How do sperm and egg fuse? Surprisingly, we still don’t fully know… Our field has uncovered many pieces of the fertilization puzzle, but not how they fit together. We identify ✨ SPARK ✨ - a conserved sperm complex that couples sperm-egg binding to fusion. tinyurl.com/34cm4xat Read on! 🧵👇

A new paper from the lab shows that Nanos3 and Dead end1 can form a complex with eIF3d to activate RNA translation in primordial germ cells. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Want to find out how a zebrafish develops from a small ball of cells into a functioning organism? 🐠 Then join us at the microscopes this Friday at @viennabiocenter.bsky.social for the Long Night of Research 🔬👩‍🔬 langenachtderforschung.at/station/592 📍Vienna BioCenter, 1030 Wien ⏰ 17:00-23:00

1/25 New paper out in PNAS! We show that the fitness costs of reproductive specialization, where somatic cells give up reproduction, scale inversely with organism size. Larger organisms can afford far more soma, removing a key barrier to multicellular complexity.

Foundational work from the Brunet lab

Looking for motivated postdocs interested in doing exciting research at the intersection of immunology and regenerative biology. We use intravital two-photon imaging to track and manipulate immune cell behavior at the single-cell level in live animals mesa-lab.org Apply: apply.interfolio.com/180660

My lab is hiring a postdoc (ERC funded)! If you're interested, get in touch!

Applications for the 2026 Vienna BioCenter Summer School Program are now open! Please share this opportunity with talented undergrads or Masters students interested in broadening their research experience in molecular biology in the heart of Europe 🧬

Wonderful exploratory science.. highly anticipate seeing images from this in next year’s Nikon Small World

A duo of preprints on the dynamics of the first cell fate decision in mouse by Madeleine Chalifoux (first grad student in the lab!) and Maria Avdeeva (Flatiron). We use quantitative live imaging of key cell fate determinants to follow the segregation of inner cell mass and trophectoderm lineages.

Check out our new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social by amazing grad students @ezlevy.bsky.social and @isabellaleite.bsky.social “A tug-of-war between germ cell motility and intercellular bridges controls germline cyst formation in mice” authors.elsevier.com/a/1k7fg3QW8S...