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peiferlabunc.bsky.social
Mark Peifer (He, him)
@peiferlabunc.bsky.social
11K followers 6.8K following 12K posts
Cell adhesion, cytoskeletal regulation, Wnt signaling & wherever science leads us + wildflowers & my own idiosyncratic views. First gen college grad
Diversity, equity & Inclusion are core American Values
https://peiferlab.web.unc.edu
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
science.org
North American bird populations are shrinking most rapidly in the very areas where they are still most abundant, according to a 2025 study in Science.

The findings reveal both urgent threats and potential opportunities for targeted conservation and recovery. https://scim.ag/4qwOLyM #NationalBirdDay
North American bird declines are greatest where species are most abundant
Efforts to address declines of North American birds have been constrained by limited availability of fine-scale information about population change. By using participatory science data from eBird, we ...
scim.ag
January 5, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
zurisullivan.bsky.social
Thrilled to start my lab at the @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social @mit.edu and to join such a special community of creative and inspiring colleagues. The Sullivan Lab asks (1) how and (2) why infections make us sick, bridging immunology and neuroscience to understand host defense at the organism scale
whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social Whitehead Institute @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social · 1d
“I want everyone in my lab to be exposed to many ways of thinking about biology,” says Whitehead Institute’s newest Member, immunologist Zuri Sullivan. “Creative science often comes from making connections across systems, and Whitehead is uniquely well-suited for that.”

shorturl.at/EFsmh
January 6, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
apnews.com
BREAKING: The U.S. drops the number of vaccines it recommends for every child in an unprecedented overhaul of childhood health protections.
US drops the number of vaccines it recommends for every child
The U.S. took the unprecedented step Monday of dropping the number of vaccines it recommends for every child — leaving other immunizations, such as flu shots, open to families to choose but without clear guidance.
bit.ly
January 5, 2026 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
plosbiology.org
During embryogenesis, how do cells self-organize to support tissue-specific functions? @melanielaurin.bsky.social &co show that ARHGEF3 regulates #cadherin patterning & #placode polarization in early #HairFollicle development, influencing #morphogenesis @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/450aBm5
The image depicts P-cadherin levels at cell–cell junctions in a planar view of whole-mount preparation of embryonic mouse skin. The image was derived from confocal microscopy data and artistically enhanced for visual clarity. Image credit: Krithika Kalyanakrishnan and Alexandra Jetté
January 7, 2026 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
maikbischoff.bsky.social
There is still over a week left to apply.
Please send your documents to maik.bischoff@uni-muenster.de
maikbischoff.bsky.social Maik Bischoff @maikbischoff.bsky.social · 1d
Join us to study developmental cell biology with a focus on cell migration and morphogenesis.

More info about our research:
www.bischofflab.com

Job posting and application details:
focalplane.biologists.com/cell-biology...

#Science #CellBio #DevBio #AcademicJobs #PhDJobs #PhDPosition #Drosophila
January 6, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
paleofuture.bsky.social
Gallego voted *yesterday* to confirm another Trump nominee for the Defense Department.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 22h
Gallego: "The reason why you have Article 1 power is because you don't want to let idiots like President Donald Trump make foreign policy decisions without their being a check and balance against that"
January 6, 2026 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
womenshistnet.bsky.social
#OTD 7 January 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women was published. This text was hugely influential and is regarded as one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. #WomensHistory #GenderHist
January 7, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
devbiol.bsky.social
#DBfeature 🐠

Pax9 has a broader role in initiating development of mesenchymal structures around the mouth during zebrafish development

By Sandhya Paudel, Sarah McLeod, Stefani Gjorcheska, Lindsey Barske

tinyurl.com/yc3jfpux
Cartoon of Pax9 expression (purple) during facial development in mouse (left) and zebrafish (right). Text: Mammals. Pax9 is expressed In tooth-forming mesenchyme around the mouth. Required for tooth formation in mouse and human. Fish. Pax9 is also expressed in oral mesenchyme in fishes. But many fish do not form oral teeth. Vestigial expression or divergent function? Result: pax9 is required for formation of upper jaw bones and barbels in zebrafish, but dispensable for non-oral teeth. Support ancestral function in building peri-oral structures from condensed mesenchyme rather than a specific requirement for teeth
January 7, 2026 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
issibern.ch
Scientists around ISSI's @raducan.bsky.social reveal that the tiny asteroid moon Selam did not form in one go:
it is a “puzzle” assembled from at least four slow-speed moonlets that gently stuck together over time.
🧩🛰️

See more in the Press Release: www.issibern.ch/asteroids-mo...
PRESS RELEASE
Explore the asteroid Dinkinesh’s tiny moon Selam and how it has been formed from multiple low-speed collisions between small moonlets.
www.issibern.ch
January 7, 2026 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
jencwaters.bsky.social
🔬 🖥️ Applications are open for the CSHL course Quantitative Imaging: From Acquisition to Analysis (April 6–21, 2026)!

An intensive, hands-on course covering advanced fluorescence microscopy and quantitative image analysis using open-source tools.

🗓️ Apply online by Jan 30, 2026
Quantitative Imaging: From Acquisition to Analysis
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meetings & Courses -- a private, non-profit institution with research programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, bioinformatics.
meetings.cshl.edu
January 6, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
walenteklab.bsky.social
Please apply for the @cshlxeno course:

Cell & Developmental Biology of Xenopus: Gene Discovery & Disease
April 7 - 21, 2026

Application Deadline: January 16.

youtu.be/T6wu7XYOP3E?...
Frogs: A biologist’s best friend
YouTube video by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
youtu.be
January 6, 2026 at 7:27 PM
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
Amazing PI --Maik's scientific vision and mentoring skills are at the top of our field. This is a great opportunity
maikbischoff.bsky.social Maik Bischoff @maikbischoff.bsky.social · 1d
Join us to study developmental cell biology with a focus on cell migration and morphogenesis.

More info about our research:
www.bischofflab.com

Job posting and application details:
focalplane.biologists.com/cell-biology...

#Science #CellBio #DevBio #AcademicJobs #PhDJobs #PhDPosition #Drosophila
January 7, 2026 at 12:17 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
maikbischoff.bsky.social
Join us to study developmental cell biology with a focus on cell migration and morphogenesis.

More info about our research:
www.bischofflab.com

Job posting and application details:
focalplane.biologists.com/cell-biology...

#Science #CellBio #DevBio #AcademicJobs #PhDJobs #PhDPosition #Drosophila
January 6, 2026 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
isabellemarie.bsky.social
Early Medieval England Saw Continuous Migration, Study Finds.
www.medievalists.net/2026/01/earl...
Early Medieval England Saw Continuous Migration, Study Finds - Medievalists.net
A major bioarchaeological study combining tooth-enamel isotopes and ancient DNA finds migration into early medieval England was continuous from AD 400–1100, with regional and gendered patterns and evi...
www.medievalists.net
January 6, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
chadbourn.bsky.social
Protests already on the streets across Iran.
A crowd gathers.
January 7, 2026 at 9:34 AM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
moudhy.bsky.social
An incantation to soothe anger from nearly 4 millennia ago for those in need of one.

It begins by telling us what anger is and does.

“Anger goes like a wild bull, it continually leaps forth like a dog.”

Anger is like a lion and a wolf.

It is fierce. It runs. It tears at one’s face and stomach.
Photo of a stone relief showing a lion exiting a cage. Above the cage, a person lifts the door up to relied the animal. The lion is facing left in profile and appears to be walking and roaring
January 6, 2026 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
jcellsci.bsky.social
Also in Issue 24:
- Research Highlights on peroxisomes, talin, TP35INP2, MYO1F & MRTFs
- Editorials on @biologists.bsky.social & JCS
- Interviews with Mole and @kkostova.bsky.social
- Evolutionary cell biology comes of age
- Opinion on GLUT4 trafficking
journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
Key challenges in evolutionary cell biology. This schematic illustrates four central challenges in the field: (1) integrating cell biology with evolutionary theory and experimental evolution, (2) bridging the genotype–phenotype gap, (3) identifying and developing new model systems, and (4) incorporating ecological context into evolutionary cell biology. Each quadrant highlights a conceptual hurdle that must be addressed to advance the discipline.
January 6, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
jcellsci.bsky.social
Issue 24 is complete

Marking the end of @biologists.bsky.social 100-year anniversary celebrations, our cover features members of the JCS community, including some researchers from our ‘First Person’ & ‘Cell Scientists to Watch’ interviews.

Explore our ToC: journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
JCS cover: Marking the end of The Company of Biologists' 100-year anniversary, the final journal cover of 2025 features members of our community, including our academic and guest Editors, our FocalPlane Advisory Board, some of the ‘First Person’ and ‘Cell Scientists to Watch’ scientists featured this year, and our in-house team of administrators and editors at our editorial office in Cambridge.
January 6, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
older.bsky.social
More Venezuelan coverage from Venezuelans: the @globalvoices.org team has been putting this together in between venturing out to the streets to stock up on supplies and check the mood in the capital. There has already been a fresh round of journalist detentions so this is under the team byline.
Venezuela after Maduro: Leadership of the South American nation seems uncertain
Since the airstrikes, there has been a huge sense of uncertainty, with long queues in local supermarkets and gas stations, and Caracas residents worried about basic necessities like groceries.
globalvoices.org
January 7, 2026 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
interactivefly.bsky.social
Harsh, S., Liu, H. Y., Bhaskar, P. K., Rushlow, C., Bach, E. A. (2025). Post-transcriptional suppression of the pioneer factor Zelda protects the adult Drosophila testis from activation of the ovary program. PLoS Biol, 23(12):e3003535 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Post-transcriptional suppression of the pioneer factor Zelda protects the adult Drosophila testis from activation of the ovary program
Somatic gonadal sex fate must be actively upheld throughout adulthood to support proper gametogenesis, but how do adult tissues maintain their sexual identity? This study identifies a post-transcripti...
journals.plos.org
January 5, 2026 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
cahirokane.bsky.social
Another fascinating - and totally serendipitous - example of how human biological sex isn't always binary, despite executive orders that it is. In this case an XX/XY mosaic individual was a fertile female. Other XX/XY mosaics can be phenotypically male.
shaicarmi.bsky.social Shai Carmi @shaicarmi.bsky.social · 1d
A fascinating case report.

The DNA of a female murder victim was genotyped and it turns out that she has been a chimera: a mixture of 46XX/46XY cell lines.

The analysis (STR-based) found:
1. The maternal chromosome was identical between the two cell lines.

www.fsigenetics.com/article/S187...

1/6
Forensic analysis of a parthenogenetic 46, XX/46, XY congenital chimera: A case report
In forensic identification, chimerism is an extremely rare phenomenon in which DNA samples can easily be misidentified as mixtures from two individuals. If only a single cell population from the chime...
www.fsigenetics.com
January 6, 2026 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
melanielaurin.bsky.social
🎉 A milestone moment for the Laurin Lab — our first study is out today in PLOS Biology! 🎉 A huge congratulations to our outstanding first author Krithika Kalyanakrishnan and to all co-authors for their exceptional teamwork and perseverance. dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
The Rho GTPase regulator ARHGEF3 orchestrates hair placode budding by coordinating cell fate and P-cadherin patterning in mice
During embryogenesis, cells self-organize into patterns that support tissue-specific functions, but how these collective cellular behaviors are coordinated remains unclear. This study shows that the R...
dx.plos.org
January 5, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
alexwild.bsky.social
Tired: Everything evolves to be a crab.

Wired: Everything evolves to eat ants.
Mammals have evolved into ant eaters 12 times since the dinosaur age, study finds
Mammals have developed some unusual eating habits over the past 100 million years, but a new study has uncovered the surprising lengths to which some have gone to satisfy one of the more peculiar—a ta...
phys.org
January 7, 2026 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Mark Peifer (He, him)
jexpbiol.bsky.social
JEB is proud to be sponsoring the 2026 @sicbjournals.bsky.social Carl Gans Lecture by Armita Manafzadeh @armanafzadeh.bsky.social at 13:30 in Oregon 201, the Oregon Convention Center

Dr Manafzadeh's lecture is entitled 'Joints: form, function, and the future of comparative biomechanics'
The SICB 2026 logo. The text on the left reads: 'SICB 2026. 3-7 January Portland, OR. Oregon Convention Center. The image on the right is a cartoon of downtown Portland, with pine trees and skyscrapers
January 7, 2026 at 10:35 AM