I am excited to share our most recent work collaborating with @centriolelab.bsky.social and @stearnslab.bsky.social to look at the ciliary base of mammalian multiciliated cells w/ cryo-ET, XL/MS, and U-ExM www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It’s done!! Molecular architecture of the ciliary base in mammalian multiciliated cells! A study 13 years in the making 👴, thanks to collab with @stearnslab.bsky.social + @centriolelab.bsky.social & visionary work by @computingcaitie.bsky.social, who integrated native #cryoET with #XLMS & #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬

Park, Liu, Sun, Roll-Mecak et al. present the crystal structure of an RPGR–TTLL5 co-complex, which reveals TTLL recognition paradigms for non-tubulin substrates and sheds light on disease mechanism for retinal dystrophies caused by TTLL5 and RPGR mutations. rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Cilia

Congratulations to the legendary scientist Judith Kimble!!! We stand on the shoulders of giants. #womeninSTEM #celegans

Sweaty palms…

Had a long month of news? Settle down with our comforting review describing how membrane proteins get made in mammalian cells. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Honoured and overwhelmed to receive the 2026 Waddington Medal. Science is a team effort, and I've been fortunate to work alongside exceptional people asking hard questions. Thank you to the BSDB and to everyone who has been part of the journey. bsdb.org/2026/03/24/2...

ZMAP: A single-cell meta-atlas of zebrafish embryonic development reveals a consensus hierarchy of cell identities https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.23.713599v1

An obit for Mike Bishop. Among his many accomplishments, pioneering work on Hedgehog signaling with Pascal Thérond. I asked him for his highlights once and he told me about throwing the first pitch at a Giants game. A true giant himself. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/22/o...

We are looking for a new group leader to join the IGH (Montpellier, France). I can’t wait to meet my future colleague! Apply :-) More infos here: igh.cnrs.fr/join-igh-as-...

Happy birthday to 🇨🇦Canadian medical researcher & #biochemist Maud Menten (1879-1960). 👩🏼‍🔬🧪🐡 #histsci Not only was she an author of Michaelis-Menten equation for enzyme kinetics, she invented the azo-dye coupling for alkaline phosphatase, 1st example of enzyme histochemistry, still used in imaging of

The US NIH is stepping back from 'top-down' science. My latest analysis for @nature.com shows that funding calls have plummeted by 90%, funneling billions into broad, 'investigator-initiated' ideas, rather than targeted, agency-driven ones. A massive shift for the American biomedical enterprise.

BREAKING: @delauro.house.gov announces at a House Oversight hearing with NIH director Jay Bhattacharya that OMB approved the agency's apportionment last night. That means the agency should have access to its appropriated funds — 42 days after its spending bill passed.

Annual reminder: if you’ve been accepted to multiple graduate programs and are still deciding, please let the ones you’re definitely not going to know as soon as possible! -Someone who got into his PhD off the waitlist the day after the deadline

Just finished Le Guin’s “The Telling.” I’d be curious what others thought of it. The critiques of the Cultural Revolution, imperialism and fundamentalism seemed kinda clumsy to me. But the parallel tales of two societies riven with distrust and violence, then stepping back from the brink resonated.

The Guna lab (www.gunalab.org) is expanding and looking for a lab tech and a post doc to start working on exciting mitochondrial biology! Lab techs: aprecruit.ucsf.edu/JPF05953 Post docs please reach out with: 1) cover letter 3) curriculum vitae 3) contact information for three references

Congratulations, Bill! Wonderful news! 🎉

SPOILER: Bordetella sticks to #cilia Bacteria deliver a microtubule-binding protein into mammalian cells to promote colonization | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

SDB is sad to announce the passing of Gail R. Martin (1944-2026) after a short illness in San Francisco. Martin served as SDB President in 2007 and was the recipient the Conklin Medal in 2002 and the @FASEBorg Excellence in Science Award in 2011. bit.ly/4aIfu5d

Asgardian archaea have a tubulin that can make microtubule-esque structures? Wow! Will phylogenetics or AF3 be the first to find Asgard’s microtubule motors, nucleators, MAPs or MIPs? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Very sad news. Gail Martin (1944-2026) was a figure in developmental biology. She pioneered the field of ES cells. A great colleague, a friend and a lovely person.

New, exciting insights into INPP5E, a ciliary PtdIns phosphatase, mutated in a ciliopathy: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Registration is OPEN for the 2026 Santa Cruz Meeting on Developmental Biology!!! Please spread the word! @mads100tist.bsky.social @socdevbio.bsky.social @bsdb.bsky.social @xenbase.bsky.social @isdb.bsky.social @devbiol.bsky.social @the-node.bsky.social scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

The once-in-a-lifetime comedic queen Catherine O'Hara had situs inversus #cilia #ciliopathy www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

Cilia alert! Stoked to have the new paper from Juyeon Hong about a new domain at the extreme distal tip of motile cilia! (The EDT, y'all!) It's out now @natcomms.nature.com. Check it out! #cilia www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Biochemist/molecular biologist Joan Steitz was born #OTD in 1941. She (& team) figured out how our cells read/use genetic instructions to make proteins. A key person who helped crack the code on RNA—the molecule that acts like a messenger between DNA & and the proteins our bodies need. #WomenInSTEM

Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941 + Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures) + MacArthur Fellow, 1985 + Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991 + President, Biophysical Society, 2012 #WomenInSTEM

#DBfeature Centriolar defects underlie a primary ciliary dyskinesia phenotype in an adenylate kinase 7 deficient ciliated epithelium By Jennifer Sheridan, Aline Grata, Julia Dorr, Eve E. Suva, Enzo Bresteau, Linus R. Mitchell, Osama Hassan, Brian Mitchell tinyurl.com/c88cax5z

Amazing to hold @lottepedersen.bsky.social & my @jcellsci.bsky.social Special Issue on #Cilia and #Flagella in all its glossy glory & muscle-engaging brain-boosting weight! So much fabulous content from the community! Fab cover @centriolelab.bsky.social 🥰🥰 journals.biologists.com/jcs/pages/ci...

Excited to have my first senior author publication out in the world! An awesome collab between myself in @reitergroup.bsky.social's lab and the Berbari lab at IU. We found primary cilia are necessary for postnatal pituitary development. 1/n. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Today is a big day. After many years of work, I’m excited to finally share a paper describing a novel approach to identifying potential breakthroughs in biomedical research, up to twelve years before the breakthrough itself occurs. 1/15

Just over a week to our FIRST event for 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣- 13/01/2026 15:00-17:30 GMT. What better way to fire up those neural circuits than dipping into the latest breaking #Cilia and #Centrosome science 🧪? Free and open to everyone- /1

Modern biology research is biased towards investigating genes that are widely conserved and present in humans. What about genes that ARE widely conserved but NOT present in humans? Can genes missing from humans tell us something about what makes our biology different from that of other animals? 1/8

Helping this mood is our latest now out in its final form! @irfankathiriya.bsky.social leading the teams with me. Thanks to the editors and reviewers (incl. @wythelab.bsky.social)for a pleasant and productive journey. More to come when the full issue is out. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Happy holidays! My mind remains boggled how, kinda like the ghost of Christmas past, scientists who may be long dead and I will never meet IRL can tell me their most cherished thoughts. All I have to do to activate this trans-generational telepathic ability is download and read their old papers. 1/4

Tired of drawing cilia or centrioles for slides and papers? I feel you. Check out CiliaBuilder for ChimeraX → cxtoolshed.rbvi.ucsf.edu/apps/chimera... Build custom 3D cilia & centriole models (tips + primary cilia included).

#WntA is a crucial marker of stripe elements early in development for the Nymphalidae butterfly family. @jasminealqassar.bsky.social & co explore if WntA has maintained its role in stripe elements over 95 million years of evolution in the Hesperiidae family of butterflies. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

I don’t always eat cake, but when I do, I prefer it to be ninefold symmetric. Cake credit: Thao Phan.

The vestibular system in your inner ear keeps you spatially oriented (problems cause vertigo). Comb jellies have similar statocysts, perhaps the first sensory organ. The cilia build the statocysts by transporting cells to their tips... like little escalators! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Cell Biology of the Nucleus. This issue is being coordinated by Abby Buchwalter @abbybuch.bsky.social, working alongside Megan King @luskinglab.bsky.social. Deadline: 5 January 2026 journals.biologists.com/jcs/pages/nu...

Good to see the peer reviewed version of this published A chemo-optogenetic system for spatiotemporal control of gene expression We use it to: - Reconstruct SHH mediated neural tube patterning in vitro - Measure extracellular half-life of Shh www.cell.com/developmenta...

How does C2CD3 contribute to distal appendage formation in centrioles? @centriolelab.bsky.social show that C2CD3 acts as a central architectural organizer of the distal #centriole, bridging the luminal distal ring complex & peripheral appendage sites @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/496XZuH

We’re excited to announce the opening of the Geneva Expansion Microscopy Facility (GenExM)! GenExM is a full-service U-ExM platform (U-ExM, Cryo-ExM, iU-ExM), delivering nanoscale imaging. Led by Dr. Olivier Mercey, GenExM welcomes academic & industrial collaborations. 👉 www.unige.ch/genexm/

Calling all postdocs! Applications are open for Dept. of Molecular Biosciences 3rd Trailblazers Postdoctoral Symposium @utaustin.bsky.social. Come to Austin, meet your peers, showcase your work. Application is easy and all expenses are paid! Spread the word! tinyurl.com/yw7ffjn9

Summary data from 2025 NIH and NSF funding: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Cells can form patterns within themselves just like embryos do. How? Connie Yan's new preprint shows how the anterior-posterior cytoskeleton pattern in Stentor is dictated by regionalized scaffolding proteins www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Here is a copy of last year's Twitter thread explaining our preprint - jump to (21) for the new stuff 👀 Synergy between cis-regulatory elements can render cohesin dispensable for distal enhancer function now revised and journal accepted at www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵👇

Happy Thanksgiving, all! First meal of the day: Dutch baby, the best of the pancake phylum.

Our new paper showcasing molecular connectomics with pan-expansion microscopy is out in @natbiotech.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41... This wonderful collaboration with @bewersdorflab.bsky.social was led by Ons M'Saad (now founder/CEO of Panluminate) and @allisonphysics.bsky.social. (1/5)

Good morning, Bay! I’m up early to head out to University of Florida and Daniel Kopinke. I hope to see you at the Dept of Pharmacology seminar Wednesday!