RobertoFeuda
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robertofeuda.bsky.social
RobertoFeuda
@robertofeuda.bsky.social
Associate Professor at the Univerisity of Bologna. Past Maynooth, Oxford, Caltech, Bristol, Leicester and URF Webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/feudalab/home?authuser=0
Pinned
A productive month for the lab — between new preprints and papers!

Monoaminergic neurons evo and devo www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Opsin evolution in plankton
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Mosquito Cell Atlas (small contrib.)
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Monoaminergic neurons share transcriptional identity across Bilaterian animals
The evolutionary conservation of cell types over deep time has long been theorised but remains difficult to demonstrate. Monoaminergic neurons, which produce molecules such as serotonin and dopamine, ...
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
New findings on genomic regulation mechanisms throughout evolution | EurekAlert! www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
New findings on genomic regulation mechanisms throughout evolution
The conservation of genome regulatory elements over long periods of evolution is not limited to vertebrates, as previously thought, but also in echinoderms (invertebrates). This is one of the most not...
www.eurekalert.org
January 15, 2026 at 9:39 AM
Thank you Nacho!
January 14, 2026 at 7:43 PM
Thank you Anna!!1
January 14, 2026 at 3:11 PM
Thank you Arnau!
January 14, 2026 at 9:04 AM
thank you Steve! Hope to see you soon.
January 13, 2026 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
There's still time to apply to be a 2026 @dev-journal.bsky.social Pathway to Independence fellow

For those about to apply for their first independent academic position, the programme offers

- mentoring
- leadership training
- profile rising
- networking

journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pi...
Pathway to Independence programme | Development | The Company of Biologists
Pathway to Independence programme | Development | The Company of Biologists Development's Pathway to Independence programme Launched in 2022, Development’s Pathway Independence programm...
journals.biologists.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Grazie Giacomo!
January 13, 2026 at 2:13 PM
thanks Pawel!
January 13, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Thanks you!!
January 13, 2026 at 12:54 PM
Thrilled to share that I’ve been awarded a FIS-3 Advanced Grant (ERC-inspired) to study the evolution of neurogenic GRNs.
Recruiting soon: 4 postdocs + 3 PhDs
Press release in Italian — to decolonise scientific language 😄
magazine.unibo.it/it/articoli/...
Email me if interested in joining the lab
Un viaggio all’origine dei sistemi nervosi
Il nuovo progetto GRNevo, finanziato con un grant FIS-3 Advanced da 1,9 milioni di euro, studierà come si formano i neuroni durante lo sviluppo in specie animali molto distanti tra loro: dal moscerino...
magazine.unibo.it
January 13, 2026 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Sponges are notoriously difficult to understand in evolutionary biology terms. I think this paper is a big step forward : www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history
Sponges have a cryptic Ediacaran history because ancestral sponges were soft-bodied and had low fossilization potential.
www.science.org
January 8, 2026 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Our work on the evolution of the regulatory genome of echinoderms is now out in @natecoevo.nature.com. Led by my former PhD Marta Magri, Danila Voronov & Saoirse Foley. Great collaboration of Arnone, Hinman & Maeso labs, started long time ago with our missed José Luis Gomez-Skarmeta: rdcu.be/eXX8l
Deep conservation of cis-regulatory elements and chromatin organization in echinoderms uncover ancestral regulatory features of animal genomes
Nature Ecology & Evolution - Analysis of the 3D chromatin architecture and cis-regulatory elements in a sea urchin and a sea star reveals mechanisms of 3D chromatin organization in echinoderms...
rdcu.be
January 7, 2026 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Check out our new paper!
@imperialsci.bsky.social
Saving face: SALL4 is required for early specification of craniofacial precursors

This Research Highlight showcases work by Martina Demurtas, Marco Trizzino (@marcotrizzino.bsky.social) and colleagues:

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
December 23, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Excited to share the final version of our study on Nematostella cell type regulatory programs. Part of our @erc.europa.eu StG project, this was a challenging 5-year effort extraodinarily led by @aelek.bsky.social and @martaig.bsky.social.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Decoding cnidarian cell type gene regulation - Nature Ecology & Evolution
This study reconstructs the gene regulatory networks that define cell types in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, providing a valuable resource for comparative regulatory genomics and the evoluti...
www.nature.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Good to see the peer reviewed version of this published

A chemo-optogenetic system for spatiotemporal control of gene expression

We use it to:

- Reconstruct SHH mediated neural tube patterning in vitro

- Measure extracellular half-life of Shh

www.cell.com/developmenta...
Investigating morphogen and patterning dynamics with optogenetic control of morphogen production
Benzinger et al. develop a chemo-optogenetic system for precise spatiotemporal control of morphogen production in vitro. Using light-controlled Sonic hedgehog expression, they recapitulate neural tube...
www.cell.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Apennine brown bear #genomic diversity - comparing whole #genome resequencing data from Apennine, Central European, and North American brown bears academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... #biodiversity #genomics
Coexisting With Humans: Genomic and Behavioral Consequences in a Small and Isolated Bear Population
Abstract. Climate and land use change have increased human–wildlife interactions, potentially reducing wild species density and prompting behavioral adapta
academic.oup.com
December 15, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Want to carry a PhD in London, in one of the best Universities in the world?

We have two calls for PhD students to join our lab at Imperial College. Deadline January 12th. More details for applications in the link below. Feel free to keep in touch!
Available Jobs – gilestro laboratory
lab.gilest.ro
December 5, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Out now: we’re happy to share our new preprint on CroCoNet (Cross-species Comparison of Networks), a framework for robust comparative network analyses.
👉 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
November 25, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Also have a few other projects available (ranging from ecology/behaviour to genomics and neuroscience) for applications through the NERC and BBSRC Doctoral Training programs, some details here www.shmontgomery.co.uk/opportunitie... but feel free to get in touch!
Opportunities
Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in projects and future funding opportunities. If you want to discuss  opportunities , please remember to send me: a CV a short paragraph on your...
www.shmontgomery.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
In the summer (you can tell by the shirt) I had a fabulous conversation about embryology and stem cells with @nmoris.bsky.social at the Crick Institute. Here's the first part of it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WB0...
The Creativity of Life: A Conversation with Naomi Moris, Part 1
YouTube video by Marginalia Review of Books
www.youtube.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9
Adenine DNA methylation associated with transcriptionally permissive chromatin is widespread across eukaryotes - Nature Genetics
Long-read sequencing in 18 unicellular eukaryotes reveals that 6mA is widespread across eukaryotes and is enriched at transcriptionally permissive regions, which are also marked by H3K4me3.
www.nature.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Our study on the role of LTR5HS and SVAs in regulation of human neural crest migration is now published as peer-reviewed paper on @molsystbiol.org!
Congrats to first author brilliant postdoc Laura Deelen, and all the authors involved! @imperialsci.bsky.social
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
September 22, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Happy to share Jialin's first publication. She did a great job exploring the transition to land in animals. Co-supervised by the great Jordi Paps and me and in collaboration with Davide Pisani and @phil-donoghue.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
Reposted by RobertoFeuda
November 13, 2025 at 7:23 PM