🏳️‍🌈🪱🧬
rogerdjp.bsky.social
🏳️‍🌈🪱🧬
@rogerdjp.bsky.social
Neurogeneticist studying the neurobiology of behaviour and physiology in Caenorhabditis elegans. See monash.edu/discovery-institute/pocock-lab
An exciting opportunity at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute in Melbourne!
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
EMBL Australia Group Leader, Neural Regeneration - Monash University, Monash (AU) job with Monash University | 12844439
Shape the Future of Regenerative Medicine – Become an EMBL Australia Group Leader at Monash University, Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute
www.nature.com
September 14, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Check out our pre-print on how gas sensing neurons enable animals to anticipate mitochondrial stress!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Gas-sensing neurons prime mitochondrial fitness to offset metabolic stress
Animals integrate environmental and internal cues to maintain homeostasis and health. The mitochondrial stress response is an essential cytoprotective mechanism, and priming its activation provides a survival advantage. Here, we show that the Caenorhabditis elegans receptor guanylyl cyclase GCY-9 regulates neuropeptide signalling from carbon dioxide sensing neurons to govern a non-canonical mitochondrial stress response in the intestine. This stress response induces atypical mitochondrial chaperone transcription, confers mitochondrial stress resistance, and increases mitochondrial membrane potential and respiration. GCY-9 loss disrupts pathogen avoidance, leading to indiscriminate feeding. We show that starvation decreases GCY-9 expression and propose that the resultant cytoprotective program is launched to offset risks associated with this behaviour. Thus, environmental sensing by peripheral neurons can pre-emptively enhance systemic mitochondrial function in response to metabolic uncertainty. One-Sentence Summary Protecting mitochondria by integrating environmental signals ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Health and Medical Research Council, GNT1137645, GNT2000766
www.biorxiv.org
July 7, 2025 at 5:14 AM
What a wonderful International Worm Meeting. Thanks to Cathy Savage-Dunn @cswormlab.bsky.social
and Baris Tursun @baristursun.bsky.social for organising #worm25!!

Meeting old friends and new, a Nobel Prize celebration, and finding out that worms can hear! The talks and posters were exceptional.
July 5, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Reposted by 🏳️‍🌈🪱🧬
“Do you have any advice for aspiring young scientists?”

“Do genetics.” *mic drop*

#worm25
Fantastic Nobel Moment at #worm25 with Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun.
June 30, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by 🏳️‍🌈🪱🧬
Functional depletion of MDT-29 during the larval germ line development in #Celagans boosted fecundity through an expansion of the germline stem cell pool and decreased germ cell apoptosis.🪱

Learn more about this #GENETICS study from the @rogerdjp.bsky.social lab: buff.ly/21pVeb6
May 23, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Check out our new research published @genetics-gsa.bsky.social
The #GENETICS cover shows endogenous MDT-29::GFP expression in an adult #Celegans hermaphrodite and embryos. From the Fan et al. article in this issue (iyaf051). Read the full May issue: buff.ly/pN3AnPU

📸: Qi Fan
May 9, 2025 at 7:03 AM