Yes mate. Morphometrics matter *even* in development. I wonder what eels do? Sigh sigh. If only we knew..

The plasmids from Karapidaki et al. are on Addgene!
Grab them here:
www.addgene.org/browse/artic...

New Pre-Print Alert!

Evolving initial conditions: an alternative developmental route to morphological diversity

with Shannon Taylor and @jamesehammond.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

19th PLM! wow Great to see this @cam.ac.uk tradition going on. PLM was there right at the start of a new era

Excited to announce Physics of Living Matter 19! To be held in Cambridge 24-25th September 2026:

www.plm-symposium.org

Check out this amazing illustrative tour of the @bsdb.bsky.social meeting!

Very happy to announce that I will be joining the Faculty of Biology & @cibss.bsky.social at @uni-freiburg.de as an Emmy-Noether funded group leader.

We will tackle the molecular and genetic basis of developmental timing and size control using diverse Oryzias species. We are hiring at all levels !

Frenster Lab | Cell Competition Dynamics We study Cell Competition during Embryonic Development using 3D Gastruloids at the University of Freiburg. We view cells as interactive societies in development and cancer. Research, stem cells, Gastr...

The Frenster Lab is here! 🍾 I am so excited to start my #EmmyNoether funded group at @uni-freiburg.de this summer. Our group studies #CellCompetition dynamics during embryonic development using #gastruloids from multiple species. Thanks to the @dfg.de for creating this opportunity! FrensterLab.com

London Evo-Devo is back!

Join us on May 5th for another excellent afternoon of talks and discussions on all things Evo-Devo. We are building a wonderful community, and we need you!

Happy to share this work from @alexneaverson.bsky.social where she has dissected the timing and relative contribution of the organiser and its derivates to multiple aspects of early neural development:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Looking forward to this exciting meeting on embryo models! Registration and abstract submission is open now:

Spring PhD recruitment round @crick.ac.uk is now open and we have a project on offer: www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud.... If you have a background in maths or physics and are curious about patterning and growth in biology this could be the project for you! Please help us spread the word 💥

Let's get this hashtag started! The 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting is happen this August! We will share updates using #SCDB26.

Can't wait!

scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

Thrilled to share this adventure on how zebrafish elongates its notochord! 🐟 Kudos to Carlos Camacho de la Macorra and @bensteventon.bsky.social for leading it. Alberto Ceccarelli and I had so much fun modelling & uncovering unexpected predictions… A nice mix of maths 📐, computing 💻 & experiments 🔬!

I'm excited to be speaking at the upcoming Developmental Biology meeting in Santa Cruz later this year! scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu. Registration now open!

www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Happy to share this work from Carlos Camacho de la Maccora that reveals how rates of posterior progenitor addition and anterior vacuolation are balanced across the notochord. With Alberto Ceccarelli and @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social we present a model of long-range communication to provide robustness.

scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu. Registration is open for the Santa Cruz Developmental Biology meeting AUGUST 2026. PLEASE SHARE.

The 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting website is LIVE!!! Go see the incredible list of scientists who will be speaking at the meeting next summer! (...and check the site early next year for info on registration and abstract submission.)

scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

How does Ras signalling affect actin?

Some answers in a new review from Joe Tyler & I @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social

authors.elsevier.com/a/1m8v-3PA3s...

We discuss how Ras proteins coordinate local and global changes to the actin cytoskeleton and contribute to cytoskeletal plasticity in cancer.

Modelling co-development between the somites and neural tube in human trunk-like structures - Nature Cell Biology Makwana, Tilley et al. generate human stem cell-based trunk-like structures approximating Carnegie stage 13–14 of development. They use them to model and study the development of the thoracic and lumbar trunk.

Lovely little pre-Christmas present to see this out @natcellbio.nature.com! Some 🔥 new results in here since the biorvix incl (1) a new RARE-GFP reporter ✳️🙌, (2) additional NMP quantification 🔢, (3) no neural tube patterning on RA inhibition 🙅 etc. Enjoy! 😍 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out this work from @yuritakahashi.bsky.social that reveals reciprocal interactions between cell migration and fate specific to drive collective cell invasion. And follow Yuri at the same time

It is not time

We have a new lab photo. Busy times in the Delas Lab!

Last month Maria and Shaun joined us to start their PhDs.

Learn more about our research and our team: delaslab.com

We will be recruiting another postdoc next year so have a look through our recent work and get in touch if you are interested.

This was such a fun conversation. Thank you for having me.

New preprint led by the brilliant @aleksandra-marconi.bsky.social on cichlid brain diversification, fgf8a signalling and regulatory divergence with TEs on the mix! All part of a wonderful collaboration with @ebablab.bsky.social

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

@camzoology.bsky.social

Thrilled to see this published!

Well done Ahmed on spearheading a project revealing mitotic errors in human embryos arise much later than anticipated.

Thank you to collaborators @bensteventon.bsky.social Leila Muresan and all of the wonderful teams at Bourn Hall and Create Fertility clinics!

Long-term imaging of cell divisions in human preimplantation embryos - Nature Biotechnology An optimized approach for live imaging of human embryos enables visualization of mitotic errors during blastocyst development.

This is an excellent news and views article from Corentin Mollier & Jean-Léon Maître @maitrejl.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations Ahmed and colleagues in the @niakanlab.bsky.social on this beautiful work tracking mitotic errors by live imaging the human embryos!