Neuron-intrinsic and glial pathways regulate sensory cilia regeneration in adult C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.15.725580v1

This should be put up on the Sphere during the @socdevbio.bsky.social meeting in Las Vegas!

🐈Amid finals and in advance of graduation, two of our most prestigious 'Purr-fessors,' Kinje and Torbie, held office hours at a cat cafe today, arranged the lab of Professor Myriam Heiman. Attendees also enjoyed boba, macarons and cat crafts. Thanks to MIT's School of Science!

Twice now, I have emailed Percival Scientific about minor issues with our 15-year-old incubator and, both times, they replied within hours with technical documents on how to fix it myself. So good when companies empower customers to maintain and repair equipment ourselves! This is the way.

Hi folks! @bu-biology.bsky.social is hiring two (!!) lecturers in Cell and Molecular Biology. It is a sweet gig in an awesome department. Come join us! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32034

good thread of replies to honest question

Please come join me in Washington, DC August 2-6th for the FASEB SRC on Cilia and Centrosomes meeting! Over 40 talks will be selected from abstracts. We are also excited to launch our first North American Ciliopathy Summit, held at the same venue on August 2. events.faseb.org/event/cilia-...

I have a position open for a Research Associate - Postbac opportunity. For those with curiosity and tenacity, a chance to delve deeply into a project, learn new techniques, and publish papers, all in a friendly environment. Suited for recent college (BS) grads with prior relevant experience.

I saw the story that Barney Frank entered hospice. He was my Representative starting when I was 5, and then again when I moved back as faculty. Here is a signed campaign poster I have from the 1970s (pre-Congress). It hung for years in my dad's office, which was a perpetual mess (like mine is now).

A very moving tribute to one of the founders of modern Stem Cell Biology: Gail Martin. Well worth a read. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Apical spectrin organizes cortical actin filament bundles to pattern C. elegans cuticle ridges https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.05.709908v1

👉 3rd aECM club Apr 14th 10 am NYC-4 pm Paris #aECM invertebrate cuticle and molt cycle @gotworms.bsky.social @labgrosshans.bsky.social program sundaramlab.com/blog/aecm-cl... 👉 join our Slack forms.gle/Y6UjbnXPH1pD...

New preprint! "A stereotyped glial attachment determines the morphology and function of neuronal cilia" doi.org/10.64898/202... We find that C. elegans neuronal cilia attach to glia, we identify a protein required for cilia-glia attachment, and we show that glial attachments alter cilia signaling.

Opposing roles for lipocalins and a CD36 family scavenger receptor in apical extracellular matrix-dependent protection of narrow tube integrity Read this Research Article from our special issue #DevSIextracellular by @bellefeuille.bsky.social, Meera Sundaram & colleagues. doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Our Editor, @swathiarur.bsky.social, has curated a new subject collection for the journal, highlighting the intersection between developmental and cell biology. Take a look at the collection 'Cell biology in development' here: journals.biologists.com/dev/collecti...

New preprint! An ECM gene acts cell non-autonomously from neighbor neurons to regulate ciliary function, protein localization, extracellular vesicle shedding, and ultrastructure @katiejacobs.bsky.social is the lead in another great collaboration w/ David Hall www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

NYT feature on their website's front page about our local C. elegans colleague Will Mair and NIH funding www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/u...

Theoretician says to experimentalist, "I've got a riddle for you! What's green, hangs on the wall, and whistles?" Experimentalist thinks for a long time and says, "I give up. What's green, hangs on the wall, and whistles?" Theoretician says, "A herring!"

As usual, March has come in like a lion and hopefully it will go out like a lamb. But did you know that's not how it is in other countries? In the Malay peninsula, March comes in like a worm-eating fernbird and goes out like a worm-eating fernbird. Source: amthenfm.wordpress.com/tag/john-bel...

Latest in #GENETICS: Ragle et al. discovered key functions and regulatory mechanisms of MLT-11, a putative protease, in #Celegans apical extracellular matrix assembly during cuticle synthesis and molting. buff.ly/MYAd56l

Nematode eggshells: A new anatomical and terminological framework This paper revisits decades of confusion in nematode eggshell anatomy, corrects errors in the literature, and proposes a practical hexalaminar framework with clearer terminology. 🧪 doi.org/10.1051/para...

One Boston Children’s Hospital researcher said, “This is like asking, how do you think dropping an atomic bomb on New York City will affect the future of Broadway musicals? This is a generational loss of innovation, technology, and economic power.” www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/09/m...

A pilot study for whole proteome tagging in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.09.704846v1

Cell-specific roles for the conserved Galpha chaperone RIC-8 in cilia biology https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704597v1

but curly quotes still break SciENcv

Our first 2026 paper is out @currentbiology.bsky.social! 👏 to @nathancsharris.bsky.social (now Asst Prof, GA State) and PD Priya Dutta. Here we show how transcriptional and trafficking pathways coordinate thermoreceptor levels to precisely modulate response plasticity www.cell.com/current-biol...

Friends! I am so happy to share our new preprint! Hydrogen peroxide has been the most common reactive chemical threat to life forms since the Great Oxygenation Event 2.5 billion years ago. How do animals like C. elegans sense it fast and escape? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thread 1/

and -- correct me if i'm wrong -- all this WITHOUT bothering to get a PhD! just a genuinely curious person who is wired to make connections across fields.

good day for an electric heated birdbath!

Lipocalins and Scavenger Receptors affect the luminal matrix that prevents narrow tubes from collapsing - now in press in Development! #aECM #Celegans journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

RNA-binding proteins function through network effects, coordinately binding and weakly regulating many transcripts – or don’t they? Read our new preprint on how LIN28 controls developmental timing through only two targets, one mRNA, one miRNA. doi.org/10.64898/202...

#aECM club sundaramlab.com/blog/aecm-cl...

good stuff!

"Before we were born did you already make unfunny jokes, or did you only start when we were born because then they're dad jokes?"

How do cells fabricate nanoscale extracellular matrix structures? Inagaki, Hayashi et al. @riken-bdr.bsky.social show that the ER network stimulates complex remodeling of the plasma membrane, thereby patterning nanoscale cuticular pore formation in insect sensilla. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

In #GENETICS, @inechipurenko.bsky.social and colleagues studied the effects of mutations in the GNAI1, a G protein–coupled receptor gene, identifying their effects on ciliogenesis in human cells and #Celegans. buff.ly/MF1bSVn

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

"Snowflakes! What a classic peaceful New England --" Cardinals: "Fill the feeder you lazy @$#%"

Vote worm! by @wormkaiden.bsky.social Kaiden Power in our lab .. although I've got to say those Malpighian tubules are looking sharp too!

Hot off the press at EMBO Journal. The culmination of several years of work and hopefully useful to people in the field! BIG Shout-out to Review Commons, who handled the submission. It's a sensible and efficient model and all the journals I like (Society and NFP) are already participating. 🙏

Second that!

The key to getting any task done is having another task that you want to do even less.

So proud of my newest lab member!

#aECM Cub starts next week Nov 18 with talks on patterning the Drosophila lens, mouse tectorial membrane, and C.elegans cuticle furrows. You can still sign up for access using the link below.

High-efficiency targeted integration of extrachromosomal arrays in C. elegans using PhiC31 integrase https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.11.687718v1

In this Opinion piece, Rachel Turn, Mohammad Ovais Aziz-Zanjani, Anushweta Asthana & Peter Jackson highlight strategies for multiplexing diverse approaches to map transient phosphorylations driving ciliary function & G0 in health versus disease. #JCSciliaSI journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Wut. A.I. is to intelligence what a scarecrow is to a human. Sure, some birds might confuse them, but that does not make them the same.

How many (active) C. elegans labs are there?

I thought the "most dangerous animal in the world" was us!

From the lab of Maxwell Heiman discussing the interesting topic of apical ECM and the function of sensing organs and how these ECM proteins can both mechanically and biochemically modulate the organ's functions. doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...