Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Ann C. Morris

James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 1d

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...

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

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Ann C. Morris @anncmorris.bsky.social · 4d

We're hiring! Please repost -- application review starts 10/13.

Ann C. Morris @anncmorris.bsky.social · 10d

Assistant or Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Kentucky: ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/601...
#academic jobs #edusky

Assistant or Associate Professor in Microbiology

The Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY seeks to fill a tenure-eligible faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor le...

ukjobs.uky.edu

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Hearty White @heartywhite.bsky.social · 9d

If you like art and all and shows, I hear this is going to be good. Two shows, 3pm and 8pm.This is a link to the 3pm show. I worked on it with other artists and it's also an improvised experiement.

Hearty White Performs : The Map

Join WFMU for an afternoon with inspirational dadaist, Hearty White, live show at Monty Hall.

www.eventbrite.com

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

WFMU @wfmu.bsky.social · 7d

WFMU's Hellraiser Fundraiser starts today, and runs through October! There will be many DJ specials, new swag, and events throughout the month celebrating WFMU. If you can, help us out with a donation and grab one of two new Hellraiser T-shirts. Pledge here: pledge.wfmu.org

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Ann C. Morris @anncmorris.bsky.social · 10d

Assistant or Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Kentucky: ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/601...
#academic jobs #edusky

Assistant or Associate Professor in Microbiology

The Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY seeks to fill a tenure-eligible faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor le...

ukjobs.uky.edu

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Edward Elderman @elderman.bsky.social · 12d

This only happens to you once

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Javier Lazaro - illustration @lazaroillustration.bsky.social · 14d

"Fishman", proposal for a journal cover.
Commissioned by MY Dennis' lab @mydennis.bsky.social for a study focused on identifying human-specific gene duplications and their role in brain evolution using genomics and zebrafish as model. @dcsoto.bsky.social
#art #digitalart #sciart #fish

Illustration of a fishman creature with human limbs and fish head and tail, interacting with a DNA string

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 15d

Phenomenal. In my 10 year update of A Brief History, I make the point that in the first edition, not one disease had been successfully treated using gene therapy. Today that number is at least 7.

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

James Harvey @keepof4worlds.bsky.social · 15d

Wonderful news. A salutary reminder of the absolute benefits of scientific progress, and the absolute evil of conspiracist bollocks.

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time www.bbc.com/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time

One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that could transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

kuba sędziński @kuba-sedzinski.bsky.social · 17d

🧵1/14 Preprint thread! Can we predict a cell’s fate based on its dynamics? 🔮 Our new study unveils a framework for watching development unfold in real-time, revealing how a cell's shape and movement encode info about its future fate. 🔬📄 Preprint: tinyurl.com/4shf8v4x

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Yogesh Goyal @goyallab.bsky.social · 20d

**POSTDOC POSITION** My lab (www.goyallab.org) at Northwestern and CZ Biohub Chicago looking for a postdoctoc in quantitative biology. We work on a range of topics, including single-cell cancer plasticity, modeling single-cell perturbations, theory, and stem-embryo models. contact via email. Pls RT

Goyal Lab

www.goyallab.org

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Stacey Ogden 🦔 @labogden.bsky.social · 23d

Happy #MicroscopyMonday! Here is a 🔬 image of epithelial cells of the embryonic 🐭 lung expressing a membrane-GFP reporter for my favorite signaling protein, Sonic Hedgehog (SHH). Non-SHH expressing cells are shown with magenta membrane stain. 🔬 by @christinaadaly.bsky.social 🧪 #DevBio

Image of a developing mouse lung section showing SHH-expressing epithelial cells in green. Non-expressing cells are marked by magenta membrane stain. DAPI marks nuclei in blue.

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Pranav Seth @thebuddhabird93.bsky.social · 26d

#FluorescenceFriday
#Seahorse retina stained with #GNB3 (green) + #DAPI (cyan). GNB3 labels cone photoreceptors + ON #bipolarcells, tracing pathways from outer to inner retina. Amazing to see conserved visual #circuits in this non-traditional model

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Georgios Kafetzis @gkafetzis.bsky.social · 26d

👁️The retina — strikingly conserved across vertebrates, but an oddity among bilaterians!

So how did it evolve?

With @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n

a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue sticking out .

ALT: a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue sticking out .

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Johan Jakobsson @jakobssonlab.bsky.social · Aug 23

New paper from our lab! We found that LINE-1 transposons contribute to early human brain development.

Funded by @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org

www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

LINE-1 retrotransposons mediate cis-acting transcriptional control in human pluripotent stem cells and regulate early brain development

Adami et al. demonstrate that evolutionarily young L1s are expressed in human pluripotent stem cells and are dynamically regulated throughout neural differentiation. The study examines the role of L1s...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Dr Dan Jones @hookean.bsky.social · Aug 23

I didn't realise that there was a precursor to Powers of Ten, made in Canada and called Cosmic Zoom 🙂
#PhysicsEd
#iTeachPhysics
#Science 🧪

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgfw...

Cosmic Zoom

YouTube video by NFB

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D. @ertrunnell.bsky.social · Aug 7

Using patient-derived optic #organoids and #multiomics analysis, researchers discovered a new role for #PAX6 in regulating SOX2 and Notch signaling during early eye development, offering mechanistic insight into PAX6-related ocular disorders.

doi.org/10.1016/j.bb...

#devbio 🧪

Quote graphic featuring a photo of a human eye and the quote: "A wide variety of model systems have been utilised to understand the function of PAX6 in early eye development, but divergence of developmental mechanisms means findings do not always translate to humans ... Stem cell-derived 3D retinal organoids have become a robust tool for studying early eye development, with self-organisation of cells into distinct layers of the neural retina (NR) reflecting in vivo organogenesis." Attributed to Harding P, Owen N, et al. (2025). doi:10.1016/j.bbadis.2025.167869

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Justin Kumar @flyeyelab.bsky.social · Aug 5

My lab's newest research paper on the Drosophila eye is published in Development today. Thanks to the editorial staff for writing a research highlight and interviewing us about our work.

journals.biologists.com/dev/article-...

Differential regulation of eye specification in Drosophila by Polycomb Group epigenetic repressors

Highlighted Article: Distinct gene sets are differentially expressed in response to the knockdown of Polycomb Group (PcG) members, suggesting that multiple avenues may exist for the eye to be transfor...

journals.biologists.com

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Debnath Ghosal @debnathghosal.bsky.social · Aug 2

📣 New paper alert! Just out in Cell Reports! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40644298/
Thrilled to share that we have discovered a brand-new anti-phage defense system! Bacteria have evolved various defense strategies (CRISPR etc) to counter phage attacks. We found a new one - fascinating and dramatic
⚔️🦠❄️🔬

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Heavily Into The World Of Magnets @sararah.bsky.social · Jul 10

Here is the application to for duty-free entry of scientific equipment www.trade.gov/sites/defaul...

If you are buying something this summer or fall, this is a good document to look at regardless, so you know what kind of due diligence is required to request the tariff waiver.

www.trade.gov

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Hearty White @heartywhite.bsky.social · Jul 24

Wow! The new issue of the WFMU magazine LCD has a Hearty White comic! D. Chesnes did a super wonderful job. I feel like Harvey Pekar! Check it out!

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Jul 26

A recent paper reveals a surprising insight. The length of the cell cycle in a particular tissue determines the oncogenic transformation capacity of particular oncogenes, with tissues with shorter cell cycles most susceptible 3/n

Cell cycle duration determines oncogenic transformation capacity

Danian Chen, Suying Lu, Katherine Huang, Joel D. Pearson, Marek Pacal, Phillipos Peidis, Sean McCurdy, Tao Yu, Monika Sangwan, Angela Nguyen, Philippe P. Monnier, Daniel Schramek, Liang Zhu, David Santamaria, Mariano Barbacid, Nagako Akeno, Kathryn A. Wikenheiser-Brokamp & Rod Bremner

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08935-x

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Stefan Mundlos @stemundi.bsky.social · Jul 24

Our new story in Nature Genetics: endogenous retroviruses can produce viral-like particles in the embryo resulting in apoptosis and congenital malformation. If this would happen in human, it wouldn't leave a trace. No WGS or other analysis would identify this. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Enhancer adoption by an LTR retrotransposon generates viral-like particles, causing developmental limb phenotypes - Nature Genetics

Activation of an LTR retrotransposon inserted upstream of the Fgf8 gene produces viral-like particles in the mouse developing limb, triggering apoptosis and causing limb malformation. This phenotype c...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Ann C. Morris

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · Jul 23

Very pleased to say we have an Assistant Professor job opening (tenure track) in the Department of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin! 😀
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOA399/a... - deadline is August 19th! Please repost!

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Hearty White @heartywhite.bsky.social · Jul 19

I am over-confident artistically, and will try to execute projects that are beyond my abilities and experience, so I'm really glad I don't own a tattoo gun.

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