Jordi Solana
jordisolana.bsky.social
Jordi Solana
@jordisolana.bsky.social
Stem Cell Biology and Evolution (SCBE) research group | Living Systems Institute Exeter @lsiexeter.bsky.social | One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces (if you are a regenerative organism)
Pinned
Proud to present the peer-reviewed version of our Cell Type Allometry paper, out today in Science Advances!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Are animals of different sizes made of the same cell types?

Here’s an update of the main points and revision items

(with memes!)

Thread 👇🧵
Reposted by Jordi Solana
New preprint out! Evolutionarily conserved transcriptional regulators control monoaminergic neuron development.
We uncover how ancient regulatory programs orchestrate the neurons that produce serotonin and dopamine across 550 million years of evolution.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Evolutionarily conserved transcriptional regulators control monoaminergic neuron development
To what extent conserved developmental programs specify homologous cell types is a central question in biology. Here, we address this by focusing on reconstructing monoaminergic neuron development in ...
doi.org
October 30, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
🚨 We're hiring! 🚨 Our lab at the University of Málaga, Spain🇪🇸 is looking for a bioinformatician researcher for a postdoc position (1+1 years). Check the ad, and if you're interested, get in touch!
📅 Starting date early 2026, with some flexibility.
🙏Please, RT!
October 30, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
Thrilled to share that the lab has been awarded a @wellcometrust.bsky.social Discovery Award to keep exploring the evolution of 6-methyladenine #6mA in Eukaryotes. We'll open postdoc (3️⃣) and tech (1️⃣) positions to start in 2026, please share with candidates or reach out if you’d like to join us.
October 8, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
September 24, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
The Yang and Phillips labs have an exciting GW4 MRC BioMed DTP PhD project on beta-cell regeneration & designing new proteins with AI tools to control neural signals. Come join us at LSI-Exeter!
gw4biomed.ac.uk/regenerating...
@proteinmotion.bsky.social @lsiexeter.bsky.social #zebrafish #islet
Regenerating insulin cells by using new designer biologics to fine-tune neural signals - GW4 BioMed MRC DTP
Project Code MRCPHS26Ex Yang Project Type Wet lab Research Theme Population Health Science Project Summary Download Summary A hallmark of type 1 diabetes is elevated blood glucose levels caused by aut...
gw4biomed.ac.uk
September 9, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
New short paper from our lab @currentbiology.bsky.social, in which we discover of a new mode of cell motility for choanoflagellates: flagellar gliding. www.cell.com/current-biol... - A 🧵
Flagellar gliding in choanoflagellates
Freire-Delgado and Brunet discover a new mode of cell motility in choanoflagellates, the closest relatives of animals. Under mild confinement, choanoflagellate move over surfaces without cell deformat...
www.cell.com
September 9, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
So happy to see the cephalic furrow combo out back-to-back! This was a wonderful collaborative endeavor 🥹
We are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)
September 4, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
🥳 Thrilled to share that our lab has been awarded an ERC StGrant for our project SigReg: Signal to Regeneration!

How can we unlock limb regeneration in adult mammals?

It’s time to apply what we learned from 🐸 ➡️ 🐭

Thank you @erc.europa.eu for supporting ambitious science!!!
Massive congratulations to @canaztekin.bsky.social for being awarded an ERC Starting Grant @erc.europa.eu ! 🎉 His "Signal to Regeneration" (SigReg) project will explore the potential of limb regeneration in mammals.

Read more and watch Can introduce his project: s.gwdg.de/cLAmJE
September 4, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
🥳 Congratulations to our postdoc, Dr. Anna Czarkwiani @aniaczark.bsky.social, on receiving the ERC Starting Grant @erc.europa.eu!

With €2 million in funding, Anna will explore the biology of gravisensation and uncover insights into related disorders. 🧠

#CMCBnews @tudresden.bsky.social #ERCStG
September 4, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
We are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)
September 4, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
🧠🦈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 2, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
Complex behaviour is not limited to animals! Here we map the entire spectrum of waveforms dynamics on a quadriflagellate single cell with 4x 70um (!) #cilia, to a low dimensional behavioural manifold with surprising structure! #protistsonsky

All revealed in our new preprint doi.org/10.1101/2025...
August 23, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
Delighted to share the peer-reviewed version of our study led by @tomlewin.bsky.social now out in Genome Biology @bmc.springernature.com! We analyzed 64 chromosome-level genomes across 15 animal phyla and found that extensive genome rearrangements are the norm in bilaterians.
doi.org/10.1186/s130...
Conservation of bilaterian genome structure is the exception, not the rule - Genome Biology
Species from diverse animal lineages have conserved groups of orthologous genes together on the same chromosome for over half a billion years since the last common ancestor of bilaterians. Although no...
doi.org
August 18, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
#BiologyLetters A review of animal–chlorophyte photosymbioses explains how symbiosis drives adaptation and shapes animal life in diverse and dynamic environments. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #ecology #evolution #developmentalbiology
August 4, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
After nearly twenty years in the making, our attempt at understanding what makes the chaetognath phylum so unique has finally been published! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
with #LauraPiovani @dariagavr.bsky.social @alexdemendoza.bsky.social @chemamd.bsky.social and others /1
The genomic origin of the unique chaetognath body plan - Nature
Genomic, single-cell transcriptomic and epigenetic analyses show that chaetognaths, following extensive gene loss in the gnathiferan lineage, relied on newly evolved genes and lineage-specific tandem ...
www.nature.com
August 13, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
So you think you understand everything about #Chlamydomonas photoresponses? think again! #protists #behaviour #cilia

To explain how Chlamy switches handedness from swimming in CCW circles in low-light to CW in high-light... see our new preprint led by Alan Tsang (HKU) 👇
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
August 12, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
Excited to share the latest work from the lab led by @eharo84.bsky.social, in which we have used synthetic biology to explore the mechanisms by which different types of long-range enhancers ensure robust and precise developmental gene expression

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Synthetic engineering demonstrates that synergy among enhancers involves an increase in transcriptionally productive enhancer-gene contacts
Enhancers are non-coding cis-regulatory elements that control the expression of distally located genes in a tissue- and time-specific manner. Recent studies indicate that enhancers can differ in their...
www.biorxiv.org
August 11, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
Latest paper elifesciences.org/articles/107... closes an important cycle in our efforts to study regeneration: week-long recordings allow us to observe the behaviour of cells during the entire course of regeneration in a crustacean leg – bright objects in movie are fluorescent nuclei of cells. 1/6
August 8, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
How innate immunity starts? Early embryos eliminate bacterial infections by epithelial phagocytosis, a conserved process from zebrafish to human embryos. Check our story:
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
June 18, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
I am looking for a new postdoc to join the lab. Interested in pluripotency, germ cells, and in investigating these in a genetically tractable cnidarian? Get in touch! We offer a long-term contract, excellent research environment, and a lovely city #Galway. www.urifranklab.org
June 20, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
Textbooks: “Enhancers are just a bunch of TFBSs”

But how do they REALLY work?

New paper with many contributors here @berkeleylab.lbl.gov, @anshulkundaje.bsky.social, @anusri.bsky.social

A 🧵 (1/n)

Free access link: rdcu.be/erD22
June 18, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
Excited to share our study on sailing siphonophores, AKA bluebottles or man-o'-war! 🌊 we received hundreds of samples from scientists around the world, part of a huge effort to sequence genomes and test for multiple species 🧬 out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... 🦑🧪📌
June 19, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
This is a piece that I and @karsten-rippe.bsky.social discussing a lot, and a topic that is very close to my heart. The editors @naturerevgenet.bsky.social gave us the stage to do so, and the final version of our review is now available under this link: rdcu.be/erP1u

A short thread follows 1/n
June 19, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
Check out our latest work‼️Fantastic study with really cool data and findings led by @allancarbal.bsky.social in collaborarion with Stephan’s lab. The one and many ways of getting a belly…
It's finally here! Great start of the summer. We got our latest preprint from @chemamd.bsky.social in @qmulsbbs.bsky.social @qmulse.bsky.social, showing evidence of developmental system drift in the specification of dorsoventral (belly vs back) axis in annelids 🪱🪱🪱
#DevBio #EvoDevo
June 2, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Jordi Solana
It's finally here! Great start of the summer. We got our latest preprint from @chemamd.bsky.social in @qmulsbbs.bsky.social @qmulse.bsky.social, showing evidence of developmental system drift in the specification of dorsoventral (belly vs back) axis in annelids 🪱🪱🪱
#DevBio #EvoDevo
June 2, 2025 at 9:14 AM