Lucrezia Ferme

Diagram illustrating the two-hit model of retinoblastoma

To better treat cancer, we need to understand its underlying biology. Despite decades of research, some fundamental questions remain unanswered. One is why certain key tumor suppressor or oncogenes lead to cancer predominantly in single tissue: e.g. Rb in the retina, or APC in the colon 1/n 🧪

Totally deserved! Monica is a great leader and she did wonders for IGC 🤩

Exciting news: our Board of Trustees has appointed @monicabettencourt.bsky.social as the CRG's new Director. Prof Bettencourt-Dias is expected to take up the post in 2026, replacing Dr. Luis Serrano, who will continue to maintain a research group at the institute.
www.crg.eu/en/news/moni...

How a discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR - Richmond Scientific A discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR, the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight the global pandemic.

Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪
www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...

I always enjoy reading the science published in Development, but I never imagined I would be featured as a specimen in this journal! Well, this happened thanks to my very enthusiastic
fellow classmates who wrote this piece about our life-changing experience in last year's MBL Embryology course...

The amazing tour de force of the great @lcferme.bsky.social is now out in its final form in @ScienceAdvances (not on Bluesky???). It was hard work and all the conceptual advance was her doing. Check it out: www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

Hi Bluesky science community!
Rocha Lab has finally arrived!
I'm excited to introduce our team and the science we're working on in future posts. Can’t wait to connect and see what everyone has been up to!

Yes, that is me, for those who did not yet know. This was not planned but I am very happy to go 'home' even though I will miss a lot about Portugal. If you still want to visit, hurry, otherwise see you in Cambridge. If you want to know more contact me directly.
www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/news/dr-care...

Celebrating the work of @lcferme.bsky.social ! As always with style! Congrats to the paper acceptance. More news will follow soon! Great weekend to all!

Rita Levi-Montalcini defied fascism, which excluded her from university due to her jewish ancestry, by setting up a clandestine lab in her own bedroom. During 1940-42 she carried out experiments that set the foundations for her Nobel-prize-winning research a decade later.
nautil.us/a-lab-of-her...

Thank you Christa for the support!!

Yes, it’s officially PhDone! It’s being a long and adventurous journey and I feel so lucky that I got to make it with all my wonderful colleagues in the Norden lab @nordenlab.bsky.social ❤️ They even managed to design a hat out of a Panettone box! I loved it. That’s the spirit!!

Thank you so much Caren @nordenlab.bsky.social for all the support, technical and emotional as well! You are a great mentor :)

zebrafish pigment cells

New NIH funded research from our group now out. We are interested in development and evolution of cell types and adult phenotypes. In this paper, postdoc Dylan Huang and collaborators asked how a pigmentary ornament of bright white cells develops on the fin of zebrafish. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Divide and conquer. Or don't divide but still conquer. - the Node Behind the paper story for "Cell state transitions are decoupled from cell division during early embryo development" As embryos develop, their cells

Divide and conquer. Or don’t divide but still conquer.

@kkukreja.bsky.social & co. looked into the role of cell division in forming all major cell types during early zebrafish 🐟development, and found something they didn't expect. Read the story behind the paper:

Well deserved, congrats!! 🙌

Highly-respected non-profit journals like @dev-journal.bsky.social support scientific communities

But after rejection at glam journals, it is tempting to avoid re-review by sliding through commercial ecosystems

BUT WAIT! LOOK! “We will consider papers with reviewer reports from other journals” 😍

By definition, enhancers can activate from a distance. But with increased distance between enhancer and promoter, the activation drops. To study this systematically, we build a synthetic locus: www.cell.com/molecular-ce... 1/12

To mark Black Friday, we are excited to share our latest work, "Planar polarized force propagation integrates cell behavior with tissue shaping during convergent extension." Now online in Current Biology. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kATd3QW8S...

I’m very grateful to be part of the Norden lab 🤩 ze best

This week I’m giving thanks for the Sling-Jaw Wrasse, and it’s amazing jaw #biomechanics!
🐟🦑🧪🌿

🟦 First post on bluesky and first first-author pre-print! It is was a long journey and I am so grateful for all the opportunities I got to grow as a scientist, thanks to @nordenlab.bsky.social. Come cantava Rino Gaetano: il cielo è sempre più blu! 🟦

Thank you Christa!!