Andrew Gordus
@elegansdiversus.bsky.social
We are a behavioral neuroscience lab that uses C. elegans and orb-weaving spiders (Uloborus diversus) to understand the neuronal and genetic underpinnings of behavior.
https://gorduslab.bio.jhu.edu/
https://gorduslab.bio.jhu.edu/
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
Years ago @lauragrima.bsky.social talked about what a pity it is when scientists who work on #foraging miss out on fruitful interactions because they work with different animals. Together with collegues we started a virtual seminar series, which grew into a conference and now a review!
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
authors.elsevier.com
October 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Years ago @lauragrima.bsky.social talked about what a pity it is when scientists who work on #foraging miss out on fruitful interactions because they work with different animals. Together with collegues we started a virtual seminar series, which grew into a conference and now a review!
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]
September 24, 2025 at 8:33 PM
C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
Happy to announce that @ajblake05.bsky.social’s JEB paper was selected as this month’s Editors Choice article. This article discovered that mosquito color/wavelength preferences shift depending on the odor they experience.
September 2, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Happy to announce that @ajblake05.bsky.social’s JEB paper was selected as this month’s Editors Choice article. This article discovered that mosquito color/wavelength preferences shift depending on the odor they experience.
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
New paper on the role of H3K4me3 at enhancers! We (led by Haoming Yu) used dCas9 epigenome editing to add H3K4me3 to intergenic enhancers. This was (1) sufficient to turn up transcription at open, active regions and (2) has no effect on target gene transcription. genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...
H3K4me3 amplifies transcription at intergenic active regulatory elements
A biweekly scientific journal publishing high-quality research in molecular biology and genetics, cancer biology, biochemistry, and related fields
genesdev.cshlp.org
August 20, 2025 at 1:29 AM
New paper on the role of H3K4me3 at enhancers! We (led by Haoming Yu) used dCas9 epigenome editing to add H3K4me3 to intergenic enhancers. This was (1) sufficient to turn up transcription at open, active regions and (2) has no effect on target gene transcription. genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...
If you are in the Baltimore area and want to get away from the heat, come down to the Parkway Theater for a screening of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at 4 pm today! I’ll be giving a short talk beforehand on the natural superpowers of spiders.
parkway.eventive.org/schedule/683...
parkway.eventive.org/schedule/683...
SNF PARKWAY THEATRE
parkway.eventive.org
June 22, 2025 at 5:53 PM
If you are in the Baltimore area and want to get away from the heat, come down to the Parkway Theater for a screening of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at 4 pm today! I’ll be giving a short talk beforehand on the natural superpowers of spiders.
parkway.eventive.org/schedule/683...
parkway.eventive.org/schedule/683...
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
A new review paper from the lab—fun times with sea spider and daddy-long legs embryos!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Evolution and homology of leg segments in Chelicerata: Evo-devo solutions to century-old challenges
A major theme in the evolution of Arthropoda is the origin and diversification of jointed appendages. One appealing framework for the evolution of art…
www.sciencedirect.com
April 30, 2025 at 5:44 PM
A new review paper from the lab—fun times with sea spider and daddy-long legs embryos!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
It was a beautiful day yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial! #standupforscience2025
March 8, 2025 at 10:19 PM
It was a beautiful day yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial! #standupforscience2025
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
The lab is delighted to release the first genome for the giant American vinegaroon! The slowly-evolving order Uropygi captures the strongest signature yet of the arachnopulmonate whole genome duplication. #biodiversity #genomics
academic.oup.com/jhered/advan...
academic.oup.com/jhered/advan...
A chromosome-level genome of the giant vinegaroon Mastigoproctus giganteus exhibits the signature of pre-Silurian whole genome duplication
Abstract. Within the arachnids, chromosome-level genome assemblies have greatly accelerated the understanding of gene family evolution and developmental ge
academic.oup.com
February 7, 2025 at 5:46 PM
The lab is delighted to release the first genome for the giant American vinegaroon! The slowly-evolving order Uropygi captures the strongest signature yet of the arachnopulmonate whole genome duplication. #biodiversity #genomics
academic.oup.com/jhered/advan...
academic.oup.com/jhered/advan...
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Olfaction in spiders. We found that the wall pore sensilla in spiders look similar from the outside to those of insects, but differ ultrastructurally in various ways. Independent evolution!
🧪
Olfaction in spiders. We found that the wall pore sensilla in spiders look similar from the outside to those of insects, but differ ultrastructurally in various ways. Independent evolution!
🧪
Olfaction with legs—Spiders use wall-pore sensilla for pheromone detection | PNAS
The sense of smell is a central sensory modality of most terrestrial species. However,
our knowledge of olfaction is based on vertebrates and insec...
doi.org
January 6, 2025 at 10:34 PM
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Olfaction in spiders. We found that the wall pore sensilla in spiders look similar from the outside to those of insects, but differ ultrastructurally in various ways. Independent evolution!
🧪
Olfaction in spiders. We found that the wall pore sensilla in spiders look similar from the outside to those of insects, but differ ultrastructurally in various ways. Independent evolution!
🧪
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
For our inaugural post on bsky, we're happy to share our preprint on tardigrades as a new model organism for neuroscience. Exciting times for these little critters! www.focolab.org/post/our-pre...
Our preprint "The tardigrade as an emerging model organism for systems neuroscience" is up.
We have been making the case for some time that tardigrades, aka water bears, would be an amazing new model organism for certain big systems neuroscience questions. We put this into a detailed paper o...
www.focolab.org
January 14, 2025 at 7:09 PM
For our inaugural post on bsky, we're happy to share our preprint on tardigrades as a new model organism for neuroscience. Exciting times for these little critters! www.focolab.org/post/our-pre...
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
Very happy to share our paper on the sense of smell in spiders.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#chemicalecology, #pheromon, #sensoryorgans #spiders,
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#chemicalecology, #pheromon, #sensoryorgans #spiders,
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
January 6, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Very happy to share our paper on the sense of smell in spiders.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#chemicalecology, #pheromon, #sensoryorgans #spiders,
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#chemicalecology, #pheromon, #sensoryorgans #spiders,
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
Our DNA is not randomly stuffed into the nucleus but has a defined architecture that's key to chromosome mechanics and gene regulation. This is a very informative review for anyone like me who teaches this material or to those outside the field who want a clear and cogent summary 🧪
🔺🔺🔺RED TRIANGLE ALERT 🔺🔺🔺
Ever wonder how #TADs compare across the tree of life?Look no further & read our Review!!!
Find out what genes & 3D chromatin can & can't do in Bacteria! Archeae! Yeast! Plants! Animals!
SMCs & RNA-Pol are the only thing they have in common
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ever wonder how #TADs compare across the tree of life?Look no further & read our Review!!!
Find out what genes & 3D chromatin can & can't do in Bacteria! Archeae! Yeast! Plants! Animals!
SMCs & RNA-Pol are the only thing they have in common
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Evolution and function of chromatin domains across the tree of life - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
Szalay et al. discuss cross-kingdom similarities and differences in 3D chromatin folding in relation to gene regulation, including in bacteria, archaea, mammals and plants. This comparison reveals cer...
www.nature.com
December 1, 2024 at 12:42 PM
Our DNA is not randomly stuffed into the nucleus but has a defined architecture that's key to chromosome mechanics and gene regulation. This is a very informative review for anyone like me who teaches this material or to those outside the field who want a clear and cogent summary 🧪
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
Order matters: neurons in the human brain fire in sequences that encode information www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Order matters: neurons in the human brain fire in sequences that encode information
A timing-based code for semantic knowledge in humans complements the established role of firing rates in neural coding.
www.nature.com
November 28, 2024 at 4:26 PM
Order matters: neurons in the human brain fire in sequences that encode information www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
Following the news that eLife will not receive an Impact Factor in 2025, we’ve shared an update on how our model is doing since we were first placed “on hold” by Web of Science, and what we’re up to now. Find out more.
https://buff.ly/3ATRAFT
https://buff.ly/3ATRAFT
The eLife Model: An update on progress following changes in Web of Science indexing status
Following the decision that eLife will not receive an Impact Factor in 2025, we share an update on how our model is doing since we were first placed “on hold” by Web of Science, and what we’re up to…
buff.ly
November 20, 2024 at 5:44 PM
Following the news that eLife will not receive an Impact Factor in 2025, we’ve shared an update on how our model is doing since we were first placed “on hold” by Web of Science, and what we’re up to now. Find out more.
https://buff.ly/3ATRAFT
https://buff.ly/3ATRAFT
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
Astronomers have just discovered the first known "Einstein zigzag."
Due to a lucky cosmic alignment, the combined gravity of two galaxies bent light like spaghetti & split a distant quasar into six different images. 🧪🔭
www.science.org/content/arti...
Due to a lucky cosmic alignment, the combined gravity of two galaxies bent light like spaghetti & split a distant quasar into six different images. 🧪🔭
www.science.org/content/arti...
November 17, 2024 at 3:26 PM
Astronomers have just discovered the first known "Einstein zigzag."
Due to a lucky cosmic alignment, the combined gravity of two galaxies bent light like spaghetti & split a distant quasar into six different images. 🧪🔭
www.science.org/content/arti...
Due to a lucky cosmic alignment, the combined gravity of two galaxies bent light like spaghetti & split a distant quasar into six different images. 🧪🔭
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
In September the world lost one of the great biologists of our time: Joe Gall. He bridged the transition from the histology era of cell biology to our molecular present, contributing a remarkable set of insights in his 9 decades 1/n 🧪
rupress.org/jcb/article-...
rupress.org/jcb/article-...
November 16, 2024 at 1:28 PM
In September the world lost one of the great biologists of our time: Joe Gall. He bridged the transition from the histology era of cell biology to our molecular present, contributing a remarkable set of insights in his 9 decades 1/n 🧪
rupress.org/jcb/article-...
rupress.org/jcb/article-...
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
"Specialized structure and function of the apical extracellular matrix at sense organs"
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...
Your sensory neurons don't just dangle out into the world.
They are covered by ECM that selectively transmits forces, tastes, or odors, or focuses light.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...
Your sensory neurons don't just dangle out into the world.
They are covered by ECM that selectively transmits forces, tastes, or odors, or focuses light.
August 6, 2024 at 1:15 PM
"Specialized structure and function of the apical extracellular matrix at sense organs"
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...
Your sensory neurons don't just dangle out into the world.
They are covered by ECM that selectively transmits forces, tastes, or odors, or focuses light.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...
Your sensory neurons don't just dangle out into the world.
They are covered by ECM that selectively transmits forces, tastes, or odors, or focuses light.
Reposted by Andrew Gordus
Looking for a tag to localise fluorescent proteins to the plasma membrane? Unsure which tag might work in your species? We generated a toolkit of 11 membrane-localising tags, which can be screened rapidly by microinjecting mRNA in your species of interest. 1/4
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A toolkit for testing membrane localisation tags across species
Transgenic markers and tools have revolutionised how we study cells and developing organisms. Some of the elements needed to construct those tools are universally applicable (e.g. fluorescent proteins...
www.biorxiv.org
November 12, 2024 at 11:05 PM
Looking for a tag to localise fluorescent proteins to the plasma membrane? Unsure which tag might work in your species? We generated a toolkit of 11 membrane-localising tags, which can be screened rapidly by microinjecting mRNA in your species of interest. 1/4
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...