Sharp cell type boundaries emerge from coordinated morphogen signaling www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04...

🚨 New Preprint from the Paluch & Chalut Labs 🚨
Ana Raffaelli et al show that the stiffness of substrate (in vitro) / basal membrane (in vivo) determine how cells interpret biochemical signals (BMP4) and which fates they acquire
#mechanobiology #hESCs #substratemechanics
doi.org/10.64898/202...

Federal funding for US biomedical research is moribund.

Since October 1 2025, NIH is -80% in new grants and -70% in values (total dollars).

Labs are closing down and researchers are leaving science.

To what end?

For those interested!

To Be or Not to Be an Oocyte: Msps/XMAP215 Controls Oocyte Cell Fate in the Drosophila Ovary www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02...

⚡👩‍🔬Electrical signals are key for promoting organ regenerative growth, a new study!

Out now in Science Advances, from the Mateus group @ritamateus.bsky.social at PoL and @mpi-cbg.de along with the lab of Frank Jülicher @mpipks.bsky.social

Read the news here: tud.link/7jzptz
Video:©️ Mateus group

Worth every second

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures …

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us …

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.

BREAKING: The National Institutes of Health has agreed to evaluate grant applications that were wrongfully frozen due to the Trump administration’s ideological purge of biomedical research.

Screenshot of a tweet by James Tate reading, “An educated populace is a threat to power.” The tweet includes a quoted graphic stating that ICE is offering a $45,000 signing bonus and $100,000 starting salary, compared to a teacher earning $55,000 in their eighth year with a master’s degree, arguing that education has been intentionally defunded.

Our government’s priorities are entirely backward. And purposefully so.

Gradients, waves and nematics: quantitative perspectives on regeneration Regeneration restores a damaged body part to its original size, shape and structure. Research over the last decades identified signaling pathways, cel…

Tristan Guyomar and I wrote a review on physical mechanisms coordinating regeneration - Featured: signalling/mechanical gradients, travelling waves and nematic fields - Dramatis personae: axolotls, hydra, planaria, spiny mice and zebrafish (ofc) with a jellyfish cameo

tinyurl.com/3upzrdbs

Development's Pathway to Independence Programme Our grants support and encourage the sharing of knowledge throughout the community by facilitating international collaboration, event attendance and the organisation of scientific meetings, conference...

Applications are open for @dev-journal.bsky.social 2026 Pathway to Independence (PI) programme, supporting postdocs applying for group leader positions:

Mentoring
Profile raising
Leadership training
Network building

Spread the word...

www.biologists.com/grants/devel...

More cities are seeing PFAS pollution in drinking water. Here's what Louisville found Workers at the drinking water plant in Louisville, Ky. saw a sudden spike in the level of a 'forever chemical.' They traced it up the Ohio River to a factory embroiled in a pollution lawsuit.

Workers at the drinking water plant in Louisville, Ky. saw a sudden spike in the level of a 'forever chemical.' They traced it up the Ohio River to a factory embroiled in a pollution lawsuit. n.pr/3M80fdi

Morphogen Math: A Model of Axolotl Limb Growth during Regeneration In a new publication led by the Friedrich group at PoL and the Sandoval-Guzmán group at CRTD, scientists propose a model of morphogen scaling during limb regeneration in axolotls.

🎉Paper alert! How do #axolotls regrow their limbs to match their body size? A new publication by PoL @friedrich-group.bsky.social along with @tatianasg.bsky.social @crtd-tud.bsky.social shows that opposing morphogen gradients scaling with animal size are key.

Curious? Read our news: tud.link/z6tj5y

A. Schematic of imaging experiment, with drawings of zebrafish larvae at 3dpf and 7dpf underneath a timeline of imaging every 8 hours. B. (Top) Heatmap of Erk activity at single cell resolution; (Bottom) Raw images of Erk-KTR-mCerulean signal. Scale bar: 100 μm.

#DBfeature 🐠

A new powerful live imaging platform tracks Erk signalling dynamics in developing zebrafish hepatocytes at single-cell resolution.

By Faraz Ahmed Butt, Alessandro De Simone, Stefano Di Talia, Kenneth Poss

tinyurl.com/ve5vzp6c

From Ring to Keyhole: Modeling How Tissues Mold the Fruit Fly’s Gut A study on the fruit fly gut led by Flatiron Institute researchers gives insight into how tissues are shaped by bumping into their neighbors.

#FlatironCCB researchers and collaborators demonstrated how mechanical forces from surrounding tissues can shape the fruit fly gut: www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/11/17/from-ring-to-... #science #biology

@sushantbangru.bsky.social and @rdiegmiller.bsky.social new review on regeneration is out in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. A fun piece to write and another great collaboration with @kenposs.bsky.social.

Signal control during tissue regeneration in adult animals Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 11 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41580-025-00917-1The ability to track single cells in vivo, combined with insights into chromatin structure, immune–tissue crosstalk, bioelectric and metabolic cues and quantitative modelling, is changing our understanding of how tissues are repaired and renewed. This Review discusses how signals are regulated during regeneration and future directions for a more quantitative understanding of regenerative biology.

New Online! Signal control during tissue regeneration in adult animals

[Exit King.]

"We're doing the studies to make the proof."

This is not how Gold Standard Science works. Or any science. You do the study to TEST THE HYPOTHESIS, not to prove yourself right.

UPenn professors have responded forcefully to the Trump administration's that colleges sign a "compact" in order to secure funding:

"When an invitation is accompanied by consequences for not accepting it, it is in fact a threat, not an invitation." aaup-penn.org/statement-by...

🙏 💚

man rolling rock up hill how it started how its going

An infographic with a QR code in the bottom left to join a community of scientists from West Virginia. The goal of the group is to build a community of STEM members and inspire future generations of scientists from The Mountain State

Thrilled to share our work using live imaging to understand how Epiblast (future embryo proper) and Primitive Endoderm (future extraembryonic tissues) cell fates segregate in the preimplantation mouse embryo. Gargantuan effort led by amazing @rpkimyip.bsky.social, David Denberg and Denis Faerberg!

STUDY: Denmark tracked over a million children for 21 years, and found vaccines linked to zero extra cases of autism, asthma, or 48 other conditions.

Vaccines are safe, effective, and the best way to eradicate preventable disease. Period.

2. The National Science Foundation's 15% Indirect Cost Rate and the Policy Notice: Implementation of Standard 15% Indirect Cost Rate, NSF 25-034 are VACATED. 3. The court DECLARES that the National Science Foundation's 15% Indirect Cost Rate and the Policy Notice: Implementation of Standard 15% Indirect Cost Rate, NSF 25-034 are invalid, arbitrary and capricious, and contrary to law. IT IS SO ORDERED. June 20, 2025 /s/Indira Talwani United States District Judge

I was having lunch with an NSF program manager when her cell phone lit up, all with messages about the overhead rate.

We won! The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts said NSF can't reduce the overhead rate to 15% for universities! 🥳

cases.justia.com/federal/dist...

Published in the Wheeling Intelligencer this week as part of the #McClintockLetters

www.theintelligencer.net/opinion/loca...

Science Funding Cuts Affect Our Present and Future Zebrafish are cool. They’re just one of a handful of animals that can regenerate their brain, spine, and even heart after injury. Unsurprisingly, a lot can be learned from studying how these injured o...

Happy to see the article I wrote in print back home! Thankful for the McClintock Letters organizers (‪@cornellasap.bsky.social‬) and Science Homecoming (@sciencehomecoming.bsky.social‬) for all their hard work in coordinating this effort.

Harvard is everything now. There is no next round. We're all Harvard.