Fundamental limits on symmetry breaking by Turing-like activator-inhibitor mechanisms Summary: In silico analysis of complex reaction-diffusion mechanisms reveals fundamental limits on the ability of activator-inhibitor systems to break symmetry in vivo.

New paper from the lab out now in Development @dev-journal.bsky.social, led by the wonderful (Dr!) Daniel Muzatko. We re-examined activator-inhibitor mechanisms of symmetry breaking (aka Turing patterns) and found some surprising things! doi.org/10.1242/dev.....

🔬 Limb regeneration depends on regenerative signaling center cells — but how do these cells influence others to proliferate, migrate, or differentiate?
We’re recruiting PhD or Postdoc candidates to explore this with our collaborator @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social !

Gene Network Organization, Mutation, and Selection Collectively Drive Developmental Pattern Evolvability and Predictability The historical order in which mutations appear during evolution determine the evolutionary trajectory of gene regulatory networks and influence how developmental patterns change and diversify over tim...

Fresh from the press💥 We asked what happens when you evolve gene regulatory networks computationally at scale. Do general principles of GRN evolution jump out? Is the process predictable? Read on to find out @prxlife.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk @ucl-ipls.bsky.social 👉 journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...

Please allow me to introduce... our new preprint 🎉 Together with Michael Zhao, Anna Erzberger and Alexander Aulehla, we investigate pattern formation due to aggregation in confined systems.

You can find it at arxiv.org/abs/2509.08533

@michaelzhao.bsky.social @erzbergerlab.bsky.social

🚨Job alert in theory/math devbio 🚨
I’m currently advertising postdoc positions to join my group. We’re building reaction-diffusion models to understand some of the crazy things embryos can do. We are based in a beautiful part of Scotland :). Please share! www.abdnjobs.co.uk/vacancy/rese...

PS The lead author, Daniel Muzatko, is currently on the postdoc job market so please get in touch if you are looking for a stellar new postdoc!

PPS The Hiscock Lab is still actively hiring embryo-curious theoreticians of all types, see here for opportunities: twhiscock.github.io

Along the way, we developed a freely available Julia package that allows complex reaction-diffusion PDEs to be analysed quickly (millions of parameter sets per minute) and easily (in just a few lines of intuitive code!). Check it out here: github.com/hiscocklab/R...

🚨 theory/math devbio preprint alert!!! 🚨

Led by my v. talented PhD student, Daniel Muzatko, we’ve found some rather general and intriguing constraints on reaction-diffusion systems that allow them to self-organize developmental patterns:

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

A computational pipeline for spatial mechano-transcriptomics - Nature Methods The authors present a computational framework that leverages mechanical force inference and spatial transcriptomics to enable analyses of the interplay between the transcriptomic and mechanical state.

🚨 Paper Alert 🚨
Absolutely delighted to share our last paper on "spatial mechano-transcriptomics" @naturemethods👇!!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am recruiting an #ERC funded PostDoc to work on the evolution of vertebral counts in cichlids. This is an experimental project & will be looking for candidates with experience generating reporter lines, live-imaging and experimental embryology.
Application deadline: 25th Feb.
tinyurl.com/33jbu8fa