Caroline Beck
@frogsquisher.bsky.social
Mostly harmless. Developmental biologist studying regeneration and epilepsy in Xenopus tadpoles 🐸🐸🐸. A/Prof at University of Otago, New Zealand, but currently topside as a visiting researcher at EXRC in Portsmouth,UK.
The last chapter of our RSNZ Marsden funded work on the microbiome and regeneration is out in Developmental Dynamics 🧪🐸🦠🧫https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dvdy.70088
@phoebechapman.bsky.social
@phoebechapman.bsky.social
Commensal skin bacteria interact with the innate immune system to promote tail regeneration in Xenopus laevis tadpoles
Background Tadpoles of the clawed frog Xenopus laevis can regenerate their tails following partial amputation, replacing the missing spinal cord, muscles, and fin. However, for a brief period of dev...
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:26 PM
The last chapter of our RSNZ Marsden funded work on the microbiome and regeneration is out in Developmental Dynamics 🧪🐸🦠🧫https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dvdy.70088
@phoebechapman.bsky.social
@phoebechapman.bsky.social
If you want to study a genetic disorder of growth, in a non-mammalian model system, Xenopus 🐸 has a unique advantage. As we show with Recql4 in G3 this month, it is possible to knock out a gene with CRISPR on just one side of the animal doi.org/10.1093/g3jo... 🧪
Unilateral loss of recql4 function in Xenopus laevis tadpoles leads to ipsilateral ablation of the forelimb, hypoplastic Meckel's cartilage, and vascular defects
Abstract. RECQL4 encodes a RecQ helicase, one of a family of DNA unwinding enzymes with roles in DNA replication, double-strand break repair, and genomic s
doi.org
October 9, 2025 at 10:09 AM
If you want to study a genetic disorder of growth, in a non-mammalian model system, Xenopus 🐸 has a unique advantage. As we show with Recql4 in G3 this month, it is possible to knock out a gene with CRISPR on just one side of the animal doi.org/10.1093/g3jo... 🧪
RIP Professor Sir John Gurdon, who inspired so many of us in Developmental Biology, and of course, “the frog”.
Very sad news, John Gurdon has died.
A developmental biologist's developmental biologist, Nobel prize winner
His work is the foundation of much of today's dev & stem cell bio.
An inspiration to many, including me. Always asking questions & wanting the answers
www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...
A developmental biologist's developmental biologist, Nobel prize winner
His work is the foundation of much of today's dev & stem cell bio.
An inspiration to many, including me. Always asking questions & wanting the answers
www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...
Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS (1933-2025) | Magdalene College
Magdalene College is deeply saddened to announce the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS, who served as Master of the College from 1995 to 2002.
www.magd.cam.ac.uk
October 7, 2025 at 6:04 PM
RIP Professor Sir John Gurdon, who inspired so many of us in Developmental Biology, and of course, “the frog”.
If for some reason you do not already love arthropod appendages, check this paper!!
Single‐cell sequencing reveals potential novel insights into appendage‐patterning and joint‐development in a spider - Medina‐Jiménez - Developmental Dynamics anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Single‐cell sequencing reveals potential novel insights into appendage‐patterning and joint‐development in a spider - Medina‐Jiménez - Developmental Dynamics anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Single‐cell sequencing reveals potential novel insights into appendage‐patterning and joint‐development in a spider
Background Jointed appendages represent one of the key innovations of arthropods, and thus understanding the development and evolution of these structures is important for the understanding of the e...
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 31, 2025 at 8:09 PM
If for some reason you do not already love arthropod appendages, check this paper!!
Single‐cell sequencing reveals potential novel insights into appendage‐patterning and joint‐development in a spider - Medina‐Jiménez - Developmental Dynamics anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Single‐cell sequencing reveals potential novel insights into appendage‐patterning and joint‐development in a spider - Medina‐Jiménez - Developmental Dynamics anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Caroline Beck
Wow, International Xenopus Meeting (IXC25) -- Matt Guille and EXRC opens the meeting with old friends new science @xenbase.bsky.social xenopusresource.org/20th-interna...
#science #devbio #xenopus #frogs
#science #devbio #xenopus #frogs
August 18, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Wow, International Xenopus Meeting (IXC25) -- Matt Guille and EXRC opens the meeting with old friends new science @xenbase.bsky.social xenopusresource.org/20th-interna...
#science #devbio #xenopus #frogs
#science #devbio #xenopus #frogs
Reposted by Caroline Beck
FlyBase, a Drosophila database, will lose a third of its team in early October because the Harvard grant that covered the employees’ salaries was canceled. Scientists warn that losing FlyBase could devastate fly research.
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...
Harvard University lays off fly database team
The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.
www.thetransmitter.org
August 13, 2025 at 7:32 PM
FlyBase, a Drosophila database, will lose a third of its team in early October because the Harvard grant that covered the employees’ salaries was canceled. Scientists warn that losing FlyBase could devastate fly research.
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...
Reposted by Caroline Beck
A super cool #single-cell spatial transcriptomic mouse #brain atlas is out! 🐭🧠🔬
Unveiling cell types, #gene expression, & TF dynamics across the whole brain!
Awesome! ✨
#neuroskyence #neuroscience #compneurosky
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Unveiling cell types, #gene expression, & TF dynamics across the whole brain!
Awesome! ✨
#neuroskyence #neuroscience #compneurosky
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Single-cell spatial transcriptomic atlas of the whole mouse brain
Han et al. used snRNA-seq and Stereo-seq to generate a detailed mouse brain atlas
with over 4 million spatially resolved cells and 29,655 genes. Their findings include
region- enriched cell clusters a...
www.cell.com
July 9, 2025 at 7:11 PM
A super cool #single-cell spatial transcriptomic mouse #brain atlas is out! 🐭🧠🔬
Unveiling cell types, #gene expression, & TF dynamics across the whole brain!
Awesome! ✨
#neuroskyence #neuroscience #compneurosky
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Unveiling cell types, #gene expression, & TF dynamics across the whole brain!
Awesome! ✨
#neuroskyence #neuroscience #compneurosky
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Reposted by Caroline Beck
Thrilled to share that our latest work on #DravetSyndrome is now out as a preprint! 🚀
This project, brilliantly led by @clarazourray.bsky.social and co-supervised by Serena Barral, brought together an incredible team.
A huge thanks to everyone involved, exciting science ahead! 👏
shorturl.at/NdC79
This project, brilliantly led by @clarazourray.bsky.social and co-supervised by Serena Barral, brought together an incredible team.
A huge thanks to everyone involved, exciting science ahead! 👏
shorturl.at/NdC79
Prenatal sodium channel dysfunction in Dravet syndrome alters cortical development
Neurodevelopmental disorders associated with epilepsy are typically linked to postnatal dysfunction of synaptic proteins and ion channels, yet increasing evidence suggests a role for these proteins be...
www.researchsquare.com
May 16, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Thrilled to share that our latest work on #DravetSyndrome is now out as a preprint! 🚀
This project, brilliantly led by @clarazourray.bsky.social and co-supervised by Serena Barral, brought together an incredible team.
A huge thanks to everyone involved, exciting science ahead! 👏
shorturl.at/NdC79
This project, brilliantly led by @clarazourray.bsky.social and co-supervised by Serena Barral, brought together an incredible team.
A huge thanks to everyone involved, exciting science ahead! 👏
shorturl.at/NdC79
Excited for day one of the first @ epilepsyinst.bsky.social conference! If you ever wanted to know how tadpoles can help us understand DEE please come and chat at poster 2
Epilepsy Research Institute (@epilepsyinst.bsky.social)
Radically advancing epilepsy research.
epilepsyinst.bsky.social
May 22, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Excited for day one of the first @ epilepsyinst.bsky.social conference! If you ever wanted to know how tadpoles can help us understand DEE please come and chat at poster 2
Excited to share our new 🧪 preprint! We show how useful #Xenopus tadpoles, which can be CRISPR engineered on one side, can be for understanding rare genetic disorders that affect growth and development. A study of recql4, with Louise Bicknell and Matt Riley-Bell.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Unilateral loss of recql4 function in Xenopus laevis tadpoles leads to ipsilateral ablation of the forelimb, hypoplastic Meckel's cartilage and vascular defects.
RECQL4 encodes a RecQ helicase, one of a family of DNA unwinding enzymes with roles in DNA replication, double strand break repair and genomic stability. Pathogenic variants in RECQL4 are clinically a...
www.biorxiv.org
April 17, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Excited to share our new 🧪 preprint! We show how useful #Xenopus tadpoles, which can be CRISPR engineered on one side, can be for understanding rare genetic disorders that affect growth and development. A study of recql4, with Louise Bicknell and Matt Riley-Bell.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Caroline Beck
The genetic basis of human height go.nature.com/4lnM152 #Review by Louise S. Bicknell, @joelhirschhorn.bsky.social & Ravi Savarirayan
Free to read here: rdcu.be/egGQf
@universityofotago.bsky.social @bostonchildrens.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social @broadinstitute.org @mcri.bsky.social
Free to read here: rdcu.be/egGQf
@universityofotago.bsky.social @bostonchildrens.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social @broadinstitute.org @mcri.bsky.social
The genetic basis of human height
Nature Reviews Genetics - Genetic factors that influence human height encompass rare monogenic variants as well as common and rare polygenic variants. In this Review, Bicknell et al. summarize our...
rdcu.be
April 8, 2025 at 8:15 AM
The genetic basis of human height go.nature.com/4lnM152 #Review by Louise S. Bicknell, @joelhirschhorn.bsky.social & Ravi Savarirayan
Free to read here: rdcu.be/egGQf
@universityofotago.bsky.social @bostonchildrens.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social @broadinstitute.org @mcri.bsky.social
Free to read here: rdcu.be/egGQf
@universityofotago.bsky.social @bostonchildrens.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social @broadinstitute.org @mcri.bsky.social
If you, like me, get excited about appendages, it’s hard not love a velvet worm. Hydraulic #lobopods for legs, slime guns, a hidden knife in its jaws… and now bug of the year NZ 2025. Superb.
Worm-like creature with ‘dark secret’ wins New Zealand bug of the year
Worm-like creature with ‘dark secret’ wins New Zealand bug of the year
Velvet worms have rows of pudgy legs, skin speckled like a galaxy and dissolve their prey with sticky goo
An ancient gummy-looking worm-like creature with a vicious hunting method that involves projecting sticky goo from its head has been crowned New…
www.theguardian.com
February 22, 2025 at 1:18 AM
If you, like me, get excited about appendages, it’s hard not love a velvet worm. Hydraulic #lobopods for legs, slime guns, a hidden knife in its jaws… and now bug of the year NZ 2025. Superb.
Reposted by Caroline Beck
Jaeger et al. screened Adeno-associated viral tools (AAVs) in three different amphibian species brains identifying serotypes that transduce neurons. Published in Developmental Cell. www.xenbase.org/xenbase/doNe... #science #devbio #xenopus #frogs
December 17, 2024 at 9:54 PM
Jaeger et al. screened Adeno-associated viral tools (AAVs) in three different amphibian species brains identifying serotypes that transduce neurons. Published in Developmental Cell. www.xenbase.org/xenbase/doNe... #science #devbio #xenopus #frogs
Our @zoologyotago.bsky.social department is home to many wonderful animals. These two adorable Southern Bell froglets were raised by Zoology PhD student Bryony Alden, and are part of a group destined for the display tank in our foyer. They just need to grow up a bit first! 🧪 #outreach #ambassadors
January 30, 2025 at 6:34 AM
Our @zoologyotago.bsky.social department is home to many wonderful animals. These two adorable Southern Bell froglets were raised by Zoology PhD student Bryony Alden, and are part of a group destined for the display tank in our foyer. They just need to grow up a bit first! 🧪 #outreach #ambassadors
Reposted by Caroline Beck
Excited to see our team’s work on insect colour evolution published in Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Human-driven evolution of color in a stonefly mimic
Rapid adaptation is thought to be critical for the survival of species under global change, but our understanding of human-induced evolution in the wild remains limited. We show that widespread defore...
www.science.org
December 7, 2024 at 1:48 AM
Excited to see our team’s work on insect colour evolution published in Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A sad day for basic /fundamental research, our government has scrapped Marsden funding to humanities and social science and the sky for science just got a little less blue. 😭🧪
I do not yet have a comment on this but I ask all New Zealand researchers and businesses read this and consider the full impact of this signal #nzpol www.beehive.govt.nz/release/mars...
Marsden Fund refocused for science with a purpose
Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins today announced the Government has updated the Marsden Fund to focus on core scientific research that helps lift our economic growth and c...
www.beehive.govt.nz
December 4, 2024 at 3:51 AM
A sad day for basic /fundamental research, our government has scrapped Marsden funding to humanities and social science and the sky for science just got a little less blue. 😭🧪
Best question following a talk today.. “if these frogs have thousands of offspring, why isn’t the world covered in frogs?”
December 2, 2024 at 9:14 AM
Best question following a talk today.. “if these frogs have thousands of offspring, why isn’t the world covered in frogs?”
Reposted by Caroline Beck
OK If we are moving to Bluesky I am rescuing my favourite ever twitter thread (Jan 2019).
The renamed:
Bluesky-sized history of neuroscience (biased by my interests)
The renamed:
Bluesky-sized history of neuroscience (biased by my interests)
December 1, 2024 at 8:29 PM
OK If we are moving to Bluesky I am rescuing my favourite ever twitter thread (Jan 2019).
The renamed:
Bluesky-sized history of neuroscience (biased by my interests)
The renamed:
Bluesky-sized history of neuroscience (biased by my interests)
@phoebechapman.bsky.social latest paper on how #Xenopus tadpole skin gets colonised by microbiota. 🧪🐸🦠
Recently published (with @frogsquisher.bsky.social
and other very valuable contributors not yet here): our paper looking at how skin microbiomes establish in Xenopus laevis. Watch this space for the next installment about the role they play in tadpole tail regeneration
#microbiome #xenopus #frog
and other very valuable contributors not yet here): our paper looking at how skin microbiomes establish in Xenopus laevis. Watch this space for the next installment about the role they play in tadpole tail regeneration
#microbiome #xenopus #frog
The role of family and environment in determining the skin bacterial communities of captive aquatic frogs, Xenopus laevis
Family transmission influences the establishment of skin bacteria in Xenopus laevis tadpoles, crucial for regeneration pathways, emphasizing the importance
doi.org
November 29, 2024 at 5:01 AM
@phoebechapman.bsky.social latest paper on how #Xenopus tadpole skin gets colonised by microbiota. 🧪🐸🦠
Reposted by Caroline Beck
Assembloids have emerged as a powerful tool for studying previously inaccessible processes of development and tissue homeostasis.
In our article in Cell Stem Cell, we summarize advances in the generation & application of neural and non-neural #assembloids to explore complex cell-cell interactions.
In our article in Cell Stem Cell, we summarize advances in the generation & application of neural and non-neural #assembloids to explore complex cell-cell interactions.
November 17, 2024 at 7:05 AM
Assembloids have emerged as a powerful tool for studying previously inaccessible processes of development and tissue homeostasis.
In our article in Cell Stem Cell, we summarize advances in the generation & application of neural and non-neural #assembloids to explore complex cell-cell interactions.
In our article in Cell Stem Cell, we summarize advances in the generation & application of neural and non-neural #assembloids to explore complex cell-cell interactions.
Reposted by Caroline Beck
Hello world! We’re here to spread the love of our favorite model organism Xenopus. Give us a follow for your daily moment of Xen(opus)!
November 14, 2024 at 4:25 AM
Hello world! We’re here to spread the love of our favorite model organism Xenopus. Give us a follow for your daily moment of Xen(opus)!
Reposted by Caroline Beck
Our latest study is out: 🧠🍎 We discovered that low-caloric intake restructures neuronal circuits in flies, affecting their ability to learn from negative experiences while leaving reward-based learning intact.🍽️🔬
Read more in: learnmem.cshlp.org/content/31/5...
#Neuroscience #Drosophila #Nutrition
Read more in: learnmem.cshlp.org/content/31/5...
#Neuroscience #Drosophila #Nutrition
The caloric value of food intake structurally adjusts a neuronal mushroom body circuit mediating olfactory learning in Drosophila
Peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing basic neuroscience research in the areas of neuronal plasticity, learning and memory
learnmem.cshlp.org
June 14, 2024 at 12:22 AM
Our latest study is out: 🧠🍎 We discovered that low-caloric intake restructures neuronal circuits in flies, affecting their ability to learn from negative experiences while leaving reward-based learning intact.🍽️🔬
Read more in: learnmem.cshlp.org/content/31/5...
#Neuroscience #Drosophila #Nutrition
Read more in: learnmem.cshlp.org/content/31/5...
#Neuroscience #Drosophila #Nutrition