Angus Davison
@snaildoc.bsky.social
140 followers 250 following 32 posts
Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at University of Nottingham. Evolution and genetics/genomics of colour and left-right asymmetry (chirality) in snails. Hand-model for snails - available for hire. Mostly posting at @[email protected]
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snaildoc.bsky.social
Snails of Cuba! We found 5 species, including the most endangered and most beautiful, Polymita sulphurosa. Project on evolution/conservation of these snails, led by Cuba, me @ #UoN, and working with London zoo, Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.

#snails #cuba #fieldwork
Highly colourful Cuban snail, green yellow with rays Highly colourful Cuban snail, pale green, orange, black with spots Highly colourful Cuban snail, yellow with pink band Highly colourful Cuban snail, red with white band
Reposted by Angus Davison
rebeccarhelm.bsky.social
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
Reposted by Angus Davison
colincarlson.bsky.social
RFK has announced that he is developing a vaccine against all viruses. Yes, every single one. The whole, uh, "phylum"
RFK Jr: “We're developing a universal vaccine at NIH which is a vaccine that addresses the entire phylum of viruses.”

“It's a vaccine that mimics natural immunity and it is effective against any kind of mutation.”

“We believe it's gonna be effective against not only coronaviruses but also flu.”

“And it's gonna be a much safer and a much more effective vaccine.”
Reposted by Angus Davison
elisazhang.bsky.social
Check out this awesome study from my phenomenally talented colleague @accorsi-alice.bsky.social ! Apple snails can regrow their eyes! How do they do this? 👀 Read below ⬇️ to find out more! #regeneration
stowersinstitute.bsky.social
Snails with human-like eyes?!

Published in @natcomms.nature.com, the @planaria1.bsky.social & @accorsi-alice.bsky.social Labs have established apple snails as a novel model for studying vision restoration. They have complex camera-type eyes & the ability to regrow them in 28 days: bit.ly/4mvaxkq
Reposted by Angus Davison
planaria1.bsky.social
Evolution’s eye game is wild, but mollusks take it to another level

CRISPR in apple snails gives us a new model to dissect how nature rebuilds complex organs like the camera-type eyes we humans possess

It turns out Evolution doesn’t just innovate, it rewinds, remixes, & regenerates

rdcu.be/ezw0t
A genetically tractable non-vertebrate system to study complete camera-type eye regeneration
Nature Communications - Accorsi et al. show that the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata has eyes similar to humans and can fully regenerate them. They then developed genetic tools to establish these...
url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com
Reposted by Angus Davison
stowersinstitute.bsky.social
🐌👀What do apple snails have to do with human vision?

Stowers scientists took a chance on a tiny creature, with big results. Learn how @planaria1.bsky.social & then postdoc @accorsi-alice.bsky.social brought apple snails to the Institute. ⬇️ #ResearchSky #SciSky

Learn more: youtu.be/U-yQ7z1e6nA
How Apple Snail research began at the Stowers Institute: unlocking the secrets of eye regeneration
YouTube video by Stowers Institute for Medical Research
youtu.be
Reposted by Angus Davison
stowersinstitute.bsky.social
Snails with human-like eyes?!

Published in @natcomms.nature.com, the @planaria1.bsky.social & @accorsi-alice.bsky.social Labs have established apple snails as a novel model for studying vision restoration. They have complex camera-type eyes & the ability to regrow them in 28 days: bit.ly/4mvaxkq
Reposted by Angus Davison
magdalenaskipper.bsky.social
Just a few years ago we were celebrating mRNA vaccine development - new therapeutic modality, speed of development, life-saving… now, the US is cancelling its funding for further development.

Illogical, inexplicable & damaging!

🧪 #MedicalSky

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Despite RFK’s funding block, mRNA vaccines are too impressive to ignore
Scientists fear decision may increase vaccine hesitancy, but other countries are still willing to invest in research
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Angus Davison
Reposted by Angus Davison
davehone.bsky.social
Their website is pretty explicit in saying that a) it's a dire wolf and that b) they have brought it back from extinction. Attempting to say they never claimed this is quite an extraordinary piece of chutzpah:
colossal.com/direwolf/
snaildoc.bsky.social
Bunch of charlatans, succeeding by squeezing money out of the venture capitalists, which can only happen if they have regular press headlines!
snaildoc.bsky.social
Much fun filming with Vic Gill, camera crew somehow made my office look quite nice and not full of dead snails and multiple pairs of old trainers.

Update: illegally traded shells have now disappeared from Etsy. 3/3
Angus Davison and Vic Gill in office Angus Davison in messy lab, bottles in foreground
snaildoc.bsky.social
Highlight was probably the ITN News that ended with prolonged footage of two snails mating, not something I ever imagined could happen in real life on a primetime news programme. Did they know what they were broadcasting? 2/3
Reposted by Angus Davison
cbo.bsky.social
Biologist folk (especially in evolutionary biology and/or ecology, but it don’t matter):

Can you give me your favorite examples of trade offs in biology? Organism or system don’t matter. Primary literature or reviews preferred.
snaildoc.bsky.social
For snail Friday, new image of Polymita picta from Tetas de Santa*, Cuba #cuba #snail #snailfriday #alliterationfail #polymita *try translating that 😭, I am going with Santa's tits although that might not be exactly correct
Very colourful snail on leaf
Reposted by Angus Davison
bestforbritain.org
👏 Exceptional front page by @scotnational.bsky.social ahead of Donald Trump's visit this weekend...
Reposted by Angus Davison
phasegenomics.bsky.social
Introducing PGShield™ - our new room-temperature sample solution for Hi-C. No more dry ice shipments. Improved data quality and library yields. Store your samples for months without sacrificing data quality. Get a FREE 10mL bottle today! #genomics #HiC
🔗https://hubs.la/Q03yhGWf0
Reposted by Angus Davison
felixbaier.bsky.social
🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com!

We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️
Reposted by Angus Davison
j-dunning.net
[now with link] Our opinion, on how animal social research can be applied to the problem of highly pathogenic avian influenza spread, has been published ! 🪶🧪

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
snaildoc.bsky.social
The authors also deserve strong recognition for not taking the safe route - as this work represents over ten years of planning and research, the results could easily have been published separately and much earlier. #UoN