interested in mechanobiology and physics of living systems? this is the conference for you! Join us 9-12 June in Heidelberg! with @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social @xaviertrepat.bsky.social Enrique Rojas & Alba Diz-Munoz Registration OPEN www.embl.org/about/info/c...

Our special issue on ‘Cilia and Flagella’ is now out! Huge thanks to all (authors + reviewers) who contributed, and to our wonderful Guest Editors (@cilialab.bsky.social + @lottepedersen.bsky.social) for pulling it together. Happy reading! #cilia #flagella journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...

In May 2024 we had a great workshop on chemotaxis in the MPI PKS in Dresden! The social impressions are in the picture below, and the scientific discussions are summarised in Angewandte Chemie lnkd.in/d6ymRhGK What a nice way to remember!

First neurons didn’t appear overnight. We trace their roots to ancient secretory cells - showing how lifestyle & behavior shaped the evolution of first synapses.🧠🌊 #Evolution #Neuroscience Our latest in @natrevneuro.nature.com Link: rdcu.be/eMX3E @jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

Are you looking for a PhD starting in September 2026/27? Then do not miss the fantastic opportunity to be part of the LSI PhD Community. New positions for the LSI PhD Programme are out now. www.exeter.ac.uk/research/ins... Deadline: 26.11.2025

‪ Outstanding work by the entire team - congratulations to all authors involved! It’s great to see the precision and performance of the @rappopto.bsky.social Caliburn ablation laser in action — the level of detail in those cuts is genuinely impressive.

🎆 Join us for an unmissable finale to 2025! 🎆 We're thrilled to bring our #cilia & #centrosome community together 25/11/2025 15:00-17:45 GMT! Our 53rd @bscb-official.bsky.social @gensocuk.bsky.social @ukcilianetwork.bsky.social e-symposium schedule is live: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bscb-genso... /1

Many thanks to all participants to the CFC2025 meeting last week for having made it such a vibrant experience! So much exciting research on #cilia

The flagellar pocket collar (FPC) is a cytoskeletal structure essential for nutrient uptake & immune evasion in #Trypanosome. @mbonhivers.bsky.social &co use U-ExM to provide novel insights into FPC biogenesis, and reveal 2 unknown cytoskeletal structures @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4n3bWi6

This week has been special for us, marking 100 years of supporting biologists and inspiring biology. We celebrated our achievements at @zoologymuseum.bsky.social last night. We want to thank all our staff, whose continual inspiration and daily support for one another make our work possible.

something strange about this list perhaps 🤨

New research has unravelled the mystery of how microscopic cilia choreograph their “Mexican wave”, enabling marine creatures to swim. Cilia are tiny, hair-like protrusions found in many organisms. Yet despite decades of research, the mechanisms of cilia coordination remained disputed.

Final version of our paper on ciliary metachronal waves out now in Science Advances! doi.org/10.1126/scia... This is the main thesis work of my PhD student Rebecca Poon, who caught many #platnereis larvae and tirelessly ablated them with a laser. THREAD

We have PhD and Postdoc positions open in our group. Join us in Lausanne to explore how cells pull off extreme shape changes and how cilia drive biological flows. You can find more details on the projects available and how to apply in our website: www.epfl.ch/labs/lpl/joi...

Thank you @bastinlab.bsky.social and Sylvie Friant for organising this amazing #cilia meeting! 🙏 So many interesting discussions, and not enough time! Just look at this beautiful venue... 🤩

Still puzzled by the debate on organismal agency? Our edited collection brings historians, philosophers, and scientists into dialogue—offering a wide array of perspectives. An affordable paperback edition will be out at the end of the month! www.routledge.com/The-Riddle-o... #HPS #evobio #philsky

Biology is much more complicated than most non-biologists can imagine. And AI is not going to change this anytime soon. blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...

Very sad to hear that Sir John Gurdon, former Master of Magdalene College, has passed away at the age of 92. www.cam.ac.uk/research/new... Here is a powerful reminder that you should never give up on your dreams.

Out in Science Advances: Our #cryoEM structure of HFTV1, a virus infecting the halophile #archaea. *First full atomic structure (containing all structural proteins) of any tailed virus!* Congrats and thanks to all co-authors and our fantastic collaborators! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports... This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵

Lacrymaria olor means "swan tear" in Latin, referring to their tear-shape & swan-like neck that can extend 30 times the length of the cell. They're eukaryotes, like us, but single-celled & ciliated. They live in pond water, where they're predators of... just about *everything*. (🔬: Charles Krebs)

Not sure how i got here but here is an epic thread of some 200 facts about clams... 😱

Another season has started as well. We now find many different ctenophores in Byfjorden, a fjord that runs into the city center of Bergen. Here the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi: it uses a row of cilia called comb plates to swim. When hit by light, they create shimmering rainbows along their bodies.

Happy to share the inaugural paper from the lab. We describe a molecular mechanism for the activation of outer dynein arm motors that power the vital motion of cilia. Open access link below: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Here's a cool animated summary

Beautiful drawing of ciliogenesis in airway cells from Sorokin, 1968: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/.... Just shown on stage by @mahjoublab.bsky.social at #GEF25

Kirsty Wan (@micromotility.bsky.social) starts the second day of the workshop with a tour de force overview of the behavioral complexity of single-celled organisms and ways to study and model it. #evosky #cellbio #HPbio

thanks @aria-research.bsky.social for highlighting our research on the computational capabilities of single-celled organisms! #protists Watch this space for more exciting developments @lsiexeter.bsky.social

Using a new workflow, we map ciliated (green) and secretory cells (pink) that line the epithelium of whole human fallopian tube. With age (menopause), the number of ciliated cells decreases and the number of secretory cells increases. More here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Love #protists? Then you'd love this! Beautiful collection of hand-drawn critters represented here at the Oxford-Japan symposium on ethological dynamics in diorama environments sites.google.com/view/oxford-... #ciliates #testateamoeba #diatoms

New preprint 🌊🫶 "A diverse community constitutes global coccolithophore calcium carbonate stocks" Three large coccolithophores together hold about half of the global CaCO₃ stock! G. huxleyi <10% ➡️ climate models need to include this broader diversity! 📄 doi.org/10.1101/2025... #protistsonsky

congrats Guillermina, Arnold et al! #ciliaarecool

We've had a very active summer of Cilia and Centrosome science! We had our Annual Network meeting in London this year organised by Prof. Hannah Mitchison and Dr. Dagan Jenkins. Meeting highlights are now available to read on the network website. www.cilianetwork.org.uk/events/annua...

Cilia in space! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This looks really cool!

🚨 New preprint! 🚨 #Zebrafish LRO #cilia are structurally diverse & essential for LRO morphogenesis. #Optogenetics + #vEM reveal new roles for cilia in organ architecture. 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our special issue of Phil Trans Roy Soc A on "Biological Fluid Dynamics" Emerging Directions" is officially out now! Originating from discussions at one of our SIG meetings, this special issue has 16 research articles and reviews on all things bioactive! royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rsta/202...

Your daily reminder that contrary to *that* eponymous theorem... Scallops swim pretty fast and probably use jet propulsion.. 😬

The final version of our review on biological filaments is out in Philtrans A (w/@jcammann.bsky.social Hannah Laeverenz-Schlogelhofer & Marco Mazza) - we have 417 references! Enjoy :) doi.org/10.1098/rsta... (see also other articles in this special issue on biological fluid dynamics) #biophysics

We have a postdoc opening for a protistologist with biophysics inclinations to join our @hfspo.bsky.social project! (focus will be on characterising the morphology, ultrastructure and behaviour of excavates) #protistsonsky Apply by Sept 17th (RTs appreciated!) jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

KIF13B controls ciliary protein content by promoting endocytic retrieval and suppressing release of large extracellular vesicles from cilia: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

I broke some shells of Galeripora artocrea, to look at their algal hostages...and accidentally created Pac-Man amoebae. #amoebae #peatlands #ProtistsOnSky

What you're looking at is a brand new protist species! 🤯🔬 Isn't it beautiful? This image is just a glimpse of what's to come. We can't wait to share our full findings soon, in partnership with Guifré @beaplab.bsky.social @luisjagago.bsky.social. Stay tuned! #NewSpecies #protistsonSky #diversity

Did you know tiny algae can "skate" within Arctic sea ice? ⛸️ Our new study in @pnas.org reveals the secret life of ice diatoms: they are actively gliding to navigate the ice! This adds a new dimension to the sea ice ecosystem, revealing an active, dynamic ecological niche. @prakashlab.bsky.social

Do diatoms disprove physics? Not really. They also exert a force on the substrate, but this time, the action occurs at the molecular scale: movement is powered by adhesive transmembrane proteins stuck to the substrate and coupled to intracellular molecular motors. (fig: tinyurl.com/ytd55aw5)

New short paper from our lab @currentbiology.bsky.social, in which we discover of a new mode of cell motility for choanoflagellates: flagellar gliding. www.cell.com/current-biol... - A 🧵

We are recruiting 2 postdocs to work on bacterial motility using a combination of cryoEM, FLM and MD. An exciting collaboration with Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social Wolfram Moebius @wolframmoebius.bsky.social and Daniel Kattnig. Please see links in the thread below!

Mechanosensation and fast reorientation of ciliary structures: Marvin's work on the surprising locomotion capabilities of Trichoplax, an animal without neurons! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began go.nature.com/3JyRV4S

What could be more exciting than watching Euplotes scurry around under the microscope? How about adding some raptorial predation by supergiant cannibal cells? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Video by Vittorio Boscaro. 1/n

Complex behaviour is not limited to animals! Here we map the entire spectrum of waveforms dynamics on a quadriflagellate single cell with 4x 70um (!) #cilia, to a low dimensional behavioural manifold with surprising structure! #protistsonsky All revealed in our new preprint doi.org/10.1101/2025...