Happy new year to all! (photo by Karl Blossfeldt, Art Forms in Nature, 1928)

That's what 'the napolitans' we up to when they briefly invaded our lab! Wonderful memories from December 2021 and November 2022. Congratulations!!

Our lab studies how animals regenerate their body, e.g. how crustaceans regenerate broken legs. One of our aims is to understand if regeneration re-uses the gene networks that built the legs in the first place. Arthur Monternier, an artist in our team, captured the question in this cartoon.

What are these? You are looking at embryos of a sea squirt. Each of the 'soap bubbles' is a living cell, about a fourtieth of a millimetre in size. The outlines of the cells are visible thanks to fluorescent markers identified by Hitoyoshi Yasuo @hitoyas.bsky.social see doi.org/10.1101/2024... 🧵

How can we see the cells that make up a living organism? Membrane-localising tags can drive fluorescent proteins to the cell's outer membrane, making their outlines visible. But the tags don't work well in all organisms. How do you find one for your species of interest? 🧵 Check our latest preprint

interesting article by @yoginho.spore.social.ap.brid.gy Artificial Intelligence is algorithmic mimicry: why artificial “agents” are not (and won’t be) proper agents arxiv.org/pdf/2307.07515

Here it is! Postdoctoral position to identify the progenitors sensory organs in the regenerating legs of Parhyale apply here: www.averof-lab.org/pages/tracman 1/3

X-ray imaging of crustacean legs at the DESY synchrotron, Hamburg. Cross-section of regenerating Parhyale leg (~1/10 of a mm in width). X-rays give accurate 3D view with almost cellular resolution. With Angelika Svetlove, Kevin Grüner & Mathilde Paris @zoocell.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy

Interested in a sabbatical in Lyon? The Collegium de Lyon provides accommodation and attractive interdisciplinary environment for 1 or 2 semesters. Open to all disciplines. You can be affiliated with any local department/lab. Apply now for 2026-27. collegium.universite-lyon.fr/2026-2027-un...

Latest paper elifesciences.org/articles/107... closes an important cycle in our efforts to study regeneration: week-long recordings allow us to observe the behaviour of cells during the entire course of regeneration in a crustacean leg – bright objects in movie are fluorescent nuclei of cells. 1/6

We've just been awarded a grant to study the cellular basis of regeneration – to track the progenitors of sensory organs in the context of leg regeneration, in our favourite crustacean tinyurl.com/parhyale, based on live imaging and cell tracking. The project involves some cool collaborations... 1/3

John Maynard Smith on natural history. (London Review of Books, April 1982)

In the brain of intertidal crustaceans (Eurydice and Parhyale), circadian clock genes are expressed with a daily rhythm (24h) in some cells and a tidal rhythm (12.4h) in other cells. Two different clocks working in the same brain, using the same components.

Trichoplax adhaerens is one of the simplest and most enigmatic animals on earth. Its body shows incredible fluidity, changing shape within minutes. In a recent visit by Andrea Pasini we had the chance to host and observe these amazing animals live. [movie accelerated 3x; animal 0.5 to 1 mm in size]

Intriguing findings from our Sendai collaborators Ruka Kitsui and Ryusaku Deguchi. While C. hemispherica spawns at dawn, Clytia IZ-D species spawns at dusk. This is not triggered by dark but, unexpectedly, by light-mediated extension of an autonomously-running 20h cycle. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

#StandUpForScience Lyon France

I prepared these as banners for the #StandUpForScience demonstration on Friday. Happy to share the high-res files, if anyone wants to use them.

Do you have experience in generating transgenic tools and fluorescent markers? Are you interested in developing new tools in a non-conventional model, to observe and genetically manipulate cells during leg regeneration? We are recruiting! www.averof-lab.org/pages/3560

Rita Levi-Montalcini defied fascism, which excluded her from university due to her jewish ancestry, by setting up a clandestine lab in her own bedroom. During 1940-42 she carried out experiments that set the foundations for her Nobel-prize-winning research a decade later. nautil.us/a-lab-of-her...

As the world of science wakes up to modern fascism, it's worth remembering older generations who stood up for humanity in much harsher circumstances. Jacques Monod worked actively for the resistance in WWII, while pursuing early stages of his research in occupied Paris. @standupforscifr.bsky.social

Looking for a tag to localise fluorescent proteins to the plasma membrane? Unsure which tag might work in your species? We generated a toolkit of 11 membrane-localising tags, which can be screened rapidly by microinjecting mRNA in your species of interest. 1/4 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Can we observe how the injured leg of an animal is regenerated? We have figured out how to do this in the crustacean Parhyale. Over the course of a week, we can record the entire process of regeneration at cell-by-cell resolution. 1/3 vimeo.com/802413847

Looking for a membrane localisation tag? unclear what will work in your spp? We gathered 10 tags (diff mechanisms of memb localisation) + fused them with red FP. Interested in joining us for a comparative screen? We'll share plasmids for making mRNA, you can inject in your favourite model. #evodevo

Remembering Claus Nielsen for his gentleness and dry humour while teaching us about marine organisms in Kristineberg www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A useful tool for finding your twitter friends on BlueSky chromewebstore.google.com/detail/behhb...

Snippets from the IGFL @igflyon.bsky.social outreach event yesterday: The amphioxus (Branchiostoma lanceolatum) is a close cousin of vertebrates. It lives submerged in the sand, capturing food particles through a filtration mechanism. Photo by Vincent Moncorgé, animals from Hector Escriva

Big day today, our public outreach event at the IGFL @igflyon.bsky.social