! ... Remember: Always be curious! ⁉️

🧬 Preprint! 🧵 Our goal is to genetically manipulate every embryonic germ layer to enable high throughput in vivo studies. We previously showed mouse ectoderm can be targeted by amniotic injection, enabling cell-specific manipulation, lineage tracing, and knockouts. But how to reach mesoderm?

How does a growing leaf stay flat? 🍃 Our new paper in @plosbiology.org shows that maintaining leaf flatness requires growth-rate coordination across the width of the leaf blade—not just between the top and bottom surfaces. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

The Brantley Lab is hiring a Research Technician/Lab Manager! Looking for someone with a strong foundation in molecular biology, a team player, and excited about basic science. If you know someone who would be a great fit, please share! spartantalent.uncg.edu/postings/35995

Research Lab Technician

The Brantley Lab is seeking a Research Technician who is passionate about basic science and being a reliable, collaborative member of an academic research team. Research in the Brantley Lab uses quant...

spartantalent.uncg.edu

The growth of #plant leaves is highly dynamic and should be coordinated, but how is #leaf flatness preserved? @roederlab.bsky.social &co show that global coordination of growth across the leaf blade is required to maintain flatness in #Arabidopsis @plosbiology.org 🧪 buff.ly/QUMxOcF

Since we had to contend with the heat dome temps, we sadly didn’t make our usual trip to the St. Louis Zoo, and checked out the (somewhat newer) aquarium instead! Now that know I what’s lurking beneath the surface of the Mississippi River… I don’t think I’ll be swimming in it anytime soon 🫣

This was a particularly special #morpho26 course with this amazing group of scientists (aka team M&Ms)! Thanks to course organizers @roederlab.bsky.social + @streichan.bsky.social, as well as @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social for providing a fun + creative environment to tackle quantitative bio questions 💭

Vought doesn’t want control over science. Vought wants to kill these agencies. He doesn't believe tax dollars should be spent on science or social programs. It's not about control; it's destruction. He intends to cancel grants and impound the money. It’s about corruption.

What a fun couple of days talking optogenetics, zebrafish embryogenesis, quantitative imaging, and more! Thanks @katwrog.bsky.social for visiting and sharing your awesome science with all of us at UCSB! @streichan.bsky.social

And now it is out officially! Thanks to our reviewers whose comments helped strengthen the work. I hope you read the revised version in @currentbiology.bsky.social www.cell.com/current-biol...

Rapid transcriptional response to a dynamic morphogen by time integration

Using quantitative live imaging, Brantley et al. reveal that cells decode dynamic BMP signaling during dorsal patterning of the Drosophila embryo by integrating activity over time. These results advan...

cell.com

🐟!JOB ALERT!Duke, Durham, NC!🐟 We are looking for a research tech (our current tech is starting grad school this Fall (Yay!)). The candidate will contribute to our ongoing research projects on tissue morphogenesis using zebrafish. Please RT🙏 www.munjallab.com/join-us

Very happy to see this out. 👏 @yinanwan.bsky.social Bogdan Bintu and team. Whole-embryo spatial transcriptomics at subcellular resolution from gastrulation to organogenesis | free link Science www.science.org/eprint/5MHTM...

Whole-embryo spatial transcriptomics at subcellular resolution from gastrulation to organogenesis

Gene expression patterns underlie development, but their systematic detection in whole embryos has remained elusive. We introduce a whole-embryo imaging platform using multiplexed error-robust fluores...

science.org

Previously we had shown that axolotl tail regeneration occurs in the absence of somitogenesis. In the updated manuscript we propose that vertebral segmentation during tail regeneration occurs through a process of buckling instability. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Murawala Lab at MDI Bio Lab@murawalalab.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Checkout this updated preprint-a tour de force and truly globe-spanning collaboration with an exceptional group of scientists.

Looking forward to sharing my postdoctoral work in just a little over a week at the UCAM Morphogenesis Series! 🐟🔬🔦

Cambridge Morphogenesis Seminar Series@cammorphoseries.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The Cambridge Morphogenesis Seminar Series is back! 🎉 Check out the flyer for a great lineup of speakers for Lent Term 2026! Don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list to get all the information, including the Zoom link. We are excited to see you again soon 👋

Elasticity without a reference state: continuum mechanics of active tension nets https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.08968 Nikolas H. Claussen, Fridtjof Brauns, Boris I. Shraiman.

The next the Ethel Browne Harvey Postdoc Seminar will be this Friday, January 9 at 3 pm Eastern Time with Priyom Adhyapok @priyomadhyapok.bsky.social @duke-university.bsky.social and Zong-Yuan Liu @UMich. Register today and join us. bit.ly/4ncxr0M #SDBPostdocSeminar

Using fluorescence live imaging and an in vitro implantation model, we show that human embryo attachment begins with direct cell fusion via syncytin-2–MFSD2A interaction. With @hansclevers.bsky.social. Great work by @tnoordzij.bsky.social & @martinacelotti.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📣 New preprint: Mechanochemical feedback, tissue geometry & rigid-body dynamics initiate rotational migration in Drosophila via spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. A mechanism generalizable to closed epithelia. @sreejithsanthosh.bsky.social biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Happy to share our new work from my graduate lab: DynamicAtlas, a morphodynamic atlas of Drosophila development! We develop methods for morphological time alignment of live data. Surprisingly, we find that the kinematics of fly morphogenesis are *very* simple. Enjoy! 
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

DynamicAtlas: a morphodynamic atlas for Drosophila development - Nature Methods

DynamicAtlas integrates fixed and live imaging data to generate a morphodynamic atlas of Drosophila development.

nature.com

zSwim, the zebrafish lab management software we’ve been developing is now officially listed in Duke OT&C’s technology portfolio! We’re launching an official Duke pilot in March 2026 at the new Ze-Core facility! If you’re in the zebrafish community, check it out! otc.duke.edu/technologies...

New paper alert! We report that #zebrafish endodermal cells use contact inhibition of locomotion as a dispersal and spacing mechanism. It’s a neat example of large-scale patterns emerging from local interactions using a simple set of rules. Summary in the thread below 1/9 doi.org/10.1016/j.is...

Our November in #preprints list is now up on the Node! Check it out for the latest in #devbio and stem cell research ⤵️: thenode.biologists.com/november-in-...

November in preprints - the Node

Welcome to our monthly trawl for developmental and stem cell biology (and related) preprints. The preprints this month are hosted on bioRxiv.

thenode.biologists.com

Boris Shraiman points a physicist’s eye on biological quandaries news.ucsb.edu/2025/022264/... 🧪

Boris Shraiman points a physicist’s eye on biological quandaries

Boris Shraiman is awarded the American Physical Society’s Max Delbrück Prize in Biological Physics.

news.ucsb.edu

SAVE THE DATE! Stoked to organize the 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting with @rashmi-priya.bsky.social, @lowelab.bsky.social, and Shelbi Russell. Come learn about Biomedicine, Biomechanics, and the Biosphere, August 24-28, 2026. Registration dates, etc., coming soon! Please RT

Advanced grad students + postdocs: apply for the 2026 #kitpqbio summer course, "Physical Principles of Morphogenesis in Plants and Animals," at buff.ly/OXXMKEv. Apply by Feb. 1. Course directors Adrienne Roeder (Cornell) and Sebastian Streichan (UCSB)