Santos lab

Development builds... But it also breaks!

Planarians split to reproduce. Hydra tears open a mouth. Embryos fracture to make cavities.

Failure? No. Fracture is essential to development.

Our new review on fracture physics and its uses in development:

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

We wrote a protocol article detailing induction of dormancy in stem cells, embryos, and blastoids. We hope that it is useful to the community. As usual fun to work with @nicolasrivron.bsky.social, Heidar and Dhanur.

Wow. Gorgeous

Gorgeous ❤️

Wow. Beautiful

In remembrance of Peer Bork  | EMBL EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.

This is such hard news to process. Such an amazing scientist and inspiration for so many of us.
www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

Many congratulations!!

Modelling co-development between the somites and neural tube in human trunk-like structures - Nature Cell Biology Makwana, Tilley et al. generate human stem cell-based trunk-like structures approximating Carnegie stage 13–14 of development. They use them to model and study the development of the thoracic and lumbar trunk.

Lovely little pre-Christmas present to see this out @natcellbio.nature.com! Some 🔥 new results in here since the biorvix incl (1) a new RARE-GFP reporter ✳️🙌, (2) additional NMP quantification 🔢, (3) no neural tube patterning on RA inhibition 🙅 etc. Enjoy! 😍 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Investigating morphogen and patterning dynamics with optogenetic control of morphogen production Benzinger et al. develop a chemo-optogenetic system for precise spatiotemporal control of morphogen production in vitro. Using light-controlled Sonic hedgehog expression, they recapitulate neural tube...

Good to see the peer reviewed version of this published

A chemo-optogenetic system for spatiotemporal control of gene expression

We use it to:

- Reconstruct SHH mediated neural tube patterning in vitro

- Measure extracellular half-life of Shh

www.cell.com/developmenta...

YouTube video by The Francis Crick Institute A Crash Course in Psychosis – with Katharina Schmack

What is psychosis and how can we treat it?

Crick group leader @kathaschmack.bsky.social explains how her lab is working to uncover new ways to treat psychosis by finding its biological roots.

youtu.be/EUb3_5ecatU

Wonderful news! Many congratulations

Full Stack Web Developer for Life Science Research

We are hiring for a web developer position, ideally with some experience in bioinformatics. This position is aimed at helping us turn our research in human genetics into useful tools. A background in either bioinformatics or web development is required.

jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...

Reconstructing Waddington’s landscape from data | PNAS The development of a zygote into a functional organism requires that this single progenitor cell gives rise to numerous distinct cell types. Attemp...

Great to see this published: Fitting dynamical landscape models to single-cell data, creating interpretable maps of cell decision making & developmental logic

Applied to neural tube patterning, we show how morphogen signals reshape landscapes and drive fate decisions

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

📣 We are moving to Barcelona to join the amazing @crg.eu and explore how centrosomes & cilia work, evolve & respond to the environment. We are looking for
PhD students www.crg.eu/en/content/t...
Postdocs gimm.pt/jobs/postdoc...
Other calls to open, also for an experienced lab manager.
Get in touch!

Development's Pathway to Independence Programme Our grants support and encourage the sharing of knowledge throughout the community by facilitating international collaboration, event attendance and the organisation of scientific meetings, conference...

Applications are open for @dev-journal.bsky.social 2026 Pathway to Independence (PI) programme, supporting postdocs applying for group leader positions:

Mentoring
Profile raising
Leadership training
Network building

Spread the word...

www.biologists.com/grants/devel...

Many congratulations 🙌 , Berta!

Many congratulations Jesse! Thrilled for you!

Combinatorial BMP4 and activin direct the choice between alternate routes to endoderm in a stem cell model of human gastrulation Inge et al. show that human endoderm originates from two converging developmental routes with distinct dynamics and efficiencies yet similar developmental potential. Combinatorial activin and BMP4 sig...

So exciting to see this in print! Ever wondered how embryonic cells know what (fate) to become during early development? In particular when they might see different signaling cues? We investigated this!

And a lovely cover from Zoe Ruiz and @oliveringe.bsky.social!

www.cell.com/developmenta...

Congratulations Sergio!

The new issue @cp-devcell.bsky.social brings the final form of our opossum heterochrony work www.cell.com/developmenta... And it also brings two great papers from @oliveringe.bsky.social @santoslab.bsky.social and @tobyandrews.bsky.social @rashmi-priya.bsky.social 🙌 great #DevBio from @crick.ac.uk

Emergence and Self-organisation across biological scales! I hope you are ready for next year conference! It will be an incredible event April 20-22 2026. The first of many #LakeConference organised by
@ehannezo.bsky.social @alleninstitute.org and James Sharpe @embl.org

Check out that spindle 🤩🔥

At 63C, most eukaryotic cells would be busy exploding noisily, forget even trying to divide.

The microbial universe never ceases to astound 😍

Thanks for letting us be a tiny part of this! #ExpandThemAll

Ten days left to apply to be a @crick.ac.uk Early Career Group Leader

Closing date 27th November

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Crosstalk between tissue mechanics and BMP4 signaling regulates symmetry breaking in human gastrula models Brivanlou and colleagues used optogenetics to spatially control BMP4 expression in human stem cell models across different mechanical regimes. By combining these experiments with mathematical modeling, they dissected how biochemical signals and mechanical forces integrate to initiate symmetry breaking at the onset of gastrulation.

Crosstalk between tissue mechanics and BMP4 signaling regulates symmetry breaking in human gastrula models

We have an exciting PhD position in our lab to explore phototropin receptor diversity in Begonia. If you’re interested in plant photobiology and receptor signalling, we’d love to hear from you! Deadline for expressions of interest: 20 December 2025.

We had a blast tonight at the ‘Curious about the Crick’ event showcasing the science in our lab. Lots of enthusiasm and so many interesting questions. Was awesome to share this with my wonderful lab from brainstorming to communicating the science we love. Thank you to @crick.ac.uk for having us

The Crick PhD program is open and there are amazing projects including our lab's. I couldn't recommend enough joining the program: brilliant community and excellent training and mentorship.
Specific project with us will be decided based on your interests.

Apply here www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Many congratulations! Beautiful work!

The functional landscape of the human ubiquitinome Protein ubiquitination regulates cell biology through diverse avenues, from quality control-linked protein degradation to signaling functions such as modulating protein-protein interactions and enzyme...

new preprint: Ubiquitin is a protein modification linked with degradation but known to regulate other functions. Over 100k ubiquitination sites have been discovered and here we (@julianvangerwen.bsky.social + others) try to prioritize those most critical to the cell www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...