Our research on snake skin color patterning is featured in The Scientist! 🐍🎨 Athanasia Tzika explains how comparative genomics and CRISPR-Cas9 revealed the key role of specific genes in establishing corn snake skin color patterns. 🔗 www.the-scientist.com/how-do-snake...

Rewatching Prehistoric Planet with my kids and loving how artists #MPCVFX show dinosaurs with scale-by-scale skin colors, similar to some lizards and snakes. Check how our research uncovers the mechanisms behind this phenomenon:

Many thanks to the PhD students and postdocs at D-BSSE in Basel for hosting me in their seminar series — and to the PIs at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, for inspiring conversations. @bsse.ethz.ch @biozentrum.unibas.ch

Wonderful visit to @embl.org Heidelberg! Grateful to Alexandre Aulehla and @aikmi.bsky.social for the invitation and to all the group leaders, post-docs and students for the stimulating discussions. Amazing science and a great community! #EMBL #ScienceTalk #DevelopmentalBiology

🐊 New 90‑second video: watch the digital model of a #crocodile head side‑by‑side with a stunning multi‑material #3Dprint. ▶️ Video: youtu.be/3roeSI-HBbg?... 📖 Nature Article: rdcu.be/d3dnd 🎬 Full explainer (26K+ views, multiple languages): youtube.com/playlist?lis...

#V4SDBMeeting2025 is family friendly & makes science attractive & accessible to our youngest participants from @sumbalovakoledova.bsky.social lab. Many thanks to Michel C. Milinkovitch @lanevol.bsky.social for the illustrative 3D printed models of 🐊 snout patterning!

Our invited speaker for this session is Michel C. Milinkovitch @lanevol.bsky.social from the University of Geneva @biology-unige.bsky.social, who will be presenting his lab’s multidisciplinary research into Patterning: How Reptiles Got Their Looks! #V4SDB2025 #developmentalbiology #evodevo

Had a great time at @v4sdb.bsky.social 2025 in Slovakia with James Sharpe & Anne Grapin-Botton. Fantastic talks and flawless organization—huge thanks to our wonderful hosts Zuzana Sumbalová Koledová, Dušan Fabián, Marcela Buchtová & Alexandra Špirková! v4sdb2025.img.cas.cz

🐊 Our multilingual video on the mechanics behind crocodile head scale patterning has now reached 25,000+ views! Discover how skin folds—not genes—shape these stunning patterns. 🎥 Watch here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... #CrocodileScales #Science #NaturePaper #Mechanobiology

🐢 The tortoise head is sculpted by physics and genes! Our new research shows that tortoise head scales form through two distinct processes: 👉 Chemical signaling shapes the sides 👉 Mechanical stress folds the top 🔗 cell.com/iscience/ful... @cellpress.bsky.social @biology-unige.bsky.social

The distinctive pattern of scales on the face and jaws of crocodiles is formed by a precise mechanical process of skin folding, according to a OA study in @nature.com: http://spklr.io/63328fZXu #Science #Evolution #Crocodiles

📻Interview du Prof. Milinkovitch @lanevol.bsky.social pour la #RTS : Les écailles de tortue se forment de deux façons www.rts.ch/audio-podcas... @genevunige.bsky.social

Excited to share our new research in @cp-iscience.bsky.social! We reveal that tortoise head scales are sculpted through two distinct developmental processes - chemical signalling and mechanical folding 🐢🔬🧪 @lanevol.bsky.social @genevunige.bsky.social www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Hanging out with Stanislav Smirnov in 'Les Diablerets' (Switzerland). Great speakers at the workshop organised by Karsten Kruse and Jean-Pierre Eckmann. indico.global/event/9640/r... Will we come up with a math theory of biology?

Can Turing and Ising models explain lizard skin color patterns—and be reconciled? 🦎📐 We bridge microscopic cell interactions & macroscopic scale patterns across evolutionary divergent lizards. 👉 www.lanevol.org/news/article... #EvoDevo #TuringPatterns #IsingModel #MathematicalBiology

🚨 We make the cover of Open Biology! Boosting sonic hedgehog signalling in chicken embryos flips the script of skin patterning—chemical pre-patterns give way to mechanical folding. 🧬 From Turing to tissue mechanics. 🧪 ➡️ royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #shh #DevBio @royalsociety.org

The March 2025 issue of @plosbiology.org is live, and the cover is finger-lickin' good! Many thanks to @rorylcooper.bsky.social & @lanevol.bsky.social for this stunning cover image of a developing chick embryo wing. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Thrilled to share that our light-sheet #microscopy image has been selected as @plosbiology.org's Featured Image for March 2025! This visualization captures the role of the sonic #hedgehog pathway in #feather morphogenesis. 🧬 Dive into the details: www.lanevol.org/news/article...

🐍 New in Genome Biology! We show #CLCN2 is key to #colorpatterns in corn #snakes. LTR-retrotransposon mutation drives Stripe phenotype. Genomic & transcriptomic analyses reveal insights into trait diversification! Full study: genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

🦖➡️🕊️ La RTS met en lumière la dernière publication de @lanevol.bsky.social sur l’évolution des plumes! Découvrez comment cette étude révèle les secrets fascinants de leur formation. 🧐✨ À lire ici 👉 rts.ch/info/science... #science #évolution #plumes #dinosaures

The Shh pathway is a key regulator of feather development. @rorylcooper.bsky.social & @lanevol.bsky.social show that inhibiting Shh during chick embryogenesis results in unbranched #feather buds, similar to those seen in some of their #dinosaur ancestors 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/4bIYQCx

🦖➡️🕊️ From dinosaur simple proto-feathers to bird intricate feathers? Our latest study shows that feather development is highly resilient to perturbations. 🧐✨ Read more here 👉 www.lanevol.org/news/article... #evolution #feathers #dinosaurs #birds

🎙️🦖🌑 Il y a 150 millions d’années, le pelage des mammifères était sombre! Une équipe sino-belge l’a découvert, et Michel Milinkovitch (@lanevol.bsky.social) en décrypte les implications dans CQFD (RTS). Ne manquez pas son analyse! 🔎✨ Ecoutez ici: avisdexperts.ch/fr/intervent... #évolution #science

🔬 Conférence | Oncologie de précision : la révolution de l’IA Avec Pr. Olivier Michielin, médecin-chef, Département d’oncologie aux HUG. 📍 INGE, Rue Jean-F. Bartholoni 6, Genève — 1er étage, Les Salons 📅 Lu 24 mars, 18H30 ℹ️ Plus d'infos : inge.ch/evenements/o...

🧐🔬 Les écailles des crocodiles ne sont pas programmées génétiquement, mais émergent sous l'effet de contraintes mécaniques ! Découvrez comment notre étude éclaire ce phénomène fascinant dans @pourlascience.bsky.social 👉 www.pourlascience.fr/sd/biophysiq...

Check out this baby crocodile emerging from its egg 🥚 🐊 And read our recent article in @nature.com to learn how compressive forces sculpt their intricate head scales 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41... @lanevol.bsky.social @genevunige.bsky.social

🔬 Discover The LANE YouTube Channel! 🌍 Our amazing videos help you understand complex biological processes through groundbreaking research at the UNIGE. 🧬✨ Subscribe and join the journey! 📺🔔👇 📌 www.youtube.com/@thelanechan... #Evolution #Science #Research #Biology #Innovation #LifeScience

A must read! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... A tunable metamaterial microwave absorber inspired by #chameleon’s color-changing mechanism (described in our work: www.nature.com/articles/nco...) @genevunige.bsky.social

🐊 A stunning short movie summarizes our research on how the #crocodile got its head #scales. The following playlist gives you access to versions in English, Chinese, Japanese, German, French and Spanish. @nature.com

How the Crocodile Got Its Scales 🐊 —we make the cover of @nature.com ! Our research reveals that the crocodile head scale pattern isn’t genetically-controlled. It’s mechanically self-organized through compressive folding of the skin. 📖 www.lanevol.org/news/article...

🎉 We're excited to share our new research in @nature.com ! We reveal that crocodile head scales self-organize through compressive folding of the skin - a mechanical twist on their development & evolution! Please read & share 🐊🔬 @genevunige.bsky.social

Watch our video to learn how compressive forces sculpt the intricate head scales of #crocodiles! 🎥🐊 And read the full @nature.com article here ⬇️ nature.com/articles/s41... @rorylcooper.bsky.social @genevunige.bsky.social

Front cover alert 🚨 Our research on the mechanics behind a dog's iconic wet nose is featured on the @currentbiology.bsky.social cover! Learn how skin growth & blood vessels shape those unique grooves & domes - a must read for #biology & #physics fans 🐶🔬 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Here's our latest in @currentbiology.bsky.social ! We show that stiff blood vessels in the dermis constitute ‘mechanical positional information’ that guides the self-organised network of epidermal folds on the #nose of #dogs, #ferrets & #cows 🐶🐮🔬 @genevunige.bsky.social

Check out our new PNAS article! Asier & Athanasia show how the juvenile #leopard #gecko banded pattern transitions to the adult spotted pattern & demonstrate the key role of the PAX7 for the development of #chromatophores 🔬🦎

🚨 Check out Athanasia’s new Frontiers In article! She investigates differences in #chromatophore regulation in TFEC mutants of the ball #python and anole #lizard, highlighting the diversity of colouration mechanisms across #reptilian species 🐍🔬

Here's our movie — Predicting the Unseen. Using Alan Turing’s Reaction-Diffusion framework, we show that lizards’ green & black scales hide secondary colour gradations too subtle to see with the naked eye. Yes, biology can be modelled mathematically.