Flavio Zolessi
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fzolessi.bsky.social
Flavio Zolessi
@fzolessi.bsky.social
510 followers 550 following 44 posts
Associate Professor of Cell Biology, Facultad de Ciencias, Udelar, Uruguay. PI, Cell Biology of Neural Development group. #development #retina #neurulation #zebrafish
Member of IBRO-LARC @ibroorg.bsky.social
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fzolessi.bsky.social
Flavio Zolessi @fzolessi.bsky.social · Nov 19
Being new to this network, a presentation is in order. This will eventually become a thread. I first want to acknowledge these guys, the members of the Cell Biology of Neural Development group, of which I am privileged to be the current PI. #neurodevelopment #retina #neurulation #zebrafish #chick
The current members of the Cell Biology of Neural Development (CBDN) group, at Facultad de Ciencias, UdelaR, Uruguay. From left to right, top-down: Lucía Veloz (PhD student), Camila Davison (Associate Researcher), Gonzalo Aparicio (@gaparicio.bsky.social, PhD student), Magela Rodao (PhD student), Lucía Mustto (Master student), Santiago Bosch (Master student, recently finished), me, Agustín Siciliano (undergraduate student). Image taken a couple of weeks ago, at the XX Meeting of the Uruguayan Society for Neuroscience.
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
ibroorg.bsky.social
#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

🔗 Explore the training calendar:
https://ow.ly/uxTY50Y0vBB

Flavio Zolessi
January 21, 2026 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
ibroorg.bsky.social
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.

🗓 Deadline: 20 Feb
https://ow.ly/L7rz50XVoKv

#IBROinLatAm Flavio Zolessi
January 12, 2026 at 12:01 PM
fzolessi.bsky.social
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!
January 11, 2026 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
ibroorg.bsky.social
🎉 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

🔗 Discover the full committee & read the announcement: https://ow.ly/p37U50XTXqN
January 9, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
ibroorg.bsky.social
🌎 #IBROinLatAm: From career growth to community building, IBRO’s 2026 grants are here to support #neuroscientists across Latin America.

🔗 Discover opportunities in your region: https://ibro.org/grants/grants-calendar/?keywords=&region%5B%5D=20&_month=&_year=

Flavio Zolessi
January 7, 2026 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
ibroorg.bsky.social
3️⃣ weeks, 2️⃣ projects - this #training program provides hands-on experience in molecular, cellular & behavioral #neuroscience.

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https://ibro.org/training-opportunity/perc2_france/

#IBROinAsiaPacific #IBROinUSCanada #IBROinAfrica #IBROinLatAm #IBROinEurope
January 6, 2026 at 9:00 AM
fzolessi.bsky.social
Find a description in the previous post about the preprint: bsky.app/profile/fzol...
fzolessi.bsky.social Flavio Zolessi @fzolessi.bsky.social · Aug 12
Preprint alert! Just from the oven, the adventures of a young theoretical biophysicist (Santi Bosch) in a usually strictly wet lab (BCDN): how is it that extreme forces in amniotes primary neurulation do not break the highly dynamic neuroepithelium apart?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Mechanical conditions preventing live cell extrusion during primary neurulation in amniotes
During primary neurulation in amniote embryos, the neural plate gives rise to the neural tube in a process requiring the coordination of forces at different scales throughout a geometrically complex t...
www.biorxiv.org
November 28, 2025 at 6:47 PM
fzolessi.bsky.social
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...
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.
November 28, 2025 at 6:47 PM
fzolessi.bsky.social
And it's a cover! bsky.app/profile/ibro...
ibroorg.bsky.social International Brain Research Organization @ibroorg.bsky.social · Nov 25
Discover what’s new in #Neuroscience Vol. 587 🧠

Explore recent research on Parkinson’s mechanisms, depression, sensory learning, neuroinflammation & more.

Find it here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/neuroscience/vol/587/suppl/C

#IBROjournals #IBROauthors
November 25, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
ibroorg.bsky.social
Discover what’s new in #Neuroscience Vol. 587 🧠

Explore recent research on Parkinson’s mechanisms, depression, sensory learning, neuroinflammation & more.

Find it here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/neuroscience/vol/587/suppl/C

#IBROjournals #IBROauthors
November 25, 2025 at 1:00 PM
fzolessi.bsky.social
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!
October 15, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
ibroorg.bsky.social
⏰ Only 2 days left to complete your application for the Seeding Neuroscience #Grants!
Don’t miss this opportunity to strengthen your emerging #neuroscience society or thematic network
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Deadline: 15 Oct

#IBROinAsiaPacific #IBROinAfrica #IBROinLatAm
October 14, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
sebioldev.bsky.social
The importance of model organisms for research and training www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reaffirming the value of model organisms in training scientific minds - Nature Cell Biology
As biomedical research prioritizes human models and translational promise, classic model organisms are increasingly dismissed. Here we argue that they have a lasting value, both in enabling discovery and in cultivating scientific thinking, by training researchers in systems reasoning, integrative thinking and independent inquiry.
www.nature.com
October 11, 2025 at 8:01 AM
fzolessi.bsky.social
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
Severe microphthalmia and retinal layering defects in the smarce1-/- zebrafish mutant.
October 11, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social
Mechanical conditions preventing live cell extrusion during primary neurulation in amniotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.08.668972v1
August 12, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
jbwallingford.bsky.social
Interested in Science Communication? Love #devbiol? Apply for the @socdevbio.bsky.social SciComms Interns Program!

www.sdbonline.org/science_comm...
Society for Developmental Biology | SDB Science Communication Internship
www.sdbonline.org
August 13, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
ibrojournals.bsky.social
📣 Call for #PAPERS!
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Learn more: www.ibroneuroreports.org/call-for-pap...

#IBROjournals #IBROauthors @ibroorg.bsky.social
August 7, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reposted by Flavio Zolessi
ibroorg.bsky.social
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Join the WWN Speaker’s Bureau - a public platform designed to help event organizers find expert speakers in neuroscience.

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@worldwomenneuro.bsky.social
August 13, 2025 at 9:02 AM
fzolessi.bsky.social
I just realized Santiago is in Bluesky! You can contact him here: @sabr-bio.bsky.social
August 12, 2025 at 10:08 PM
fzolessi.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.
August 12, 2025 at 9:44 PM
fzolessi.bsky.social
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.
August 12, 2025 at 9:44 PM
fzolessi.bsky.social
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.
August 12, 2025 at 9:44 PM
fzolessi.bsky.social
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.
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.
August 12, 2025 at 9:44 PM
fzolessi.bsky.social
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!
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.
August 12, 2025 at 9:44 PM
fzolessi.bsky.social
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....
August 12, 2025 at 9:44 PM