The 2026 Visual System Development GRC and GRS are fast approaching. Jeremy Kay, Kristen Kwan, Robert Johnston, and I have built an exciting program that we hope you will enjoy. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the meeting this summer in beautiful Maine. Register and RT!
An image of a frog retina with photoreceptor labeling. The same image is shown 6 times in different colors. In the far left image, the small cones are difficult to detect in both the RGB and the color-blind simulated version. The middle image is the best representation of the data for fully sighted and color blind people, since the cones are easy to detect for both. The image on the right is better than the image on the far left to see the cones in RGB, but is still not color blind friendly.
I made this to demonstrate that for data visualization it's not only the color scheme, but the colors chosen for each channel, that matter. Here is the same image of rods and cones represented in RGB and simulated color blindness, showing how small changes can make a huge difference in what you see.
Published in final version in @cellsdev.bsky.social: "Mechanical conditions preventing live cell extrusion during primary neurulation in amniotes" doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...
Find a full description in the thread about the preprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social: bsky.app/profile/fzol...
🏆🧠👇 Which image deserves to be named Neuroscience 2025 Best Cover?
Vote for your favorite among the four finalists here: https://strawpoll.com/poy9kKq6wgJ
International Brain Research Organization Elsevier Life Sciences Journals Francesca Cirulli MIND Lab
🇺🇾 Read Reflection #8 as Dr. Flavio R. Zolessi looks back on the Uruguay’s scientific revival after dictatorship, the founding of key institutions & the pioneering contributions of José Pedro Segundo.
https://ow.ly/cLHq50Yk6KF
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#IBROinLatAm Looking to advance your research skills or deepen your knowledge in a specific area of #neuroscience? IBRO supports several training programs for neuroscientists in Latin America to help with career development
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Flavio Zolessi
Applications are open! Early career researchers based in Latin America are invited to apply to this school focused on translational #neuroscience, bridging molecular mechanisms with clinical applications.
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#IBROinLatAm Flavio Zolessi
It's a great honor for me to take part in the scientific committee for the next IBRO World Congress in 2027, representing the Latin American community through LARC!
🎉 Great news! IBRO is pleased to introduce the Scientific Program Committee for the IBRO 2027 World Congress, led by Drs. Sheena Josselyn and Thiruma V. Arumugam
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Flavio Zolessi
3️⃣ weeks, 2️⃣ projects - this #training program provides hands-on experience in molecular, cellular & behavioral #neuroscience.
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Find a description in the previous post about the preprint: bsky.app/profile/fzol...
Above: transverse sections of neurulating chick embryos stained for DNA (methyl green) and F-actin (TRITC-phalloidin), without and with the addition of the phorbol ester PMA. Below: computational simulations of pseudostratified epithelia, with different apicobasal/lateral tension ratios. Either PMA treatment in embryos, or lower ratios in simulations, cause epithelial instability evidenced by extensive cell extrusion.
Paper alert! Mechanical conditions preventing live cell extrusion during primary neurulation in amniotes. @sabr-bio.bsky.social article published as pre-proof in @cellsdev.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...
And it's a cover! bsky.app/profile/ibro...
Discover what’s new in #Neuroscience Vol. 587 🧠
Explore recent research on Parkinson’s mechanisms, depression, sensory learning, neuroinflammation & more.
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Colegas latinoamericanos: hoy cierra esta excelente oportunidad de reunirse en nuevas redes o sociedades de neurociencias donde no existen, y además, asociarse a IBRO! Último día!
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Severe microphthalmia and retinal layering defects in the smarce1-/- zebrafish mutant.
Recent publication from a great collaboration with my friends in Cuernavaca, México: The Smarce1 subunit of the BAF complex performs distinct, stage-specific functions during zebrafish retinal development doi.org/10.1016/j.ne.... Support @ibroorg.bsky.social, publish in @ibrojournals.bsky.social
Mechanical conditions preventing live cell extrusion during primary neurulation in amniotes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08....
Interested in Science Communication? Love #devbiol? Apply for the @socdevbio.bsky.social SciComms Interns Program!
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I just realized Santiago is in Bluesky! You can contact him here: @sabr-bio.bsky.social
I personally thank Santi's thesis co-supervisor, Julio A. Hernández. This work was possible thanks to our great graduate program PEDECIBA; to Universidad de la República, which funded research through CSIC and SB fellowship through CAP; to the Advanced Bioimaging Unit at Institut Pasteur Montevideo.
A reduction in apical/basal tension, on the other hand, would produce extensive cell extrusion after a period of relative stability. When extrapolated to a living tissue, these observations could be explained by cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion, relying on F-actin-generated tension across cells.
Making a long story short, and skipping the quantitative part (if interested, ask Santi), what we found is that the relatively crowded simulated pseudostratified epithelium was stable as long as apical/basal tension was kept high relative to lateral tension. An example is reproduced in the video.
Diagrams illustrating the different simulations considered in the analysis of the energy model. A. State of a typical system at time t as obtained by dynamical simulation. Vertices are colored according to the type of interface they belong to (cell-cell interfaces are blue, while apical and basal interfaces are orange and yellow, respectively), and each cell contains a nucleus tagged according to the cell number. Periodic boundary conditions are used in the x-axis. Both axes are taken to be relative to the characteristic length scale 𝐿0=√𝐴0. B. To study the stability of a simple cell layer we consider an infinite tissue made up of alternating, identical wedge-shaped cells. The shape of one of these cells may be determined by its height (ℎ) and its basal width (𝑏𝑏), assuming that the apical and basal interfaces correspond to circular arcs and that cell-cell interfaces are straight. The width of any two adjacent cells adds up to double the average cell width 𝑏, which is used to characterize cellular density.
Different initial conditions and relative tension parameters lead to different outcomes in the simultated pseudotstratified epithelia.
Here is where theoretical modelling enters the story. The goal was to simulate a pseudostratified epithelium using an energy-based 2D vertex model to get cells with flexible borders, able to respond to the changing positions of non-deformable nuclei. The "fake neuroepithelium" is seen from a side.
Caspase inhibitor QVD-OPh treatment of chick neurulas did not affect normal morphology of the neuroepithelium, or the occurrence of apical cell extrusion upon PMA treatment.
QVD-OPh treatmen effectively reduced apoptotoc cell death, without preventing apical cell extrusion in neural plate cells of chick embryos.
Apical cell extrusion could be due either to an induction of cell death, folowed by expulsion, or by live cell extrusion, a response to epithelial overcrowding. The experiments in the present report indicate the latter to be responsible for PMA effect, hence: mechanical forces must be involved!
In @gaparicio.bsky.social previous work, we showed that knock-down of the actin-modulating protein MARCKS, or its phosphorylation (by activating PKC with PMA), caused neural tube closure failure, and loss of apico-basal polarity with apical cell extrusion in the chick embryo. doi.org/10.1002/dvg....
