iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

preLights @prelights.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Did you ever wonder how the leopard got its spots? Or how the zebra got its stripes? Wonder no more! In this #Short, @benswedlund.bsky.social talks about his #preprint describing reaction-diffusion architecture for engineering self-organised patterns in mammalian cells. 🎙️⬇️ youtu.be/_HMbr4KE1PI?...

youtu.be

spotLights Ep 23: Benjamin on programming self-organising cell patterns #syntheticbiology #biology

YouTube video by The Company of Biologists

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Even wonder how the leopard got its spots? I certainly did, so much that I tried to recreate similar patterns in a dish! Hear about the results from my postdoctoral work in this #spotLight. Many thanks to @reinierprosee.bsky.social for putting this together. And yes, even the soundtrack is homemade!

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

epithelial mechanics fan club @epimechfc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Can mathematics explain how biological patterns are formed? Alan Turing thought so. Join me, @benswedlund.bsky.social, as we explore his reaction-diffusion theory and how it transformed our understanding of pattern formation and self-organisation.

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'll save you the click-through: A lab at University of Copenhagen had been feeding draft manuscripts & data into "Claude Science" & then Anthropic announces a discovery that this lab made a year ago but hasn't published yet. It's plausible that Claude found the same signatures independently...

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Lovely thread about how this decades old theory continues to help us understand developmental pattern 🧪

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Check out my latest thread for @epimechfc.bsky.social and dive into how a 70 yr old mathematical theory may explain pattern self-organisation in biology!

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Nimesh Chahare @onenimesa.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Can maths explain the patterns of life? Follow the story of reaction-diffusion from his 1952 paper to engineered cells that pattern themselves. Another incredible #EpithelialMechanics thread by @benswedlund.bsky.social

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Julia Eckert @juliaeckert.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Fascinating to see how patterns appear across scales and systems! 🦓🫆 Thanks @benswedlund.bsky.social for this amazing #EpithelialMechanics thread! 👇

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

Virtual Gastrulation Zoom Talks @vgzt2021.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

✨ From the beginning of human life to building multicellular systems with synthetic biology! Join Chun So and Benjamin Swedlund for the next VGZT Season 8 session. 📅 Friday, Sept 25 ⏰ 𝟭𝟬:𝟬𝟬 𝗔𝗠 𝗘𝗧 | 𝟳:𝟬𝟬 𝗔𝗠 𝗣𝗧 𝟯:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠 𝗨𝗞 | 𝟰:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝟭𝟬:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 🔗 Scan the poster’s QR code to join!

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

Teresa Rayon @trayon.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

‼️ Postdoc position open. We study how protein metabolism controls time. If you’re excited by this question, we’d love to hear from you! We’re looking for a motivated & collaborative researcher with a strong track record. 📅 30 September 2026 📢 Please share Apply here 👇👇

babraham.current-vacancies.com

Postdoctoral Research Scientist - Babraham

The lab investigates the molecular mechanisms that control biological timing in mouse and human stem cells (Azzi & Rayon, Curr Opinions 2024; Nakanoh et al., Dev Cell 2026). The central aim of this ex...

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

Julia Eckert @juliaeckert.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

From cell signaling to collective tissue dynamics, our community is sharing incredible research! 🔬 Thanks to everyone! Want to become an @epimechfc.bsky.social delegate and share your passion for science with us? Reach out and let us host your next thread.🧵 👉 epithelialmechanics.github.io/threads/

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

Virtual Gastrulation Zoom Talks @vgzt2021.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

🧬 VGZT Season 8 is starting soon! Check out our 2026 speaker lineup and save the dates for exciting developmental biology talks from around the world. 🌍🤩 Keep an eye on this channel for speaker spotlights and details about each talk! See you all soon! #devbio #gastrulation #cells #models

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Is opting into open peer review an indicator of article quality? Papers with published peer-review reports had lower retraction rates over time. To me, it is telling of a broader trend: groups that favour transparency produce more reliable science. Read the @prelights.bsky.social on these findings!

prelights.biologists.com

Who chooses open peer review and is it an indicator of article quality? An observational study of PLOS journals - preLights

Opening up peer review

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Miki Ebisuya @ebisuyamiki.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

New paper from the lab! We developed a self-organizing bovine muscle and blood vessel-like network from ES cells, bringing us one step closer to creating structured cultured beef steak! 🥩🔬 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/

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Sonya Neal @neal-lab.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Come be my colleague!! 🎉 We’re hiring an Assistant Professor in Developmental Biology at UCSD! If you’re doing exciting work in development or regeneration, come join us!! Please spread the word and apply! apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04591

apol-recruit.ucsd.edu

Assistant Professor of Developmental Biology

University of California, San Diego is hiring. Apply now!

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Alexandra Weber @toedtoad.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

My first paper is officially out in @currentbiology.bsky.social ! We found that snake embryos coil due to a mismatch in growth rates between the gut and spine. This tight coil is one of the reasons why snakes are able to get so long. Read the paper here!

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

International Society of Developmental Biology @isdb.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

New preprint by @benswedlund.bsky.social shows that simple two-component synthetic reaction-diffusion circuits are sufficient to generate self-organised patterns in mammalian cells. Instead of a diffusing activator, he tethers it to the cell-cell junction 🔥! Check it out: doi.org/10.64898/202...

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

International Society of Developmental Biology @isdb.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

If you have a new preprint or new publication within the field of developmental biology, cell biology, or mechanobiology, we more than welcome you to send them to us via DM to help them get the attention they deserve! We would love to support more ECRs! #devbio #ecr #biology

static.klipy.com

Doris Roberts: We Support Each Other

ALT: Doris Roberts: We Support Each Other

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

The plasmids I constructed for my paper are now available on Addgene! If anyone feels like reconstructing a synthetic reaction-diffusion circuit in mammalian cells... www.addgene.org/browse/artic... #OpenScience #SharingisCaring

addgene.org

Addgene: A novel reaction-diffusion architecture for engineering self-organized patterns in mammalian cells.

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Check out my first preprint highlight with @prelights.bsky.social! How cells read the room - coordinated symmetry breaking and proportional cell fate allocation in neural organoids, from Hannah T Stuart et al. Lovely story with solid back-and-forth between modelling and perturbative experiments.

prelights.biologists.com

Minimal essential requirements for neural tube self-organisation - preLights

How cells read the room - coordinated symmetry breaking and proportional cell fate allocation in neural organoids

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

jared toettcher @toettch.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

New Toettchlab paper alert! Harrison Oatman just published his beautiful work combining software design for "smart" microscopy+optogenetics and some really beautiful work understanding EGFR-driven collective cell migration. www.cell.com/cell-systems...

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Albert Blanch-Asensio @ablanchasensio.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

The STRAIGHT-IN (Dual) kit is now available via @addgene.bsky.social! 🧬 A complete 24-plasmid toolkit for installing up to two orthogonal CLYBL landing pads, DASIT-based enrichment without FACS, and efficient large DNA integration in human cells. Link: www.addgene.org/kits/gallowa... 🧵

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

Loïc A. Royer 💻🔬🧪 @loicaroyer.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

1/ 🧬🔬 How does one cell become an entire animal? We can now film it in 3D 🐟, but turning those movies into accurate cell tracks is brutally hard. Enter our new #Kaggle challenge: $60K prize pool, to help crack 3D+time cell tracking at scale! 🧵👇 www.kaggle.com/competitions... @biohub.org

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

«The biases do not disappear; they get encoded into the model and then laundered into outputs that feel objective because they are numerical. Replacing one prestige filter with another that is harder to see or challenge is not progress toward equity in science; it’s the opposite. »

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

Diana Voss @dianavoss.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Ooooo, this is cool 😎 Pre-print highlights & insights by content experts brought to us by @biologists.bsky.social?! Yes, please! 🙌 Delving through the DevBio picks now 👀 🧪 prelights.biologists.com/prelists/pre...

prelights.biologists.com

preLighters’ choice – Handpicked DevBio preprints - preLights

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

AI’s top 1% preprints «provides little information on why we should read those preprints or how relevant they might be to any individual». AI can be useful to find gaps between data and claims, cluster preprints per topic, or for author support - NOT to replace IF with more biased and opaque metrics

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I know it seems like a heretical idea, but one way to figure out if a preprint is really interesting (to you) is... to read the preprint. Then, in the spirit of sharing, send a note to authors: a simple kudos or a more detailed question. I do this a dozen times a year. It's awesome. Try it.

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

One goal of "understanding-by-building" is to test the sufficiency of established models to generate predicted phenotypes in the messy context of living cells. In my postdoc, I asked whether simple two-component circuits could generate self-organised patterns in mammalian cells. 1/4

vimeo.com

Supplemental Movie 1

Timelapse microscopy of L929 mouse fibroblasts engineered with a synthetic reaction-diffusion circuit, composed of synNotch-mediated juxtacrine activation and paracrine inhibition (JAPI), showing the ...

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

vimeo.com

Supplemental Movie 1

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Makes me sad more people don't know about @reviewcommons.org and the incredible system they've built! Get peer reviews independent of a journal, then submit with reviews in hand to a stable of excellent journals from across non-profit and society publishers. Review Commons: good for what ails ya.

Advertisement of the Review Commons process

Advertisement of the Review Commons stable of journals and reviewing editors

Advertisement of the Review Commons process in greater depth

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Beautiful piece on how field-specific journals with high ethical standards, such as Development, don’t try to « Game » the impact factor system - and practical steps to move away from this inherently flawed metric as a researcher (see Box 2)

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

www.cell.com/cell-systems... Great review from Pulin Li's lab on synthetic developmental biology - the knowledge gained through bottom-up reconstruction of developmental processes is not just how the embryo works, but also how multicellular systems CAN possibly work to generate form and function.

cell.com

Discovering what is possible: How synthetic biology illuminates development

While embryos have long served as the foundation of developmental biology, in vitro reconstruction of developmental modules has provided insight into their operational rules and limits. Using three re...

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

Society for Developmental Biology @socdevbio.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Emoticons: E9.5 mouse embryo sections through otocyst, hindbrain and pharyngeal endoderm resemble eyes, nose, and smile of an emoticon. 📸 Image credit: Ankita Thawani (Baylor College of Medicine) #FluorescenceFriday #Embryology #DevelopmentalBiology #Microscopy #ScienceArt✨ 🧬

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

The peer-review system needs an update. Biology Open did a cool experiment - contract reviewers in advance, and compensate them for a job well done. The results: it accelerates the process without loss of quality! Very promising. It’s not like for-profit journals can’t afford it…

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Reposted by Benjamin Swedlund

Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

I’m super excited to announce that the work from my postdoc is now openly available on BioRxiv!! A novel reaction-diffusion architecture for engineering self-organized patterns in mammalian cells, from @leonardomorsut.bsky.social lab and friends (1/9) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Christian Mosimann @chrmosimann.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Updated GRC Developmental Biology 2027 flyer/poster with the latest roster of invited speakers. 🌱🐟🧬🐭🪰🧪🧫 Come join us to discuss the latest in #devbio at the Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort, Jan 17-22 ! #GRCDevBio2027

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bioRxiv Synthetic Biology @biorxiv-synthbio.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

A novel reaction-diffusion architecture for engineering self-organized patterns in mammalian cells www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

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The Struggling Scientists @thestrugglings4.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Realizing publishers profit off your work hits hard. You do the research, write, review for free… and it sits behind a paywall. Learn the system, share your work when you can, and stay focused on why you started. Your work still matters.

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Johanna Joyce @johannajoyce.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

What should Europe do when demand for #ERC funding keeps rising? Restrict access or invest in excellence? Please read our open letter calling for reconsideration of the ERC 2027 resubmission restrictions & for constructive alternatives that preserve openness Consider to share & sign - see below 🧪

linkedin.com

#erc | Johanna Joyce

What should Europe do when demand for its most successful frontier research programme keeps rising? Restrict access, or invest in the excellence it has created? A new open letter, spearheaded by Sara...

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Rory Maizels @rorymaizels.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

How can we hope to understand organismal development when it is controlled by huge, complex networks of interacting genes?  One option is to move away from molecular details and focus on learning representations and rules. Check out the new perspective from me and @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social

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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

So when do authors preprint? Many do long before they submit to a journal (to get feedback to improve the work?); many submit around the same time (just want the work out?). Only a minority are submitting once the paper is under review [evidence against claims by some detractors]. 3/n

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Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

We are inviting experienced researchers to apply to become Preprint Editors, a new type of editorial role responsible for handling our 'In preprints' articles and forging links with preprint literature. #prepints Learn more and apply before 30 March 2026: journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pr...

Apply to become a Preprint Editor
Development

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James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Applications are open for @dev-journal.bsky.social 2026 Pathway to Independence (PI) programme, supporting postdocs applying for group leader positions: Mentoring Profile raising Leadership training Network building Spread the word... www.biologists.com/grants/devel...

biologists.com

Development's Pathway to Independence Programme

Our grants support and encourage the sharing of knowledge throughout the community by facilitating international collaboration, event attendance and the organisation of scientific meetings, conference...

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Benjamin Swedlund @benswedlund.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

How are preprints perceived and evaluated in the life sciences from a PI's perspective? Check our my podcast episode through the @asapbio.bsky.social Fellow's program, where I interviewed @leonardomorsut.bsky.social about his perspective on the topic! My key takeaways: 1/6

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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

The Drain of Scientific Publishing details very clearly how for-profit publishers making >30% profit margins have corrupted any solution the research community has attempted. Let's cut ourselves free. Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: bit.ly/StrainQSS Oligopoly: bit.ly/OligSciPub 12/12

arxiv.org

The Drain of Scientific Publishing

The domination of scientific publishing in the Global North by major commercial publishers is harmful to science. We need the most powerful members of the research community, funders, governments and ...

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