Happy to announce that I have started my own research group at the MPIPZ and that I am looking for a postdoc who would like to investigate Marchantia prothallus development with me! Please spread the word and/or apply if interested :)

Looking for a #postdoc? 📣We are #hiring📣 Join the Wallner Group @mpipz.bsky.social to work on tissue patterning, polarity & body axes formation with the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha.🌿 Apply now! #plantsci 👉https://jobs.mpipz.mpg.de/jobposting/54b1ba6d403b8a106f2595c1ef1171f8d729bb720?ref=homepage

Development setting the bar for how community-first, non-profit publishing should be. Glad to be part of the community!

We are pleased to welcome 8 new fellows to our Pathway to Independence programme. Welcome Maëlle Bellec, @iamzico.bsky.social, @evhealy.bsky.social, @josepmercadal.bsky.social, @nikhil-mishra.bsky.social, Jessica Perochon, Yamini Ravichandran & Margherita Zamboni. Read more⤵️ tinyurl.com/4bk4wrk7

+1 to this. Good reminder that network structure does not determine function, and even the simplest gene circuits can display very complicated dynamics. What does this tell us about real (large) gene regulatory networks and their influence on developmental processes?

Josep Mercadal from the MPI Cologne on Evolutionarily conserved lateral inhibition governs cellular patterning in fossil and extant liverworts #MBP2026

Enter the oldest known fossil liverwort, Metzgeriothallus sharonae (ca. 388 Ma). These exceptionally well-preserved fossils allow us to distinguish different cell types. Dark cells (homologs of oil body cells of modern liverworts) form salt-and-pepper patterns, a hallmark of lateral inhibition.

Interested in fossils, evo-devo, and how mathematical modeling can help us understand the evolution of developmental processes? In our latest preprint, we uncover an ancestral lateral inhibition mechanism underlying epidermal patterning in liverworts.

“They want violence” no they very explicitly want compliance and acquiescence and if you don’t give it to them they will fucking murder you

You know me I don't share fundraisers unless I can tell you I trust them with my whole heart and my own wallet. This one gets protective gear to legal observers in Minneapolis / Saint Paul www.gofundme.com/f/help-equip...

ICE just shot another one of my neighbors. They had the person on the ground, being beaten by several agents, and then fired multiple shots. In front of the donut shop where we like to get donuts for our kids.

Another friend put it to me like this: "ICE has made the classic Nazi mistake. They've invaded a winter people in the winter."

Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below! Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage

What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids? Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.

2026 starts with a big adventure: I travel by train to Paris, my Swiss mountain retreat, and then Barcelona, and back to Vienna on Feb 9. No flights needed. Even for big trips in Europe these days. Only: this costs SO MUCH MORE than a bunch of cheap flier tickets would've set me back. #eu and […]

¡Que se vayan todos!

Interested in fossils, evo-devo, and how mathematical modeling can help us understand the evolution of developmental processes? In our latest preprint, we uncover an ancestral lateral inhibition mechanism underlying epidermal patterning in liverworts.

Lateral inhibition governs ancestral cellular patterning in fossil and extant liverworts https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.27.696693v1

Homology of the dark cells of Paleozoic liverworts with the specialized oil body cells of modern liverworts (Marchantiophyta) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.24.696392v1

Homology of the dark cells of Paleozoic liverworts with the specialized oil body cells of modern liverworts (Marchantiophyta) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.24.696392v1

Happy to see this out! We describe a patterning mechanism underlying rhizoid specification in Marchantia. Contrary to classic patterning mechanisms (e.g., Turing), rhizoid specification depends on both randomness and lateral inhibition, involves subcritical bifurcations, and occurs at criticality!

Happy to see this out! We describe a patterning mechanism underlying rhizoid specification in Marchantia. Contrary to classic patterning mechanisms (e.g., Turing), rhizoid specification depends on both randomness and lateral inhibition, involves subcritical bifurcations, and occurs at criticality!

Is this a joke?

Really happy to see my PhD work out. Big thanks to @tonnigrubeandersen.bsky.social and everyone involved. I hope you enjoy reading it :)

Time for another paper from our lab! This time it’s about passage cells. This work originated from a collaboration with @lauraragni.bsky.social and was spearheaded by the super-talented @leoniekraska.bsky.social Below you will find a thread that explains our findings. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Experimental embryology postdoc available in my lab at the @biology.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk working on the evolution of vertebral counts. Reach out if you’re passionate about EvoDevo, enjoy lab work and microscopy and are into or could get into cichlid fishes. Deadline on the 16th June. Please share!

The four days of "Theory and concepts in biology" finish with a round table discussion on biology's biggest challenges. Some common themes emerged: how to deal with biological complexity? How to understand levels of organization? Which features make life unique? #EESTCBio @events.embl.org

During my PhD, I realized the hardest moments weren’t the work itself, but the psychological challenges. We see lots of productivity tips, but PhD students aren’t machines - they're complex human beings. 🫂 Glad to see well-being in @nature.com 'career column 🍀 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist at Harvard Medical School, was detained at Logan Airport after returning from France and sent to an ICE detention in Louisiana, The Insider reports. A big critic of Putin and the war in Ukraine, she may now be deported to Russia.

Gestapo kidnapping students off the streets. Fascism is here.