🚨 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
Exciting times await molecular biology discoveries, now poised to expand beyond conventional boundaries!
The journal’s scope now extends beyond 'traditional' model organisms to embrace the growing complexity of interdisciplinary studies that bring molecular biology and genomics into ‘non-traditional’ species, from axolotl and parasitic wasps, to moths and brown algae.
Molecular ecology & evolution land on EMBO Press 🛸🌱
Hot off the press, my cover for this special issue of @embojournal.org celebrates the growing synergy of molecular, genomic and cell biology with ecological and evolutionary reasoning.
#sciart #scicomm
Our SPECIAL ISSUE on MOLECULAR EVOLUTION & ECOLOGY is out!
Editorial: @yehumoran.bsky.social, @berndpulverer.bsky.social et al
Reviews on Asgard archaea, epimutations, giant-virus/host dynamics, smartphone analogy for animal origins…
…& many related primary articles
link.springer.com/journal/4431...
Today the EMBO Journal special issue on molecular ecology and evolution is finally published.
It was a pleasure coordinating this collection together with @berndpulverer.bsky.social and many outstanding authors.
Editorial: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Cover art by @munafomarzia.bsky.social
Read more ➡️ Li & Dalheimer et al., “Single-molecule dynamics of the TRiC chaperonin system in vivo” (2026) Nature www.nature.com/articles/s41...
As a trained molecular biologist, I spend a lot of time thinking about molecules and visualizing their complex interaction dynamics. Bringing them to life in my drawings is always a fascinating process!
In a crowded cellular environment, they can image individual translation events to show how the chaperones Prefoldin and TRiC isolate nascent chains from their surroundings, to assist newly synthesized protein folding.
All lights on protein folding 💡
Out @nature.com , @niko-dalheimer.bsky.social & @rongqinxiaoxiao.bsky.social from the Hartl lab at @maxplanck.de Institute of Biochemistry developed single-particle tracking in living cells to study the dynamics of co-translational protein folding
#sciart #scicomm
I’m excited to share my first-author paper, with co-first author @rongqinxiaoxiao.bsky.social, now out in @nature.com. We developed a live-cell single-particle tracking platform to see how TRiC & prefoldin engage proteins during co- and post-translational folding. 1/9 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🔬🔦Our Imaging spotlight from @hiralshah.bsky.social & team highlights their U-ExM atlas of planktonic eukaryotes, including details on how you can explore this wonderful resource. Plus, check out Hiral’s top tips on getting started with expansion microscopy.
focalplane.biologists.com/2026/01/20/i...
The beautiful artwork accompanying this spotlight is by Marzia Munafò @munafomarzia.bsky.social. Marzia was one of the first artists that we highlighted in our #SciArt profiles back in 2021!
thenode.biologists.com/sciart-profi...
A nice way to close the chapter on my PhD work: our team was awarded the Bruno Speck Award 2025 by the Swiss Foundation for Haematological Research for our publication on human intestinal evolution.
and @munafomarzia.bsky.social for this beautiful artwork 🙂
Check out the full study ⬇️
Iwamoto-Stohl et al., “Fertilization triggers early proteomic symmetry breaking in mammalian embryos” Cell (2025) www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
The stones were inspired by a trip I had just returned from, during which my eyes were captured by the insane diversity of rock patterns and colours across several #USA landmarks, such as the Monument Valley, Zion and the Fire Valley ⛰️ who knew I was gonna love rocks so much!!
In the proposed cover, the 2-cell embryo is depicted as a mosaic, with a multitude of tesserae forming its cytosolic content. Cells start symmetrical with identical proteomes, but rapidly diverge and show unique cytosolic contents, represented as waves tessellated in different colours and textures.
Fertilisation triggers reproducible cytosolic asymmetries that result into two cells (namely, “blastomeres”) with a unique proteomic profile and distinct developmental potential.
Breaking symmetry♋️
Another #NotTheCover from the same issue of @cellcellpress.bsky.social
Here the @zernickagoetz.bsky.social lab @caltech.edu reports the earliest known symmetry breaking event in the mammalian embryo - right at moment of fertilisation!
#sciart #scicomm 🧵
I must admit it is a completely unknown world for me! But there must be so much yet undiscovered 🤩
Bringing sci-fi vibes into the microscopic world 🪐
Read the full study ➡️Mikus et al. “Charting the landscape of cytoskeletal diversity in microbial eukaryotes” (2025) Cell
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
It was also really fun to explore this incredible atlas of ultrastructures, trying to figure out what is top, what is bottom, how you match outside and inside…
Something I truly enjoyed about making this was using #art to push the boundaries of what is achievable with #science. It was the only way to visualise at the same time the outside and inside of these microbial eukaryotes!
In this piece, we combined a traditional watercolour-style view of the outer shell of each species, inspired by Heckel’s beautiful illustrations of the natural world, with a sci-fi-style inner structure.
A planetary atlas of plankton 🪐
Closing the year with a bang: out @cellcellpress.bsky.social the @dudinlab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social labs used ultrastructure Expansion Microscopy to reveal the stunning cytoskeletal diversity of over 200 plankton species!
A #sciart 🧵
@embl.org
So cool to finally see the flamenco piRNA cluster assembled in its full glory - a ~700kb transcript, almost completely unspliced!
