Sanjay Narayanaswamy

Congrats to Nadja and the @tessmarraiblelabs.bsky.social. Check out their cool new work (featuring a small sketch I made)!

Freshly out at @natcomms.nature.com ! Our @univie.ac.at @awi.de @viennabiocenter.bsky.social @ercgrantees.bsky.social research into neurogenic plasticity of adult worm brains, and similarities in stem cells supporting growth of camera-type eyes. www.nature.com/articles/s41... [1/7]

This is so cool :)

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)

🚨 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!

See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...

Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Just came back from a great meeting in Tutzing on the biology of basal Metazoa. Excellent talks, fantastic posters and very kind and vital community. Thanks also to our keynote speaker, Cassandra Extavour. She was the highlight of the meeting. Thanks everyone for contributing.

We are excited to announce the first Western VGZT of Season 7! 🎉

🗓️ Thursday, October 2nd
⏰ 9:30 PDT / 12:30 EDT / 16:30 UTC / 17:30 BST / 18:30 CET

Our speakers:

👉 Antonia Weberling (@a-weberling.bsky.social)

👉 Sanjay Narayanaswamy (@sanjay-n.bsky.social)

Happy to be presenting our story on Nematostella self-organization :) tune in if you like to hear what organizes the organizer in cnidarian gastruloids!

www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Thanks Grisha! :)

Phenotype rescue upon Zic4 and Gata3 double knockdown. (A,B) Maximum projection confocal images of oral (A) and aboral (B) ends of animals after GFP RNAi (control), Zic4 or Gata3 RNAi, and Zic4+Gata3 RNAi. DNA in cyan, peroxidase activity in magenta and Nematocilin in orange. Panels on the right show magnifications of boxed areas on the left. Scale bars: 100μm. Note the ectopic peroxidase staining in tentacle tips upon Zic4 RNAi, and ectopic Nematocilin staining adjacent to the foot upon Gata3 RNAi, as well as rescue of both phenotypes in the double knockdown. (C) Percentage of animals with ectopic peroxidase staining in tentacles upon Zic4 KD and double KD. (D) Percentage of animals with ectopic Nematocilin staining adjacent to the foot in Gata3 KD and double KD. For examples of strong and partial phenotypes refer to Fig. S6. Data in G and H shown for n animals pooled from at least two independent replicates. ***P<0.001 (Fisher's exact test). (E,F) Schematic of proposed model for controlling the choice between basal disk and battery cell fate in Hydra. At the oral pole, Wnt signaling (black dot) activates Zic4 (orange) expression and thus basal disk identity. Without it, Gata3 dominates at the opposite end, leading to basal disk fate establishment (E). Experimentally depleting one of the factors results in ectopic cell fate acquisition at the opposite body end (F).

Hydra body axis balance: a fight between two transcription factors

This Research Highlight showcases the work from Jaroslav Ferenc, Marylène Bonvin, Panagiotis Papasaikas, Jacqueline Ferralli, Clara Nuninger and Charisios D. Tsiairis:

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

We knew that cnidarians have stunning regenerative capacities. But the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the self-organization of gastruloids of Nematostella surprised us. A story of cell sorting and Notch signaling. Please check out the work of Sanjay's PhD work: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🚨 Happy to share my PhD work! We set out to find what organizes the organizer in Nematostella gastruloids. While we knew Wnt1/3+ cells confer axial polarity, we identify the role of Notch signaling as partner in crime in polarising these organizers. How does it do it? www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Finally, the excellent postdoc work of Emmanuel Haillot is out, where he dissected the integration of Wnt, MAPK and Notch signaling in defining mesoderm and endoderm identities in the diploblast Nematostella. Strikingly similar to sea urchins. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great opportunity! The Uni Vienna has launched a call (APART) for 4-funding for outstanding postdocs from a US institution. The host lab has to nominate by 1 August a candidate for further selection. Anyone interested in our work please contact me by email with CV/motivation letter. Hurry up!

Congrats Leo! Exciting times ahead :)

Nematostella butt valve!

In which we discuss the homologies between amphibian and mammalian organizers from the perspective of #gastruloids with special relevance to recently described A and C gastruloids as containing Spemann/Mangold and Trunk/Tail organizers www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We review self-organisation of organizers through the lens of Cnidarians (primarily Hydra and Nematostella) and propose an integrative Mechanochemical view for the same.

Happy to be part of the 100 year Mangold-Spemann special edition @cellsdev.bsky.social @ulrichtechnau.bsky.social

About 100 years the Mangold-Spemann organizer was published and this has been one of the most fruitful and inspiring concepts in Developmental Biology. But how can organizers self-organize? In this review we summarize the knowledge how cnidarians do that: doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

Here our model of how LME animal migration ends. I am happy to see this work out! As for cell migration in vivo, the path of this journey hasn’t always been straightforward. It is the closing of a chapter, and I look forward to what the future will bring.

Happy to have presented our evolving story at #DevStem2025. Exciting stuff on the way :)

Kick-off of the late afternoon session at the #DevStem2025 meeting. Sanjay Narayanaswamy @sanjay-n.bsky.social from @ulrichtechnau.bsky.social lab discusses germ layer biology in #Nematostella, exploring a powerful gastruloid system. For a primer on gastruloids, see doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

We’re looking for PhD students to join the lab! 🧫🧑‍🔬
Curious about how metabolic processes shape patterning and morphogenesis? Enthusiastic about stem cell models for human development? - Then apply through the VBC PhD program! training.vbc.ac.at/phd-program/

‼️Deadline: April 15‼️

Unexpected role of β-catenin signaling in germ layer specification

In this 'Show and tell' post, @genikhovich.bsky.social and @tclebedeva.bsky.social tell us about their video of a GFP-β-catenin knock-in Nematostella embryo from their latest paper:
🎥 thenode.biologists.com/unexpected-r...

Beautiful!

Arguably the most significant step forward in discovery dissemination.

Fast & Fair peer review A new initiative offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days of submission Biology Open

We are excited to be launching the next phase of our Fast & Fair peer review initiative: offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days. #fastandfairpeerreview
Read the Editorial by EiC Daniel Gorelick @danielgorelick.bsky.social at: bit.ly/4kYD1mL

Epithelial polarization by the planar cell polarity complex is exclusively non–cell autonomous For cells to polarize collectively along a tissue plane, asymmetrically localized planar cell polarity (PCP) complexes must form intercellular contacts between neighboring cells. Yet, it is unknown wh...

How many cells do you need to establish PCP? The magic number is 3! Beautiful work by Lena Basta in Danelle Devenport's lab. Happy to have contributed. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...