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embldbunit.bsky.social
EMBL DB unit
@embldbunit.bsky.social
350 followers 210 following 59 posts
Research in the Developmental Biology Unit focuses on exploring the rich diversity and complexity of living systems, taking into account their natural context.
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cammorphoseries.bsky.social
This is happening TODAY 2:30 pm!
cammorphoseries.bsky.social Cambridge Morphogenesis Seminar Series @cammorphoseries.bsky.social · 5d
Next Monday, 10th November, at 2:30 PM, we are delighted to welcome @maitrejl.bsky.social from Institut Curie. Don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing list to receive the Zoom link!
See you all there! 😊
November 10, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
jordivangestel.bsky.social
Please join us for this exciting new conference on the emergence, function and evolution of biological collectives - unpacking the wonderful world of self-organization: www.embl.org/about/info/c...
Collectivity in living systems: emergence, function, and evolution
www.embl.org
November 8, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
nicolettapetridou.bsky.social
Only a few days left for abstract submission at the brand new EMBO|EMBL Symposium Collectivity in living systems: emergence, function and evolution. We have stellar speakers in cell, animal collectives & beyond @priscaliberali.bsky.social @icouzin.bsky.social @ricardsole.bsky.social

Join us!
November 7, 2025 at 8:42 AM
embldbunit.bsky.social
✨ In this week's DB unit seminar @embl.org, Hidenobu Miyazawa, a postdoc in the Aulehla group, shared insights on the role of glycolysis in mouse embryo axis segmentation #DevelopmentalBiology #Glycolysis #MouseEmbryos
November 6, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
floravincent.bsky.social
Exciting day for the lab: our 1rst paper is officially out in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🥳 Wonderful collaboration wt @gautamdey.bsky.social showing how Cryo-ExM achieves consistent immunostaining in diverse diatoms, from the lab and the natural environment 1/n
#ProtistsOnSky
tinyurl.com/2zxaund7
October 31, 2025 at 3:27 PM
embldbunit.bsky.social
🔥 A new review by @aikmi.bsky.social and @mohannad-dardiry.bsky.social challenging the paradigm of organismal terminal differentiation #developmentalbiology
dev-journal.bsky.social Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · 18d
Phenotypic plasticity as the foundation of lifelong development

In this #LifelongDevSI Hypothesis, @mohannad-dardiry.bsky.social & @aikmi.bsky.social (@embl.org) challenge the paradigm of organismal terminal differentiation

doi.org/10.1242/dev....
A figure from the article showing examples of constrained and unconstrained plasticity in animals, such as dimorphis, degrowth and asexual reproduction.
October 31, 2025 at 12:02 PM
embldbunit.bsky.social
✨Thomas Beavis, a PhD student in the Vincent group
@floravincent.bsky.social @embl.org , was our speaker at this week's DB seminar. He discussed his research on how diatom-ciliate symbiosis affects cell fate and function #symbiosis #marinebiology #protists
October 31, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
michalis-averof.bsky.social
What are these?

You are looking at embryos of a sea squirt. Each of the 'soap bubbles' is a living cell, about a fourtieth of a millimetre in size. The outlines of the cells are visible thanks to fluorescent markers identified by Hitoyoshi Yasuo @hitoyas.bsky.social

see doi.org/10.1101/2024... 🧵
October 26, 2025 at 8:55 AM
embldbunit.bsky.social
Soraya Zwahlen, a PhD student in the Vincent @floravincent.bsky.social group @embl.org, was our speaker at the DB seminar this week. She discussed a cell-ecosystem approach to studying marine microbial interactions under pollutant stress. #MarineMicrobiology #MicrobialInteractions
October 22, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
janrombouts.bsky.social
Please allow me to introduce... our new preprint 🎉 Together with Michael Zhao, Anna Erzberger and Alexander Aulehla, we investigate pattern formation due to aggregation in confined systems.

You can find it at arxiv.org/abs/2509.08533

@michaelzhao.bsky.social @erzbergerlab.bsky.social
September 18, 2025 at 6:48 PM
embldbunit.bsky.social
Welcome on board, Corentin Bisot!
Corentin is a new postdoc in the van Gestel group @jordivangestel.bsky.social in the DB unit @embl.org.
He will study the link between multicellularity and the physical constraints of migration in soils.
October 17, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
events.embl.org
Have you submitted your abstract for #EESCollectivity? No? It's about time! This new event will discuss how collective behaviours arise from fundamental principles across biological systems, from cells to animal groups. 🦠🐾

👉 Join us and submit your abstract by 18 Nov: s.embl.org/ees26-01-bl
October 16, 2025 at 3:25 PM
embldbunit.bsky.social
✨Luc Lederer, a PhD student in the Aulehla group, spoke at the DB seminar @embl.org this week. He investigates whether phase waves during somitogenesis contain functional information for tissue patterning, as well as how we can manipulate and understand the mechanisms behind them #DevBio
October 8, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
October 5, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
tlmcambridge.bsky.social
🚨 TLM Online Seminar Series - 08.10.25 | 16:00 UK
Pablo Sáez: "Decision-making during cell migration"

Please repost & to attend online please register to our 📧for the zoom link: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...
Poster with a picture of the speaker, Pablo Saez, advertising his talk: Decision Making during cell migrations. Abstract: Moving cells navigate inside living tissues often encountering obstacles and junctions, where their path branches into alternative directions of migration. This is the case of cells moving on top or within blood vessels, which often bifurcate into branches. Cells have diverse migratory strategies that differentially rely on the adhesion to the substrate. Cells that undergo mesenchymal migration are highly dependent on the adhesion to the substrate, and when facing bifurcations are forced to coordinate the adhesion and detachment of the competing branches. Recent studies showed how the decision is made -to keep or retract a branch and choose a new direction- when there is bias: open versus dead-end, differences in pressure, presence/absence of a chemoattractant. However, much less is know about how cells decide a new direction when the decision is unbiased. Similarly, it is poorly understood how migrating cells coordinate membrane dynamics during branching to maintain a good trade-off between microenvironmental exploration and migratory efficiency. Here, we use in vitro live-cell imaging using different levels of complexity, and advanced image analysis to analyze the response of migrating cells when facing symmetric junctions, and extreme branching when cells simultaneously face several bifurcations. We found that actin and membrane dynamics play a key role to choose a new direction path in both cases i) when cells face a single junction (Ron et al. 2024), and ii) when cells exhibit high levels of branching because they face several junctions at the same time (Liu et al.). In addition, we found that migrating immune cells have a fine tune regulation of branching in order to coordinate surveillance and migration. These results shed light on the mechanisms by which cells resolve unbiased junctions and branching during cell migration.
October 3, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
michalis-averof.bsky.social
Here it is! Postdoctoral position to identify the progenitors sensory organs in the regenerating legs of Parhyale

apply here: www.averof-lab.org/pages/tracman

1/3
michalis-averof.bsky.social Michalis Averof @michalis-averof.bsky.social · Jul 13
We've just been awarded a grant to study the cellular basis of regeneration – to track the progenitors of sensory organs in the context of leg regeneration, in our favourite crustacean tinyurl.com/parhyale, based on live imaging and cell tracking. The project involves some cool collaborations... 1/3
October 3, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
mrclmb.bsky.social
Don’t miss this upcoming #LMBSeminar from Bonnie Bassler!
Join us at 11am on Monday 13th October to hear all about ‘Quorum sensing across domains: From viruses to bacteria to eukaryotes’
More details: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/news-and-eve...
Bonnie Bassler Princeton University Quorum sensing across domains: From viruses to bacteria to eukaryotes Monday 13th October at 11am (BST)
October 3, 2025 at 2:57 PM
embldbunit.bsky.social
The DB unit also celebrated Anne Ephrussi at this wonderful symposium! Anne was our unit head from 2007-2021. Congratulations on a remarkable career, Anne! 🎉
October 2, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
jarofrnc.bsky.social
How to swap the foot for a tentacle and vice versa? Find out in our new story featured in @dev-journal.bsky.social uncovering a transcription factor toggle switch behind the identity of Hydra's extremities.
dev-journal.bsky.social Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · Sep 30
Issue 17 is complete!

On the cover: Image of three Hydra specimens. A wild-type Hydra (centre) and two transformants showing switch of foot (pink) to tentacle (yellow) (right) and tentacles to feet (left).

See Research Article by Ferenc et al.

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
October 1, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
floravincent.bsky.social
Dear all, registration for the upcoming EMBO/EMBL Symposium on "the cellular mechanics of symbiosis" is now OPEN 🤩 ! Feel free to register ! www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky
@hassansalem.bsky.social @berasymbionts.bsky.social @embl.org
The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe
www.embl.org
September 29, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social
Hassan Salem will be co-hosting the EMBL/EMBO Symposium “The Cellular Mechanics of Symbiosis: Sensing Friend from Foe” from 17–20 March 2026 in Heidelberg next year. Registration and abstract submission will open next month! For more info: tinyurl.com/bdhyv3ht
The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe
tinyurl.com
September 24, 2025 at 7:14 AM
embldbunit.bsky.social
✨ Back from summer break with 2 great DB seminars @embl.org! Andrew Hogan (van Gestel group) on protist predation defences & Simon Knoblich (Aulehla group) on calcium waves in Medaka gastrulation. Exciting research happening in the DB unit 🔥 #DevelopmentalBiology
September 24, 2025 at 8:59 AM
embldbunit.bsky.social
🚀New research from the Aulehla group @embl.org shows that metabolism not only fuels growth, but also sends signals that control the speed of embryonic development 🔬 #Metabolism #DevelopmentalBiology #BiologicalClock
embl.org EMBL @embl.org · Sep 22
EMBL scientists found metabolism controls embryonic development tempo through signalling in a way separate from its established metabolic function.

More research related to this signalling could illuminate how it guides cell fate, developmental timing -- even disease.

www.embl.org/news/science...
When metabolism provides more than fuel | EMBL
A new study observed the key signalling role that metabolism plays in controlling the tempo of development.
www.embl.org
September 22, 2025 at 7:50 AM
embldbunit.bsky.social
🔥 Are you curious about the similarities between the brains of sharks and mammals? Read Idoia Quintana-Urzainqui's new preprint from the Arendt lab at @embl.org to find out more. #Neuroscience #Evolution #BrainResearch
idoiaeu.bsky.social Idoia Quintana-Urzainqui @idoiaeu.bsky.social · Sep 2
🧠🦈Excited to present our latest work🧠🦈Interested in brain evolution? And shark embryos? Then read on… Our work sheds light on the deep origins of our brain’s most complex regions.
September 11, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by EMBL DB unit
mwdorr.bsky.social
Very excited to share - the ERC StG is a game-changer for us 🙏 We're going to learn the rules for timing control across cell types in the embryo and we think we can tune them too 🎛️ ⏳📈- reach out if you’d like to be involved !
erc.europa.eu European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · Sep 4
📣 The ERC Starting Grant call results are out!

Find out which early-career researchers will receive funding this year, what they will be investigating, where they will be based... plus lots of other #ERCStG facts & figures for 2025!

➡️ buff.ly/IsafuFh

#FrontierResearch 🇪🇺#EUfunded #HorizonEurope
September 4, 2025 at 1:44 PM