We have wondered what a complex archaeal cell might look like ever since 2014. It’s been a long road (and the journey is far from over), but it’s a good time to pause for breath and look. These Asgard archaeal cells are a surprise! And that is the joy of being a cell biologist.

just in time for the opening of the @hohmannulrich.bsky.social group at @imbmainz.bsky.social what started as a project on how cells export piRNA precursors, ended up as a tour de force in mRNA export. truly wonderful collaboration with @plaschkalab.bsky.social at the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social

And we have another open position, this time with a focus on Genome Biology! Join a great community in Vienna to bring your research to the next level!

Beyond the beginning – development that lasts a lifetime Read this #LifelongDevSI Editorial by Meritxell Huch (@merihuchlab.bsky.social), Mansi Srivastava and Alex Eve (@amjeve.bsky.social). doi.org/10.1242/dev....

🔜Only one week to go 🎉! Looking forward to hosting the inaugural talks of our “Metabolism in Development & Physiology” seminar series. Join us by registering here: forms.gle/Y8QzucogKKrZ...

📣Our project, “Mechanometabolic Control of Vertebrate Limb Elongation,” has been funded by Wellcome! Over the next 8 years, we’ll collaborate with @manningresearch.bsky.social and Nathalie Agar’s group to understand the mechanics of ECM-rich mesenchymal tissues! Funded positions available!🎉

Had the pleasure of working with @mohannad-dardiry.bsky.social to rethink what it means to develop for life. Many thanks to @dev-journal.bsky.social! @embl.org #LifelongDevSI

Really excited to see this out in the open: www.life-science-alliance.org/content/9/1/...! @isabellavoelkl.bsky.social explored and compared different in vitro developmental model systems to study ciliogenesis.

If you’re applying to your dream lab for an internship/PhD/postdoc, always send a second email 1-2 weeks after the first one if you don’t hear back. I promise we will be grateful rather than annoyed. My email inbox is a disaster and I’m quite junior - and very few of us have secretarial support

Join us for a new zoom series on metabolism and development. This will be a monthly feature with PIs and trainees presenting. Sign up here (forms.gle/Y8QzucogKKrZ...) to get the Zoom link and join the mailing list.

Launching new online international seminar series at the interphase of metabolism, developmental biology and cell biology

Following the inspiring EMBO workshop on developmental metabolism #EMBODevMet, we realized there is a need for an ongoing space to share ideas. So, we’re launching Metabolism in Development & Physiology, a monthly virtual seminar series! Follow @devmetphys.bsky.social for updates and more!

That workshop inspired something new: Metabolism in Development & Physiology, a monthly virtual seminar series :) Follow @devmetphys.bsky.social for updates and more!

In September, I had the opportunity to present at the EMBO workshop on developmental metabolism #EMBODevMet, a truly inspiring event that (re)connected me with my PhD roots, old friends, new faces & exciting ideas in my favourite field, that of metabolism, in the context of development! #EMBLEvents

📣 New preprint! Stoked to share a fantastic collaboration with @campaslab.bsky.social! We discover a unique mammalian mechanism for body axis elongation using mouse and human gastruloids, and confirm central findings in mouse embryos. Check out the 🧵 👇 @mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social

We are thrilled to announce the inaugural Metabolism in Development & Physiology virtual seminar, a new series connecting researchers across all stages & disciplines in metabolism! 🗓 13 Nov 2025, 16:00 CET 🎙 Alexander Aulehla (EMBL Heidelberg), & 🎙 Christopher Bell (Uni of Oxford) See you there!

🚨Excited to kick off our online seminar series on Metabolism in Development and Physiology! Please help us grow a collaborative and supportive community by joining (<1min): forms.gle/Y8QzucogKKrZ... #Metabolism #Development #StemCells Please RT! 🙏

Ascidians (Ciona intestinalis)🪸Our distant chordate cousins! 🌊 Simple sea squirts that reveal how vertebrate body plans evolved 🧬 A key model for notochord formation, neural induction, and cell lineage mapping 📸 Video by MBL Embryology 2019 #ModelMonday #DevBio #EvoDevo

🚨 TLM Online Seminar Series - 05.11.25 | 16:00 UK Malte Mederacke: "The emergence of the fractal bronchial tree" Rory Cooper: " The mechanics of crocodile and tortoise head scale patterning" Please repost & to attend online please register to our 📧for the zoom link: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...

New life at IMBA. Micropatterned cells.

We’ve officially launched the MetaboDev lab at IMBA 🚀! I’m extremely grateful for all the support from the @imbavienna.bsky.social & @viennabiocenter.bsky.social community. Special thanks to @eunicechan.bsky.social, the most amazing first lab member I could have hoped for. On to the science!🔬🧬#NewPI

📣Announcing the 4th edition of the EMBL‑IBEC Conference on “Engineering Multicellular Systems”, taking place 11–13 March 2026 in Barcelona. Exploring organoids, mechanobiology, embryo models, organ-on-chip systems, multiomics and more. Abstracts open now! events.ibecbarcelona.eu/embl-ibec-co...

Pre-print alert 🚨 We answer a longstanding question in the field. Do immune cells cause cerebral malaria? The answer is YES!!!! And independently of P. falciparum accumulation in the brain. www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

This week has been special for us, marking 100 years of supporting biologists and inspiring biology. We celebrated our achievements at @zoologymuseum.bsky.social last night. We want to thank all our staff, whose continual inspiration and daily support for one another make our work possible.

1/ 🎉Excited to share our new preprint @vignjeviclab.bsky.social @davidbrueckner.bsky.social : "Self-organization of tumor heterogeneity and plasticity" biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Tumor heterogeneity and plasticity drive metastasis and relapse. How is tumor patterning coordinated? A thread👇

We hire! The CytoMorpho Lab is looking for an engineer with a background in cell and molecular biology to join our team in Paris. This is a 18-month contract position, but we're open to exploring long-term opportunities. More details here: cytomorpholab.com/index.php/jo...

Opportunity for a Master’s/Bachelor’s student: - Join us for up to 5 months 🗓️ - Build computational/mathematical models 💻 - Learn about genotype-phenotype maps and evolution 🧬 - Work closely with PhD student Manuela Giraud - full info here: www.crg.eu/en/content/t...

Looking forward to a day at EMBL Barcelona for Science by the Beach Seminar at noon Science by the beach | EMBL.org share.google/Eb8dktOiuUbJ...

Finally my PhD work is out in bioarxiv! We identified a transient fluidization in the basal region of human neuroepithelia, which may contribute to the early human-specific brain expansion! It highlights tissue fluidity as a previously underappreciated dimension of evolutionary neurobiology.

Vertebral skeletal diversity in mammals is remarkable. How do the differences between vertebral size and shape develop and evolve? See how we tackled this question in our paper published in @natcomms.nature.com today!

New preprint from the lab! We discovered a transient fluidization in the basal region of human forebrains by tracking microdroplets in cerebral organoids.This “basal fluidization”, absent in gorilla and mouse, may contribute to greater surface expansion in human forebrains 1/ doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Fantastic work from Xi and Qi-long! Chicken ES cells will take classic chicken embryology to a new level.

The Crick is looking for new junior group leaders! Any postdocs or early career researchers wanting to be our colleagues should apply 👍

Happy to share the last version of our story @currentbiology.bsky.social on the role of interfacial tension in mechanical cell competition led by @leovalon.bsky.social and Alexis Matamoro Vidal www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Just out in @science.org: Together with the lab of @johanneszuber.bsky.social, we used sequential in-vitro/in-vivo screens to decipher metabolic adaptations in tumors. We find that acidosis is a dominant factor that shapes energy metabolism and stress resilience. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🧪 How does cancer turn sour into power? Cancer cells thrive in hostile, acidic environments. A team led by Johannes Zuber (IMP) & Wilhelm Palm (DKFZ) shows that acidosis acts as a master switch, rewiring tumour metabolism and boosting resilience. ➡️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very sad news, John Gurdon has died. A developmental biologist's developmental biologist, Nobel prize winner His work is the foundation of much of today's dev & stem cell bio. An inspiration to many, including me. Always asking questions & wanting the answers www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports... This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵

The Vienna BioCenter PhD Program application deadline is approaching: October 10! Join one of Europe’s premier life science campuses, home to cutting-edge research across all areas of biology. Apply and start your scientific journey in Vienna! training.vbc.ac.at/phd-program/ #PhD #LifeSciences

💫NEW: @telemanlab.bsky.social & co demonstrate that #AMPK can be activated by signaling metabolite, #adenosine, under non-stress conditions during #Drosophila development. The intestine regulates adenosine levels, thus, remotely controlling wing disc AMPK activation and growth. bit.ly/4gX6njF

With perspectives from my esteemed colleagues @ethanewe.bsky.social @maxfarnworth.bsky.social @anzymiller.bsky.social @marliesoomen.bsky.social @giuliapaci.bsky.social @sonyawiden.bsky.social and Toshimichi Yamada 🧪RNAs of all kinds, junk, jumping, and fluctuating genes, cells&tissues with opinions!

EEE meeting is BACK! Early Embryogenesis & Epigenetics conference in Berlin 02/2026. Checkout great program and over 12 slots for (not so) short talks for submitted abstracts!. Early registration now open - w.molgen.mpg.de/embryo2026

Happy to share the latest work from Preeti Sahu, with Adriana Sanchez-Danes on the biomechanics of cell fate choices during tumor initiation! We implement/test a 3D vertex model with proliferation and fate choices for multilayered tissues! See 🧵 below (1/n) bit.ly/3ZXxJzk

Amazing group of speakers.

How do cells navigate up gradients of adhesive proteins? 🤔 Termed "Haptotaxis", this effect is ubiquitous in cell migration, but it's mechanism was poorly understood We show that passive friction directs cells & explains complex trajectories on gradients 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How are RNAs sorted for export vs. degradation in the nucleus? In collaboration with @heick.bsky.social’s lab we (@clemensplaschka.bsky.social and @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social labs) discovered a direct mechanistic link between the export and decay machineries: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/x)

EMBL scientists found metabolism controls embryonic development tempo through signalling in a way separate from its established metabolic function. More research related to this signalling could illuminate how it guides cell fate, developmental timing -- even disease. www.embl.org/news/science...

An exciting collaboration with a wonderful team! Check out Kuba's tutorial!

💸 Stem cell culture that’s ~95% cheaper and weekend-free: a win-win for PIs and trainees! Our revised manuscript is online at ORE: open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/4-1... Benchmarked across cell lines & differentiation protocols, including scRNA-seq — with lessons for #cultivatedmeat too!

PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity. But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing? PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer www.cell.com/molecular-ce...