Proud of Jiaoqi Cheng who has successfully passed her PhD viva 🎉 🎓Many thanks to her examiners, Susana Godinho @susanagodinho.bsky.social and Charlie Birts @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social #theeliaslab

🚨 Why can’t mammals regenerate limbs like frog tadpoles or salamanders?
In our new paper in @science.org , we show that species-specific oxygen sensing acts as a gatekeeper for initiating limb regeneration 🐭🐸
🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #EvoDevo

A 🆕 #Ichthyosporea story
Led by@margaridaaraujo.bsky.social, in Co. @gautamdey.bsky.social & @hiralshah.bsky.social+🔥team across @embl.org & @sciencesunige.bsky.social
We finally have a look at what #microtubules are doing during #cellularization in #Sphaeroforma
▶️ tinyurl.com/MTSARC
#ProtistsOnSky

2nd postdoc job alert in the Crick Institute in London. Project will examine the role of motors & the cytoskeleton (actin, septins and microtubules) during vaccinia virus egress using biochemical, structural & cellular approaches + live cell imaging. spread the word.
crick.ac.uk/WayPostdoc20...

Message in a bottle Stories on how The Company of Biologists supports the biological community

Throughout the year, our community has been sharing stories with us about how The Company of Biologists has supported you over time. Your stories were heartfelt, and we feel grateful and humbled that we have been able to be part of your journeys. bit.ly/4q7C0Ki

Excited to share our latest work exploring the link between aging, pregnancy, and breast cancer risk. 🧬
nature.com/articles/s41...

Already added you! 😊

Last newsletter of 2025 highlighting a few of GetGenome’s recent activities.

GetGenome in 2025: onward and upward 2025 was a big year for GetGenome. We doubled down on our mission to democratize genomics, connect early-career researchers, and amplify…

I just published: GetGenome in 2025: onward and upward

2025 was a big year for @GetGenome. We doubled down on our mission to democratize genomics, connect early-career researchers, and amplify microbial voices from every corner of the planet.

medium.com/p/getgenome-...

Humbled and honoured to join this club, alongside some of my scientific heroes and colleagues.

Grateful to my team, collaborators, and mentors &, just as much, to my wife, family and friends.

Congratulations to Prof. Omaya Dudin for receiving the Friedrich Miescher Award 2026!

Find out more: www.ls2.ch/awards/fried...

Prof. Dudin will present his award lecture at the LS2 Annual Meeting 2026 in Zurich: annual-meeting.ls2.ch/2026

@dudinlab.bsky.social @fmiscience.bsky.social

Congrats, Omaya!

Quite a busy day on #Bluesky !
Been a while since we have been #preLight -ed !

Discover HAK-Actin if you haven't already ;)

🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

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.

So sad to hear the news - John truly was an inspiration to so many, and one of a kind.

www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

MaGNet: A Network-Based Method for Quantitative Analysis of the Mammary Ductal Tree in Developing Female Mice - Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia The mammary gland is a uniquely dynamic organ with a branching architecture that develops entirely after birth in response to hormonal cues. A common approach in mammary gland biology is the evaluation of branching morphogenesis to characterize the role of developmental, physiological and molecular perturbations on branching tissue invasion, growth, and maintenance. Yet, the field still lacks a fully open-sourced, quantitative framework to analyze whole-mount mammary tissue images, as a commonly utilized methodology. Here, we present MaGNet (Mammary Gland Network analysis tool), a method that leverages network theory to characterize key features of ductal branching during mammary gland development. Applying this pipeline to mammary gland images captured at three pubertal timepoints, we achieved reproducible quantification of ductal tree expansion across development. In addition, this network analysis pipeline captures ductal expansion induced by pregnancy hormones. By providing open-source tools to the research community, this method may increase reproducibility and broad applicability across diverse organ systems, model organisms, and developmental stages.

Are you looking for a reliable strategy to quantify the architecture of mammary tissue using whole mount images?? Well, maybe you should check MaGNet, our new computational based and user friendly approach (and you probably can adapt it to other organs as well). link.springer.com/article/10.1...

CenSegNet: a generalist high-throughput deep learning framework for centrosome phenotyping at spatial and single-cell resolution in heterogeneous tissues Centrosome amplification (CA) is a hallmark of epithelial cancers, yet its spatial complexity and phenotypic heterogeneity remain poorly resolved due to limitations in conventional image analysis. We ...

Excited to share our new preprint introducing CenSegNet, a deep learning framework for high-throughput, spatially resolved and single-cell centrosome profiling in heterogeneous tissues.

A huge effort co-led by brilliant PhD students, Jiaoqi Cheng & Keqiang Fan.

1/3

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check it out following this link zenodo.org/records/1713...

Your thoughts & feedback are welcome!

CenSegNet is fast, generalisable, and open-source—built for biologists and pathologists.

A fantastic collaboration across
@unisouthampton.bsky.social & @cam.ac.uk

#theeliaslab @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social

3/3

Using human breast cancer TMAs, CenSegNet uncovers how structural and numerical centrosome abnormalities are patterned across tumour regions, revealing their mechanistic uncoupling and links to tumour progression and heterogeneity, hormone status, and age.

2/3

CenSegNet is fast, generalisable, and open-source—built for biologists and pathologists.

A fantastic collaboration across @unisouthampton.bsky.social & @cam.ac.uk

Check it out: github.com/SKELAB/CenSe...

#theeliaslab @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social

3/3

CenSegNet: a generalist high-throughput deep learning framework for centrosome phenotyping at spatial and single-cell resolution in heterogeneous tissues Centrosome amplification (CA) is a hallmark of epithelial cancers, yet its spatial complexity and phenotypic heterogeneity remain poorly resolved due to limitations in conventional image analysis. We ...

Excited to share our new preprint introducing CenSegNet, a deep learning framework for high-throughput, spatially resolved and single-cell centrosome profiling in heterogeneous tissues.

A huge effort co-led by brilliant PhD students, Jiaoqi Cheng & Keqiang Fan.

1/3

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Pathologists have used nuclear & tissue shapes to diagnose #cancer for decades, but what is the molecular basis for this? In our latest work, we develop a computational pipeline to figure this out in #colorectalcancer! Check out 🧵& preprint #mechanobiology #stemcells www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Model for cellular functions and mechanisms of CCDC66. CCDC66 is a microtubule-stabilizing protein that maintains cilium integrity and size and facilitates vesicular transport at the ciliary base. Depletion of CCDC66 results in variations in cilia size due to compromised axonemal integrity, intraflagellar transport, and increased ectocytosis events involving the release of vesicles and fragments. CCDC66 may also support ciliary ectocytosis and length stability by regulating the actin cytoskeleton. Furthermore, disruptions in both microtubule stability and the actin cytoskeleton impair RAB11 and RAB5-mediated endocytosis and membrane recycling, affecting cell adhesion and the targeting of ciliary receptors. This disruption subsequently activates protein degradation pathways through RAB7-regulated late endocytosis, potentially involving RAB7 translocation to cilia to support ectocytosis. Collectively, these defects in protein transport, cilia function, and cell contacts contribute to compromised epithelial tissue integrity and multilumen formation in kidney tubules.

The #PrimaryCilium dynamically assembles & disassembles, but how is this controlled? @cytolabkoc.bsky.social shows that #ciliopathy linked protein Ccdc66 regulates both #cilium stability & length in epithelial cells via microtubules, actin & vesicular trafficking @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4mdTS4A

Kiwa is a membrane-embedded defense supercomplex activated at phage attachment sites Zhang, Todeschini, and Wu et al. show that the bacterial defense system Kiwa senses phage attachment at the membrane and assembles a transmembrane complex that halts infection by blocking phage DNA re...

Thrilled to see our Kiwa story out today! A membrane-associated supercomplex that senses infection and blocks replication and transcription.

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Huge congratulations to Yi and Zhiying for bringing it home, to Thomas for starting us off, and to all the collaborators.

A short break from paper writing, with family

MRC Postdoctoral Research Scientists x 5 - MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences Applications are now open for up to five postdoctoral positions in the area of developmental epigenetics.

Interested in developmental epigenetics? So are we! Apply now to join us for your postdoc!

Multiple positions across multiple groups @mrc-lms.bsky.social

Projects spanning germline demethylation, gene regulation, genome architecture in development & disease 👇👇

lms.mrc.ac.uk/work/vacanci...

Old mitochondria regulate niche renewal via α-ketoglutarate metabolism in stem cells - Nature Metabolism Andersson et al. show that intestinal stem cells enriched for old mitochondria are metabolically distinct and have enhanced ability to regenerate the epithelial niche.

Proudly presenting Simon’s @simonsterson.bsky.social‬ paper on asymmetric apportioning of old mitochondria biasing intestinal stem cells for the Paneth cell linage through aKG-dependent metabolism
@naturemetabolism.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42... @helsinki.fi @metastem.bsky.social 🧵1/8

Why I’m skipping the Congress this year (And why you should still publish your posters) Publishing your poster creates a verifiable and citable record of your work. It also protects you from bad actors — the evidence will be…

I just published: Why I’m skipping the Congress this year (And why you should still publish your posters)

Publishing your poster creates a citable record and protects you from bad actors.

#ISMPMI2025 #OpenMPMI #AcademicChatter #PhDchat

medium.com/p/why-im-ski...

“Want to know which papers are flawed…the ones that don’t get preprinted”

Not the first time I’ve heard people say this.