Check out our new preprint on the evolution of enhancer loss. Turns out there are 50 ways to lose a function. We found four of them. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Exciting times ahead - I'm beyond delighted to be joining @bristolbiosci.bsky.social in 2026! 🎉🕷️🎉🐌🎉 I'm also looking for a PhD student to join @multipleye-lab.bsky.social in our new home! Come and study the effects of light pollution on the evolution and development of spider eyes with us 🌃🕷️👀 👇

Applications are open for 10 ECR funded places at The Company of Biologists Workshop on 'Novelty, Co-option and Divergence During Gene Network Evolution', organised by James Hombría and Antónia Monteiro. 📅 Deadline: Friday 5 December Further information: www.biologists.com/workshops/ju...

How did evolution drive massive genome contraction during oceanic island colonization? A new paper from our lab. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Interested in a PhD connecting sensory ecology and evolutionary genetics? Applications are now open for a project on the Speciation Genomics of Eye Size Variation in Heliconius Butterflies in our lab at LMU Munich: www.evol.bio.lmu.de/research/mer... Please repost!

🚨Registration for the UK #EvoDevo meeting is open! Join us on July 11th in London to enjoy an exciting day of talks, posters, friends, and superb science! -Registration (only £5!): shorturl.at/9cQGL -More info: londonevodevo.ac.uk

Very happy to have been part of this fantastic collaboration!

Gene editing technology began by people studying salt marshes. Ozempic began by folks studying the venom of Gila Monsters. Support for basic science has empowered us to understand our world. Tethering it to applications health has transformed and saved countless lives.

Congrats on the paper! Really nice work!

3D printed fly ommatidium generated by our Wellcome Optical biology PhD student Courtney Lancaster @courtneyl7a7.bsky.social @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social Visualising 3d bioimaging data !

Very happy to share our paper on the sense of smell in spiders. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #chemicalecology, #pheromon, #sensoryorgans #spiders,

New preprint from our lab. Great work by @maaseremedios.bsky.social in collaboration with Ralf Janssen looking at gene regulation and expression after whole genome duplication by comparing a spider and harvestman: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A shared developmental genetic basis for sexually antagonistic male and female adaptations in the toothed water strider doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by Claudia Pruvôt et al.

Postdoc @ evol-lab. A Leverhulme funded 3-year postdoc studying body shape evolution (through a sexual conflict lens) on Exeter's Penryn (UK) campus. Starts April 2025. Contact David Hosken @ U of Exeter for detail.

Great opportunity to do a #PhD with me! Think #Drosophila #eyes are fun to work with? Love to do #microscopy? Want to look into organ size regulation and evolution? Maybe even in a pest species? Get in touch and check out how to apply via Oxford Brookes University: tinyurl.com/37h7pudv

Our miRNA story is now in @science.org ! We found a microRNA, not a protein, that finally solved a long-standing evolutionary mystery of wing coloration in butterflies and moths. (1/n) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

What better way to start on 🦋 than by sharing our new publication? www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Come look at some cute spider embryos with stunning 🧬expression with me! This gene is very exciting, and will be a major part of my PhD research! Watch this space for new updates🔬 @mcgregorlab.bsky.social #EvoDevo #Biology #phdlife

A really exciting new study: evidence that males evolve better sight in order to detect female dishonesty in dance flies. One for the textbooks! A male resistance trait! Great one from @rosalindmurray @luc_bussiere @dtgwynne & team academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

New review on the evolution of insect male terminalia I wrote with Daniela Nunes: www.cell.com/trends/genet...

@mcgregorlab.bsky.social and I had the pleasure of writing a dispatch article discussing the latest work from @gavinrrice.bsky.social and @rebeizlab.bsky.social. You can find it over on this link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

If you're interested in the evolution of sex determination, check out this opinion piece from Tom Kocher, @tonygamble.bsky.social , @behrenskristen.bsky.social , Will Gammerdinger, and me. We argue that genetic variation in sex determination is probably more prevalent that most people think.

Drosophila and IF staining folks: any recommendations for antibody generation companies? I would also be looking to get the company (or a different company) to express and purify the target antigen too. Thanks in advance!!

Analysis of implications for science spend of UK budget Appears worst fears of folding in Horizon Europe/ERC budget are not going to happen www.sciencecampaign.org.uk/analysis-and...

Such a wonderful piece of research! Great work yet again by @gavinrrice.bsky.social and the @rebeizlab.bsky.social lab

Job Alert! New postdoc position in our lab investigating cognitive biases in wild bumblebees. Thanks to Wild Animal Initiative for the funding. Position for 31 months. Deadline: December 9th. Please apply/boost #PostdocJob #AcademicJobs #Bees jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl...

Our paper, identifying all the cell types in the Drosophila melanogaster female reproductive tract (uterus, female-limited glands, sperm storage organs) is out today! We used single-nuclei RNA sequencing and a lot of in situ cross-validation www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409850121 🪰 🧬🧪 1/n

Temperature affects conspecific and heterospecific mating rates in Drosophila https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.28.620639v1

Our new @CurrentBiology paper provides a rare glimpse into a morphological novelty in Drosophila eugracilis In it, @gavinrrice and colleagues, infer and reproduce the likely initial steps of a novelty's formation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I am thrilled to announce publication of a new paper led by Seth Frazer, showing we can accurately predict opsin phenotypes from their gene sequences academic.oup.com/gigascience/... 🧪

Contextualising transcription factor binding during embryogenesis using natural sequence variation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.24.619975v1

If that wasn’t exciting enough, feast your eyes on the C15 stain in the developing female terminal - very fitting for the Halloween season. Have fun reading! Thank you @mcgregorlab.bsky.social for the support and guidance during this project. It was a blast!

Our new pre-print exploring the role and interactions of leg patterning genes in developing Drosophila terminalia - great work by @amberridgway.bsky.social

Check out this new perspective article on cis-regulatory evolution by Reed Lab grad student Jeanne McDonald! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Couple of days left to apply for our postdoc position! If you want to chat in person, I will be at #TAGC24 #PEQG24 next week

Commentary summarising current state of the #DevBio field with concrete proposals & a call to action - Increase organismal diversity - Improve funding (& support reviewing) - Encourage new entrants to the field - Support data sharing & public outreach journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Daniela Nunes is looking for a Postdoc/Postgrad Research Associate to work on our BBSRC funded Project to understand organ size specification and evolution. To join our team submit your application here by March 3rd: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DFR180/p... Please re-post.

Fresh out of the academic oven, new paper with Elvira Lafuente & David Duneau. Developmental plasticity, body pigmentation, temperature effects, Drosophila melanogaster, and lots of genes. What is there not to like? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Looking forward to discussing this really excellent paper in our lab JournalPub today at the Victoria: elifesciences.org/articles/90846

🧪New paper with Théo Robert and Karolina Tarapata finally out! 🎉🎉 Learning modifies attention during bumblebee visual search Read more here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

What a week!! Defended my thesis and I am now Dr Ridgway (don’t think it’s settled in just yet) and our paper has been published today in Current Biology! Thank you @mcgregorlab.bsky.social for an incredible PhD experience and all authors who helped shape this paper into a great story 🪰🪰

Congratulations to @amberridgway.bsky.social on successful defence of her great PhD thesis yesterday and publication of her cool new paper today in Current Biology on the role of Sox21b in the rapid diversification of a novel male genital structure: www.cell.com/current-biol...

I am looking for a PhD student to work on Drosophila eye development and genetic regulation. We have funded Nigel Groome studentships here at Oxford Brookes University and a great collaborative fly community. Deadline is 26th January. More info here: tinyurl.com/2m4v546v

Congratulations Nico! That is really great news!

This work was led by Luis Baudouin Gonzalez, myself, and @mcgregorlab.bsky.social , with help from Anna Schoenauer, Amber Harper, Daniel Leite, @POMSteinhoff, @Pechmann_M, @saadarif81, Valeriia Telizhenko, Atal Pande @multipleye_lab & Carolin Kosiol, funded by @LeverhulmeTrust at @morethanadodo

Very happy to have been part of this cool work comparing eye development across spiders. Beautiful in situs by Luis Baudouin Gonzalez in a range of spiders and well done to all other authors. Many thanks to @laurensr.bsky.social for all her amazing work leading the study and the paper.

Want to understand how Hox proteins interact with each other and their co-factors to specify cell fate? Interested in nuclear receptors and how they control transcription? Want to do your PhD in a supportive and collaborative environment? Check tinyurl.com/3udpv43x or tinyurl.com/588rh7ws and DM me.

Several positions opening in my lab and the Centre for Functional Genomics at Oxford Brookes: - 2 PhD positions via the Oxford Bioscience DTP - a fully funded PhD in my lab, co-supervised by Darren Williams, KCL - a research tech position (0.5 FTE) to help tagging Drosophila transcription factors

Interested in how hormone binding changes the interactions of hormonal receptors and influences target gene expression? Co-supervised by Darren Williams (KCL), this PhD project will look particularly into how hormones influence neurodevelopment. More details at tinyurl.com/ykumzvzh