This year's Lasker Awards went to scientists who studied the wiring diagram of life, a new state of biological matter, and a potent treatment for cystic fibrosis. Here's my story with Gina Kolata. Gift link: nyti.ms/4mZlH1F

Apical extracellular matrix regulates fold morphogenesis in the Drosophila wing disc https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.06.674631v1

New preprint! How are developmental cycles coordinated across cell types? It turns out that, like Geppetto's cuckoo clocks in the GIF below, individual cell types are each performing their own little crazy routine, but all in sync with each other.

The goal of a PhD is not to learn some facts or read a few papers or learn a bunch of techniques. The goal of a PhD is to learn independence, problem solving, how to finish things you start, resilience, & gain the ability to adapt & think creatively. Learning these things is hard.

If you liked this article, you might be interested in the new #aECMClub starting Fall2025 -a virtual seminar series to highlight work on #aECM across different organisms. 🪱🪰🐟🐁👳‍♀️🌱🦠 Sign up here: 👉https://forms.gle/Y6UjbnXPH1pDHAE97

In this 1892 lecture, the poet A. E. Housman advocates for basic curiosity-driven discovery research: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~martinh/poe... I've copied some of my favorite parts below. 1/10

Maybe it's time we rethink the idea that development is a cell centric process? In this beautiful review, María-del-Carmen and @stramerlab.bsky.social discussed how the ECM underlies and influences many morphogenesis processes from wing unfolding to mammary gland development. doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

highlight of two recent fantastic comparative inter-species single-cell atlases, by @live-large.bsky.social from @jisaacmurray.bsky.social, and Itai Toker from Oliver Hobert's lab www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

More than a billion tons of #chitin are produced on Earth each year. This study shows that the soil #bacterium #Streptomyces venezuelae thrives on chitin from #insect #exoskeletons, using a potent mix of chitinases and a dedicated chitobiose importer @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/45sg4S5

This is the first manuscript I am choosing to have reviewed by Review Commons. It’s an experiment! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thanks to @isakoditomassi.bsky.social and the McClintock Letters Initiative who motivated me to submit this.

There is so much cool #aECM work going on but most of the researchers don’t know or talk to each other; this is an attempt to change that! Link below

Sigh.

Calling all aECM enthusiasts!

... a new virtual seminar series on apical extracellular matrix #aECM on different #organisms 🪱🪰🐁🌱🦠will start in Fall 2025, with short talks and discussions If you are interested 👉https://forms.gle/Y6UjbnXPH1pDHAE97 @meera-sundaram.bsky.social @gotworms.bsky.social @heiman.bsky.social

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Ed Keeble said the Grand Canyon Lodge, the only lodging at the North Rim, was consumed by the flames.

A humorous take on what we do to ourselves!

#worm25 since I missed the first plenary session due to flight delays I’ve been catching up by watching it online - Cool talk from Roger Pocock! The individual neuron-specific TIR1 strains will be an amazing tool - And I love the term « Hobertian »! 😂

Catching up on more #aECM at #worm25 by watching the online videos: Physiology1 Talk23 from Jonathan Hodgkin provided evidence that, via social interactions, worms can transfer surface glycans (« BIM ») between each other to affect pathogen sensitivity. So cool!

Wanted to post a video we accidentally forgot to show at the Worm art show #worm25 from the Van Buskirk lab @cswormlab.bsky.social @baristursun.bsky.social Hope you all enjoy! youtu.be/7IMrOsmg5UY

Congratulations to all the #worm25 Poster Award Winners and Honorable Mentions!

Such a great plenary by Junho Lee. Combining behavior, natural variation, connectomics to explain the mind of a dauer. And full of fun history and anecdotes. #worm25

#aECM at #worm25 (Neurobiology session) on my list to watch online, Fumie Hiramatsu talking about how social cues in cuticle let predatory Pristionchus know who to bite and not bite to avoid killing their own family members

Nobel Prize winner Craig Mello sporting a WormAtlas t-shirt with David Hall at #worm25! #nobelprize

c. elegans, ba-ba-bah #worm25

Huge thanks to Cathy Savage-Dunn @cswormlab.bsky.social and Baris Tursun @baristursun.bsky.social for an amazing #worm25 !! I want to call out the OUTSTANDING meeting they created! Talks and posters were A+++. Most of all they brought us together in one of the most challenging times we've had.

#worm25 🙄

#aECM at #worm25 Two posters from my lab today - come talk! 272C Assembly and Clearance of the Pre-cuticle matrix 373C Decoding vulval cell identity: Insights from single-nucleus RNA Sequencing

WormAtlas has had a great time meeting so many new people and visiting with old friends. If you haven’t already, please come by and say hello on Tuesday afternoon. #worm25

It doesn’t get any more classic than this #worm25

Hitched a ride to the #worm25 poster session last night with Villenueve lab folks & Villenueve lab F2 @cahooncori.bsky.social, and lookit what we found in the parking lot! 🪱🪱🪱

Prioty Sarwar: cool results showing spectrin defining middle ridge of adult alae #aECM #worm25 cell biology session

#aECM at #worm25 : At the aECM workshop, Pooranachithra Murugesan described the ~100 protein fusions made by the Ward and Chisholm labs, identifying collagens present in different cuticle layers, tissues, and substructures - a great resource for the worm community!

Apical ECM is so important and how we think about being a nematode. @meera-sundaram.bsky.social #worm25

One of the really fun things at #Worm25 is the opportunity to learn about topics that are not in your usual orbit. I mean - we all want to read everything but.... Learned about the pre-cuticle in the really nice plenary talk from @meera-sundaram.bsky.social.

Remembering #AndyGolden at this #Worm25. We miss you, Andy, and celebrate everything you stood for- integrity, strength, joy, empathy, friendship, and worms. Josh Bembenek, Jim Lissemore, Anna @akallen10.bsky.social Aimee @jaramilo.bsky.social Paul Sternberg, @barrlab.bsky.social

#aECM at #worm25: Talk this morning (Cell Bio session) by Prioty Sarwar from my lab A role for the spectrin cytoskeleton in cuticle alae patterning 9:06 AM - 9:18 AM Program Number: 66

How can one not love the “Worm Community” !!! 🪱🪱👨‍🔬👩‍🔬🧑‍🔬👌🏼👌🏼 🫶🏼🫶🏼 #Worm25

Favorite moment of the day: "Do Genetics" -Nobel Prize Winner Gary Ruvkun #worm25

“Do you have any advice for aspiring young scientists?” “Do genetics.” *mic drop* #worm25

Plenary #2 at #worm25 starts off with Barth Grant's groundbreaking work on the mechanisms of RME-8 in endosomal dynamics and sorting functions!

#aECM at #worm25 Development session: Rachel Swope described how sensory cilia that are embedded in cuticle deal with the molt cycle

#aECM at #worm25 Physiology session: Anuparma Singh described multiple « KOLA » proteins that are likely part of the gut glycocalyx and affect the gut microbiome

Cilia in neuron-glia adhesion, Tue PM poster by Leland Wexler Embryo sense organ morphogenesis, Tue PM poster by Leland Wexler SAX-7 trafficking and synthetic CAMs, Tue PM poster by Jung Hyun Yoo Drug screening for Kabuki Syndrome (SET-16/KMT2D), Mon PM poster by Megan Lymburner

Specialized cuticle around cilia: Posters by JB Burnett (Sun PM, collagen patterning) and me (Sun PM, collab with Alexis Weinreb @alexiswe.bsky.social Hammarlund lab on oscillatory genes in glia); Mon ECM workshop by Rachel Swope

Cilia shed and regrow at each molt: Talks by Rachel Swope (Sun AM, cilia shedding) and Adrià Razzauti @razzscripts.bsky.social (Mon AM, cilia regrowth); Mon cilia workshop by Adrià Razzauti

Lots of wormies stuck on the tarmac with me in Phoenix trying to get to #worm25 ! Seems like an inordinate number of flight problems this round?

Is this OUR M. Maduro? #worm25

New preprint! Grad student Clover Stubbert and undergrad Cherry Soe worked out a serum-free media that sustains eggshell-less C. elegans embryos all the way through development, now making it possible to access any embryonic developmental stage with small molecules www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I am excited (as usual) about attending #Worm25. But I am also sad that so many friends and colleagues can't be there. Because you know....insane policies and war and such. Hoping the science will provide at least a temporary distraction from the unending chaos.