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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · 1d

Since the collective noun for frogs is an army, he can also be credited with generating the first clone army. 🐸🧪✊

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · 1d

Sir John is best known for his Nobel prize winning work on somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning).

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · 1d

RIP Professor Sir John Gurdon, who inspired so many of us in Developmental Biology, and of course, “the frog”.

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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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Aug 31

The whole mount ISH images are fantastic.

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Aug 31

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

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

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Aug 20

Dr Banerjee nailing it at #IXC25 meeting. Just look at the size of the screen we are presenting on! 🐸🧪🐸🧬

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Reposted by Caroline Beck

Karen J Liu @karenjliu.bsky.social · Aug 18

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

The amazing Matt Guille opens the meeting

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Aug 17

Off to a great start this afternoon with a fabulous plenary from Aaron Zorn.

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Aug 17

Hey! Any #xenopus folk at IXC25 in Portsmouth? Use #IXC25 in your posts, and let us know how it’s going!!

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Reposted by Caroline Beck

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Aug 13

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...

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

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Reposted by Caroline Beck

LPJ Lab - Neuroimmunometabolism @lpjlab.org · Jul 9

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...

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

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · May 22

#neuroskyence #EpilepsyResearchConfrerence

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Reposted by Caroline Beck

Lignani Lab @lignanilab.bsky.social · May 16

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

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

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · May 22

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

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Apr 17

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...

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

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Reposted by Caroline Beck

Nature Reviews Genetics @natrevgenet.nature.com · Apr 8

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

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

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Feb 22

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.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Feb 20

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

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Reposted by Caroline Beck

Xenbase @xenbase.bsky.social · Dec 17

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

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Jan 30

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

Two southern bell froglets looking adorable on a rock.

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Dec 7

Welcome to the blue sky Jon!

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Reposted by Caroline Beck

Jon Waters @jonwatersnz.bsky.social · Dec 7

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

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Dec 4

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. 😭🧪

Bronwyn Hayward @bmhayward.bsky.social · Dec 4

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

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Dec 3

📌

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Caroline Beck @frogsquisher.bsky.social · Dec 2

Best question following a talk today.. “if these frogs have thousands of offspring, why isn’t the world covered in frogs?”

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Reposted by Caroline Beck

Tim Behrens @behrenstimb.bsky.social · Dec 1

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)

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