Caroline Beck

Multiscale Models for Life (MM4L) Centre for Doctoral Training Funded Studentship: How ECM changes shape cellular decision making Embryo, neural crest, developmental biology, cell biology, cell migration, biophysics, mechanobiology, bioengineering.

Fully funded PhD post, UK/Home student, starting 01/06/26. Interested in working at the interface of dev bio, biophysics and cell biology? Great collaboration with Amy Beedle and @leonerossetti.bsky.social Informal enquiries welcome. Deadline 15/03 #neuralcrest

www.kcl.ac.uk/study-legacy...

Neurod2 knockdown in Xenopus laevis tadpole brain retains cells in a proliferating, progenitor-like state doi.org/10.17912/mic... - I invite you to read the Beck lab's first ever micropublication! @zoologyotago.bsky.social and @otagobiochemist.bsky.social 🐸🧪 @micropub7n.bsky.social thank you!

A young southern bell frog in a clear plastic container with his belly facing the camera and eyes facing the photographer

@zoologyotago.bsky.social will have some new captive reared juvenile Southern Bell Frogs on display soon. Today they had a physical, and this one was especially grumpy about it. 🧪🐸

Commensal skin bacteria interact with the innate immune system to promote tail regeneration in Xenopus laevis tadpoles Xenopus laevis tadpoles regenerate their tails following partial amputation, however, for a brief developmental window, some undertake wound healing rather than regeneration. Inspired by links between...

Anyone having issues accessing it is welcome to contact me for a copy, or you can find the author's version on doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Apologies that this is paywalled - this was not our intention as University of Otago has a read and publish agreement with this publisher, however the number of APCs for open access is capped and ran out while we were being processed.

Significantly fewer tadpoles raised in vancomycin were able to regenerate tails. This suggests that gram positives- possibly via peptidoglycan activation of Tlr2 receptors - can tip the balance from wound healing to regeneration.

However, we did find in whole genome shotgun sequence that gram negative taxa were more prevalent on regenerators. To see if this had biological significance, we raised tadpoles in vancomycin, to select against gram positive colonisation.

16sRNA sequencing of 503 tadpole tail tips showed that while sibships share similar microbiomes, random forest modelling showed that there was no strong signature that could predict regeneration. Maternal haplotype, endotoxin load and bacterial load were also not predictive.

We found that genetic knockdown of Toll-like receptor 2 (Tlr2) reduces regeneration, and peptidoglycan (from bacterial cell walls) promotes it. We next looked at tadpoles from 12 sibships, linking regeneration outcome to microbiome.

At a certain stage of tadpole development, the tails of Xenopus reared in antibiotics do not regenerate when cut. We asked how the tadpole's skin microbiome and innate immunity influence this.

Commensal skin bacteria interact with the innate immune system to promote tail regeneration in Xenopus laevis tadpoles Background Tadpoles of the clawed frog Xenopus laevis can regenerate their tails following partial amputation, replacing the missing spinal cord, muscles, and fin. However, for a brief period of dev...

The last chapter of our RSNZ Marsden funded work on the microbiome and regeneration is out in Developmental Dynamics 🧪🐸🦠🧫https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dvdy.70088
@phoebechapman.bsky.social

..such as forelimb aplasia, delayed ossification of the jaw precursor and loss of entire vascular branches on the edited side. Also, paradoxically, occasional mirror image duplication of limbs. Open access in @genetics-gsa.bsky.social G3 journal - please share and enjoy! 🧪🐸

By targeting one of these cells with GFP mRNA and Cas9 loaded with a specific sgRNA, and gene can be edited on just one side of the body. @zoologyotago.bsky.social and @otagobiochemist.bsky.social joined together to use this to show how recQ helicase variants can cause specific growth defects..

This gives you a nice internal control, with one side of the animal wild type and one side edited. We are fortunate to have fate maps for early Xenopus development, and so we know that the first cell division divides the future left from right.

Unilateral loss of recql4 function in Xenopus laevis tadpoles leads to ipsilateral ablation of the forelimb, hypoplastic Meckel's cartilage, and vascular defects Abstract. RECQL4 encodes a RecQ helicase, one of a family of DNA unwinding enzymes with roles in DNA replication, double-strand break repair, and genomic s

If you want to study a genetic disorder of growth, in a non-mammalian model system, Xenopus 🐸 has a unique advantage. As we show with Recql4 in G3 this month, it is possible to knock out a gene with CRISPR on just one side of the animal doi.org/10.1093/g3jo... 🧪

Since the collective noun for frogs is an army, he can also be credited with generating the first clone army. 🐸🧪✊

Sir John is best known for his Nobel prize winning work on somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning).

RIP Professor Sir John Gurdon, who inspired so many of us in Developmental Biology, and of course, “the frog”.

The whole mount ISH images are fantastic.

Single‐cell sequencing reveals potential novel insights into appendage‐patterning and joint‐development in a spider Background Jointed appendages represent one of the key innovations of arthropods, and thus understanding the development and evolution of these structures is important for the understanding of the e...

If for some reason you do not already love arthropod appendages, check this paper!!
Single‐cell sequencing reveals potential novel insights into appendage‐patterning and joint‐development in a spider - Medina‐Jiménez - Developmental Dynamics anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Dr Banerjee nailing it at #IXC25 meeting. Just look at the size of the screen we are presenting on! 🐸🧪🐸🧬

The amazing Matt Guille opens the meeting

Wow, International Xenopus Meeting (IXC25) -- Matt Guille and EXRC opens the meeting with old friends new science @xenbase.bsky.social xenopusresource.org/20th-interna...
#science #devbio #xenopus #frogs

Off to a great start this afternoon with a fabulous plenary from Aaron Zorn.

Hey! Any #xenopus folk at IXC25 in Portsmouth? Use #IXC25 in your posts, and let us know how it’s going!!

Harvard University lays off fly database team The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.

FlyBase, a Drosophila database, will lose a third of its team in early October because the Harvard grant that covered the employees’ salaries was canceled. Scientists warn that losing FlyBase could devastate fly research.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...

Single-cell spatial transcriptomic atlas of the whole mouse brain Han et al. used snRNA-seq and Stereo-seq to generate a detailed mouse brain atlas with over 4 million spatially resolved cells and 29,655 genes. Their findings include region- enriched cell clusters a...

A super cool #single-cell spatial transcriptomic mouse #brain atlas is out! 🐭🧠🔬
Unveiling cell types, #gene expression, & TF dynamics across the whole brain!
Awesome! ✨
#neuroskyence #neuroscience #compneurosky

www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

#neuroskyence #EpilepsyResearchConfrerence

Thrilled to share that our latest work on #DravetSyndrome is now out as a preprint! 🚀
This project, brilliantly led by @clarazourray.bsky.social and co-supervised by Serena Barral, brought together an incredible team.
A huge thanks to everyone involved, exciting science ahead! 👏
shorturl.at/NdC79

Epilepsy Research Institute (@epilepsyinst.bsky.social) Radically advancing epilepsy research.

Excited for day one of the first @ epilepsyinst.bsky.social conference! If you ever wanted to know how tadpoles can help us understand DEE please come and chat at poster 2

Unilateral loss of recql4 function in Xenopus laevis tadpoles leads to ipsilateral ablation of the forelimb, hypoplastic Meckel's cartilage and vascular defects. RECQL4 encodes a RecQ helicase, one of a family of DNA unwinding enzymes with roles in DNA replication, double strand break repair and genomic stability. Pathogenic variants in RECQL4 are clinically a...

Excited to share our new 🧪 preprint! We show how useful #Xenopus tadpoles, which can be CRISPR engineered on one side, can be for understanding rare genetic disorders that affect growth and development. A study of recql4, with Louise Bicknell and Matt Riley-Bell.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...