It was a splendid experience getting to visit University of Miami and @zfishlady.bsky.social!

Fundamental biology is going strong there and I was impressed by the wide range of science going on! The trainees are super friendly and I had a blast. Thank you! 🐟🐠🧪 #zebrafish #devbio

The future of science is so bright! It was truly an honor to listen to what cool research these amazing undergraduates from around the U.S. have been conducting at the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium (GCURS), hosted by Rice University!
Congratulations presenters! 🧪🧬

Have been fortunate to host Dr. Margot Williams from @bcmhouston.bsky.social for a seminar today in the Biosciences department at Rice University. Such cool, innovative work! Also, a masterclass in how to deliver a talk.

Thank you for sharing your science, Margot!

Late last week, the 5th PhD student from my lab defended their thesis! Below is a "time lapse" of the traditional Rice University tie-cutting ceremony at Valhalla 🍾 👔 Congratulations, Dr. Rivas! We couldn't be prouder!

We celebrated the end of successful summer research projects in the lab last week. The undergrads and a high school student worked on projects investigating ENS development in zebrafish and learned a lot! So proud!

Special shout out to the graduate student and postdoc bench mentors, thank you!

@riceuniversity.bsky.social we started a #DevBio SuperGroup Colloquia where trainees formally presented their work all last academic year. It was a resounding success!

Check out some of the cool science happening at Rice in developmental biology. Special thank you to Lucia Rivas!

And, finally, today we had our very first accelerated B.S.-M.S. student very successfully defend their Master's thesis! Could not be more PROUD of my trainees and the successes we are bringing out to the community, all on federal NIH and NSF funding!

Secondly, my 4th Phd student, Dr. Rodrigo Ibarra Garcia Padilla, participated in his PhD graduation ceremony this past weekend, AND he also won Outstanding PhD Thesis in the Biochemistry and Cell Biology Graduate Program!
2/3

2025 has been a hard year, but I wanted to share some overall good news from my lab, the Laboratory of Neural Crest and Enteric Nervous System Development!

First, we had FIVE undergrads graduate from Rice, and many of them earned Distinction in Research Awards. So proud! Four in the 🖼️ are shown
1/3

expression patterns between the 4 and 7 days post fertilization (dpf) larval fish. Using a targeted candidate gene list of genes enriched in ENS progenitor cells from prior single-cell RNAseq, we discovered 3D details about not only their regional expression levels but also 3/4

these questions and leveraged the zebrafish larval model to map developing ENS using spatial genomic analysis (SGA). To enable SGA in whole mount, we developed sequential "Multiplex Whole Mount HCR in Slide" and discovered really cool data about the manifestation of 3D gene 2/4

What are the 3D spatial molecular patterns of differentiating enteric nervous system (ENS) in vivo? Are there co-expression networks? Are there spatially variable genes? In our preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @RodrigoMoreC et al explored 1/4

Posting to bring some happier news to the community.
We officially turned over the founding cohort of biomedical researchers from my lab at Rice University.
Everyone in this '19 picture has moved on to great positions after their Ph.D. (4 of them!), Bachelor's, or training. #ProudPI

We welcomed two new lab members in 2024!

Please join me in welcoming graduate student Dean Parenteau and postdoc Tulip Chandra to the ENS field.
Dean is working on ENS neurogenesis, and Tulip is working on ENS glial development! #devbio #zebrafish