Biology is so beautiful!! 🤩

(Below, a cute movie generated during revision: a cellular love story with two cells timidly encountering each other, finally holding hands, and deciding never to let go.)

I believe that I can guarantee that you will *not* have guessed this potential antiviral mechanism or even thought about it before:

! Intracellular buffering enables developmental robustness after genome doubling in C. elegans embryos www.cell.com/cell-reports...

New from @dev-journal.bsky.social: we're launching a new initiative and hiring Preprint Editors to help navigate the growing world of preprints in developmental & stem cell biology Join our community & shape the future of research journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

A. mexicanus are a promising model to study nutritional control of development as cavefish larvae yolks are larger & appear more yellow compared to surface fish suggesting differences in nutritional content. Reciprocal crosses show how maternally-provided nutrients impact development. #TeleostTalk 🧪

New version of our preprint on bioRxiv about bioRxiv up. Now that’s what I call a revision – 6 years after the first version! It has new data about our progress and highlights from a massive user survey. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Congratulations to Dr Chandra and Dr Ma and other co-authors on this provocative work! They convincingly show e. coli interact with light and this disrupts memory consolidation. Non-visual light modulates behavioral memory and gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Exposure to mild #HeatStress can promote stress resilience & healthy aging ("heat hormesis"). siusylvialee.bsky.social &co characterize #transcriptomic & #chromatin accessibility changes during heat #hormesis in #Celegans, identifying several novel regulators @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4cJFEa9

Evolutionary causes and consequences of gene duplication www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧬💻🧪 (🔓 rdcu.be/e4CYK)

Bacterial diet influences mutation rate in Pristionchus pacificus academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Molecular insights into diverse heat hormesis regimens in Caenorhabditis elegans academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

No matter how many times I come across this specific cartoon, it makes me happy. ♥️

Here is a robust biochemical & functional difference between young and old mammalian cells: - The fraction of new amino acids incorporated into proteins. The difference is consistent, quantitative, cell-type specific, and deeply intriguing. What aging mechanisms cause it ? 1/

☕Thendral et al. describe a mitophagic programme that removes deleterious mtDNA during the oocyte-to-zygote transition in C. elegans, promoting #mitochondria health and offspring survival. Loss of this #mitophagy leads to mutant mtDNA accumulation. 👉https://rdcu.be/e3tpJ bit.ly/4aqi7Zk

Excited to Share Our New Publication in #GENETICS! academic.oup.com/genetics/adv... Check out our new publication of our research exploring how the DREAM and MEC NuRD complexes reinforce SPR 5/MET 2 maternal reprogramming to safeguard proper developmental cell fates in C. elegans.

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

A Lab Protocol by Omid Gholamalamdari and Stephanie C. Weber details an optimized method for labeling of nascent RNA transcripts in the C. elegans intestine, enabling spatial analysis of transcription dynamics. plos.io/3Ox4rnO @protocolsio.bsky.social link: plos.io/3O9Jv6g

Epitope-based labeling for improved live-imaging of endogenous proteins in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.703904v1

... this is a reference to William Kaelin's essay: Publish houses of brick, not mansions of straw.

One thing to add is that all the sledgehammers in the world won’t save you from a bad plan. So, think things through carefully! Also, science can be surprising and is unpredictable, so you also need to NOTICE THINGS while you’re doing the experiment and not ignore red flags. These are the keys.

I would like to think @wyomingwormboy.bsky.social for describing the Sledgehammer Approach (to research) in WormBook. It is invaluable advice that I share with every trainee.

yooooooo

The immune systems paradox Some widespread prokaryotic immune systems are absent in eukaryotes, whereas relatively rare ones became central to eukaryotic innate immunity @audeber.bsky.social & E. Koonin hypothesize the answer is #HGT shareable link: rdcu.be/e2EmD www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A comprehensive and thought-provoking review on how perturbations of proteostasis impact immunity in C. elegans & comparisons/conserved principles w/ vertebrate immunity - Emily Troemel, @hawlelab.bsky.social, and Michalis Barkoulas journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/...

Evolutionarily conserved behavioral plasticity enables context-dependent mating in C. elegans www.cell.com/current-biol...

Survey link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/9RRGMZD. I'd like to disclose that this data might be used for a fellowship being offered for research that translates into business/services and I'm sort of desperate for a fellowship in this competitive climate. Thank you for anyone who gives feedback!

The Caenorhabditis Genetics Center Curated Special Collections: a guide to protein degradation systems academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

How does evolution turn a harmless bacterial feeder into an active predator? Our new study led by @marianneroca.bsky.social and published in @pnas.org explores how sensory systems were rewired to enable prey detection and predatory behaviour in nematodes. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧵below!

I am pleased to share our latest paper on the role of the alternative polyadenylation factor CFIM-1 (NUDT21) in C. elegans germline development. academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

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...

tidyheatmaps.org just got a hex logo refresh 🤩 Happy heatmapping! #rstats #dataviz #phd

Identification of germline chromatin modifying factors that influence zygotic transcription activation in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700918v1

Finnish study: Nuclear MBL-1 modulates mitochondrial morphology through carnitine palmitoyltransferase in Caenorhabditis elegans with toxic trinucleotide repeats www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Congrats @giuliapaci.bsky.social !!!!!! Well deserved!

Wonderful initiative, for those keen!

Thermo-sensing and argonaute-dependent transcriptome remodelling in trypanosomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700697v1

Why do some worms graze on bacteria while others hunt and kill? Our study, published today in Nature, reveals how predatory aggression evolved in nematodes. Led by @gunizgozeeren.bsky.social and @leoboeger.bsky.social across the @jameslightfoot.bsky.social and @monikakscholz.bsky.social labs.

“We also found that high-impact journals and top-ranked institutions are more likely to publish challenged claims.” Yet, careers still hinge on journal brands. 🤦 Make it make sense!

So many new tools for gene tagging these days! I’m a happy boy! :)

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...

“The proliferation of AI tools in science risks introducing a phase of scientific enquiry in which we produce more but understand less.”

FLInt 2.0: Robust and customizable single shot integration in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.12.699147v1

Modular gene tagging in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.15.699741v1

Improved Dye-Filling Protocol for Multiple Nematode Species #micropublication #biology #data #caltechlibrary #Celegans #Pristionchuspacificus #Methods #Methodology https://micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-001963

A new community-driven lab handbook for reducing conflict and creating more positive and equitable work environments gets strong support from a survey of 200 researchers. buff.ly/K7CGFLV

Highly recommended!

@maxfarnworth.bsky.social is amazing-ier! 😆

Environment & evolution take centre stage at January’s #DevPres 📅 14 January 15:00 GMT/UTC Three talks, three unique stories. Told by @ethanewe.bsky.social @maxfarnworth.bsky.social @sonyawiden.bsky.social Chair: @pritiagarwal.bsky.social 🔗Learn more & register: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Paired with the show, Bob Goldstein created the world's longest microtubule, ascending the Genome Science Building's spiral stairs, to honor Emeritus Professor Ted Salmon