How much information does it take to fold a protein? Not much, if you use the right information! We find that residue burial, a binary label of core vs surface, encodes a protein's fold highly efficiently and even improves ESM2's structure representation. 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Image of a young Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard looking at stocks of fruit flies. Image credit to MPG/W. Filser. Credit text to Headwaters of the zebrafish — emergence of a new model vertebrate by Grunwald and Eisen (2002)
Foundational work in #zebrafish can be credited to "fruitful" discussions between #Drosophila researchers such as José Campos-Ortega & Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard. By the late 1980s, multidisciplinary approaches honed in flies were finally applied to a vertebrate. #ZebrafishFunFacts 🧪
Join us!
• Figure 1 of the article: Fig. 1. Phase diagram of tissue material phase transitions and examples. (A) Schematic diagram showing how continuous changes in microscopic dynamics (control parameter) lead to abrupt, drastic, and non-linear shifts in macroscopic properties that define the material response (order parameter). (Aa-Ab) Exemplary phase transitions as traditionally described in non-living matter, e.g. for water (Aa), as well as in living matter, e.g. for embryonic tissues (Ab). Yellow areas indicate fluid-like tissues and regimes. Blue areas indicate solid-like tissues and regimes. Magenta dashed line depicts the critical point. Orange line marks particle and cell trajectories.
Tissue phase transitions in development: more than just mechanics
In this Review, @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social, @laura-rustarazo.bsky.social and @karengrace12.bsky.social discuss tissue phase transitions during development: doi.org/10.1242/dev....
We are hiring! Join the Stapornwongkul lab as a Master's student to develop novel optogenetic tools and investigate how spatiotemporal metabolic dynamics affect patterning and morphogenesis of in vitro human gastrulation. Link below 👇
VGZT is back this Thursday with two exciting talks! 🎉
🗓️ Thursday, February 19th
⏰ 9:30 PST / 12:30 EST / 17:30 UTC / 17:30 GMT / 18:30 CET
Our speakers are
👉 Raquel Fueyo (@fueyoraquel.bsky.social)
👉 Margarete Diaz Cuadros (@mdiazcuadros.bsky.social)
See you on there! 👋
Two funded PhD positions investigating the evolution of sarcomeres @ibdm.bsky.social in @biancah0406.bsky.social and our lab, together with @cnidevo.bsky.social - Interested to explore how similar or different Jellyfish sarcomeres are to Drosophila or human ones?
www.ibdm.univ-amu.fr/ibdm_job/2-a...
JOB ALERT! Lecturer in Biological Sciences Come and join us in the world class Life Sciences Building at the University of Bristol! Closing date: Sunday 8 March
JOB ALERT! Lecturer in Biological Sciences Interested in our research areas? Click the link in our bio to discover more! Closing date: Sunday 8 March
JOB ALERT!
We are excited to announce that we are recruiting three new academics at lecturer level!
Click the link below for more info on how to apply, and don’t forget to explore our research themes too!
We look forward to receiving your applications!
www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
Really excited to share our new paper in @nature.com! We uncovered how a physical instability of the cytoplasm coupled with the cell cycle drives cytoplasmic partitioning in early embryos #zebrafish #drosophila. Read more in this🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩
@poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de
🎉 The Developmental Mechanics Seminar Series is back!
🗓️ Thurs, Jan 22
🎙️ Opening talks:
🧬Guy Tanentzapf (UBC)
— How cell adhesion molecules wire into the cytoskeleton
🌀Juan Manuel Gomez Elliff (EMBL)
@gomezjm-devmech.bsky.social
— Mapping tissue mechanics with Brillouin microscopy
ÁGÆTIS BYRJUN, Sigur Ros 1999
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...
Super cool paper! Presomitic mesoderm, oxygen levels, segmentation clock
🚨Seeking developmental or cell biologists🔬!🚨
Our department @ucl-cdb.bsky.social is looking to support scientists seeking to establish their lab with a fellowship. Deadline: 30 Jan. Apply here: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Congrats to the leading author @agrigas.bsky.social!
❗PREPRINT ALERT❗
doi.org/10.64898/202...
The lab of M. Lisa Manning at @syracuseu.bsky.social in collaboration with Ale Mongera at @ucl-cdb.bsky.social show that in the avian presomitic mesoderm, Contact Inhibition of Locomotion has a tissue-wide effect, making tissue act like a fluid under tension.
Contact Inhibition coordinating tissues made sparsely of mesenchymal cells.
From Alex Grigas @ ManningGroup and @mongeralab.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
And big thanks also to my friend @amichaut.bsky.social for helping us with the analysis!
Super cool work spearheaded by the amazing @agrigas.bsky.social! Excited for this collaboration with @manningresearch.bsky.social and for everything still to come! 🎉 Also thank you to @emaniou.bsky.social and @glgalea.bsky.social for your help!
Very excited about this new paper out on bioRxiv, spearheaded by the fantastic Dr. Grigas in collaboration with @mongeralab.bsky.social and Galea labs.
Check out this new preprint on PSM mechanics! Very nice work!
How do sparse mesenchymal cells, with unique stellate arms spanning large gaps between cells, maintain their network while still flowing during development? In our new preprint we describe the avian PSM as a fluid under tension and develop new theory to explain it: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Cover of the December 1996 issue of Development that describes the results of The Big Screen.
With more than 2.1k citations, 'The identification of genes with unique and essential functions in the development of the zebrafish, Danio rerio' by the CNV Lab highlighted the arduous work that took place during 'The Big Screen'. In total, 1163 mutants were described. #ZebrafishFunFacts 🧪
So called microtubule organizing centers (MTOCs) are not "organizing centers". They don't control their position (network center), nor MT orientation, length and shape (network shape). The actual organizers are MTs, molecular motors and regulators of MT +ends. MTOCs nucleate MTs.
Let's rename MTOCs.
Thought I was being really novel when I designed and 3D printed this mold for zebrafish transplants based on the microinjection one, but found out today it already exists…
Bottom: my PLA mold that’s bent from warm agarose
Top: a very kind (more robust looking) gift from @mongeralab.bsky.social
Cell type-independent timekeeping gene modules enable embryonic stage prediction in zebrafish www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11....
Stationary and germ layer-specific cellular flows shape the zebrafish gastrula www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11....
How can we organize current theoretical approaches for developmental biology - from information to dynamical systems & GRNs - into a common framework?
We propose to think along Marr's 3 levels: computational problem, algorithm, implementation
Check out our review:
arxiv.org/abs/2510.24536
We are looking for: PhD Student (starting as Research Assistant) and Postdoctoral Researcher in Stem Cell Biology and Mechanobiology. Please RT💕
🔗 About our lab: renew.science/principal_in...
🎓 PhD position: jobportal.ku.dk/phd/?show=15...
🧪 Postdoc position: jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabeli...
🚨 Come join us @sheffielduni.bsky.social for a PhD on the evolution and development of feathers and flight! 🐣🔬
This project is supervised by @matt-towers.bsky.social & @alexgfletcher.bsky.social, and I'm excited to be involved as a project advisor. Please share!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 🧪
