Big congrats to my brilliant colleagues and friends, check out the full study here www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Intriguingly, the scale and resolution of the study enabled them to capture how embryonic gene expression varies upon different exposures. Hence, the color variations illustrate the spectrum of subtle phenotypic changes detected in otherwise seemingly identical embryos 🟢🟡🟣⚪️🔴

To robustly identify the earliest molecular signatures of inter generational inheritance, they profiled 100s of embryos, across 3 paternal treatments, 2 paternal ages and 2 genetic backgrounds - represented here by an array of mouse blastocysts (each a real microscopy pic!) 🐁🐁

POP art, with its serial repetitions and many colour variations of otherwise identical objects perfectly embodies this systematic, impressively large-scale study and its key findings.

By the way, the image for this talk about how cancer cells adapt was painted by the amazing Marzia Munafò! Thank you @munafomarzia.bsky.social!

Fully agree!

🤩 Art by @drewberry.bsky.social @loliboldu.bsky.social @patriciabondia.bsky.social @jayeperview.bsky.social @hudrewthis.bsky.social @molmir.bsky.social @munafomarzia.bsky.social @snowotarski.bsky.social @marykoreilly.bsky.social @biyolokum.bsky.social @ahnaskop.bsky.social @bryanwelm.bsky.social

Thank you, @munafomarzia.bsky.social, for this amazing artistic representation of our work! 🤩🐟❤️

I loved how subtle aspects were incorporated into this piece, like the tripartite key, drawings of sperm and egg on the door and even some phylogenetic trees!
🌟 But did you notice, what lies beyond the door? Ribosomes and molecules found within the egg!

Thanks Joaquina! 😍😍

To read more —> check out the study here www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Notably, the sperm complex is conserved from fish to mammals whilst its oocyte binding partner differs, that is why we show both 🐠 and 🐁 on the door.

To design the door, I took inspiration from Art Nouveau - which had some of its prime examples in the Viennese art scene of early XX century, which o really love. Plus the Pauli Group is indeed based at the Vienna Biocenter!

The functional key is made of three different segments, exemplifying the tripartite complex of Tmem81, Izumo1 and Spaca6. But before identifying Tmem81, they ran an in silico screen - equivalent to testing a bunch of different keys 🔑🗝️🗝️🔐 until they found the correct one.

Deneke, Blaha et al. report that a tripartite complex on the sperm heads binds to a receptor on the egg surface and is required for egg-sperm fusion. We decided to use a simple metaphor for this: a tripartite key unlocking the oocyte door and opening the way to embryonic development. 🚪