Very good study from F. Gage’s lab on the impact of #astrocyte metabolism in species-specific neuronal development; possibly key for ‘neoteny’ 🧬🧠🌟 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A neuronal growth cone photographed through a microscope. Microtubules and actin filaments are shown. Technique: DIC and widefield fluorescence microscopy. #CellBiology

I found a gelato kiosk downtown Halifax. Hazelnut chocolate! Here’s your evidence @chrmosimann.bsky.social !

RhoGAP54D promotes cell size asymmetry and inhibits pulsatile myosin activity in Drosophila neural stem cells: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

“Though we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Tennyson (Ulysses).

Life as agency. An excellent essay by @philipcball.bsky.social. Can agency he defined? Is it unique to biological entities? Is it evolvable? Do collections of entities show agency? Can neural networks or ecosystems or even Earth (eg Gaia) be defined as “agentic”?

Titanic model floating in the pond of Halifax central gardens. Is that water green?

Today’s “bespoke” soft serve ice cream at Halifax’s tiny Dairybar is a twist of chocholate and Graham cracker. Delish.

My latest blog featuring the 13th Annual Atlantic Canada Cell and Developmental Biology Sympoium. Thanks to @anatomyorg.bsky.social for support. @brchfx.bsky.social @dalhousie.bsky.social #DevBio

Dear Friends, I just published an insightful review on neural crest evolutionary origin and later transformations. “Co-option and innovation in neural crest evolution”: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Happy Canada Day 🇨🇦. Grateful to call this place home.

“The moments when evidence-based scientific counsel seems hardest to sustain can be when it matters most.” Neil Shibin’s lights the torch as he assumes leadership of the NAS.

13th Atlantic Canada Cell & Developmental Biology Symposium is underway! With students from UPEI, UNB, MSVU, and Dalhousie represented. With support from @anatomyorg.bsky.social and help from @brchfx.bsky.social

An interesting #devbio weekend read, and the first manuscript I've ever handled with audio files that really take you back in time.

“I could feel at the time There was no way of knowing Fallen leaves in the night Who can say where they're blowing As free as the wind Hopefully learning Why the sea on the tide Has no way of turning More than this You know there's nothing” (Roxy Music).

Our biology department at Université Laval has a faculty position in Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, or Genetics. We have an Institute of Integrative and Systems biology, we are unionized, and Québec City is a wonderful mix of culture and access to nature. AMA universityaffairs.ca/search-jobs/...

Somebody keeps stealing summer in Nova Scotia.

Early evidence trickling in demonstrating that AI use leads to “deskilling”, from pathology diagnoses, to computer programming. Yet we rush headlong into AI everything. (Note: AIneurolab, my handle, stands for my initials, but I do research using Actual Intelligence!)

In this Obituary, Francesca Mariani & Mark Lewandoski write about Gail R. Martin, one of developmental biology's most influential conceptual architects, a scientist who reshaped how we think about signalling, pattern formation & genetic analysis in the mouse. doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Thrilled to share our latest paper describing systemic metabolic alterations in a fly tumour model. Great work of PhD grad Dr. Kewei Yu and undergrad and post-bacc researcher Gurpreet Moroak. @dmmjournal.bsky.social @sfuscience.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/...

Is today a good day for 🍦?

Course #4 of Claude Desplan, invited Professor @college-de-france.fr this thursday June 18th at 4pm. The World According to Ants 🐜 Videos of the entire series soon available online @ www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/co...

Neighborhood pond with family of ducks.

Check out this Venice Neuroscience course on #assembloids, which I am co-organizing with @jimena-andersen.bsky.social and @fikri-birey.bsky.social, who developed the initial assembloid system a decade ago. It promises to be a fun week, with a spectacular lineup of speakers and in-depth discussions.

3. PASEDB 2027 Meeting 📅Save the date! June 15-18, 2027 - Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

Vote for a @dev-journal.bsky.social cover from the 2025 Quintay International Course on Developmental Biology We’re excited to launch a cover competition to select an image from the 2025 cohort of @devbioquintay.bsky.social. Voting closes on 24 June 2026. thenode.biologists.com/vote-for-a-d...

Postdoc position available now in the Smith Group lsi.exeter.ac.uk/groups/smith... to test the hypothesis that differentiation biases between human pluripotent stem cell lines may be eliminated by reversion to the naïve state. careers.exeter.ac.uk/vacancies/79...

Is it Friday yet?

Want a sneak-peak at the Santa Cruz Dev Biol meeting? Check it ⬇️! >20 slots for talks chosen from abstracts! New PI Keynote to be selected from abstracts! Dedicated new PI Session! Scott Fraser workshop! Career Workshop! Plenty of time for co-lab building! 🔥😱😍🔥 🐟🪰🪱🐭🔬🧬 scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

The humble bumble bee continually surprises with what they can do. This includes problem solving.

I need to walk again. Sunny and beautiful here. Besides, I just fell on my keyster as my damn rolling chair slipped from behind me, cushioned smoothen from too my sitting and staring at a screen. Thank goodness no one saw and know one knows!

Janet Rossant to receive #UofT honorary degree for her world-renowned research & leadership in biomedical sciences #UofTGrad26 📜 uoft.me/crf

SAVE THE DATE for the 13th Canadian Developmental Biology Conference — March 7–10, 2027 — bringing together researchers, trainees, and innovators in developmental biology from across Canada and beyond.

PL retweet. Developmental Biology Course (Quintay). More information: biodesarrollo.unab.cl

My short scientific bio as I excitedly engage in my new role as part of the editorial team at Developmental Dynamics @dvdy.bsky.social @anatomyorg.bsky.social @brchfx.bsky.social @dalhousie.bsky.social #DevBio

Attention all #RNA26 Montreal @rnasociety.bsky.social attendees! Get your special edition @rnacanada.ca RNEh? tshirt to celebrate your Canadian RNA pride. Order here: gametime.gearware.com/stores/rna thru Friday, May 29th. Delivery ONLY to RNA2026 in MTL/no shipping. Image design by Jasmine Tsang.

I’m just gonna leave this odd story here…

“Our planet’s biodiversity provides all the things we need for free, but it will only do so if there’s lots of it." On Sir David Attenborough’s birthday, let's remember his message on the importance of biodiversity in abundance. In his wise words, we already know what to do. 📹 WWF OurPlanet

Open-rank search: 2 (!) PI positions in Pulmonary Biology at @cuanschutz.bsky.social 🌄 We are looking for new colleagues @cupediatrics.bsky.social, working in lung fibrosis, focusing on #devbio, stem cell, & regen.biology of the lung 🫁🫀. Please help spread the word! cu.taleo.net/careersectio...

Pierre Chambon made seminal contributions to transcriptional regulation, Hox genes, retinoid signaling, and his group was among the earliest to adopt mouse knockout technology. He trained many mouse developmental geneticists. Sad to hear of his passing.

1/ New preprint! 🧪With @talmo.bsky.social and team, we used deep learning on archival NASA video of mice on the ISS. Turns out mice in microgravity become tiny acrobats: huddling to sleep, doing backflips, even briefly generating their own ~1g. #SpaceBiology #OpenScience #NASA #SLEAP

Hey y’all 👋 repost magic appreciated. The Solecki lab is recruiting multiple postdocs at St. Jude for a chromatin imaging project at the edge of live-cell imaging, neuronal cell biology, chromatin regulation, and quantitative image analysis. Ever dreamed of touring chromatin like this? We CAN 🔥

The registration deadline for #EMBORegeneration2026 is approaching: May 20 !!! Don't miss this amazing meeting on the banks of the Danube in Austria: meetings.embo.org/event/26-tis...

We have launched a call for the renewal of the Society’s logo, and we invite developmental biologists working in Latin America, as well as Latin American developmental biologists working abroad, to participate in this contest. More information at lasdb-development.org/pages/news.h...

These journal websites asking me to verify if am I’m human. Or am I dancer? Hey, I’m just looking for answers.

Instead of posting a #FluorescenceFriday pic of cool science, I thought I’d post a close up of our Amaryllis bloom looking especially photogenic.

This year, the annual symposium of my Chaire @college-de-france.fr will be on The Evolution of Developmental Mechanisms. An impressive lineup of speakers and weirds animals, including humans. Free entrance and coffee breaks. Come, have a seat, relax and enjoy the best possible basic science🤘RT🙏

Webs of astrocytes connect distant parts of the brain, allowing long-distance exchange of molecules go.nature.com/41QDgYD

Mapping nerves in a whole embryos. We find that across species and development stages, embryonic nerves display (beautiful) fractal geometry. More here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

And it’s a wrap. Was an interesting day in Ottawa meeting MPs and leadership @cihr.bsky.social and Innovation, Science & Economic Development to advocate for neuroscience and investigator led research. And met some great neuroscientists from across 🇨🇦. @canacn.bsky.social @brchfx.bsky.social