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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Here is our new collaborative paper on the origin of cholinergic and monoaminergic signaling. The data suggest that biogenic amine signaling is thus not a bilaterian innovation but an ancient mode of cellular communication that evolved from generalist to […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Main biosynthetic pathways of biogenic amines and their evolution. Diagram showing key steps of the main pathways for the production of biogenic amines. The main enzymes that catalyze each reaction are shown, as well as, alternative
enzymes that may promiscuously catalyze the same reaction.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Pavel Tomancak on the past present and future of Fiji in our @ZooCELL graduate school in Paris. He warns about chaos and the fragmentation of research #software, on how #AI and the proliferation of vibe-coded tools is undoing over a decade of work of […] [Original post on biologists.social]

schematic of the plethora of new tools and bespoke analyses, fundamentally changing the landscape of scientific software.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

Here is my presentation on “Neuronal coordination of cilia in marine zooplankton in moving and sensing” at the University of Regensburg (07 October 2026). Thanks a lot to @brembs for inviting me! #cilia #zooplankton #Platynereis

Night picture of the Steinerne Brücke in Regensburg, Germany

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

In our new paper by Kata Szabó et al. we present optimised sample-preparation workflows for volume electron microscopy for entire small marine organisms. The workflow includes high-pressure freezing, various freeze substitution protocols and synchrotron […] [Original post on biologists.social]

X-ray image of a platynereis annelid worm larva collected at the European Sycnrotron Facility at Grenoble. The left image shows morphological rendering of a 6-day-old Platynereis scanned at 100 nm/px, the right images show individual image planes of the same larva scanned at 55 nm/px or 20 nm/px.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

If you are interested in serial sectioning for electron microscopy, we have now uploaded a revised version of our paper Shahidi et al: "Volume Electron Microscopy: Tips & Tricks on Micromanipulator-Assisted Serial Sectioning for Array Tomography" […] [Original post on biologists.social]

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

In the Vatican, at the "Evolution and Development" meeting organised by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, an academy founded in 1603 and joined by Galileo in 1610. www.pas.va/en/events/2026/evodevo.h… Meeting organised by Eddy De Robertis and […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Rome, picture of St Peter''s basilica at night

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2026

Ciliary beating in a marine #zooplankton larva recorded in Shimoda together with Kei Jokura in 2024 #silentsunday #cilia #marine

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

In our new preprint, Réza Shahidi, Alexandra Kerbl and Karel Mocaer give an exquisitely detailed manual on serial sectioning for electron microscopy. "Volume Electron Microscopy: Tips & Tricks on Micromanipulator-Assisted Serial Sectioning for Array […] [Original post on biologists.social]

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

If you are interested in nervous system evolution you may want to read our review with Kei Jokura on nerve nets: "Revisiting nerve nets: functional organization and evolutionary implication" link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s… […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Figure showing different Erdős–Rényi-type random graphs with different preferential attachment, resulting in increasingly modular graphs. Images of Syncytial nerve net of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis, Schematic of an incision experiment carried out by Romanes on the scyphosoan medusa Aurelia, Schematic of the localised spread of activity in a hydrozoan nerve net, where different non-overlapping nerve nets mediate distinct behaviours. The hydromedusa Aglantha digitale with its giant motor system shows a centralised arrangement.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/07/2026

Our new paper with lead and corresponding author Luis Yañez-Guerra on placozoan monoamine GPCRs and the "Prebilaterian origin of monoaminergic signaling" […] [Original post on biologists.social]

- Non-bilaterian placozoans produce, detect, and behaviorally respond to monoamines
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Five placozoan GPCRs are activated by monoamines
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Four placozoan receptors are homologous to human melatonin receptors
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Placozoans reveal the pre-bilaterian origin of monoaminergic signaling

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/07/2026

Here are my slides for #fens2026 “A versatile and affordable array tomography workflow” jekelylab.codeberg.page/FENS_Array_… for the 'Expanding Horizons: Array Tomography in Neuroscience for All' […] [Original post on biologists.social]

ribbons of ultrathin sections in a scanning electron microscope, shown is a preview of the ribbons

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/06/2026

In Europe we urgently need more data centres to solve the climate crisis, before China or the US solve it

Temperature plot in Heidelberg showing 16 degrees above average

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/06/2026

Just came across this nice study by Davidescu et al. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.22061… Larger bodies in the placozoan Trichoplax show less coordination across cells. "We quantify the trade-off between increasing size and coordination in a […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Representative snapshots of optical flow field measured
for Trichoplax adhaerens individuals in different collective states of locomotion. including large and small (B) animals in polarized locomotion. Plot shows that mean collective order is inversely correlated with individual size,

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/05/2026

We still have a few places to register for our "Heidelberg Wild Thinking Workshop - The organism, its self and its environment: from philosophy to physics." 19-20 May 2026, Heidelberg www.cos.uni-heidelberg.de/en/wild-t… […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Phyllodesmium and Prionospio | Peter Godfrey-Smith, Jürgen Berger, Gáspár Jékely | CC BY 4.0

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2026

Nice study of sponge #metamorphosis, Blard et al., Degnan lab: "we present an account of the cellular and morphogenetic events during the first six hours of A. queenslandica metamorphosis, with the goal of understanding not just which cellular processes […] [Original post on biologists.social]

External characteristics of early metamorphosis of the sponge Amphimedon queenslandica.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/03/2026

New paper from Yuste lab, together with Luis Yanez on Hydra's dense peptidergic networks De La Cruz Rothenfusse et al. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/arti… #neuroscience #hydra

Dense neuropeptide-GPCR network.
Network derived from predicted neuropeptide-GPCR interaction, showing hub nodes within and between cell types.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/03/2026

Registration is now open for our two-day **"Heidelberg Wild Thinking Workshop - The organism, its self and its environment: from philosophy to physics"**, www.cos.uni-heidelberg.de/en/wild-t… an interdisciplinary event on **19-20 […] [Original post on biologists.social]

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/03/2026

Zooplankton larvae shoot up in the water column when exposed to high pressure. Mediated by special pressure-sensory photoreceptors. From our paper on the mechanism of barotaxis. elifesciences.org/articles/94306 #cilia #plankton #neuroscience

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/02/2026

I am happy to share the unfinished but nevertheless fascinating autobiography of the late Thomas Cavalier-Smith, written in 2020, shortly before Tom passed away in 2021. I thank Ema Cavalier-Smith for sharing the text with me. I recently finished curating […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Tom Cavalier-Smith in Cornwall UK 23 August 2017, photo by Neal C-S

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/02/2026

Video of the syncytial nerve net that regulates the gravisensory balancer ciliated cells in the ctenophore aboral organ (red dots - synapses) elifesciences.org/articles/108420#v… #cilia #neuroscience

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/01/2026

Here is my presentation from today at COS on: "The sorry state of scientific publishing and how we could move to an open and resilient infrastructure" jekelylab.github.io/COS_goes_FOSS_p… #publishing #foss #openscience #opensource

graph showing a correlation with journal impact factor and retraction index, with journals like Cell Nature and Science standing out with very high retraction rates

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/01/2026

Flexible tool use by a cow. Best video I have seen in a while, including the closing statement by the farmer. Veronika for #President! www.cell.com/current-biology/fullte…

Pictures of a cow (Bos taurus), Veronika, who uses a deck brush to self-scratch.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/01/2026

If you are interested in electron microscopy, registration is still open for the "Electron Microscopy Hands-On Course: sample preparation and imaging of marine environmental samples" at Stazione Zoologica in Naples. WIth great teachers from Naples […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Poster of the EM course in Naples with marine samples. The Electron Microscopy Hands-On Course: sample preparation and imaging of marine environmental samples arises from a very strong and active collaboration between the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn and the EMBL in Heidelberg.
The aim of the course is to provide a theoretical and practical training on electron microscopy starting from the basics to the preparation of samples with high pressure freezing and image acquisition using TEM and SEM.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/12/2025

Now we add a picture, which we source from /images, a directory relative to our .Rproj file. $ toot post 'text of toot' --media images/Nemertean_SEM.jpg --description 'SEM image of a nemertean larva'

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/11/2025

An interesting essay by Oliver Hobert on 'Paraneurons': "unifying sensory receptors located on external or internal epithelial cells feeding into the nervous system, as well as effector cells of the nervous system that respond to neuronal stimuli by […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Figure on neurons and paraneurons.
The spectrum of neurons (left) and paraneurons (right), as drawn by Fujita et al.4 1: enteric neuron, which
is considered by Fujita as the prototype of neurons; 2: multipolar autonomic neuron; 3: sensory neuron;
4: pyramidal neuron; 5: Purkinje cell; 6: ‘neurosecretory’ or ‘peptidergic’ neuron; 7: CSF-contacting
neuron; 8: olfactory cell; 9: gut endocrine cell, which for Fujita represents the prototype of paraneurons;
10: carotid body chief cell; 11: adrenal chromaffin cell; 12: adenohypophysial, parafollicular, or other
endocrine cell; 13: pinealocyte; 14: visual cell; 15: Merkel cell; 16: inner ear hair cell; 17: bronchopulmo-
nary paraneuron; 18: gustatory cell.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2025

The version of record of our paper on the emergence of metachronal waves in the #Platynereis larval ciliary band is now out. Together with Rebecca Poon and Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.… funded by @ERC_Research @wellcometrust @bbsrc

The dexioplectic ciliary metachronal wave of Platynereis larvae shows spatial patterning.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2025

A new banner on a Wiley site. I am not a healthcare professional, so am I not supposed to look at this evo-devo paper now? Can I read the abstract? Any ideas why this new #enshittification feature? #publishing

banner on a Wiley site asking readers to confirm that they are healthcare professionals

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2025

Ernst Haeckel's dumbbells from the Haeckel House in Jena.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2025

In Exeter, beautiful apples everywhere yet in M&S you can buy apples from New Zealand. This doesn't make any sense. The externalities are clearly not included in the price and supply chains are over bloated. #climatechange #gardening

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2025

"Ecologists are warning that mainland Southeast Asia faces a looming ecological disaster unless urgent steps are taken to address the rare-earth mining boom in war-torn Myanmar." www.dw.com/en/is-rare-earth-mining-…

Rare-earth mining has exploded in Myanmar's Kachin region, making it the world's largest source of supply

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2025

99-million-year-old barklouse exquisitely preserved in burmite, from the Zoological Museum in Jena (founded by Ernst Haeckel) #fossils

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2025

We have received the reviews for our "Neural #Connectome of the Ctenophore Statocyst" paper from @eLife "This fundamental work significantly advances our understanding of gravity sensing and orientation behavior in the ctenophore, an animal of major […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Morphological rendering of cells in the ctenophore apical organ showing the four quadrants and the balancer cilia supporting a statolyth.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2025

We are looking for an IT engineer with a focus on operations and research data management at the Centre for Organismal Studies at @uniheidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany #IT #sysadmin #linux #ResearchData please help to spread this opening […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Heidelberg castle by night with reflections of light in the Neckar river

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2025

With a related Insight piece written by Alex Winsor and Paul Katz "Connectomes: The wiring diagram of an entire animal" elifesciences.org/articles/108573 @eLife

A phylogenetic tree for bilaterally symmetric animals.

Whole-body connectomes have been constructed for just three species (indicated by stars): the annelid P. dumerilii, the nematode C elegans, and the tunicate C. intestinalis. A whole-brain connectome has also been assembled for the insect D. melanogaster. Between them, these species span three major clades: Spiralia, Ecdysozoa and Deuterostomes. Only partial connectomes are available for molluscs and vertebrates.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2025

We saw several of these beautiful mountain Apollos in our hike in the Italian Alps #SilentSunday www.inaturalist.org/observations/30…

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/07/2025

On the sell-off and digital enclosure of #komoot -> #enshittification ( #bluesky users, take note, it's never too late to switch to the #fediverse ) bikepacking.com/plog/when-we-get-ko… "Enclosure by private interests interrupts the […] [Original post on biologists.social]

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/07/2025

"Made for Germany" initiative. 61 big firm heads and investors with Friedrich Merz. Gender ration??? "Standort der Gegenwart" Deciding about a 631,000,000,000 EUR investment for the future. This cannot be a good decision, by definition. What a shame #germany #bundeskanzler #cdu

Made for Germany - photo with 3% female participants, deciding about a 600,000,000,000 EUR investment for the future.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/07/2025

Happy to be involved in UNICIL, our new Wellcome Trust Discovery project coordinated by @micromotility.bsky.social We will study ciliary dynamics across scales and organisms. A long-term #postdoc position will be available at Heidelberg University […] [Original post on biologists.social]

scanning electron micrograph of a Platynereis larva showing a close-up of the prototroch ciliary band

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

Also check the beautiful paper by Anna Ferraioli ‪@annaferraioli.bsky.social‬ Pawel Burkhardt's lab ‪@pawelburkhardt.bsky.social‬ with volumetric reconstructions of the aboral organ from a one-day-old larva. bsky.app/profile/pawelburkhardt.bsk…

Phylogenetic position of ctenophores and volumetric reconstruction of the aboral organ in a one-day old larva by Ferraioli et al.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

By combining #connectomics and high-speed imaging, we could infer a function for the nerve net in the coordination of the beating-arrest cycles and beat frequency of balancer cilia.

Quantification of balancer ciliary beating on two opposite sides of the aboral organ.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

The four bundles of balancer #cilia showed coordinated beating and arrests, then re-beats, but the level of coordination was different between the two planes.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

Kei then used a horizontal microscope and high-speed imaging to characterise the beating of balancer #cilia viewed from two orientations (along the tentacular and sagittal planes).

Schematic of the tilt microscope used to image ctenophores oriented with their balancer organ pointing upwards.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

The organisation of the nerve net was intriguing, forming a large net innervating all four quadrants Q1-Q4 and two smaller nets, one each for Q1-Q2 and Q3-Q4.

Grouped connectivity graph of the balancer connectome. The nerve net consists of a large and two smaller nerve nets.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

We found a unique nerve that contrary to our expectations did not receive synapses from the balancers (input-output model) but formed synapses on the balancers (coordination model).

Morphological rendering of the ctenophore aboral organ nerve net. The nerve net does not receive synapses from the balancers but forms synapses on them.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

The balancer is part of the aboral organ and is divided into four quadrants (Q1-Q4) with two axes of symmetry, a tentacular (T) and a sagittal (S) plane.

Schematic of the ctenophore aboral organ showing the four quadrants and the two axes of symmetry.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

Ctenophores or comb jellies are marine pelagic animals that can sense their orientation and reorient relative to the gravity vector using a unique gravisensory organ, the balancer.

Microscopy image of the ctenophore balancer showing the statolyth supported by four clusters of balancer cilia.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

In our new preprint we describe the synaptic #connectome of the nerve net in the ctenophore gravisensory organ. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202… #biology #neuroscience #ctenophore #vEM

Volume rendering of the ctenophore aboral organ reconstructed by volume EM, showing the gravisensory balancers and the four quadrants.

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2025

Arrived at the Volume Electron Microscopy Gordon Research Conference www.grc.org/volume-electron-microsc… near Barcelona. I will speak about Volume EM and #connectomics in marine zoomplankton. #vEM #microscopy #connectomics

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