Johnny Davila-Sandoval

Check our latest pre-print where I’m a second author. We gathered evidence on the brain and nerve cord being specified autonomously by isolating blastomeres in two different annelid species. Great collaboration with @nicolewebster.bsky.social, @allancarbal.bsky.social and @biyolokum.bsky.social.

Weeeee! I’ve only ever seen one of these once before. This is the larva of an animal from the phylum Phoronida, which are kind of wormy, but feed using a lophophore, like a bryozoan.
#marineplankton 🦑

I am thrilled to share our new open-access paper in Communications Biology!
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Huge congrats to PhD student, June Ordóñez (not on bsky), whose beautiful and meticulous work led this project! 👏🔥
@univie.ac.at@fwf-at.bsky.social @vdsee-univie.bsky.social univie.bsky.social

A detailed comic panel illustrating the life cycle of dicyemid parasites. Top text: "Despite their simple bodies of just a few cells, dicyemids have incredibly complex life cycles." Below that, a long brownish worm labeled "rhombogen" and a short brownish blob labeled "vermiform" are connected by arrows. The arrow leading from the rhombogen to the vermiform is "1. Adults make babies asexually" and the arrow leading from the vermiform to the rhombogen is "2. which grow into more adults." A separate arrow leads from the vermiform to a different brownish worm shape labeled "nematogen" and this arrow is "3. Sometimes they grow into different adults." An arrow from the nematogen to eggs and sperm is "4. which make babies sexually." An arrow leads from the eggs and sperm to the absolute cutest part of the life cycle, a round blob that looks like it has huge headlight eyes, though they are not actually eyes. The blob is labeled "infusoriform." An arrow leading from the infusoriform to an octopus is, "5. These different babies go infect new hosts!" I'M SORRY IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT PARASITE LIFE CYCLES ARE SO STINKING COMPLICATED OKAY

At last, the dicyemid life cycle for #InverteFest! These absolute weirdos infect ONLY cephalopod kidneys; they are worms of discerning taste. 🦑🌊🐙🧪🐡

Tomorrow is VGZT day! 🚀

Don’t miss the great talks from
👉 Allison Kann (@apkann.bsky.social)
👉 Joana da Silva (on X: @joanamsilva14)

Pleased to share our latest paper led by @tomlewin.bsky.social, now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! We present the first chromosome-level genome of a phoronid and show that shared chromosomal fusions unite phoronids and bryozoans as sister groups.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

This resource was vital for my college training as a biologist and I still use it even as an embryologist. So sad to see it end but wishing a smooth transition. I hope we can all see and appreciate the value of taxonomy databases in -truly- understanding natural history.

@neva-meyer.bsky.social on behalf of @johnnyds.bsky.social is talking about the evolutionary and developmental origins of CNS in annelid worms #PASEDB2025 #spiralia #micromere #macromere

Excited to be heading to Woods Hole to start my summer as part of #embryology25 at @mblscience.bsky.social. Also proud to represent for annelids 🪱, my lab, my home country Peru 🇵🇪 and the LGBT+ community 🏳️‍🌈.

We are also raising money to support undergrads at UCSF this summer!

Help me, @neuronush.bsky.social and @quexarce.bsky.social buy ice cream and pizza for our little community of undergraduate researchers!

20% of sales for the rest of the month will go towards our programs!!!

Job Alert! We are recruiting one postdoc to work on spiralian embryos and their crazy polar lobes. More info about this HFSP-funded position on our website baronelab.org: scroll to the end, click on "this could be you"...start your adventure!

I may see a strange worm

Wow

Kyojiro Ikeda @beingkyo.bsky.social @univie.ac.at presenting now at #DevStem2025 @viennabiocenter.bsky.social on first mechanistic & molecular regulators of #bristle biogenesis in the #Platynereis model. Also check Kyojiro's recent @naturecomms.bsky.social publication www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ATTENTION

The Washington Post is collecting data about funding issues. Please consider contributing.

thewashingtonpost.formstack.com/forms/scient...

Society for Developmental Biology logo Society for Developmental Biology 2025 Award Winners Edwin G. Conklin Medal Headshot of Blanche Capel Blanche Capel, Duke University Developmental Biology-Society for Developmental Biology Lifetime Achievement Award Headshot of Billie Swalla Billie Swalla, University of Washington Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize Headshot of Erica Crespi Erica Crespi, Washington State University Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award Headshot of Mubarek Syed Mubarak Syed, The University of New Mexico Society for Developmental Biology Trainee Science Communication Award Headshot of Joaquin Navajas Acedo Joaquin Navajas Acedo, Biozentrum at University of Basel

Congrats to the 2025 SDB Award Winners!
Conklin Medal: Blanche Capel
DB-SDB Lifetime Achievement Award: Billie Swalla
Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize: Erica Crespi
Hay New Investigator Award: Mubarak Syed
SDB Trainee Science Communication Award: Joaquin Navajas Acedo
bit.ly/4bcrFap

YouTube video by Association of American Universities Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs Explainer

Make sure you, your trainees, and anyone else who might listen to you understands what "indirects" actually are, how they are established, and what Universities contribute. H/T @rodallab.bsky.social

Please share widely!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxTD...

Please call your senators and representatives wherever you are located, it doesn't matter what party, and tell them you are against the current administration dismantling the NIH, research and technological advancement, and universities. This is happening right now. We scientists need your help!

The world: 🔥🔥🔥

Me: Do you want to know where this random Hox gene is expressed in annelids?

Not surprised at all, she’s fantastic. Congrats Ranny!!!

an email from the society for integrative and comparative biology that reads "Attn SICB Members: The past few weeks have been a stressful time in our scientific community, and we want to make our position clear: The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology unequivocally condemns recent attacks on scientific integrity, funding for scientific research, and the importance of broadening participation in science."

This is how you do it.

Thank you @sicbjournals.bsky.social

Read their whole email to membership here
mailchi.mp/sicb.org/sic...

Just downloaded all NIH reporter data 1985-2024, you can do it here, might come handy. Took me maybe 5', is 1 GB in size.
reporter.nih.gov/exporter

Here is the 2025 embryo alphabet from alligator to zebrafish. Developmental biology is stunning & leads to important discoveries for human medicine.
@socdevbio.bsky.social

Yellow background. Different CDC websites that have been removed. Some are in black and white. Others are purple or red and green.

✨PLEASE SHARE! CDC GUIDELINE ARCHIVES✨

▶️STI GUIDELINES
buff.ly/4jReLT4
buff.ly/3EmjR9B

▶️Medical Eligibility Criteria (MEC) for Contraceptives buff.ly/3PZzQNf
buff.ly/4aKMEko

▶️VACCINE VIS buff.ly/4jJ1603

▶️Others from @jessicavalenti.bsky.social
LGBTQ CDCGuidelines.com

#medsky #pedsky #IDsky 🛟🧪

UMass has a new webpage to track federal actions as a community resource
www.umass.edu/news/federal...

Scientific research is a driving force behind human progress. It fuels medical breakthroughs, spurs technological innovations and drives economic growth. Federal funding of research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) is absolutely critical for ensuring that the U.S. maintains its global leadership in science and technology. The unprecedented freeze on the review and issuance of federal research grants is already negatively impacting research and could have significant ripple effects. Ongoing studies may lose momentum if grant renewals or supplement requests are delayed, slowing scientific progress on research the NIH has already invested in. Researchers affiliated with the Society for Developmental Biology carry out critical research on birth defects, which kill twice as many children as cancer does. Slowed progress will delay the development of new therapies and diagnostics, and thus have real public health implications. In 2019, the total estimated cost of birth defect–associated hospitalizations was $22.2 billion. Scientific research is also critical to the U.S. economy more broadly. In 2023 alone NIH funded research not only directly supported 412 thousand jobs, but its overall economic impact rippled out to all sectors of the economy driving more than $92.89 billion in economic activity across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It is estimated that every dollar of NIH funding generates $2.46 dollars of economic activity. Finally, federal research funding not only drives impactful research discoveries but also supports the training of the scientists, engineers, and innovators of the future. University laboratories, funded by federal grants, serve as essential training grounds for the next generation of researchers even as they push the boundaries of knowledge. This training prepares young scientists for leadership roles in both academia and industry, helping to ensure that the scientific workforce r…

The Society for Developmental Biology has released a statement on the Unprecedented Disruptions to Biomedical Research in the United States.

Are you affected by the Trump administration’s pause on health communications, science meetings, and reviews? Have you been affected by the Trump administration’s pause on communications, science meetings, and reviews? @statnews would like to hear from you.

Please repost! We’re trying hard to sort out rumors from truth + would like to hear from anyone affected by the new federal orders + NIH pause. Patients, scientists, health equity researchers: please contact us below. We won’t share anything without your permission. www.statnews.com/2025/01/25/t...

Great to ses that study out in MBE. This is the result of an effective collaboration with @stemdevevo.bsky.social. Aurore Vullien (joint PhD student) et al has studied the evolution and role of ROS in metazoan regeneration using #nematostella and #platynereis. Congrats to all. Highlights below.

Very happy to see the work of a great colleague highlighted here! Also more proof that annelids are the way to go to address questions in different fields.

My first time ever looking at them was at Woods Hole, and those tubes are just remarkably beautiful. There’s no way you can miss them in a tray full of annelids.