iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jake Cornwall-Scoones @jcornwallscoones.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thrilled to be a part of this programme. Swing by the Panton Arms in Cambridge if you’re in the area on 18:30 27/10

Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

bioRxiv SysBio @biorxiv-sysbio.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Stable epigenetic states set single-cell activation thresholds in mammalian expression systems www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

New book chapter from @jcornwallscoones.bsky.social & me On GRNs as dynamical systems. Wiring diagrams alone can't predict network behaviour. Understanding developmental patterning needs quantitative, experimentally defined rules for how CREs integrate TF inputs books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&...

books.google.co.uk

Open Questions in Developmental Biology

This book explores the enduring and emerging questions in developmental biology, offering a comprehensive overview that bridges traditional concepts with the innovative inquiries shaping future resear...

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NordenLab @nordenlab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It was a looong June for @dianagm.bsky.social but worth the wait (I think). Check out our new preprint in collaboration with Adolfo Alsina and Guillaume Salbreux (both not here) about what you need or might not need for our two eyes to match. Check it out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

These days I increasingly feel we are rebranding Systems and Synthetic biology from 20 years ago with AI instead of engineering.

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Levayer Lab @levayerr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The last version of our EpiCure tool is now out in @dev-journal.bsky.social, a user friendly Napari plugin for epithelial segmentation curation. A bit thanks to @gaellel.bsky.social for carrying all along this joint department effort (check the details below). Feel free to use it and expand it !

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David Brückner @davidbrueckner.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

If you're looking for a PhD position, or know someone looking checkout our interdisciplinary PhD Fellowship program! We are always looking for talented students with a physics or computational background to join our group to work on the physics of living systems!

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Fundamental limits on symmetry breaking by Turing-like activator-inhibitor mechanisms Read this Research Article from our special issue #DevSIextracellular by Daniel Muzatko, Bijoy Daga and @hiscocklab.bsky.social from @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

An atlas of symmetry-breaking activator-inhibitor circuits. (A-D) Predicted expression patterns for each type of inhibitory mechanism and corresponding regulatory circuit(s) from Fig. 4. Plots show spatial distributions of relative mRNA concentrations for the activator (blue) and inhibitor (red), alongside levels of signalling pathway activation (green). (A) Pathway activation is co-expressed (in-phase) with both the activator and inhibitor expression domains. (B) Pathway activation is either in-phase (B1) or out-of-phase (B2) with both the activator and the inhibitor. (C) Pathway activation is out-of-phase (anticorrelated) with the inhibitor, and is either: in-phase with the activator (C1), uniform across the tissue (C2) or out-of-phase with the activator (C3). (D) The two ligands of the two signalling pathways are either expressed out-of-phase with each other (D1) or co-expressed in the same location (D2).

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Stefano Di Talia @ditalialab.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

We would like to add one or two postdocs to our lab in the next couple of years. If you are close to finishing your PhD and interested in the science we do, feel free to reach out to discuss opportunities.

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James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Good to see this out Mouse neural progenitors degrade proteins faster than human, driven by higher proteasome activity Increasing IRX3 turn over speeds OLIG2 induction, implicates protein stability in developmental tempo Great work by @trayon.bsky.social & co authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

authors.elsevier.com

Proteasome-dependent protein degradation shapes developmental tempo in mouse and human neural progenitors

The pace of embryonic development differs between mammalian species, yet the molecular basis for this remains unknown. By comparing protein dynamics i…

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

"The central challenge is no longer building models that reproduce biological behavior, but building models from which causal structure can be inferred." Very sensible paper about not just throwing everything into your simulation or model. arxiv.org/abs/2608.06998

arxiv.org

Simulating is not always understanding: When model complexity obscures biology

In cell biology, computational models of biological systems range from minimal representations with a handful of parameters to whole-cell simulations tracking thousands of molecular species across a c...

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Latest from @arnaudkr.bsky.social on TF cooperation at enhancers, liked the combination of single-molecule footprinting at ectopic vs endogenous loci in mESCs. Curious if the cumulative activation frequency model holds for other less proliferative/plastic cell types? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Cumulative transcription factor binding and p300-mediated histone acetylation drive enhancer activation frequency - Nature Genetics

This study uses single-molecule footprinting to quantify chromatin accessibility at enhancers and promoters in mouse embryonic stem cells and to dissect the contributions of transcription factor bindi...

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

bioRxiv Developmental Biology @biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Developmental growth rates adapt to enable self-correction of organ morphology after injury. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

It's not often single author primary research papers are published in our field & it's even rarer when the author is a Nobel Prize winner Check out the new work by Eric Wieschaus in @dev-journal.bsky.social Flattening maternal gradients in Drosophila embryo journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

journals.biologists.com

Maternal patterning in early Drosophila embryos: how much information can single maternal gradients supply?

Highlighted Article: Comparison of the patterning capacity of Drosophila embryos that have only one of the three maternal gradients known to control anterior posterior patterning.

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Vicki Metzis @vmetzis.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

How does an embryo generate the right cells in the right place? Delighted to share our latest findings on how neural crest cells acquire vagal or trunk identities Spoiler alert: The timing & combination of CDXs preconfigures cell identity & distinct HOX states www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

Temporally distinct CDX programmes preconfigure vagal and trunk neural crest

Neural crest cells (NCCs) are progenitor cells vital in establishing the head, heart, gut and peripheral nervous system of vertebrate embryos. Disruptions to NCC development underlie neurocristopathie...

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Turner Lab @lab-turner.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

New preprint 📢 Thrilled to share our long-awaited work on the role of RSX in marsupial X-inactivation. This was a huge team effort over the years, led by @aureliencourtois.bsky.social @sermenchero.bsky.social Sugako Ogushi and Waz Varsally, that allowed us to set up genome editing in opossum embryos

biorxiv.org

Genome editing of marsupial RSX reveals conserved and divergent principles in mammalian X-inactivation

X-chromosome inactivation balances X-gene dosage between the sexes in eutherians and marsupials. The lncRNA Xist mediates X-inactivation in eutherians but is absent from marsupials. An evolutionarily ...

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Zena Hadjivasiliou @zenahadjivasiliou.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Our latest @crick.ac.uk @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl-ipls.bsky.social fresh @currentbiology.bsky.social 💥. How can morphogens specify cell fate at single cell precision? A little help from Notch, ERK and glia can go a long way! A collab with the wonderful Vil Fernandes 🪰📈

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Zebrafish Rock! 🎃 @zebrafishrock.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

#Zebrafish for the win! Congrats to Jack Nicholls and this beautiful image of lamination in the zebrafish retina 🐟 🧪 See the rest of the Top 10 here: thenode.biologists.com/results-of-t...

Immunohistochemistry of an 8-day post-fertilisation larval zebrafish retina stained with anti-ChAT in red (star burst amacrine cells), anti-PKCα in green (ON bipolar cells) and grey (photoreceptors), with a DAPI counterstain. The anti-PKCα signal was manually separated into the bipolar and photoreceptor cell regions and coloured in green and grey to highlight the boundary between the two layers. Imaged on a LSM800 confocal microscope.

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Levayer Lab @levayerr.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

After a quite long process, we are happy to share the last version of our article describing unexpected results regarding the coupling between local cell death and proliferation (heroic revision effort from @ralitzastaneva.bsky.social ) urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

urldefense.com

A global response contributes to tissue size robustness upon local induction of apoptosis

Tissue resilience requires tight coupling between cell proliferation, growth, and death.1,2,3,4It is assumed to be based on compensatory proliferation…

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Rory Cooper @rorylcooper.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Check out this new work from the Towers lab to learn how avian digit patterns can be transformed into mammalian-like patterns! 🔬🐣🧪 @matt-towers.bsky.social Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvL_... Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

youtube.com

Transforming Avian to Mammalian Modes of Digit Patterning

YouTube video by Matteo de la Torre

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Mike Dorrity @mwdorr.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

First pre-print from the lab, a collaborative effort led by Jess Bourn @bournsupremacy.bsky.social, a fantastic PhD in my group. We resolve a key problem in development + evolution: how do we quantify heterochrony and link temporal variation to phenotype? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

Quantitative mapping of heterochrony to species-specific phenotypes

The genetic program of animal development is conserved, but its rate of execution varies across species. Heterochrony, shifts in the relative timing of developmental events, generates phenotypic varia...

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Young Embryologist Network @yen-network.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

🏆 The Sammy Lee Award Winner! 🏆 This year’s Sammy Lee Award goes to Laura Bader for their incredible short talk on mechanoadaptation of the developing beating heart🌟 Huge congratulations, Laura!🎉 #YEN2026 #SammyLeeAward

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Bianca Dumitrascu @bimidu.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

How are two embryos alike? As we collect spatio-temporal microscopy data, we want to quantify variability in the timing of key developmental events. Alignment of multiple recordings is a core engineering challenge here and we suggest a solution; read about it: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

A quantitative coordinate system for developmental dynamics

Quantitative comparison of morphogenesis across individuals remains a fundamental challenge, as developing embryos vary in shape, orientation and developmental tempo. Moreover, real-time three-dimensi...

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

FragileNucleosome @fnucleosome.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

🧬🧬🧬 Join us this Wednesday, June 3rd for exciting talks from three early career chromatin/transcription researchers: Mark Geisler, @jcornwallscoones.bsky.social, and @sidujain.bsky.social! register here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

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Naveh Raz @navehr.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

What happens just before we die? Are the last stages of deterioration driven by different dynamics, or the same processes driving aging all our lives? Turns out it's the latter, as we show in our new preprint! 🔬 doi.org/10.64898/202... 🧵 1/5 #AgingResearch #SystemsBiology

doi.org

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bioRxiv Developmental Biology @biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

BMP signaling during gastrulation pre-patterns the dorsal spinal cord www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Heemskerk Lab @heemskerklab.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

New preprint! We show that cell fate can be predicted from a snapshot of combinatorial signaling — and the underlying map is a single angle in signaling space. Work by first authors Bassit Fijabi and Seth Teague and collaboration with @davidbrueckner.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Zebrafish Rock! 🎃 @zebrafishrock.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

“These results demonstrate that body elongation in cichlids necessitates integrated, multivariate changes in axial morphology [and] highlight the importance of morphological integration in facilitating coordinated evolutionary responses in anatomical systems.” New from @bertaverd.bsky.social et al🐠

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Nicoletta Petridou @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Glad to see this out in its final form! www.nature.com/articles/s41... What changed since the preprint? Wonderful experiments disentangling the effect of receptor binding vs tissue porosity on Nodal diffusion, plus one of the smoothest review experiences! Thanks @natcellbio.nature.com & reviewers 🙏

nature.com

Tissue rigidity phase transition shapes morphogen gradients - Nature Cell Biology

Autorino et al. report a feedback loop between Nodal signalling and tissue phase transitions in zebrafish embryos. Nodal alters adhesion, triggering tissue rigidification and reduced porosity, which l...

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William DeWitt @wsdewitt.github.io · 29/04/2026

Arc Institute’s “MULTI-evolve” learns a classical additive model, not epistasis. Preprint (w/ Gian Marco Visani and Aayush Verma): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Blog: dewitt-lab.github.io/posts/2026-0...

dewitt-lab.github.io

Additivity is all you need?

Arc Institute’s “MULTI-evolve” learns a classical additive model, not epistasis.

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bioRxiv Developmental Biology @biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Comprehensive Lineage Tracing Maps the Landscape of Cell Fate Decisions in Mouse Embryogenesis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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Wendy Bickmore @wbickmor.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Although cohesin-sensitive, long-range enhancer activation is equivalent in nature to proximal activation. Cooperativity can arise from different levels of activation inputs operating on a non-linear response function. @eliasfriman.bsky.social @uoe-igc.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Berta Verd @bertaverd.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

New Pre-Print Alert! Evolving initial conditions: an alternative developmental route to morphological diversity with Shannon Taylor and @jamesehammond.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Katharina Schmack @kathaschmack.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

🥁🎉The Psychosis Collective proudly presents our first preprint 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐳𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐬-𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝘈 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘴 starring Le He & Harriet Feldman www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We wanted to understand how antipsychotics work. Thread🧵

Graphical abstract showing that NMDAR immunisation drives psychosis-like behaviour in mice, while clozapine reverses this. Upper panel: arrows show NMDAR immunisation producing a mouse exhibiting psychosis-like behaviour, with clozapine reversing this effect. Lower panels: anti-NMDAR antibodies bind neuronal NMDA receptors, which are then eliminated by microglia via phagocytosis, leading to psychosis. Clozapine restores NMDA receptor levels by reducing anti-NMDAR antibody levels, consistent with an immunomodulatory mechanism of action.

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UCL Research Department of Cell & Developmental Biology @ucl-cdb.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Zebrafish Academy 2026 - CDB Fish Floor once again opened its doors to budding A-level biologists for a week-long work experience program. With a revamped program and even more practical sessions, this years’ cohort got a real taste of life as a zebrafish researcher! www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...

ucl.ac.uk

UCL Zebrafish Academy 2026

The CDB Fish Floor once again opened its doors to 10 budding A-level biologists for a week-long work experience program.

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Giulia Boezio @giulia-boezio.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Truly honoured to receive the @bsdb.bsky.social Marie Johansson prize! A testament to Marie’s legacy and the mentors/collaborators I was lucky to work with. Such a privilege to grow in the #DevBio community that's supported me since the start of my career. Looking forward to more exciting science!

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Schmidt Science Fellows @schmidtfellows.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

We are thrilled to introduce our 2026 Schmidt Science Fellows — thirty-two incredible scientists set to embark on the next step of their interdisciplinary journey with our support. schmidtsciencefellows.org/news/the-202... @schmidtsciences.bsky.social

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Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Join us in Heidelberg for your PhD! If you are excited about CRISPR genome engineering and would like to develop and apply new methods to investigate Wnt signaling in different model systems, than this project is for you. More info here: my-hbigs.uni-heidelberg.de/site/index.p... 🧪🧬🔬

Header image for the PhD position "Advanced genome engineering to investigate Wnt signaling in animals."

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James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Honoured and overwhelmed to receive the 2026 Waddington Medal. Science is a team effort, and I've been fortunate to work alongside exceptional people asking hard questions. Thank you to the BSDB and to everyone who has been part of the journey. bsdb.org/2026/03/24/2...

bsdb.org

2026 Waddington Medal Winner - James Briscoe - BSDB - British Society for Developmental Biology

We are very pleased to announce that this year’s Waddington medal winner is James Briscoe. His fundamental discoveries have helped shape our understanding of of how morphogens work, and he has played ...

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Kristina Stapornwongkul @kstapornwongkul.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Are you fascinated by self-organised patterning processes? The brand-new Stuart lab at EMBL Barcelona is looking for a lab manager! Hannah @htstuart.bsky.social is a fantastic scientist and mentor. Building the lab with her will be a lot of fun! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Bar...

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com

Lab Manager - Stuart Group

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is one of the world’s leading life science research organisations. With sites across Europe, EMBL fosters an international, collaborative, and inclusiv...

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Reposted by Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Kevin Chalut @kevinchalut.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Excited to share this new work from Ana Raffaelli, in collaboration with Ewa Paluch's lab and involving several of my colleagues at Cyclana Bio. In this paper, we show that basement membrane mechanics instructs developmental signalling and fate patterning. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Rashmi Priya @rashmi-priya.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Our latest with @torres-sanchez.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/dev/article-... Breaking isn’t always a bad thing! Think of birth, seed release... We highlight how living tissue not only tolerates fractures but actively fracture to grow, shape, reproduce, or adapt – across species and scales.

journals.biologists.com

Break to build: fracture as a unifying morphogenetic strategy

Summary: This Review presents mechanical fracture as a unifying morphogenetic strategy and describes how developmental systems actively exploit mechanical fracture to drive morphogenesis, reproduction...

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bioRxiv Developmental Biology @biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Mechanistic tradeoffs between local and long-range signaling activity in natural and synthetic morphogens www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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