preLights
@prelights.bsky.social
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A preprint highlights service run by the biological community and supported by The Company of Biologists (@biologists.bsky.social).
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prelights.bsky.social
🚨 New call for preLighters!🚨

Help us highlight the most exciting biological #preprints. Share your insights, build your profile, and be part of a supportive community! 🌍

Interested? Apply today & help shape the future of science publishing! 📢

More info: prelights.biologists.com/news/join-th...
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biologists.bsky.social
Our first extraordinary biologist featured this week is Katherine Brown, @biologists.bsky.social Publishing Director and former @dev-journal.bsky.social Executive Editor, who has been closely involved with @prelights.bsky.social since its inception. #100biologists

@katherine-brown.bsky.social
The Company of Biologists 100 logo to the left and QR code to the right.

Portrait of Katherine Brown to the left, text to the right 100 extraordinary biologists 

Katherine Brown is the Company’s Publishing Director, having previously served as Development’s Executive Editor. There, she co-initiated the ‘From Stem Cells to Human Development’ meeting series, helping to launch the Company’s Journal Meetings. Katherine has also been closely involved with preLights since its inception.
prelights.bsky.social
Hsp70 phosphorylation stalls cell cycle, buying time for DNA repair

Ana Sanchez-Molina: “This #preprint provides detailed mechanistic, biochemical, and genetic evidence of a conserved mechanism of cell cycle regulation in response to DNA damage.” #preLight ⬇️
prelights.biologists.com/highlights/a...
A conserved Hsp70 phosphorylation regulates cell cycle progression after DNA damage - preLights
Hsp70 phosphorylation stalls cell cycle, buying time for DNA repair.
prelights.biologists.com
prelights.bsky.social
Being active when everyone else is asleep 💤

Stefan F. Wirth highlights work from Jona Lopez Pedersen & team (Toxopeus Lab #stfxuniversity) exploring why & how the stonefly Allocapnia pygmaea survives sub-zero temperatures. #preprint

#preLight #Ecology ⬇️👀
prelights.biologists.com/highlights/t...
The cold tolerance of an adult winter-active stonefly: How Allocapnia pygmaea (Plecoptera: Capniidae) avoids freezing in Nova Scotian winters - preLights
Being active when everyone else is asleep: why the stonefly Allocapnia pygmaea survives subzero temperatures
prelights.biologists.com
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prelights.bsky.social
Lot of new preLights this week! 🙌

Ruoheng Li discusses a #preprint from the #ExtavourLab @harvard.edu studying an extraordinary case of epithelial morphogenesis.

How shrimp embryos set up an epithelial checkerboard: down and across.
#preLight #DevBio ⬇️👀 prelights.biologists.com/highlights/l...
Lineage domains and cytoskeletal cables organize a cellular square grid in a crustacean - preLights
How shrimp embryos set up an epithelial checkerboard: down and across
prelights.biologists.com
prelights.bsky.social
Excellent #postLight uploaded by @fadelvalle.bsky.social!

He revisits work from Werner van der Meer & colleagues originally posted as a preprint and now published in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social

postLight: prelights.biologists.com/highlights/l...
prelights.bsky.social
Stopping norovirus at the gate. 🚧

In her first preLight, Leonie Brüne explores work from Maryna Chaika & team (@uniluebeck.bsky.social) highlighting polyamines as a possible new lead for therapeutics against norovirus. #preprint

#preLight #Immunology ⬇️👀
prelights.biologists.com/highlights/p...
Polyamine depletion inhibits norovirus infection by blocking virus-induced apoptosis - preLights
Stopping norovirus at the gate: Polyamines as a possible new lead for therapeutics against norovirus
prelights.biologists.com
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dportik.bsky.social
New pre-print from the Banfield lab, highlighting an interesting case of 1.5Mb megaplasmids found in human gut.

Plasmid genomes were resolved using #PacBio HiFi sequencing with hifiasm-meta for #metagenome assembly. Host association was detected using epigenetic signals.

doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Megaplasmids associate with Escherichia coli and other Enterobacteriaceae
Humans and animals are ubiquitously colonized by Enterobacteriaceae , a bacterial family that contains both commensals and clinically significant pathogens. Here, we report Enterobacteriaceae megaplas...
doi.org
prelights.bsky.social
Happy October 1st!

A good time to share another #CellBio #preprint reading list put together by a team of preLighters: @sristi.bsky.social, Matthew Davies, @vibhasingh.bsky.social, @fadelvalle.bsky.social & Barbora Knotkova.

Check out their picks ⬇️👀
prelights.biologists.com/prelists/sep...
September in preprints – Cell biology edition - preLights
prelights.biologists.com
prelights.bsky.social
Our latest ‘call for preLighters’ closes tonight!

Interested, but didn’t find the time to write an application? Expressions of interest are also welcome – just email us at [email protected]

Why join? See what other preLighters have to say…⬇️👀
prelights.bsky.social
Turning back the clock on stem cells. 🕒

Did you see the preLight @vibhasingh.bsky.social posted last week highlighting the #preprint of Eva Mejía-Ramírez & team?

#preLight: prelights.biologists.com/highlights/t...

This work was also discussed in a recent webinar ⬇️👀
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ethanewe.bsky.social
🔥my latest paper from @odedrechavi.bsky.social lab🔥
we found small RNAs act across tissues to regulate fertlity in C. elegans 🪱. Surprisingly, we also found that O2-sensing neurons inhibit germline maintenance. Follow along our journey👇https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.07.669182v1
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nadjahuempf.bsky.social
Now out on bioRxiv. 🥳My research on #cytokinesis, averaging thousands of #ExM images🔬, creating a dynamic atlas of cytokinesis 🦠⏳. Here's an animated sneak peek of what we found. Better resolution on bioRxiv😄 #PSFoftheGIF
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deniswirtz.bsky.social
Multimodal SRS imaging reveals metabolic remodeling in ovarian precancerous lesions.

In collaboration with Prof. Lingyan Shi (UCSD), we integrated spatial metabolomics into a new 3D tissue mapping workflow at single-cell resolution

More here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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biologists.bsky.social
Calling early-career developmental biologists!

Apply for a funded place at our #Workshop, Novelty, Co-option and Divergence During Gene Network Evolution.

Application deadline: 5 December

www.biologists.com/workshops/ju...

#DevBio #BiologistsWorkshops #Collaboration #Networking
Workshop: Novelty, Co-option and Divergence During Gene Network Evolution. Organisers: James Hombría and Antónia Monteiro. 14-17 June 2026, Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK. Early-career researchers apply for funded places.
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focalplane.bsky.social
ICYMI – the recording from FocalPlane features… @prelights.bsky.social LIVE is up!
preLighters @fadelvalle.bsky.social & @vibhasingh.bsky.social present their live preLights & share research talks from @probablycarmen.bsky.social & Eva Mejía-Ramírez.
#preprints #cellbio #microscopy
FocalPlane features... preLights recording - FocalPlane
FocalPlane features... preLights recording - News
focalplane.biologists.com
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mamassian.bsky.social
A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue.

The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.

From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...
An array of 9 purple discs on a blue background. Figure from Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt.
prelights.bsky.social
preLights is a #preprint highlighting service—supported by @biologists.bsky.social—encouraging #ECRs to highlight and discuss preprints that spark interest or debate within the biological #community. #SciComm

Interested in joining? Our 'call for preLighters' is open for another week! ⬇️👀
prelights.bsky.social
🚨 New call for preLighters!🚨

Help us highlight the most exciting biological #preprints. Share your insights, build your profile, and be part of a supportive community! 🌍

Interested? Apply today & help shape the future of science publishing! 📢

More info: prelights.biologists.com/news/join-th...
Reposted by preLights
biologists.bsky.social
Our next extraordinary biologist is Tshepiso Majelantle, early-career researcher and postdoc at Witwatersrand University, South Africa, who attended @biologists.bsky.social's first Global South Workshop in 2024. #100biologists #NPAW2025
The Company of Biologists 100 logo to the left and QR code to the right.
 
Portrait of Tshepiso Majelantle to the left, text to the right
 
100 extraordinary biologists

Tshepiso Majelantle

Tshepiso Majelantle is an early-career researcher and postdoc at Witwatersrand University, South Africa, who attended The Company of Biologists' first Global South Workshop, How Global South Research Can Shape the Future of Comparative Physiology, and is joining the team of Outside JEB writers in 2026.

#100biologists #biologists100
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focalplane.bsky.social
📢 Join us next week for our mini-symposium with the membrane trafficking webinar series
Featuring talks from @nickader.bsky.social, @maiblab.bsky.social and Mónica Quiñones-Frías, and a keynote lecture from Gillian Griffiths @griffithslab.bsky.social.
FocalPlane features... membrane trafficking - FocalPlane
FocalPlane features... membrane trafficking - News
focalplane.biologists.com