Juvenile heart anatomy of Ciona robusta and cell division dynamics. Top left: D5 juvenile heart. Top right: Schematic of the image shown at top left. Bottom: Representative images of D8, D11, and D15 juvenile hearts. Yellow dots highlight midline UL nuclei (13, 15 and 18 midline UL, respectively). UL: undifferentiated line cells.

Neural signals influence vertebrate #heart growth, but how? @bradleydavidson.bsky.social &co show how #tachykinin & #Wnt pathways modulate #cardiomyocyte progenitor proliferation in #Ciona, revealing the role of neural cues in organ development @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4cbr2zT

Another super amazing effort from my PhD lab - namely an amazing master’s student and our wonderful undergrads!!!

Proud of you both @bitajadali.bsky.social @vsriikhar.bsky.social ❤️❤️❤️

My first co-corresponding author paper! It was a wonderful experience getting to help mentor these two AMAZING first authors through this project.

Alex Pretti, wearing a green sweater with his VA badge on.

This is Alex Pretti.

This morning he was murdered by ICE. Six ICE agents held him down and shot him at point blank range. Alex was a nurse and researcher at the VA.

Our thoughts are with his loved ones and we stand united in action calling for the abolishment of ICE.

#ScientistsAgainstICE

Some highlights (so far!) of helping teach a #colbyjanplan course on comparative dev bio with @christinadcota.bsky.social at @mblscience.bsky.social!

Super duper cute!! A gorgeous gastropod (sea snail) veliger larva.
#marineplankton 🦑

Developmental Biology Fun Fact The Society for Developmental Biology is seeking input! We are looking for fun, short facts about the following organisms: cnidarian, slug, plant, shark, mouse, bat, echinoderm, zebrafish, c. elegans...

🎁 Season of Sharing with the Society for Developmental Biology⭐️
This season, we’re inviting our community to share fun, bite-sized facts about their favorite organisms 🐸🐔🐟🪱🦋🐍
👉 Share yours here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The preprint containing the bulk of my thesis work is out!

You know the thesis defense prep is getting to you when even your clay work ends up being Ciona motor neurons.

And... it's live! In situ hybridization has been foundational for sea urchin developmental biology. Here we report a fully automated method to probe more than a hundred genes using a general purpose liquid handler.www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03....

Join us at the Second Symposium on Women in Tunicate Biology this upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday!