Thanks, Neha!

Thanks also to all the co-authors, including Rutuparna Joshi, Ying Xiao, and @vvishakha.bsky.social. I couldn’t be prouder of this team and the creative, collaborative spirit that brought this project to life. Also grateful to the NSF and NIDCR at NIH for funding this research.

And kudos to Jeffrey Matthew @matthewjeffre.bsky.social, co-first author, who expanded and completed the work with great care and rigor. He is now a postdoc at UPenn, studying regeneration.

A very special shout-out to Luke Woodward, our first author, who began this project as an undergraduate and delivered exceptional results—both in quality and quantity. He is now pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, studying heart development.

We show that the sulfation enzyme PAPS synthetase (Papss) is required for organizing the non-chitinous aECM of the Drosophila salivary gland. We also identify and characterize zona pellucida domain proteins as some of the first known components of this non-chitinous aECM.

In this study, we uncover the critical role of #sulfation —a key post-translational modification of proteins and proteoglycan side chains—in organizing the apical extracellular matrix (aECM) during tubulogenesis. While the #aECM is essential for tissue development, it is still poorly understood.

This work was first reviewed by @reviewcommons.org, which has become my favorite way to have a paper reviewed. After a full revision, we transferred the manuscript to @elife.bsky.social, where it is now officially published.

Several of my students also had the opportunity to present their own work and received great feedback. They were so excited and came back with much more enthusiasm and motivation!

Also congratulations to our talented undergraduates, Maggie Wheat (summa cum laude) and Cailyn Lee (College Honors) on their graduation! Can't wait to see what the future holds for them!

Great news!! Congratulations, Meera!

Amazing! Big congrats, Igor! Well deserved.

Thanks, Neha!

Thank you!