The Possible vs. The Actual: can #GenerativeBiology reveal fundamental design principles of complex life?

@philipcball.bsky.social closes #GenBio25 with a magnificent synthesis of the past two days of discussions, and guides us towards an agenda for the future of the field.

At #GenBio25, @davidbrueckner.bsky.social explains how heterogeneity within a system is necessary for some processes, such as symmetry breaking.

David was awarded an ERC Starting Grant last month - congratulations!

bsky.app/profile/davi...

Lab meeting with the Davies Lab - the Node Meet the Davies Lab, based in the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, the University of Edinburgh.

Jamie Davies brings purpose and agency to #GenBio25 comparing bioengineering, where agency is with researchers, and generative biology in organoid-like systems, where cells retain their agency. Meet the Davies lab on @the-node.bsky.social: thenode.biologists.com/lab-meeting-...

An interview with Jean-Paul Vincent Jean-Paul (JP) Vincent is Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, London. His lab is interested in understanding how cells communicate to form organs during development. In 2024, he was awarded t...

Returning to movements towards reconstituting signalling in vitro at #GenBio25 now, with Jean-Paul Vincent from @crick.ac.uk discussing how to engineer a diffusible Wnt gradient.

@dev-journal.bsky.social interviewed JP last year: doi.org/10.1242/dev....

a herd of sheep walking down a grassy path ALT: a herd of sheep walking down a grassy path

Good afternoon #GenBio25. @bensteventon.bsky.social uses a flock of sheep as an analogy for multi-level reciprocal interactions between cells and how to engineer them.

Finally, Amy Bowden from @crick.ac.uk theoretically integrates signalling, growth and gene regulatory networks to explain patterning robustness. #GenBio25

Next, @zhumeng123.bsky.social explores the genetic basis of timing in limb development by comparing chicken and mice. #GenBio25.

Meng has been named one of #100Biologists with extraordinary links to @biologists.bsky.social

bsky.app/profile/biol...

Three short talks now at #GenBio25. @bracciolilab.bsky.social discusses the ability of cells to contribute to different lineages in a gastruloid model. Luca recently published an ‘In preprints’ article in @dev-journal.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Communication codes in developmental signaling pathways Summary: This Review discusses the recent discoveries using single cell analysis and cell-based reconstitution that have helped to uncover the sensing, processing and spatial distribution of signaling...

Pulin Li aims to reconstitute development from the bottom up by engineering signalling. #GenBio25 Learn the types of communication used by cells in Pulin’s @dev-journal.bsky.social Review: doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Enabling neighbour labelling: using synthetic biology to explore how cells influence their neighbours Summary: This Primer reviews emerging approaches for engineering synthetic signalling between cells and discusses how these could be applied to study the influence cells have on their neighbours durin...

Who are our (cellular) neighbours? @matt-mala.bsky.social is addressing this question now at #GenBio25, using characters living on a conceptual ‘Cell Street’. Learn more in his @dev-journal.bsky.social Primer: doi.org/10.1242/dev....

#GenBio25

We are looking forward to spending the next two days discussing INTERESTING THINGS at our workshop on Generative Biology: new approaches to study developmental design principles #GenBio25

Thanks to my excellent coorganisers @jcornwallscoones.bsky.social & @dbenzinger.bsky.social & all participants