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James Gahan

@jgahan.bsky.social
1.2K followers 682 following 120 posts

Associate Professor and ERC Starting Awardee at University of Galway! I work on early animal evolution with a particular interest in gene regulation and chromatin! gahanlab.com chromosome.ie/groups/gahan 🏳️‍🌈🇮🇪 He/Him

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Reposted by James Gahan
Çağrı Çevrim @cagricevrim.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Your favorite website for illustrations of almost all organisms is looking for donations to help cover its running costs! Please consider donating to help keep this open-source platform running: www.phylopic.org/images
phylopic.org
All Silhouette Images on PhyloPic
Browse all the free silhouette images in PhyloPic.
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Rob Klose @robklose.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Come join us April 2027 for the next instalment of the EMBL Chromatin and Epigenetics meeting. Great invited speakers and lots of talks selected from abstracts! It will be a fantastic meeting (despite the egregious nucleosome images...)
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Epigenetics Podcast @epigeneticspod.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In the most recent episode we speak with @robklose.bsky.social, Professor of Genetics at the University of Oxford, about how CpG islands help control gene expression and chromatin regulation during development. #podcast #epigenetics Listen here: activemotif.com/podcasts-rob...
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Emma R Andersson @anderssonlab.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
🧬 Preprint! 🧵 Our goal is to genetically manipulate every embryonic germ layer to enable high throughput in vivo studies. We previously showed mouse ectoderm can be targeted by amniotic injection, enabling cell-specific manipulation, lineage tracing, and knockouts. But how to reach mesoderm?
Schematic of method developed and application. At embryonic day 7.5, a lentiviral library carrying unique 30-nucleotide barcodes and a fluorescent reporter is injected into the mouse exocoelomic cavity. An E8 embryo cross-section shows that this cavity is continuous with the intraembryonic coelomic cavity, allowing the virus to reach and barcode mesodermal progenitors, including lateral plate and paraxial mesoderm.
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Sue Biggins @suebiggins.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Here it is! @basicsci.fredhutch.org is searching for an associate or senior faculty member!
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Buzz Baum @buzzbaum.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
We are looking for a research assistant! Come join the team: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSZ826/r...
jobs.ac.uk
Research Support Officer | Cell Biology | Dr Buzz Baum | LMB 2904 at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Start your UK & international job search for academic jobs, research jobs, science jobs and managerial jobs in leading universities and top...
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Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
🚨 New preprint alert! 🚨 Choanoflagellates reorganize their global cytoskeletal architecture within seconds to explore confined microspaces. This is the main PhD work of the amazing @maitefreired.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A tread 🧵⬇️
biorxiv.org
Rapid repurposing of microvillar content drives a flagellate-to-amoeboid switch in the closest relative of animals
Animal cells extensively remodel their cytoskeleton during differentiation and can notably switch between two major motility modes: flagellum-based swimming and actin-based crawling. We previously sho...
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Cnidarian developmental mechanisms group @clytia-vlfr.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Evidence collected by successive lab members over many years that neural cells in the Clytia larva have two origins: From 'i-cells' located in endoderm and by delamination of the gastrula ectoderm. doi.org/10.1242/dev.... @biodev-vlfr.bsky.social @annaferraioli.bsky.social
The two proposed neurogenesis pathways during Clytia larval development
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Will Ratcliff @wcratcliff.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
1/17 Submissions are now open for the 2027 Microbial Population Biology GRC! We expect this meeting to be extraordinarily oversubscribed. If you want to come, time is of the essence--apply ASAP! June 27–July 2 • Andover, NH www.grc.org/microbial-po...
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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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Marc A. Marti-Renom @mamartirenom.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Latest preprint from the lab… what could be better than good science with good friends? 😊 @agneseloda.bsky.social @antonia-hauth.bsky.social @encent.bsky.social @heard65.bsky.social @heardlab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
X-inactivation escapee domains are CTCF-cohesin independent chromatin compartments
X-chromosome inactivation involves chromosome-wide gene silencing accompanied by extensive chromatin changes, as well the loss of topologically associating domains. Yet discrete regions of the inactiv...
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James Gahan @jgahan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Congratulations to all the awardees, its a great achievement. Unfortunate to see Ireland continue to under-perform compared to our potential but @researchireland.ie have unfortunately decided that short-term gains trump a more long-term strategy which could make Ireland a real research powerhouse.
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Nature @nature.com · 30/08/2026
Dolly Parton was an advocate for vaccines, public health, literacy and marginalized communities go.nature.com/4gwB0wA
go.nature.com
Dolly Parton dies aged 80 – researchers celebrate her contributions to science
Nature - The country singer was an advocate for vaccines, public health, literacy and marginalized communities.
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Peter Andersen @germline.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
We watched piRNAs and transposons across development, saw them dance tightly and wrote a paper about it. It's so cool to see it online and we will make a thread about it all very soon. Stay tuned :-)
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EMBL Australia @emblaustralia.org · 28/08/2026
Ready to take the next step in your research career? 👨‍🔬 We're seeking an outstanding researcher to establish an independent research program as an EMBL Australia Group Leader at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) @monashuniversity.bsky.social 🗓️ Apply by 2 October 🔗 bit.ly/4qHYtjb
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Tobias Warnecke @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Who needs chromatin anyway...? NOT THIS GUY! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n
biorxiv.org
Chromatin is dispensable for bacterial life
Inside cells, DNA is intimately associated with proteins, forming chromatin. The protein constituents of chromatin vary across the tree of life: histones are the principal building blocks of chromatin...
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Levayer Lab @levayerr.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This 👇, and Europe should also have more scheme to finance those essential "infrastructures" (rathen than implementing 10 millions single person grant...) www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Treat biological databases as infrastructure, not projects
Letter to the Editor
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Darrin T. Schultz @dts.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I'm thrilled to share that I've started as an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences and the Oceans Research Center at Lehigh University! I'm building a group in evolutionary genomics to study the origin of animals, and to use those concepts to better understand human disease. More: evogeno.me
Darrin Schultz, a man with curly dark hair and tortoiseshell glasses, smiling at the camera in a brown blazer over a blue patterned shirt with sunglasses hooked on the collar, standing in front of a stone wall.
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Darrin T. Schultz @dts.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Our new paper in Science Advances asks how animals' genomes have changed since their origin from a common ancestor over 600 million years ago, and what patterns in their DNA have arisen in the churn of speciation and extinction. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Five-panel diagram explaining fusion-with-mixing in chromosome evolution. Red and blue represent two different ancestral chromosomes throughout.

A, Fusion-with-mixing: a red chromosome and a blue chromosome fuse into one half-red, half-blue bar. Down the page, successive rows show inversions, drawn as X-shaped crossings between rows, progressively interleaving the two colors until the bottom bar is finely striped. A widening gray wedge labeled Entropy runs alongside an arrow marked Time plus evolution, pointing down.

B, Independent regulation: two separate chromosomes, one red and one blue. In each, a regulatory element, drawn as an oval, acts by an arrow on a gene within its own chromosome only.

C, FWM and novel regulation: on a fused, mixed chromosome, a red gene and a blue gene now sit next to each other across an inversion breakpoint. Red and blue arrows show regulatory elements reaching across it to act on the other chromosome's gene.

D, Regulatory entanglement: an extensively mixed chromosome, finely striped. Below it, a row of alternating red and blue genes is linked by a dense web of crossing curved arrows, so many overlapping regulatory connections that unmixing the chromosome would break them.

E, Emergence of entangled loci: a five-species phylogeny. A red and a blue chromosome fuse at an ancestral node, and helical icons on later branches mark continued mixing. Colored boxes mark four new red-blue regulatory interactions arising after inversions. Species A keeps its two chromosomes separate. In species B through E, the two earliest interactions, cyan boxes 1 and 2, are present in every descendant lineage, while later ones, yellow 3 and magenta 4, appear in fewer.
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Luis Alberto Bezares Calderón @lbezarescalderon.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Our team is recruiting a PhD student to investigate the evolution of pressure sensation in Zooplankton! The project will use marine invertebrate larvae to explore the molecular, cellular, and neuronal mechanisms behind this fascinating sensory system. More details here: bit.ly/3TTeF4Q
bit.ly
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Ctenophores Rock! @ctenophoresrock.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
If you'd like to learn more about reverse development in Mnemiopsis leidyi, check out @the-node.bsky.social post by @joanjsoto.bsky.social & @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social on their documented discovery: thenode.biologists.com/reverse-deve... 🦑
thenode.biologists.com
Reverse development in the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi - the Node
Joan and Pawel show us a timelapse video of reverse development of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, and tell the story behind it.
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Teresa Rayon @trayon.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Our work on the role of the proteasome in developmental tempo is out!!!! 🐭⌛️👤⏳ Six years after identifying an association between protein stability and developmental tempo, we now demonstrate a causal link between protein turnover and developmental tempo through proteasomal degradation
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Arnau Sebé-Pedrós @arnausebe.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Happy to share the final version of our study on the evolution of chromatin states across eukaryotes, out today in @natgenet.nature.com Led by @crisnava.bsky.social and @seanamontgomery.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... Some highlights below
nature.com
Diversity and evolution of chromatin regulatory states across eukaryotes - Nature Genetics
This study introduces iChIP2, a low-input chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing method that profiles histone post-translational modifications (hPTMs) simultaneously across diverse eukar...
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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Evolution of a genome-architecture-encoded gene regulation system in trypanosomatids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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jpgerdt.bsky.social @jpgerdt.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Ruibao's first paper from the lab is out in @nature.com . www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Collab with @multicellgenome.bsky.social & @jennahed.bsky.social. How did cells stick together and form the first animals? The protist Ministeria suggests cellular aggregation had a role. @iuqcb.bsky.social
nature.com
A unicellular relative links aggregative multicellularity to animal origins - Nature
Aggregative multicellularity was key to the evolution of the multicellular animal genetic toolkit.
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Ferenc Mueller @ferencmueller.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Join us in Budapest in October! There is still time to register with an abstract. Talk and flash talk slots, a great speaker line up at an informal meeting on epigenetics, gene and genome regulation etc. in a beautiful city. shorturl.at/fOuCZ. For that to do list before the holidays!
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Eric Conway @conwayer1.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Preprint alert! 🚨 We are very excited to share our new manuscript on Bohring-Opitz syndrome, a devastating rare monogenic disorder driven by truncating variants in ASXL1. This project was led by PhD student Emma Doyle, one of the OG Conway lab members 💪. 1/6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Divergent Pathogenic PR-DUB Complex Variants Converge Functionally Via PRC2 Displacement From Chromatin
The PR-DUB complex is responsible for erasing the repressive histone modification, H2AK119ub1. ASXL1-3 proteins are mutually exclusive catalytic partners of BAP1 in the PR-DUB complex. Somatic heteroz...
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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Transcription-dependent heterochromatin at the Xist promoter shapes the random choice of the inactive X chromosome www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Jonathan W. Gray @elmcitytree.blacksky.app · 18/07/2026
This is Lamine Yamal the 19 year old star of the Spanish National team & FC Barcelona. He did this in May at the parade when Barca won the league. In case you’re not sure whom to root for tomorrow. ⚽️
Lamine Yamal in May at the parade after Barcelona won the league title. Children are the future.
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Mathieu M.J.E. Rebeaud @chercheurjuteux.com · 11/07/2026
The Origin of Life in the Light of Evolution Another food for thought paper with @lauraeme.bsky.social and a lot of fantastic scientists. arxiv.org/abs/2605.05464
arxiv.org
The Origin of Life in the Light of Evolution
The origin of life is often framed primarily as a chemical problem, yet life's defining feature is evolution. Advances in geochemistry, prebiotic chemistry, and molecular biology have produced diverse...
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Sergio Menchero @sermenchero.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
The 2nd part of my postdoc is now out as a preprint! A challenging but fulfilling team effort to perform genome editing in opossums. We found that the lncRNA RSX is essential to initiate X-inactivation in marsupials 🦘 A long-standing question since the discovery that Xist is absent in marsupials 👇
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Fabian Rentzsch @fabianrentzsch.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Beautiful work on the establishment of symbiosis in anthozoans. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... And a good opportunity to re-read an exciting related paper from last year. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
Co-option of lysosomal machinery shapes the evolution of the intracellular photosymbiosis supporting coral reefs
Corals harbor intracellular algal symbionts in specialized organelles that enable them to build diverse reef ecosystems. Corals and other cnidarians have repeatedly evolved this symbiosis through the ...
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International Society for Regenerative Biology @isrbio.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
⏰ One week to go! ISRB Webinar | Zone 2 (Europe, West Asia, Africa): 🗓 July 14, 2026 at 16:00 Europe/Berlin 🎤 Eric Röttinger, PhD 🎤 Ulrich Technau More info: isrbio.org/webinars
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Chung Hyun Cho @chc-evobio.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Excited to share our new preprint led by Fred and me in collaboration with the archaeal community! We found that the molecular foundation of histone-based chromatin has pre-eukaryotic roots in Asgard archaea. (1/4) #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Emergence of histone-based chromatin complexity in Asgard archaea
The emergence of the eukaryotes coincided with the diversification of histone proteins and their post-translational modifications by enzymes that constitute the core of eukaryotic chromatin. Yet the e...
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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Minicollagen expression dynamics reveal a transcriptional program for cnidogenesis in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Kresten Lindorff-Larsen @lindorfflarsen.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Come join the new Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Design as a group leader Cool science in a great scientific environment in wonderful and very family friendly Copenhagen There are two positions that can either be at TT assistant or associate prof level employment.ku.dk/tenure-track...
employment.ku.dk
Tenure-track Assistant Professor or Associate Professor of De novo Protein Design
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Design at the University of Copenhagen seeks to appoint two new group leaders in de novo protein design from 1 February 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter. These positions will be at the Assistant or Associate Professor level and associated with the Department of Biology (Faculty of Science) or the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology (Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences).
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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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James Gahan @jgahan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
What’s the answer to “What’s worse that impact factor”…Id argue that letting AI rank papers and picking the top 1% would be a fine answer!
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James Gahan @jgahan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
This 100%, I’d I have a preprint out then getting an email from someone who ready it would make my day!
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James Gahan @jgahan.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Very saddened to learn that @wellcometrust.bsky.social has decided to no longer fund Irish researchers through their discovery grants. This is a major blow for those who do truly blue skies research in Ireland as the ecosystem (i.e. @researchireland.ie) only funds research with perceived "impact"!
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cnidofest.bsky.social @cnidofest.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Hi Cnidarian Enthusiasts! Friendly reminder that Cnidofest 2026 will take place at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, September 23-27. The abstract submission deadline is July 1 and the registration deadline is September 2. Submit and find full details at www.cnidofest.org
cnidofest.org
Cnidofest
Cnidofest is a biennial meeting of scientists interested in developing and using cnidarians as model systems to study molecular and cellular biology, developmental biology, neurobiology, and comparati...
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James Gahan @jgahan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Cool new work on cnidocyte development/evolution from Leslie Babonis's group and colleagues!
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Michael Sars Centre @msarscentre.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
New preprint from the Burkhardt lab 🚨The work explores the origins of sensory system components by looking at the closest relatives to animals, choanoflagellates ⤵️ Congratulations @smannsaker.bsky.social, @jeffcolgren.bsky.social & @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social!
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Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo @multicellgenome.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
1/10 For decades, cellular aggregation was considered an evolutionary dead end. Cells could come together temporarily. But complex multicellular organisms like animals? Our study, led by JP Gerdt, with Ruibao & @jennahed.bsky.social suggests it may be time to rethink that🧵 #ProtistsOnSKy
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James Gahan @jgahan.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Very cool new work on the origins of animal multicullularity!
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James Gahan @jgahan.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
@biologists.bsky.social do an enormous amount to support ECRs. I have certainly benefited from some of this work thought their workshop program and the Pathway to Independence fellowship.
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Emilia Dimitrova @edimitrova.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Unacceptable! Have people started asking for refunds? We don't use Thermo antibodies much but have a couple in the freezer (one I have to admit is good!)
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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Thermo Fisher now has a page up in response to our observations. They flatly deny that images were manipulated or fabricated while repeating that images were "optimized for presentation and clarity on the website", no lie, six times. www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/l...
thermofisher.com
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The Company of Biologists @biologists.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
ECRs – apply by 12 June for a funded place at our Workshop on Rethinking Cell Differentiation and Development: A Unicellular Perspective, organised by Elena Casacuberta & James Gahan @jgahan.bsky.social Find out more at biologists.com/workshops/de... #BiologistsWorkshops
Card with event details:

Workshop: Rethinking Cell Differentiation and Development: A Unicellular Perspective
Organisers: Elena Casacuberta and James Gahan

Date: 6 – 9 December 2026

Venue: Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Are you a professor / group leader looking for a course to teach that would be extremely welcomed by graduate students & postdocs? Come train with us in how to teach the tools of the creative scientific process in our European train the trainer event in Heidelberg. night-science.org/train-the-tr...
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