Anna A Monaco
@annaamonaco.bsky.social
Evolution enthusiast and explorer of the dark genome | scicomm advocate | sometimes also artist | she/they🇿🇦🇮🇹
Postdoctoral researcher at MPIMG
https://darkgenomevo.wordpress.com
Postdoctoral researcher at MPIMG
https://darkgenomevo.wordpress.com
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
We were very happy to welcome this amazing group of early-career researchers as part of the @Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin! Special thanks to @annaamonaco.bsky.social (Mundlos Lab) and @matthewkraushar.bsky.social for hosting the group and providing an in-depth tour of their labs!
November 11, 2025 at 10:07 AM
We were very happy to welcome this amazing group of early-career researchers as part of the @Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin! Special thanks to @annaamonaco.bsky.social (Mundlos Lab) and @matthewkraushar.bsky.social for hosting the group and providing an in-depth tour of their labs!
Go join Ivano and Ale!!! Great people and great science 🧫✨
Bonus credits: all work in thread is by our incredible lab chancellor @azappulo.bsky.social, who will co-supervise this project
November 11, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Go join Ivano and Ale!!! Great people and great science 🧫✨
It’s Halloween 🎃 which means spooky skeleton time! ☠️ And what is spookier than making us entirely re-think our concept of cell type?
Learn how each domain of bone is shaped by its own pressures, answering to its own ancestral ghosts 👻
tinyurl.com/mt8cwdvk
Learn how each domain of bone is shaped by its own pressures, answering to its own ancestral ghosts 👻
tinyurl.com/mt8cwdvk
Three bone bloodlines
The vertebrate skeleton is formed from three embryonic lineages, each contributing to different bone types. While skeletal progenitors converge on shared functions, they retain unique molecular sig…
tinyurl.com
October 31, 2025 at 5:03 PM
It’s Halloween 🎃 which means spooky skeleton time! ☠️ And what is spookier than making us entirely re-think our concept of cell type?
Learn how each domain of bone is shaped by its own pressures, answering to its own ancestral ghosts 👻
tinyurl.com/mt8cwdvk
Learn how each domain of bone is shaped by its own pressures, answering to its own ancestral ghosts 👻
tinyurl.com/mt8cwdvk
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
My new lab at the @molgen.mpg.de will be following up on some of the nuclear organization aspects of ecDNA so please do reach out if this is of interest :)
October 21, 2025 at 9:43 AM
My new lab at the @molgen.mpg.de will be following up on some of the nuclear organization aspects of ecDNA so please do reach out if this is of interest :)
To all ERCs looking to dip their toes in data analysis: I cannot recommend this enough!
Fancy a trip to scenic Barcelona? ☀️ Or maybe to historic Heidelberg? 🏰 You're in luck: #EMBLDataCarpentry lets you combine hands-on data carpentry training with the destination of your choice. Apply by 27 Oct 👉 s.embl.org/dtc26-01-bl
📆 2 – 6 Feb
🌍 EMBL Heidelberg and @barcelonacollaboratorium.com
📆 2 – 6 Feb
🌍 EMBL Heidelberg and @barcelonacollaboratorium.com
October 17, 2025 at 6:23 AM
To all ERCs looking to dip their toes in data analysis: I cannot recommend this enough!
How your email finds me
October 15, 2025 at 7:55 PM
How your email finds me
I’d like to distract you from The Horrors™️ with what I’m pretty sure is a spotted sea hare (Aplysia dactylomela). I found this beauty and 6 of their friends while staring into tide pools like the goblin I am.
October 5, 2025 at 5:50 PM
I’d like to distract you from The Horrors™️ with what I’m pretty sure is a spotted sea hare (Aplysia dactylomela). I found this beauty and 6 of their friends while staring into tide pools like the goblin I am.
I usually write about what fascinates me, but this time it had to be about my concerns. This took a long time to write, I had a lot of thoughts, feelings, and literature to work through. There is still much more I’d like to say, but for now I leave you with this read.
tinyurl.com/y6hx838y
tinyurl.com/y6hx838y
The smoke and mirrors of de-extinction
Jurassic Park’s warnings about scientific ambition echo today as biotech companies pursue de-extinction. However, these efforts often overlook ecological realities and distract from pressing conser…
tinyurl.com
September 25, 2025 at 6:13 PM
I usually write about what fascinates me, but this time it had to be about my concerns. This took a long time to write, I had a lot of thoughts, feelings, and literature to work through. There is still much more I’d like to say, but for now I leave you with this read.
tinyurl.com/y6hx838y
tinyurl.com/y6hx838y
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
Hey a thing I really don’t want to get lost here is that while Tylenol doesn’t cause autism, IT’S FINE TO BE AUTISTIC. Let’s not grant them the premise that autism should be eradicated in our way to correct the science, okay? Okay.
September 22, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Hey a thing I really don’t want to get lost here is that while Tylenol doesn’t cause autism, IT’S FINE TO BE AUTISTIC. Let’s not grant them the premise that autism should be eradicated in our way to correct the science, okay? Okay.
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
It's Wacky Hat Day
September 7, 2025 at 11:10 PM
It's Wacky Hat Day
A bit late, but I finally got around to writing an accessible piece about @julianeg.bsky.social 's cover article from July. In case you needed something else to worry about in this day and age! 🦠
tinyurl.com/mrx5tfre
#scicomm #devbio #transposons
tinyurl.com/mrx5tfre
#scicomm #devbio #transposons
Awakening monsters in the dark (genome)
Hidden in our DNA are “jumping genes” that usually stay silent. But sometimes they wake up, reshaping bodies in dramatic ways. A strange mutation in mice showed how one rogue element near a key lim…
tinyurl.com
September 7, 2025 at 8:33 AM
A bit late, but I finally got around to writing an accessible piece about @julianeg.bsky.social 's cover article from July. In case you needed something else to worry about in this day and age! 🦠
tinyurl.com/mrx5tfre
#scicomm #devbio #transposons
tinyurl.com/mrx5tfre
#scicomm #devbio #transposons
I can’t believe I missed this! Yet another amazing work by Brent on deep regulatory homology in vertebrates and the fin-to-limb transition. An absolute must read 🐠🐟🐡
We take for granted that our hands have two sides and can articulate in an endless number of ways. But what about a fish’s fin? Can a fish know something “like the back of its fin,” or have its future told with a fin palm reading? Check out this bluetorial to find out 👇🧪🧬🐟 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
September 3, 2025 at 6:27 AM
I can’t believe I missed this! Yet another amazing work by Brent on deep regulatory homology in vertebrates and the fin-to-limb transition. An absolute must read 🐠🐟🐡
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
The secret to shrew brain shrinkage? 🤔
Not cell loss, but water loss!
Our new paper shows that brain cells shrink by losing water, a wild feat of brain plasticity 🤯
Check the paper!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @labdavalos.bsky.social @batichica.bsky.social
Not cell loss, but water loss!
Our new paper shows that brain cells shrink by losing water, a wild feat of brain plasticity 🤯
Check the paper!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @labdavalos.bsky.social @batichica.bsky.social
Programmed seasonal brain shrinkage in the common shrew via water loss without cell death
Brain plasticity, the brain’s inherent ability to adapt its structure and function, is crucial for responding to environmental challenges but is usual…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
The secret to shrew brain shrinkage? 🤔
Not cell loss, but water loss!
Our new paper shows that brain cells shrink by losing water, a wild feat of brain plasticity 🤯
Check the paper!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @labdavalos.bsky.social @batichica.bsky.social
Not cell loss, but water loss!
Our new paper shows that brain cells shrink by losing water, a wild feat of brain plasticity 🤯
Check the paper!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @labdavalos.bsky.social @batichica.bsky.social
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum)🦎 can regrow limbs, tail, spinal cord, heart, and even parts of its brain. Axolotls are champions of regeneration and also shed light on limb patterning, wound healing, and developmental plasticity. Image from Prayag Murawala #ModelMonday #DevBio
September 2, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum)🦎 can regrow limbs, tail, spinal cord, heart, and even parts of its brain. Axolotls are champions of regeneration and also shed light on limb patterning, wound healing, and developmental plasticity. Image from Prayag Murawala #ModelMonday #DevBio
The peppered moth is a textbook example of natural selection, its colours shifting with the soot-darkened trees of the Industrial Revolution. But the genetic secret behind its “dark” form took 150 years to uncover: a new “jumping gene” that rapidly took over the population.
🦋 tinyurl.com/4zrc4e93
🦋 tinyurl.com/4zrc4e93
The “dark” secret of industrial moths
The peppered moth has long been a textbook example of natural selection, its colours shifting with the soot-darkened trees of the Industrial Revolution. But the genetic secret behind its “dark” for…
tinyurl.com
August 21, 2025 at 7:32 AM
The peppered moth is a textbook example of natural selection, its colours shifting with the soot-darkened trees of the Industrial Revolution. But the genetic secret behind its “dark” form took 150 years to uncover: a new “jumping gene” that rapidly took over the population.
🦋 tinyurl.com/4zrc4e93
🦋 tinyurl.com/4zrc4e93
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
#OnThisDay in 1858, a seminal journal article comprised of papers by Alfred Russel Wallace FRS and Charles Darwin FRS on the theory of evolution by natural selection was published by the Linnean Society, the first public announcement of the theory of evolution. bit.ly/3k8fq4u
August 20, 2025 at 1:36 PM
#OnThisDay in 1858, a seminal journal article comprised of papers by Alfred Russel Wallace FRS and Charles Darwin FRS on the theory of evolution by natural selection was published by the Linnean Society, the first public announcement of the theory of evolution. bit.ly/3k8fq4u
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
The biggest trick the devil ever pulled is to call LLMs “artificial intelligence.”
August 19, 2025 at 3:43 PM
The biggest trick the devil ever pulled is to call LLMs “artificial intelligence.”
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
The Max Planck Society is good at attracting international postdocs but struggles to retain them, survey finds
go.nature.com/4fFENHi
go.nature.com/4fFENHi
Postdoc depression and anxiety rates are rising, finds survey of 872 researchers
The Max Planck Society is good at attracting international postdocs but struggles to retain them, survey finds.
go.nature.com
August 13, 2025 at 9:20 AM
The Max Planck Society is good at attracting international postdocs but struggles to retain them, survey finds
go.nature.com/4fFENHi
go.nature.com/4fFENHi
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
A reminder you/your lab can support FlyBase at Cambridge through the following link. Every bit helps. Please share if you yourself can't donate.
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
August 14, 2025 at 5:25 AM
A reminder you/your lab can support FlyBase at Cambridge through the following link. Every bit helps. Please share if you yourself can't donate.
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
Pretty surreal to see my artwork on the cover of Nature Genetics! Big congrats to @julianeg.bsky.social, @stemundi.bsky.social and the others, and thank you Juliane for letting me help bring your research to life visually.
www.nature.com/ng/volumes/5...
www.nature.com/ng/volumes/5...
July 23, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Pretty surreal to see my artwork on the cover of Nature Genetics! Big congrats to @julianeg.bsky.social, @stemundi.bsky.social and the others, and thank you Juliane for letting me help bring your research to life visually.
www.nature.com/ng/volumes/5...
www.nature.com/ng/volumes/5...
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
🏳️🌈 Resilience in Times of Change: Join #mdcBerlin’s LGBTQI+ community for the 4th Pride Symposium on July 18 at #mdcBIMSB.
Talks, panel discussion, bake sale, and a Pride After Hour – amplifying queer voices in science.
Info and registration:
👉 www.mdc-berlin.de/news/news/me... 👈
Talks, panel discussion, bake sale, and a Pride After Hour – amplifying queer voices in science.
Info and registration:
👉 www.mdc-berlin.de/news/news/me... 👈
July 11, 2025 at 3:00 PM
🏳️🌈 Resilience in Times of Change: Join #mdcBerlin’s LGBTQI+ community for the 4th Pride Symposium on July 18 at #mdcBIMSB.
Talks, panel discussion, bake sale, and a Pride After Hour – amplifying queer voices in science.
Info and registration:
👉 www.mdc-berlin.de/news/news/me... 👈
Talks, panel discussion, bake sale, and a Pride After Hour – amplifying queer voices in science.
Info and registration:
👉 www.mdc-berlin.de/news/news/me... 👈
Reposted by Anna A Monaco
We are excited to officially welcome a new group leader at the MPI-IE in #Freiburg. 🎉
Dr Juliane Glaser 🥳 – she studies epigenetic mechanisms of embryonic development, with a focus on transposable elements. 👉 Interview: www.ie-freiburg.mpg.de/6043545/2025...
Welcome, @julianeg.bsky.social!
Dr Juliane Glaser 🥳 – she studies epigenetic mechanisms of embryonic development, with a focus on transposable elements. 👉 Interview: www.ie-freiburg.mpg.de/6043545/2025...
Welcome, @julianeg.bsky.social!
June 25, 2025 at 9:05 AM
We are excited to officially welcome a new group leader at the MPI-IE in #Freiburg. 🎉
Dr Juliane Glaser 🥳 – she studies epigenetic mechanisms of embryonic development, with a focus on transposable elements. 👉 Interview: www.ie-freiburg.mpg.de/6043545/2025...
Welcome, @julianeg.bsky.social!
Dr Juliane Glaser 🥳 – she studies epigenetic mechanisms of embryonic development, with a focus on transposable elements. 👉 Interview: www.ie-freiburg.mpg.de/6043545/2025...
Welcome, @julianeg.bsky.social!