Louis Prahl

Induction of menstruation in mice reveals the regulation of menstrual shedding During menstruation, an inner layer of the endometrium is selectively shed, while an outer, progenitor-containing layer is preserved to support repeated regeneration. Progress in understanding this co...

I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵

Lab’s 1st preprint!

Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate.

@cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation.

He is on the job market!

Cellular and genetic mechanisms that shape the development and evolution of tail vertebral proportion in mice and jerboas - Nature Communications Vertebra lengths differ from the neck to the tail tip and differ between species, evidenced by extreme differences in mouse and jerboa tails. Here, Weber and colleagues identify cellular mechanisms and candidate genes that shape vertebral proportion.

Here, we use the jerboa and mouse to understand the temporal growth dynamics that establish adult vertebral proportion, the cellular drivers of differential growth, and candidate genetic mechanisms that determine and diversify vertebral proportion.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Vertebral skeletal diversity in mammals is remarkable. How do the differences between vertebral size and shape develop and evolve? See how we tackled this question in our paper published in @natcomms.nature.com today!

🚨 My lab is hiring at all levels!

Interested in animal origins & evolutionary cell biology?

I'm recruiting a postdoc, PhD students & a research assistant to study the molecular evolution of cell adhesion using marine invertebrates + comparative genomics.

🔗: clarkelab.com/join/

Please repost!

"It is going to be disastrous if this continues"

Nobel Prize physics laureate John Clarke says Trump cuts will 'cripple' US scientific research

u.afp.com/SmAy

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...

My entry for today’s #FluorescenceFriday: a pupal #Drosophila testis with muscles expressing
🔵 lifeact &
🔴 RFP-nls

Honored & grateful to receive an honorable mention at @healthcare.nikon.com Nikon Small World 🌍🔬✨

🔗 www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/20...

#NikonSmallWorld #Microscopy #ScienceArt

Pathway to Independence: a forecast for the future of developmental biology ABSTRACT. In 2022, Development launched its Pathway to Independence (PI) programme, aimed at supporting postdocs as they transition to their first independent position. In 2025, we welcome our third c...

It's online! In this series of perspectives @dev-journal.bsky.social, yours truly talks about the exciting open questions and many things to do in the field of dev bio and neuroscience #DevBio🧪 #PIsOfTomorrow journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Are different cell types like oil and water? Over a century ago, researchers found that dissociated sponges and embryonic tissues can self-assemble into functional structures. Join me, @benswedlund.bsky.social to explore the differential adhesion hypothesis & its applications in tissue engineering!

ASM, ASBMB, ASCB & FASEB are deeply disappointed in the Supreme Court ruling allowing cancellation of $800M in NIH grants, threatening labs, jobs, and early-career scientists. Stable funding is vital for U.S. science.

Read more: www.ascb.org/society-news...

Excited to have it online @natcomms.nature.com many many thanks to @lsprahl.bsky.social, Karen Xu, Jason Burdick, Rob Mauck and other talented people involved!

Cool new paper from @azyhuang.bsky.social & @hugheslabpenn.bsky.social! Kidneys can be cultured in 3D hydrogels, which also permits live imaging of branching morphogenesis. Glad to have been a small part of this work, huge congrats to Aria and all the other authors!

Aria Huang's @azyhuang.bsky.social paper is out on beautiful embryonic kidney 3D cultures that branch properly and enable live defect analysis. She also finds intriguing effects of adhesion and stiffness on explant size, shape, and nephron formation - boundary conditions matter!

rdcu.be/eBSUK

Like our sister journals, you can also submit an additional language abstract at @dev-journal.bsky.social and we cater for non-Western characters for author names. Did you know Development also facilitates retrospective author name changes?

Interested in how cells read biological time? Next week I'm talking about my recently published work on how protein expression oscillations are read by cells and their impact on the timing of cell differentiation. Link below to register!

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Joaquín Navajas Acedo.

In this interview, @mads100tist.bsky.social talks about about his research vision, zebrafish and the importance of community:

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

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Chee Kiang (Ethan) Ewe.

In this interview, @ethanewe.bsky.social talks about about what drives and excites him, and what he hopes to achieve in his own lab:

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

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Anzy Miller

Here, @anzymiller.bsky.social talks about about her research interests at the intersection of developmental biology and modelling, as well as her advocacy for inclusivity and sustainability in science.

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

Cells can form patterns within themselves just like embryos do. How? Connie Yan's new preprint shows how the anterior-posterior cytoskeleton pattern in Stentor is dictated by regionalized scaffolding proteins

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

12 examples of how developmental biology research led to fundamental discoveries for biomedical research. There are many more! Download ppt & jpg versions on @socdevbio.bsky.social website. Use & modify as needed. Poster formats are also posted to print & hang in your lab!

Somites are a source of nephron progenitors in zebrafish - Nature Communications This study reveals that cells of the zebrafish kidney can originate from the somites, structures traditionally held as precursors to the skeletal muscle, challenging a century-old paradigm and prompti...

Intermediate mesoderm isn't the sole contributor to nephrons in zebrafish-new manuscript out showing somites are a source of nephron progenitors! Very cool, dogma challenging study led by Alan Davidson's group. Many fun discussions were had-grateful for the inclusion! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Anzy Miller Anzy Miller, former Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow supported by Nancy Papalopulu (The University of Manchester, UK), is interested in the mechanisms involved in the generation of human pancrea...

My interview as part of @dev-journal.bsky.social Development's Pathway to Independence is live! I had a great time chatting to Saanjbati Adhikari - thank you.
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Giulia Paci Giulia Paci is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at University College London, UK, supported by Yanlan Mao and Buzz Baum, who is interested in how developmental progra...

My Pathway to Independence interview is now live on @dev-journal.bsky.social ! I had a great time speaking with @amjeve.bsky.social about my research journey and what's ahead journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Joaquín Navajas Acedo Joaquín Navajas Acedo is a Postdoc in the lab of Dr Alexander Schier in Biozentrum at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He is interested in how the nervous system evolves and develops at the singl...

In case you've ever wondered, I talked with @amjeve.bsky.social about science, myself, and the future of #DevBio as part of the Pathway to Independence Fellowship @biologists.bsky.social 🧪 journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Congrats Kara!

I’m grateful & thrilled to have been selected as a Fellow in the BME UNITE Future Faculty program as I head into my first faculty application cycle. I’ll be giving a virtual presentation about my work and ideas for my future lab at 1pm EST/12pm CST on September 29. More info below ⬇️

Names, photos, and institutions of 2025 BME UNITE Future Faculty Fellows. Text seminar details with link to presentation schedule.

We are excited to announce our 2025 cohort of BME UNITE Future Faculty Fellows! The BME UNITE seminar series is designed to showcase future faculty candidates from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds in BME. Register here: tinyurl.com/bmeunite25

14 Republican senators urge White House to release delayed NIH funds Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) is leading the letter making the ask of OMB director Russ Vought.

Why call? Why sign letters? Why protest? What does it do??

It. Adds. Up. And PRESSURE WORKS!

Keep it up, Dorks!

#StandUpForScience

www.politico.com/news/2025/07... 14 Republican senators urge White House to release delayed NIH funds - POLITICO

🐌💫 Snail embryos never looked so fabulous!
Tubulin (white), phospho-histone H3 (pink), and F-Actin (cyan) light up this early stage like a cytoskeletal disco ball.
Image from Clemens Cabernard & Adam von Barnau Sythoff 🪩🧬 #FluorescenceFriday