@lsprahl.bsky.social
Research Associate in the BioFrontiers Institute at CU Boulder. Previously a Postdoc at UPenn Bioengineering. Working at the interface between tissue engineering and developmental biology. He/him/his. Opinions are my own.
Excited to highlight a new preprint about mechanical contributions to tissue homeostasis, from the Manning group in collaboration with the amazing Carien Niessen and Sara Wickstrom @sarawickstrom.bsky.social labs, spearheaded by Dr. Somiealo Azote: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
10.02.2026 01:50 — 👍 31 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 1If you are considering where to publish new research on extracellular/non-autonomous/geometric/physical cause and effect in development, consider our @dev-journal.bsky.social special issue, with @rashmi-priya.bsky.social!
07.01.2026 17:54 — 👍 5 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
Special Issue The Extracellular Environment in Development, Regeneration and Stem Cells Guest Editors Alex Hughes (University of Pennsylvania) Rashmi Priya (The Francis Crick Institute) Submission deadline: 1 March 2026. Development call for papers. Image of magenta and teal cells in a jawbone.
Submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue – The Extracellular Environment in Development, Regeneration and Stem Cells
Guest Editors: Alex Hughes (@hugheslabpenn.bsky.social) & Rashmi Priya (@rashmi-priya.bsky.social)
Deadline: 1 March 2026
journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/ex...
Developmentally inspired synthetic kidney engineering - @hugheslabpenn.bsky.social @pennengineering.bsky.social go.nature.com/46tacJq
11.02.2026 08:31 — 👍 12 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
Check out our new @natbiotech.nature.com review on how to build kidneys & other epithelial organs using principles from embryonic development. Led by Emma Warrner and @azyhuang.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
rdcu.be/e3fy0
Our new paper just out!
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
How do cells orchestrate themselves to achieve a directional movement as a group?
Hi, I’m @sayukihirano.bsky.social. In this thread, I’ll highlight key mechanisms of how cells communicate with each other to perform directional collective migration.
🚨 PhD Position Available 🚨
I’m recruiting a PhD student to join my lab at the Multiscale Imaging Centre (MIC), Münster, Germany.
www.bischofflab.com/jobs
Fully funded ✅
#Cellbio #Morphogenesis #Microscopy
#Drosophila #PhD
(Details Below)
Original Posting:
stellen.uni-muenster.de/jobposting/d...
Defending PhD student, looking over their thesis: “If I knew then what I know now, I could’ve done all of this in like 9 months.”
A thread about my favorite pioneering cave explorers and why I don’t think AI will ever “solve” biology.
With Byung Ho Lee and Kana Fuji as first/lead authors, @anne-grapin.bsky.social group, @utokyoofficial.bsky.social, Inst. of Physics of Academia Sinica, & @igbmc.bsky.social found the shape of lumens in the developing pancreas is controlled by pressure & proliferation. www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...
09.01.2026 12:17 — 👍 34 🔁 11 💬 1 📌 2
🎉 Happy New Year! We’re kicking off 2026 with an exciting VGZT seminar!
🗓️ Thursday, January 8th
⏰ 9:30 PST / 12:30 EST / 17:30 UTC / 17:30 GMT / 18:30 CET
Our speakers are
👉 Jan Jakub Zylicz (@jzylicz.bsky.social)
👉 Anahi Binagui-Casas (@abinagui.bsky.social)
See you there 👋
Blog post: Just quit
Quitting projects in science is hard, but we should be doing a lot more of it.
open.substack.com/pub/arjunraj...
🚨Preprint 2/2: Several studies implicate condensates in RTK fusion onco-signaling. So we were surprised to find that condensates are entirely dispensable😮(!). A study from proteins to mice, by dynamic duo @davidgonzmar.bsky.social and @trmumford.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
👇
🚨New preprint(1/2)! We show that RTK fusion oncoproteins broadly suppress EGFR signaling. How? Sequestration of adapters as the shared principle.
Led by superb PhD student Carol Gao.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Implications for drug tolerance/resistance, and includes one big surprise🫧.👇
We wrote two reviews on cell migration, published today in Nature Methods.
They provides practical guidelines how to select a cell-migration assay and how to analyze cell-migration data
Review 1: nature.com/articles/s41...
Review 2: nature.com/articles/s41...
We’ve highlighted some wonderful images and researchers in our ‘Featured image’ series in 2025. To celebrate, we’re inviting you to vote for your favourite in our image competition!
#FluorescenceFriday
Check them out here: focalplane.biologists.com/2025/12/19/v...
Leybova, L., Biswas, A., Sharan, R., Trejo, B. M., Kim, K., ..., Phillips, B. K., & Devenport, D. (2024). Radially patterned morphogenesis of murine hair follicle placodes ensures robust epithelial budding. Developmental cell, 59(24), 3272–3289.e5. #EpithelialMechanics
buff.ly/z1wX1O6
Apply for Development's Pathway to Independence programme
The programme aims to support a small number of researchers in the fields of developmental biology, stem cells and regeneration as they transition from postdoc to group leader. Read more ⬇️
thenode.biologists.com/apply-for-de...
My lab is hiring a postdoc (ERC funded)! If you're interested, get in touch!
18.12.2025 08:36 — 👍 59 🔁 66 💬 3 📌 2
❗PREPRINT ALERT❗
doi.org/10.64898/202...
The lab of M. Lisa Manning at @syracuseu.bsky.social in collaboration with Ale Mongera at @ucl-cdb.bsky.social show that in the avian presomitic mesoderm, Contact Inhibition of Locomotion has a tissue-wide effect, making tissue act like a fluid under tension.
🎄 Final VGZT seminar before Christmas! 🎄
We’re excited to welcome keynote speaker Olivier Pourquié ✨
“Recapitulating human somitogenesis in vitro”
🗓️ Thursday, December 18th
⏰ 9:30 PST / 12:30 EST / 17:30 UTC / 17:30 GMT / 18:30 CET
📢 New extended abstract submission deadline: 6 January 2026! Outstanding speaker list, plus many slots for short talks by students, postdocs, and junior PIs. Join us in March in Barcelona! events.ibecbarcelona.eu/embl-ibec-co...
15.12.2025 10:14 — 👍 9 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0
Image of cell junction puncta from https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10.1091/mbc.E23-03-0077
To build the body plan of an animal, cells must adhere to one another via cell-cell junctions. We now know these assemble as punctate protein complexes containing thousands of proteins, but how this occurs remains mysterious. 1/n 🧪
www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
The brand new website of the Bischoff lab
... together with my SciArt Gallery :)
So excited to share this as a new junior PI:
My brand-new lab website! 🎉🪰🌀
www.bischofflab.com
Please pass it on to young, motivated researchers looking for PhD positions 😊
And for the #FluorescenceFriday community: don’t miss the SciArt Gallery!
#CellBio #DevBio #PhDjob #PhDposition #Science
Cells can sense the geometry of their environment, from tiny subcellular features to whole-tissue patterns. How can we engineer environments to systematically probe these responses?
🧵 I'm @lhinderling.bsky.social from @olivierpertz.bsky.social lab, let’s do a short tour on microfabrication!
Super cool new work from my @hugheslabpenn.bsky.social colleagues on rhythmic nephron-forming signals in the developing kidney!
13.12.2025 03:55 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
For more on how branching creates rhythmic local mechanical stresses, check out @lsprahl.bsky.social's paper here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
*New preprint alert* uncovering a mechanical pacemaker that synchronizes nephron formation with branching of the kidney's epithelial tubule tree. Read below to learn about this twisty journey lead by Sam Grindel and Sachin Davis in the lab. [Movie by Nils Lindstrom]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
This movie shows lysosomes (orange) and keratin (gray) in a cultured cell over 10 minutes.
12.12.2025 06:20 — 👍 268 🔁 42 💬 11 📌 3
Very excited to see our paper, led by @amilangscience.bsky.social, out today in @pnas.org!
This one was a true adventure, filled with surprises at every turn.
“Erythroid precursors regulate local oxygen tension and repair outcomes in the bone marrow niche.”
www.pnas.org/eprint/NJ8XC...
