iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Alex Eve @amjeve.uk · 12/03/2026

Cephalopods, like squid, have three hearts. @gertjanveenstra.bsky.social explores how they develop & what we can learn about heart evolution. Gill (brachial) hearts form first, followed by a central, systemic heart, and they develop differently than vertebrates in terms of gene activation. #gfe2026

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Cees Dekker @ceesdekker.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

The Epstein files have exposed a moral rot in the circus of scientific public intellectuals. Sadly but unsurprisingly, also leading scientists visited Epsteins island for the sex parties. Robert Trivers,Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Krauss, Martin Nowak, Larry Summers, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins...

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Gert Jan C Veenstra @gertjanveenstra.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Today it was announced that Sir John Gurdon passed away. His ground-breaking discovery was that differentiated cells can be reprogrammed. He was a creative and distinguished developmental biologist, a kind person with a great inquisitive mind and original ideas www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

cam.ac.uk

Nobel Laureate Professor Sir John Gurdon dies aged 92

It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the Gurdon Institute.

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

eLife @elife.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

While academic publishing may not be broken, it isn’t built to serve science either. It runs on a chain of perverse incentives, but everything we need to rebuild it is already in our hands. #OpenScience #AcademicSky buff.ly/oSesI1s

Screenshot of article summary of: Toward Science-Led Publishing by Damian Pattinson, George Currie published as an opinion piece, in Learned Publishing Summary The current dynamic of scholarly publishing prioritises the wants of the publishing industry over the needs of the research community. This article explores this theme through the lens of ‘publisher-led science’ as a description of our current status quo, and through ‘science-led publishing’ as an improved future state. We argue that financial motivations central to most publishing distort how research is presented, how it is assessed and even what research is undertaken, leading to a system that hinders, rather than facilitates, scientific progress. We propose three elements of a science-led publishing approach that would accelerate research communication, incentivise collaboration between authors, editors and reviewers, and create a more transparent and equitable research landscape. We believe that research funding and research assessment are two of the primary levers for wider change in research and research culture and consider the future purpose of scholarly publishing in a world where these proposals have been widely adopted.

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Benoit Bruneau @benoitbruneau.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

long-time coming, multi-lab paper on the evolution of gene regulation in the tetrapod heart. I actually did the mouse and chick embryo heart dissections for this one! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

The Interplay of Ontogeny and Phylogeny at the Transcriptome Level of the Tetrapod Heart

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Gert Jan C Veenstra @gertjanveenstra.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Did you know that cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish) have three hearts? Did you ever wonder how that is possible? For the first answer to that question, come to the today's afternoon session of #2025ICDB meeting (Saturday 21 June 7PM) #2025SDB @socdevbio.bsky.social

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Gert Jan C Veenstra @gertjanveenstra.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

The 20th International Conference of Developmental Biology kicks off Looking forward to five days of exciting developmental biology #2025ICDB #2025SDB @socdevbio.bsky.social

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Society for Developmental Biology @socdevbio.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

🔈 Excited to welcome Gert Jan C. Veenstra as an invited speaker at #ICDB2025! Gert Jan leads research on gene regulation during embryonic and heart development, utilizing stem cells and model organisms to unravel the complexities of pluripotency and differentiation. 🧬❤️🧪

An announcement slide in white and blue colors, with Gert Jan's name, the SDB ISDB and LASDB logos and text that says Plenary 3: Evolution and Development of Organ Systems. Saturday, June 21st 5-7pm.

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Gert Jan C Veenstra @gertjanveenstra.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Just concluded three exciting weeks at MBL @mblscience.bsky.social at Woods Hole for work of my team with that of Carrie Albertin's on heart development in cephalopods. Beautifully located, MBL is a terrific place with an environment conducive to collaborative ground-breaking discovery.

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

@LaBonneLaB @labonnelab.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Universities are not passive beneficiaries of government largesse. It is the federal government that depends on universities to conduct the research that keeps our nation healthy, safe and economically competitive.I discuss in the Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

washingtonpost.com

Opinion | Universities and the government: Which needs the other more?

From public health to high-tech innovation, universities are the workhorses of national progress.

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Stem Cell Reports @stemcellreports.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

New study outlines a cardiac #differentiation roadmap, mapping cell states that mimic the human fetal heart. ow.ly/lCkh50V8o2w @isscr.org @cellpress.bsky.social @gairdnerawards.bsky.social @sickkidsvs.bsky.social

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Gert Jan C Veenstra @gertjanveenstra.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Our latest work on stem cell-based modeling of human heart development is now out! Excited to see the outstanding and notable work of Rebecca Snabel with our collaborators Carla Cofiño Fabrés and Robert Passier in print. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Cardiac differentiation roadmap for analysis of plasticity and balanced lineage commitment

Stem cell-based models of human heart tissue and cardiac differentiation employ monolayer and 3D organoid cultures with different properties, cell typ…

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Moritz Mall @moritzmall.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

#CellPlasticity—the ability of cells to change their identity—is vital for tissue growth and repair. But when it goes unchecked, it can fuel #cancer. Our latest study examines how to block #LiverCancer by actively suppressing plasticity. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #CancerBiology

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Petr Svoboda @svobodalab.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

This thread ... LIFE OF PIs ... is being brought to you by one and only Buster Keaton ... I hope you will enjoy it. #LifeOfPI

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Gert Jan C Veenstra @gertjanveenstra.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

All you ever wanted to know about mollusks 🐙🦑🐚🐌 and then some ... 1800 pages of wonderful biology 😍 Arrived yesterday

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

epithelial mechanics fan club @epimechfc.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Is endothelium a type of epithelium? I am @icfortunato.bsky.social & I would like to discuss this with a short🧵 focused on cell-cell junctions, specifically adherens junctions.

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Neil Shubin @neilshubin.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Your reminder that many of the muscles, nerves and bones you use to hear and talk with correspond to gill structures in fish. 🧪 #evolution #paleontology

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Zebrafish Rock! @zebrafishrock.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Light-sheet image of a two-chambered embryonic #zebrafish heart. Credit to @noelresearchlab.bsky.social #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

Ventral view of an embryonic zebrafish heart with cardiomyocytes labeled in green and endothelial cells labeled in magenta

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Alex de Mendoza @alexdemendoza.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

SOX and POU are crucial Transcription Factors in animal development, believed to be innovations of this group. Here we find them in unicellular relatives of animals. And hold tight, you can use a choanoflagellate 🦠 SOX gene to make a full chimeric 🐁 ! Read more here 🧵: rdcu.be/d0dPN 1/6

rdcu.be

The emergence of Sox and POU transcription factors predates the origins of animal stem cells

Nature Communications - The pluripotency program is maintained by transcription factors from the Sox and POU families. Here they identify SOX and POU factors from unicellular relatives of animals...

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Reposted by Gert Jan C Veenstra

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

A mechanism for why durable weight loss is so difficult: epigenetic memory of fat cells www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Gert Jan C Veenstra @gertjanveenstra.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

This is my first post on BSky, trying this after losing interest in Twitter/X and Mastodon not really catching on. Will mainly post about my core scientific interests: * Developmental Biology and EvoDevo: Heart development, Stem cells, Early embryonic development * Gene regulation, Chromatin

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