Alison G. Cole
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alisongcole.bsky.social
Alison G. Cole
@alisongcole.bsky.social
Senior Scientist at the University of Vienna | The cell as an evolutionary unit | comparative embryology | evolutionary developmental biology
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳

Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?

For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.

We provide new evidence suggesting that...

🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 13, 2025 at 8:34 PM
My introductory spiel for newcomers to scTranscriptomics is now part of the public domain: link.springer.com/content/pdf/...
link.springer.com
September 2, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
You still have one week to apply to this position! Take your chance to do your postdoc on alien critters 🐙🦑 in a vibrant yet cosy - walkable!- town in Europe. Pls RT
June 13, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
In the span of just three months, the US has ceded our leadership in science and innovation that took generations to build. As a result, we are less prepared to meet emerging challenges and leverage science to solve society’s most pressing problems.
500womenscientists.medium.com/becoming-a-s...
Becoming a scientist in the US just got a lot harder
Unbeknownst to the general public, a generation of scientists is being sheared away as the Trump administration takes a chainsaw to federal…
500womenscientists.medium.com
April 10, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
Ultimate paths of least resistance: Intrinsically disordered links as developmental resets in regulatory protein networks https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.17.643830v1
March 19, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
Diversity and evolution of chromatin regulatory states across eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.17.643675v1
March 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
Sea anemone development challenges long-held views on the evolution of germ layer and body axis formation
A study by researchers at the Uni Vienna published in @naturecomms.bsky.social has uncovered a surprising difference in how β-catenin functions in sea anemones compared to other animals. #evosky
Sea anemone development challenges long-held views on the evolution of germ layer and body axis formation
For over twenty years, scientists thought they had understood the role of β-catenin in early animal development. β-Catenin, a key molecular signal, was believed to have the same fundamental function a...
lifesciences.univie.ac.at
March 18, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
We offer three new positions to join BCA Phase 0:
1. A full-stack developer to work on the BCA database with @ebi.embl.org
2. A senior research technician to develop sc methods
3. A bioinformatician to analyze new atlases with @sangerinstitute.bsky.social

Details below.

Please, share and repost.
March 3, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
We posted our surprising finding that removal of the nervous system in Nematostella always leads to the regeneration of a second head.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Ectopic head regeneration after nervous system ablation in a sea anemone
Some animals are able to regenerate all missing cell types and large body parts after bisection, a phenomenon called whole-body regeneration. Many of these animals regenerate the correct tissues and s...
www.biorxiv.org
February 5, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
1/4 🚨 a brand new @biorxiv preprint from the lab! We charcterized both transcriptionally, morphologically and functionally (phagocytosis) immune cells from #Nematostella! We are convinced that our data supports the existence of such specialized cells! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
https://biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
January 28, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
#SYStem2025 :: Vienna, March 12-14 :: #StemCell niches | Deterministic v. stochastic decisions | Germline | Stem cell model systems | #Epigenetics & imprinting | Cell biology of Stem Cells | Transitioning Stem Cells into the clinic; For oral presentations, register by Jan 15! www.sy-stem.org
January 13, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
Our review is out in Nature Reviews Genetics! rdcu.be/d5AY2

We show how phylogeny-based methods can resolve the problem of non-independence in genomic datasets.

These methods must be considered an essential part of the comparative genomics toolkit.

@lauriebelch.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social
A phylogenetic approach to comparative genomics
Nature Reviews Genetics - Controlling for phylogeny is essential in comparative genomics studies, because species, genomes and genes are not independent data points within statistical tests. The...
rdcu.be
January 8, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Alison G. Cole
The bioluminescence of these ostracods (Luminini) is secreted with mucus from a gland called the upper lip (labrum of many arthropods). Previous work established the luciferase gene used to create the light.
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Ancient Secretory Pathways Contributed to the Evolutionary Origin of an Ecologically Impactful Bioluminescence System
Abstract. Evolutionary innovations in chemical secretion—such as the production of secondary metabolites, pheromones, and toxins—profoundly impact ecologic
academic.oup.com
November 30, 2024 at 7:04 PM