Keeping up with the neighbours: local synchronisation of cell fate decisions during development - EMBO Reports Even before the advent of multicellular life, unicellular creatures would communicate with their neighbours to coordinate their behaviours. Multicellular organisms have the particular challenge of orc...

Hello, here is a review I wrote about how cells sometimes try to synchronise with surrounding cells so that they can do a good job of building tissues during development. It is called "Keeping up with the neighbours"

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#DevBio 🧪

Schematic of a developing avian hindlimb, highlighting the interdigital area (orange), digital ray (green), and avascular mesenchyme (AVM, white). Zoom in 1: "In communication to distal and proximal elements", show the tip of the digital ray (PFR)sending unknown signals to the apical ectodermal ridge (AER, yellow), which in turn communicated back with Fgf8 signal. These signals accumulate in the AVM. Zoom in 2: "Progenitor to the digits", the signals from the AER pass through the AVM into the PFR. Zoom in 3: "Joint patterning/specification", the signals induce a new phalanx segment.

#DBfeature 🐣

Fate mapping approaches and scRNA-seq uncover how the avascular mesenchyme is critical to the normal outgrowth and patterning of digits

By C Batho-Samblas, J Smith, L Keavey, N Clancy, L McTeir, and MG Davey

tinyurl.com/2t6dau56

#SpecialIssue in #Avian Model Systems

Mathematical modelling of Ecosystem Resilience in a Changing Climate

We're advertising an @iapetusdtp.bsky.social PhD position on modelling ecosystem resilience/vegetation patterning with @ecogeo.bsky.social, Denis Patterson, Roy Sanderson, and John Wainright! Keen to chat with anyone trained in geography/maths/ecology/physics etc.

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

Applications close 3 Nov: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52936/ We are looking for 2 post docs to work between @jennydickens41.bsky.social and @labrawlins.bsky.social and with colleagues across the Cambridge and at GSK. Exciting, collaborative opportunity to dig into lung cell biology - please share!

Early career group leaders We appoint researchers from across biology and biomedicine to set up their first groups at the Crick.

The @crick.ac.uk is recruiting Early Career Group Leaders

- Lab set-up, research costs, salaries for up to 5 researchers
- Support for up to 12 years
- Access to our core facilities
- Competitive salary
- Fantastic colleagues
- All areas of biology

Deadline 27 Nov

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Thanks, Hannah.

Thanks, Aida.

Thanks, Tim.

🚨 Excited to introduce FuChi (Fucci chicken), the first avian cell cycle reporter line. Thank you to all those who contributed to putting this paper together. I really think it showcases the power and beauty of the chick embryo as a developmental biology model. 🐥 🥚 🔬 @roslininstitute.bsky.social

On Monday, Nobel laureate Prof. Shinya Yamanaka gave the inaugural Sir Ian Wilmut lecture @roslininstitute.bsky.social. Inspiring and gracious with his time, he chatted with students & fellows in two great sessions. It was a real honour to meet Shinya, share our research, and hear his story.

Boundary constraints can determine pattern emergence The robust patterning of cell fates during embryonic development requires precise coordination of signalling gradients within defined spatial constraints. Using a geometrically confined in vitro syste...

New work with Saunders & Charras labs

Physical boundaries guide cell fate decisions during human trunk development

Reaction Diffusion model shows how geometry shapes biology with TBXT expression forming consistent domains regardless of colony size & shape

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

James Briscoe presenting the many reasons you should consider publishing in Development

Exhausted at the thought of having to resubmit your paper to a new journal after rejection? 🙁

Did you know you can transfer your paper+reviewers reports from any journal to any of @biologists.bsky.social journals, and get a quick decision, from editors who are working biologists 😃

#biologists100

In vivo sonic hedgehog pathway antagonism temporarily results in ancestral proto-feather-like structures in the chicken The Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) pathway is a key regulator of feather development. These authors show that in vivo Shh inhibition during early chicken embryogenesis temporarily results in unbranched and non-...

🚨🐣 Our new paper is out @plosbiology.org! Sonic hedgehog inhibition transforms feathers into ancestral protofeathers-like structures. These units then recover after hatching, highlighting their remarkable developmental robustness! @lanevol.bsky.social 🧪

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

A still image of a stage HH4 gastrulating chick embryo electroporated with 3 different fluorescent reporter genes shown in magenta, yellow and cyan.

Need to electroporate and/or live image avian embryos? We hope our new preprint will help you get started:

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

Open EGGbox: an open-source 3D-printed embryonic Gallus gallus toolbox for electroporation and culture/live imaging of avian embryos ex ovo

🧪🐣 #devbio

PRDM14 is essential for vertebrate gastrulation and safeguards avian germ cell identity The zinc finger transcription factor PRDM14, part of the PR domain containing protein family, is critical for mammalian primordial germ cell (PGC) spe…

Our paper, from a project that started many moons ago (during my PhD), which further explores the role of PRDM14 in avian embryonic development and primordial germ cells. 🐥🔬 @devbiol.bsky.social 🥚🧫
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Let's look at some cool bilateral cellular flows videos
IMHO: this is a goldmine for #EpithelialMechanics
Movie from Asai et al 2024 shows beautiful counter rotating flows.

Morphogenetic movements reshape cell-cell interaction ranges, quantified as Embryological Light Cones (ELCs). These ELCs are highly different from the corresponding static tissue patterning ELCs.

📣Check out our work led by @alex-plum.bsky.social ! We developed a mathematical framework for morphogen patterning in dynamic tissues, revealing key insights into how morphogenesis mediates cell-cell communication, morphogen compartmentalization and fate coordination. biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This might be a little aukward but I think extending his interests to other seabirds would quench his appetite for knowledge as he would be fulmar quickly. It is tiring studying seabirds, I find myself puffin after running atop of cliffs trying to identify them. Eider way, good hobby.

Chuai, M., Serrano Nájera, G., Serra, M., Mahadevan, L., & Weijer, C. J. (2023). Reconstruction of distinct vertebrate gastrulation modes via modulation of key cell behaviors in the chick embryo. Science Advances, 9(1), eabn5429. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn5429 #EpithelialMechanics

Inspired by @mads100tist.bsky.social I'm going to do threads on parts of the publishing process we often get asked about. These will be from my perspective @naturecomms.bsky.social and based on my own opinions, so keep your salt handy.

Superstable lipid vacuoles endow cartilage with its shape and biomechanics Conventionally, the size, shape, and biomechanics of cartilages are determined by their voluminous extracellular matrix. By contrast, we found that multiple murine cartilages consist of lipid-filled c...

Check out a new paper @science.org and its related perspective
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

First snowy run of the year 🏃❄️🏔️🐸 #Edinburgh

🥳 We got our Christmas present - our paper was accepted in PNAS!! @pnas.org 😀🎄🎅

Congrats to my student Shubham Sinha, collabs. Rieko Asai, Takashi Mikawa 😀

We showed that cellular flows initiate L-R patterning prior to laterality gene expression in amniotes! 🐣
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Figure 1 (B) Top: protocol used for the data shown in C-E. Bottom: confocal maximum projections showing unconstrained and micropatterned (μPatterns) cultures. Notice some variability between colonies, likely due to initial differences in seeding density across the well. The colony shown in C is indicated with a yellow outline. Scale bar: 200 µm.

In vitro modelling of anterior primitive streak patterning with human pluripotent stem cells identifies the path to notochord progenitors

Read this #OpenAccess Research Article by Miguel Robles-Garcia, Guillaume Blin and colleagues @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social:
https://buff.ly/3ZMtzc6

Collab with Dr Sara Clohisey (genomics/mice), Prof Neil Mabbott (immunology) and @glover-lab.bsky.social (development)

Tiger or mouse? Patterns of self-organised mesenchymal condensates in embryonic mouse skin where the typically resticted signalling conditions of the developing hair follicle are applied across the entire tissue. #FluorescentFriday #DevBio

Absolutely fascinating work on crocodilian scale patterning. This video explains the research brilliantly. Congratulations to all the authors on an excellent study!!

Self-organized patterning of crocodile head scales by compressive folding - Nature Crocodile head scales self-organize through purely mechanical compressive skin folding rather than a patterning process controlled by gene interactions.

🚨Hyped to share our new article in @natureportfolio.bsky.social! We show that crocodile head scales develop from compressive folding that arises from constrained skin growth 🐊🔬
Really proud of this one - it's cool 😎
Please read & share! 🧪
@genevunige.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A scientific case for revisiting the embryonic chicken model in biomedical research The availability of fertilised chicken eggs and the accessibility and rapid development of the avian embryo, have been utilised in biomedical scientific research to make fundamental discoveries includ...

Megan Davey & co make the case for revisiting the use of chick embryos in biomedical research

New genome engineering tools & single cell assays means its time for a renaissance in avian research models

Great potential for #3Rs in cancer & development studies

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

Sneak preview results of latest project in collab with @glover-lab.bsky.social !