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Akankshi Munjal

@akankshi.bsky.social
813 followers 229 following 29 posts

Principles of Tissue Morphogenesis @Duke www.munjallab.com

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Akankshi Munjal @akankshi.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Fantastic postdoc opportunity! They are a wonderful, highly collaborative group, and Stefano is an exceptional mentor.
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Alessandro De Simone @desimonelab.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
How is proliferation modulated in regeneration for tissues to reach their right size? We found that, in zebrafish scales, proliferation is shut down by a moving front of osteoblast maturation. The front's dynamics scale with tissue size, ensuring proper osteoblast amplification. tinyurl.com/5e45twx3
tinyurl.com
A moving front of osteoblast maturation scales regenerating zebrafish bone
Successful regeneration recovers lost tissues to their original form. Here, we investigate how proliferation of bone-forming osteoblasts is timely regulated to control tissue size during zebrafish sca...
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Susanna Brantley @drsusanna.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The Brantley Lab is hiring a Research Technician/Lab Manager! Looking for someone with a strong foundation in molecular biology, a team player, and excited about basic science. If you know someone who would be a great fit, please share! spartantalent.uncg.edu/postings/35995
spartantalent.uncg.edu
Research Lab Technician
The Brantley Lab is seeking a Research Technician who is passionate about basic science and being a reliable, collaborative member of an academic research team. Research in the Brantley Lab uses quant...
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Margarete Diaz Cuadros @mdiazcuadros.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
First preprint from the lab, led by @gabbov.bsky.social! We identify a metabolic bottleneck that helps set the pace of human development: low levels of the redox enzyme GPD1L limit NADH recycling. Boosting GPD1L mimics mouse cells and accelerates development! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Misha Ahrens @mishaahrens.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Whole-body cellular activity imaging in zebrafish, headed by Virginie Ruetten @vmsruetten.bsky.social - new paper is out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Imaging cellular activity across all organs reveals body-wide circuits - Nature
An imaging system developed to record cellular activity throughout the whole body of zebrafish captures cellular organ dynamics and identifies multiple distributed circuits.
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Prisca Liberali @priscaliberali.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
What if we stop asking only how cells build tissues and ask how tissues shape cells? That’s what we’ll explore at Modelling Life from Tissues to Cells 🇨🇭 lakeconferences.org/conf/8334d9b...
lakeconferences.org
Conference - Modelling Life from Tissues to Cells: Coordination and Robustness - Lake Conferences
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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
New preprint alert!!! Super proud to finally share an authentic 'tour-de-force' from the amazing PhD students Shivani Gunnan @shivanigunnan.bsky.social, Max Kotz and Lucas Ribas, in collaboration with @friedrich-group.bsky.social 👇a small thread www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Developmental growth rates adapt to enable self-correction of organ morphology after injury.
Proportional organ growth requires tissue-level control of cell behavior. Yet the cues that adapt growth rates, especially after organ injury, remain unclear. Here, we uncover that developing organs a...
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Akankshi Munjal @akankshi.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Excited to share our latest! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... This was a highly collaborative endeavor– the best way to do science. We asked how a developing tissue achieves the right shape despite all the variability along the way. Short answer: Hydrostatic pressure. Read on for the long answer!
3D-rendered confocal image of the embryonic zebrafish inner ear (otic vesicle) showing fluorescently labeled cell membranes. Three translumenal epithelial pillars span the lumen, partitioning it into the three semicircular canals (purple arrow: anterior canal; yellow arrow: posterior canal; white arrow: lateral canal)3D rendering of the segmented otic vesicle lumen at 3 days post-fertilization, showing the three connected fluid-filled compartments corresponding to the anterior, posterior, and lateral semicircular canals. The segmentation shows the characteristic geometry of the canals and the spaces partitioned by the transluminal epithelial pillars.
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Akankshi Munjal @akankshi.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Hosting my PhD mentor, @thomaslecuit.bsky.social was a welcome reminder of how fortunate I am to do what I do. It was a privilege to host him at Duke and reflect on what good mentorship can build. Thank you for coming, sharing your inspiring science, and for your unwavering support.
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Victoria Deneke @vdeneke.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
How do sperm and egg fuse? Surprisingly, we still don’t fully know… Our field has uncovered many pieces of the fertilization puzzle, but not how they fit together. We identify ✨ SPARK ✨ - a conserved sperm complex that couples sperm-egg binding to fusion. tinyurl.com/34cm4xat Read on! 🧵👇
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Akankshi Munjal @akankshi.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
🐟!JOB ALERT!Duke, Durham, NC!🐟 We are looking for a research tech (our current tech is starting grad school this Fall (Yay!)). The candidate will contribute to our ongoing research projects on tissue morphogenesis using zebrafish. Please RT🙏 www.munjallab.com/join-us
munjallab.com
Opportunities — Principles of Tissue Morphogenesis (Munjal Lab)
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Thomas Lecuit @thomaslecuit.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
New piece on the mechanics of squamous epithelial shape transition highlighting the role of tensile forces, force transmission by Dumpy & elastic resistance by the ECM in the developing wing. Terrific work from Stefan Harmansa @morphomechanics.bsky.social with Alex Erlich🍾👏: tinyurl.com/2p58b3w3
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Loïc A. Royer 💻🔬🧪 @loicaroyer.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
1/ 🚀 Excited to release: napari-mcp - agentic control of napari from any MCP-capable AI assistant! Use it for interactive image processing, analysis, and visualisation! Really cool project from @ilan-theodoro.bsky.social from my team! #napari #bioimageanalysis #MCP @biohub
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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Briefly, after organ injury, 100 milliseconds, we detected collective changes in membrane potential at the tissue level. This is so far the earliest detected wound-response!! This electric signal sparks the formation of a tissue-wide calcium wave👇
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Zebrafish Rock! @zebrafishrock.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Youthful antics predict lifespan? Using machine learning & continuous recordings of #killifish behavior from adolescence until death, @brunetlab.bsky.social & @deisseroth.bsky.social find early-life behavior predicted future lifespan! Now published @science.org: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪 1/2
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Thomas Lecuit @thomaslecuit.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Wonderful to be part of exciting Program at Harvard University & CMSA, Mathematics &Biology: Morphometry, Morphogenesis and Mathematics. Thank you 🙏🏼 and congrats to organizers for their invitation. Great to see and discuss with wonderful colleagues, not least @akankshi.bsky.social! 🤩
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Akankshi Munjal @akankshi.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Amazing work by amazing colleagues!
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Mike Piacentino @mikepiacentino.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
I’m thrilled to share the first preprint from the Piacentino Lab @hopkinsmedicine.bsky.social! We show that developing inner ear requires a secreted lipid chaperone, APOD, working in a positive feedback loop to amplify FGF/MAPK signaling. 👂 #DevBio Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Lipid-mediated reinforcement of FGF/MAPK signaling enables robust otic placode specification
The formation of cranial placodes requires groups of ectodermal cells to interpret inductive signals in a robust and organized manner, yet how signaling responses are coordinated across a developing f...
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Brugues Lab @brugueslab.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Excited to share Alison's @alisonkickuth.bsky.social paper from the lab out in @nature.com this week! We uncovered how a mechanical ratchet mechanism drives cytokinesis in early #zebrafish embryos. Read more in this thread 🧵 and at www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩 @poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de
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Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Advanced grad students + postdocs: apply for the 2026 #kitpqbio summer course, "Physical Principles of Morphogenesis in Plants and Animals," at buff.ly/OXXMKEv. Apply by Feb. 1. Course directors Adrienne Roeder (Cornell) and Sebastian Streichan (UCSB)
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John Wallingford @jbwallingford.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
SAVE THE DATE! Stoked to organize the 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting with @rashmi-priya.bsky.social, @lowelab.bsky.social, and Shelbi Russell. Come learn about Biomedicine, Biomechanics, and the Biosphere, August 24-28, 2026. Registration dates, etc., coming soon! Please RT
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John F. Rawls @jfrawls.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Part 6: For decades, the zebrafish has helped scientists unlock the mysteries of genetics, development, & disease. But the fish that power most discoveries have spent generations inside lab tanks. This video captures footage of zebrafish in their natural environment in Nepal. youtu.be/cCZhZpPALqw
youtu.be
Zebrafish in the wild
YouTube video by John Rawls
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Akankshi Munjal @akankshi.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
Join us in one of the most supportive and collaborative departments, led by an equally supportive chair!
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Vishank Jain-Sharma @vishankjs.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Excited to start my first day as a postdoc in @akankshi.bsky.social's lab! Seeking to understand quantitatively how a living organism can reproducibly form a complex topological structure from simple initial conditions, and what implications this may have for its behavioral function.
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Çağrı Çevrim @cagricevrim.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉 @karalmckinley.bsky.social We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice. We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵
biorxiv.org
Induction of menstruation in mice reveals the regulation of menstrual shedding
During menstruation, an inner layer of the endometrium is selectively shed, while an outer, progenitor-containing layer is preserved to support repeated regeneration. Progress in understanding this co...
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James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
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...
magd.cam.ac.uk
Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS (1933-2025) | Magdalene College
Magdalene College is deeply saddened to announce the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS, who served as Master of the College from 1995 to 2002.
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Miki Ebisuya @ebisuyamiki.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
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...
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Jain_Akanksha_ @akanksha-jain.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
🧠 Join us @uzh-ch.bsky.social ! We are a new lab looking for PhDs, Postdocs & Master’s students interested in studying how human neural systems emerge & go awry using brain organoids, light-sheet imaging & genomics. 🚀 Deadline for LSZGS 1st Nov! www.lifescience-graduateschool.uzh.ch/en.html.
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Gautam Dey @gautamdey.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
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
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Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
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 🧵
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Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...
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Akankshi Munjal @akankshi.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Our latest preprint! Into morphogenesis, Yap, ECM, signaling, vertex models, feedbacks/robustness? There is something here for everyone. We discovered a positive feedback loop that extends inner ear canals, and a built-in mechanism that shuts it down when morphogenesis is done. tinyurl.com/464wsjhd
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Yu-Chiun Wang @yuchiunwang.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Tissue 'tectonic' collision is detrimental, but flies found two distinct solutions! Gratifying and grateful to be included in this collective effort, w/ Steffen Lemke, to crack the (or 'a') code of #cephalicfurrow, now out in @nature.com, all with @paveltomancak.bsky.social at the helm. (1/9)
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Uri Manor @manorlaboratory.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Jim Hudspeth has died 💔 I am so sad. He was probably my favorite hearing researcher of all time. Absolute genius and also generous - he spent hours on the phone advising me on my career even tho we barely knew each other. May his memory be a blessing. www.ted.com/talks/jim_hu...
ted.com
Jim Hudspeth: The beautiful, mysterious science of how you hear
Have you ever wondered how your ears work? In this delightful and fascinating talk, biophysicist Jim Hudspeth demonstrates the wonderfully simple yet astonishingly powerful mechanics of hair cells, th...
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Akankshi Munjal @akankshi.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
So happy for Kira! She also received NOA for her F32.
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Life Sciences Switzerland (LS2) @lifesciswitzerland.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
This summer's hot ticket: Arolla 2025 meeting "BioMatter - From cytoskeleton to embryo", taking place from 25.08. - 29.08.2025 at Grand Hotel & Kurhaus, Arolla. ‼️ Submit your abstract until the 1st of June and join in: meetings.ls2.ch/arolla2025 ❗ Special rates for LS2 members! ❗
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Barone Lab @baronelab.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
This postdoc position is still open! Apply if you want to come work with us on asymmetric cell divisions in spiralian embryos! postdocs.stanford.edu/prospective/...
postdocs.stanford.edu
Open Postdoctoral position, faculty mentor Vanessa Barone | Office of Postdoctoral Affairs
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paveltomancak.bsky.social @paveltomancak.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
Opus magnum of my former #PhD student @akanksha-jain.bsky.social. She brought the power of #lightsheet imaging to the #Treutlein lab. #Organoids #singlecells #bigdata #imageanalysis You have learned much #Akanksha. You are a #JEDI now. ❤️👏 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Morphodynamics of human early brain organoid development - Nature
Human brain morphodynamics are explored using organoids.
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Zebrafish Rock! @zebrafishrock.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Don't miss the latest news, jobs and research from the #zebrafish community! Also available as a blog post: thenode.biologists.com/daniodigest-...
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Stefano Di Talia @ditalialab.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
Great dinner with current and former members of the lab, as well as current and former Duke members and friends of the lab. Great to catch up with @ceriweber.bsky.social ,Ben, @woonyunghur.bsky.social and share stories. Great @socdevbio.bsky.social meeting!
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Stefano Di Talia @ditalialab.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Please spread the word! We are looking for postdoc(s) interested in quantitative problems in Development and Regeneration. Previous experience in quantitative biology is not required. We will support you and provide a great training environment if you are committed to learn new things.
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Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna - يعقوب حنا @jacob-hanna.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Please check out this upcoming Gordon Conference (GRC) on Developmental Biology - March 2025 Very diverse and relevant topics! and Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) accompanying it as well ! (speaker list in commentts) www.grc.org/developmenta...
grc.org
2025 Developmental Biology Conference GRC
The 2025 Gordon Research Conference on Developmental Biology will be held in Pomona, California. Apply today to reserve your spot.
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Akankshi Munjal @akankshi.bsky.social · 01/02/2024
🐟!JOB ALERT!Duke, Durham, NC!🐟 We are looking for a research tech (our current tech is starting grad school this Fall (Yay!)). The candidate will contribute to our ongoing research projects on tissue morphogenesis using zebrafish. Please RT🙏 www.munjallab.com/join-us
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Zebrafish Rock! @zebrafishrock.bsky.social · 03/11/2023
We've gone purple to promote our Slack group! With nearly 400 active members last month, it has become the premier source for questions and queries for the #zebrafish community and beyond! If you are keen to join, please fill out this Google form: forms.gle/bi3gPp3ncQuE... #RockOn
Danny-O the zebrafish holding a purple guitar
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