Jeff Rasmussen

Dendritic atoh1a+ cells serve as Merkel cell precursors during skin development and regeneration

Read this #LifelongDevSI #OA Research Article by Evan Craig, Jeremy Rasmussen @jraslab.bsky.social and colleagues at @uwbiology.bsky.social:

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

🔎 New from the @jraslab.bsky.social at UW!

They used #Langerhans cells within the adult #zebrafish epidermis as a model to investigate roles of microtubules in immune cell tissue surveillance, phagocytosis, and directed migration.

🦓🐟 See it in @jcellsci.bsky.social : https://bit.ly/49fmQhf

Congratulations to @errricpeterman.bsky.social for the second-ever journal cover from the lab!

A small primer on the #NobelPrize awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi today. This prize was for combining two separate fields of immunology research - genetic research on IPEX and immunology research of regulatory T cells (#Tregs), with enormous impact on biology/medicine

Cover: Skin-resident macrophages (white) migrate towards a scratch wound (centre) in a zebrafish skin explant. To reach the wound margin, migrating macrophages must navigate through a dense network of epithelial cells, which are visualised using a reporter for epithelial junctions (α-catenin-Citrine, magenta). Live-cell imaging and chemical perturbations demonstrate that skin macrophages require microtubules to efficiently respond to tissue damage and navigate epithelial obstacles. See article by E. Peterman et al. (jcs264101).

cover image yeeeeeeeeehawwwww #flourescentfriday
check out our work in the most recent issue of @jcellsci.bsky.social !

Latest paper from the lab!
👀 Check out this macrophage (labeled with a microtubule reporter in blue) avoid an epithelial obstacle (labeled with a nuclear reporter in pink) as it migrates to a wound (off screen to the left) ⬅️
Video credit: @errricpeterman.bsky.social

Microtubules help macrophages navigate the epidermal maze Specialised macrophages called Langerhans cells respond rapidly to skin damage, migrating to wounds to promote tissue repair. Due to their fast migration and presence in a superficial tissue, these ce...

Thank you @jcellsci.bsky.social for this research highlight "Microtubules help macrophages navigate the epidermal maze" as a companion to our manuscript from @errricpeterman.bsky.social !
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Congrats to @errricpeterman.bsky.social on leading our latest paper now published in @jcellsci.bsky.social ! Eric found multiple roles for microtubules in tissue-resident macrophage homeostasis and function -- including in helping macrophages navigate around epithelial obstacles during wound repair👇

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Fred Hutch is dedicated to the elimination of cancer and related diseases as causes of human suffering and death.

My awesome Drosophila colleague Akhila Rajan at Fred Hutch (Seattle) is recruiting both a staff scientist and a postdoc to study fat–brain communication, innate immunity, mitochondrial signaling, and brain senescence. Great team, great environment. Apply here: careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/30062/j...

Our postdoc ad is up on the SDB website! Come to Portland and study regenerative neurogenesis in planarians and zebrafish:
www.sdbonline.org/resource?Res...

In a new @uwbiology.bsky.social publication, the @jraslab.bsky.social describes the discovery of a transitional cell type, dendritic #MerkelCells, that connects keratinocyte progenitors to mature touch-sensitive Merkel cells.

📰Press release: https://bit.ly/4mj1xPE
🥼Abstract: https://bit.ly/43Zd3cn

🗞️ Fresh off the press! #MC3Memos newsletter vol 2 is here—packed w/ stories, latest advancements, & opportunities within the Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MC3) Institute.

📰 mc3institute.uw.edu/news/mc3-memos-vol-2

@fredhutch.bsky.social @uwmedicine.bsky.social
#merkelcellcarcinoma #cancerresearch

Way to represent @uwbiology.bsky.social !

SDB logo, Science Communication Internship, Apply Now SDB trainees (graduate students and postdocs) gain practical writing skills, mentoring, and the opportunity to work with the SDB community. Engage, Build Relationships, Create Content Program Features 1-on-1 with writing faculty mentors Monthly virtual team meetings 3 writing projects per year Receive credit through bylines 1 year program, renewable $500 support to attend SDB meeting Application Deadline: August 15

Applications are now open for the 2026 SDB Science Communication Internship. Graduate student and postdoc members of the Society for Developmental Biology are eligible to apply. Deadline: August 15. Learn more: www.sdbonline.org/science_comm...

👀 Latest paper from the lab now published @dev-journal.bsky.social

🎉 Our study identifying the direct precursors of Merkel cells is now published in @dev-journal.bsky.social Thank you to our reviewers @reviewcommons.org and collaborators for helping us improve the manuscript. Check out these cell behaviors we visualized in #zebrafish skin. doi.org/10.1242/dev....

My latest article is up on Developmental Biology~
Learn about data that waited 15 years to be published! 👀
www.sciencedirect.com/journal/deve...

In 1975 "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Space Oddity" were on the UK top 100, and Ward, Thomson, White, and Brenner published the first reconstruction of the C. elegans sensory anatomy.

A short 50 years later, we reconstructed the same neurons and glia in the embryo:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

The U.S. Lit a Beacon for Science. Under Trump, Scientists Fear It’s Dimming

Talked to @KateZernike at @nytimes about my journey and the current moment for scientists in the U.S.

“Ardem Patapoutian’s story is not just the American dream, it is the dream of American science.”

Read the article here. No subscription required:

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/u...

Headshot of Emma Rangel-Huerta

Rice Coral (M. capitata) polyps at one month of age labeled with GFP (green). Autofluorescence of their symbiotic algae (magenta). Captured with an epifluorescence microscope. (Credit: Emma Rangel-Huerta)

Check out #SDBSciCommIntern Samantha Fernandes' samfernandes.bsky.social story on 2023 SDB Emerging Research Organisms Grant Recipient Emma Rangel-Huerta & her work establishing rice coral as a #devbio research organism. www.sdbonline.org/resource?Res...

New preprint from the lab, led by grad student Brandon Pratt, on the encoding properties and sensorimotor function of proprioceptive limit detectors (ie, hair plates) in the fly leg.

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

Any research paper reporting results of NIH-funded research, published on/after July 1, 2025, must be immediately free to read on PubMedCentral. No more 12 month embargo grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Microtubule-dependent cell polarity regulates skin-resident macrophage phagocytosis and directed cell migration Immune cells rapidly respond to tissue damage through dynamic properties of the cytoskeleton. How microtubules control immune cell functions during injury responses remains poorly understood. Within s...

monday monday monday! check out our new preprint studying microtubule requirements in skin macrophages. lots of neat zebrafish imaging and tissue damage assays
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

zebrafish skin in white, immune cells in cyan

timeline cleanse, enjoy some zebrafish scales/skin/immune cells and figure 1A of our upcoming preprint #fluorescencefriday

Still time to apply for @uoregon.bsky.social Summer Program for Undergraduate Research — a paid 10-week research opportunity this summer for undergrads in the life sciences.

Details in the flyer below.

Please share.

Congrats to @errricpeterman.bsky.social and Pearl on their study following calcium dynamics in tissue-resident macrophages of the skin!