See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...

Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Just came back from a great meeting in Tutzing on the biology of basal Metazoa. Excellent talks, fantastic posters and very kind and vital community. Thanks also to our keynote speaker, Cassandra Extavour. She was the highlight of the meeting. Thanks everyone for contributing.

We are excited to announce the first Western VGZT of Season 7! 🎉 🗓️ Thursday, October 2nd ⏰ 9:30 PDT / 12:30 EDT / 16:30 UTC / 17:30 BST / 18:30 CET Our speakers: 👉 Antonia Weberling (@a-weberling.bsky.social) 👉 Sanjay Narayanaswamy (@sanjay-n.bsky.social)

Happy to be presenting our story on Nematostella self-organization :) tune in if you like to hear what organizes the organizer in cnidarian gastruloids! www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Hydra body axis balance: a fight between two transcription factors This Research Highlight showcases the work from Jaroslav Ferenc, Marylène Bonvin, Panagiotis Papasaikas, Jacqueline Ferralli, Clara Nuninger and Charisios D. Tsiairis: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

We knew that cnidarians have stunning regenerative capacities. But the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the self-organization of gastruloids of Nematostella surprised us. A story of cell sorting and Notch signaling. Please check out the work of Sanjay's PhD work: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🚨 Happy to share my PhD work! We set out to find what organizes the organizer in Nematostella gastruloids. While we knew Wnt1/3+ cells confer axial polarity, we identify the role of Notch signaling as partner in crime in polarising these organizers. How does it do it? www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Finally, the excellent postdoc work of Emmanuel Haillot is out, where he dissected the integration of Wnt, MAPK and Notch signaling in defining mesoderm and endoderm identities in the diploblast Nematostella. Strikingly similar to sea urchins. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great opportunity! The Uni Vienna has launched a call (APART) for 4-funding for outstanding postdocs from a US institution. The host lab has to nominate by 1 August a candidate for further selection. Anyone interested in our work please contact me by email with CV/motivation letter. Hurry up!

Nematostella butt valve!

In which we discuss the homologies between amphibian and mammalian organizers from the perspective of #gastruloids with special relevance to recently described A and C gastruloids as containing Spemann/Mangold and Trunk/Tail organizers www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We review self-organisation of organizers through the lens of Cnidarians (primarily Hydra and Nematostella) and propose an integrative Mechanochemical view for the same. Happy to be part of the 100 year Mangold-Spemann special edition @cellsdev.bsky.social @ulrichtechnau.bsky.social

About 100 years the Mangold-Spemann organizer was published and this has been one of the most fruitful and inspiring concepts in Developmental Biology. But how can organizers self-organize? In this review we summarize the knowledge how cnidarians do that: doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

Here our model of how LME animal migration ends. I am happy to see this work out! As for cell migration in vivo, the path of this journey hasn’t always been straightforward. It is the closing of a chapter, and I look forward to what the future will bring.

Happy to have presented our evolving story at #DevStem2025. Exciting stuff on the way :)

Kick-off of the late afternoon session at the #DevStem2025 meeting. Sanjay Narayanaswamy @sanjay-n.bsky.social from @ulrichtechnau.bsky.social lab discusses germ layer biology in #Nematostella, exploring a powerful gastruloid system. For a primer on gastruloids, see doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

We’re looking for PhD students to join the lab! 🧫🧑‍🔬 Curious about how metabolic processes shape patterning and morphogenesis? Enthusiastic about stem cell models for human development? - Then apply through the VBC PhD program! training.vbc.ac.at/phd-program/ ‼️Deadline: April 15‼️

Unexpected role of β-catenin signaling in germ layer specification In this 'Show and tell' post, @genikhovich.bsky.social and @tclebedeva.bsky.social tell us about their video of a GFP-β-catenin knock-in Nematostella embryo from their latest paper: 🎥 thenode.biologists.com/unexpected-r...

Beautiful!

Arguably the most significant step forward in discovery dissemination.

We are excited to be launching the next phase of our Fast & Fair peer review initiative: offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days. #fastandfairpeerreview Read the Editorial by EiC Daniel Gorelick @danielgorelick.bsky.social at: bit.ly/4kYD1mL

How many cells do you need to establish PCP? The magic number is 3! Beautiful work by Lena Basta in Danelle Devenport's lab. Happy to have contributed. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Had an amazing time presenting some of our work with #Nematostella at the #gastruloids meeting in beautiful Barcelona. Lots of science and cool breeze!

Developmental biology research leads to fundamental discoveries for biomedical research. Apoptosis. Ellis & Hovitz, 1986. PMID: 3955651. Worm image by Tokiko Furuta (Arur Lab) @socdevbio.bsky.social 9/12

In preprints: the ins and outs of Cnidaria germ layers Lucas Leclère and Chiara Sinigaglia @chisinig.bsky.social (@cnidevo.bsky.social @biom-banyuls.bsky.social) discuss 3 recent #preprints about the mechanisms that govern germ layer formation in Nematostella vectensis: doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Ambitious students interested in our attractive joint Master program "Evolutionary Genomics and Systems Biology" at the University of Vienna and the VetMed Uni should apply: studieren.univie.ac.at/en/degree-pr... Deadline April 7! The Bachelor only needs to be completed by September. Spread the word

*hearing crickets*

1/3 Our paper about miRNA target complementarity in Cnidaria is finally published in @emboreports.bsky.social This work was led by the talented Yael Admoni with help from Arie and Rubi in collaboration with the labs of @thecocodium.bsky.social and Michal Rabani www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

#Hydractinia takes regeneration to the extreme¬in a new preprint, Curantz et al. show that dissociated, reaggregated cells can form a new individual. We also show how they do it and which cells types actually contribute to the new individual (tip: not many of them). tinyurl.com/mr2s9zyf

Many academics point to bioRxiv as “the one thing improving science publishing”. If so, the one thing you all can do is persuade colleagues to submit and make this a norm. 1/2

Is it just me or is @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social down somehow? It either cannot load papers or the ones that load have the right titles but abstracts and full text of other papers instead...

That was another nice find -thanks John. We love Metchnikoff too -especially for his substantial contribution to invertebrate embryology, including of course this !

Excited to share our latest findings, now published @NatureNeuro www.nature.com/articles/s41... We found unmyelinated axons exhibit pearls-on-a-string morphology's due to their membrane mechanical properties. Threads will follow!

Dear everyone, Sorry for everything.

Happy to share that the Gahan lab will be branching out (or more like returning) to working on Nematostella in the near future. Details will follow but for now if anyone is interested in doing a Postdoc or PhD in 2025 on chromatin in Nematostella drop me a message :)