Mo Ebrahimkhani

🤩 Very excited to share our new work! We have derived euploid and aneuploid trophoblast organoids and extra-embryonic mesoderm cell lines from early human embryos. In doing so, we have characterised the tissue requirements for their specification. If you want to know more, continue reading….

A big thanks to all authors, especially Professor Naihe Jing and Penglei Shen for guiding our embryo model into organogenesis, and to our PhD students Jiahui Huang and Wei Guan for their efforts. And of course, to Huanhuan Li, the driving force behind this work.( 3/3)

Starting from PSCs, a brief reprogramming step gives rise to “embryo founder-like cells” (EFCs). EFCs segregate embryonic and extraembryonic lineages and self-organize to closely mirror natural embryo development, both morphologically and at the molecular level.
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Very happy to share the work of Huanhuan Li et al. While not a natural embryo, you might not have known that if I hadn’t told you. (1/3)

Parasympathetic neurons derived from human pluripotent stem cells model human diseases and development Wu et al. differentiate hPSC-derived Schwann cell precursors into functional parasympathetic neurons. These parasympathetic neurons are employed to study specific defects in the genetic autonomic diso...

Research highlight from Cell Stem Cell: Parasympathetic neurons derived from human pluripotent stem cells model human diseases and development
www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce...

Comprehensive human proteome profiles across a 50-year lifespan reveal aging trajectories and signatures A 50-year multi-tissue proteomic atlas reveals transcriptome-proteome decoupling, proteostasis decline with amyloid accumulation, and asynchronous aging clocks, identifying circulating senoproteins co...

www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Cell cycle duration determines oncogenic transformation capacity Danian Chen, Suying Lu, Katherine Huang, Joel D. Pearson, Marek Pacal, Phillipos Peidis, Sean McCurdy, Tao Yu, Monika Sangwan, Angela Nguyen, Philippe P. Monnier, Daniel Schramek, Liang Zhu, David Santamaria, Mariano Barbacid, Nagako Akeno, Kathryn A. Wikenheiser-Brokamp & Rod Bremner https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08935-x

A recent paper reveals a surprising insight. The length of the cell cycle in a particular tissue determines the oncogenic transformation capacity of particular oncogenes, with tissues with shorter cell cycles most susceptible 3/n

Neuron programming! Pro-neural TFs + 480 morphogen conditions + scRNA-seq --> Diverse iN subtypes of forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, spinal cord, and PNS. @hsiuchuanlin.bsky.social‬ @jasperjanssens.bsky.social‬ and Treutlein Lab! @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #NGN2 #ASCL1

Metabolic adaptations direct cell fate during tissue regeneration - Nature Metabolic enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, such as 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase, are differentially expressed in absorptive and secretory lineages, guiding cell fate establishment and offering...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A transcriptional clock of the human pluripotency transition Developmental timing differs strikingly between mammals. All embryonic and some placental lineages emerge from the pluripotent epiblast in a temporally defined sequence, lasting about two weeks in the...

New preprint: How do cells measure time? In human development, pluripotent epiblast cells pause for about two weeks before differentiating into more specialised cell types. We show that this timing is controlled by a transcriptional clock that works like an hourglass. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

LoxCode in vivo barcoding reveals epiblast clonal fate bias to fetal organs Much remains to be learned about the clonal fate of mammalian epiblast cells. Here, we develop high-diversity Cre recombinase-driven LoxCode barcoding…

A triumph of perseverance from twitterless Tom Weber, Christine Biben and the team, our in vivo barcoding "LoxCode mouse" used to resolve epiblast fate to fetal organs is finally published in @cellpress.bsky.social and available through @jacksonlab.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Embryonic CX3CR1+ cells constitute a multipotent epiblast-derived progenitor population that contributes not only to the formation of tissue-resident macrophages, but also of cardiomyocytes and heart endothelial cells
Young-sup Yoon and coworkers
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

The Company of Biologists 100 logo to the left and QR code to the right. Portrait of Helen Zenner to the left, text to the right 100 extraordinary biologists Helen Zenner Helen Zenner, Community Manager of FocalPlane and JCS Online Editor, combines her passion for microscopy, cell biology and science communication with her background in working in interdisciplinary research teams to support and connect the microscopy community. #100biologists #biologists100

This week, we are highlighting Helen Zenner, Community Manager of @focalplane.bsky.social and @jcellsci.bsky.social Online Editor, as an extraordinary biologist. #100biologists
@helenzsci.bsky.social

Sometimes authors summarize their responses to 3-6 major points raised by the reviewers in their resub cover letters or at the top of their rebuttal letters. This is so super helpful to editors, because it brings us right up to speed after not having read the paper/reviews for months. THANKS!!

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

Boundary-guided cell alignment drives mouse epiblast maturation

Defining and benchmarking open problems in single-cell analysis - Nature Biotechnology Nature Biotechnology - Defining and benchmarking open problems in single-cell analysis

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

3D reconstruction of a human Carnegie stage 9 embryo provides a snapshot of early body plan formation The Carnegie stage 9 (CS9) embryo is a pivotal phase signifying the conclusion of gastrulation and the onset of early organogenesis, crucial for initi…

3D reconstruction of a human Carnegie stage 9 embryo provides a snapshot of early body plan formation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Have you ever thought about inflating tissues?
Or maybe quickly deflating those inflated tissues?

New #EpithelialMechanics pre-print: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
🧵 with pressure control, multiscale buckling, controlled wrinkling

Multiomic profiling reveals that prostaglandin E2 reverses aged muscle stem cell dysfunction, leading to increased regeneration and strength Wang et al. uncover that aged muscle stem cells have blunted PGE2-EP4 signaling that is critical for their regenerative function. Treatment with exogenous PGE2 reverses age-related defects in muscle stem cells and imparts an epigenetic response that enhances their capacity for repair after injury and transplantation.

Multiomic profiling reveals that prostaglandin E2 reverses aged muscle stem cell dysfunction, leading to increased regeneration and strength

Establishing dorsal-ventral patterning in human neural tube organoids with synthetic organizers Luo et al. developed a method to generate dorsal-ventral (D-V) patterned neural tube organoids (NTOs) from both zebrafish and human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) by engineering opposing BMP and SHH signaling centers. The human NTOs recapitulate the full complement of 13 neural progenitor subtypes arranged along the D-V axis, with transcriptomic profiling revealing high similarity to the human embryonic spinal cord at Carnegie stage 12.

Online Now! Establishing dorsal-ventral patterning in human neural tube organoids with synthetic organizers #stemcells

Online Now! HBO1 functions as an epigenetic barrier to hepatocyte plasticity and reprogramming during liver injury #stemcells

Liver and pancreas in metabolic disease: from pathways to therapies The liver and pancreas arise from a common developmental origin and are controlled by shared gene regulatory programs.These organs are central to two of the most common and devastating metabolic dise…

meetings.embo.org/event/25-liv...

Ectoderm barcoding reveals neural and cochlear compartmentalization Placodes and the neural crest are defining features of vertebrates. In this study, we investigate their lineages in mice using in utero approaches. We demonstrated that nanoinjection at embryonic day ...

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mark your calendars for our western/evening 🌙 session seminar next week!

We’ll have a 🐁 double feature with:

Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social and

Vera Van der Weijden @vvdw.bsky.social

🗓️ Thursday, March 20th at
⏰ 10:30 PDT (!) / 13:30 EDT (!) / 17:30 UTC / 17:30 GMT / 18:30 CET

Figure 1 (B) Top: protocol used for the data shown in C-E. Bottom: confocal maximum projections showing unconstrained and micropatterned (μPatterns) cultures. Notice some variability between colonies, likely due to initial differences in seeding density across the well. The colony shown in C is indicated with a yellow outline. Scale bar: 200 µm.

In vitro modelling of anterior primitive streak patterning with human pluripotent stem cells identifies the path to notochord progenitors

Read this #OpenAccess Research Article by Miguel Robles-Garcia, Guillaume Blin and colleagues @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social:
https://buff.ly/3ZMtzc6

The placenta is unlikely to generate blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). This schematic shows how, in mouse embryos, Hoxa13-Cre lineage tracing labels virtually all endothelial cells within the mouse placenta. However, virtually no HSCs are labeled by Hoxa13-Cre. This suggests that the placenta is unlikely to form HSCs. Rather, these results suggest that HSCs are produced elsewhere in the developing embryo and subsequently migrate to the placenta, which serves as a landing pad for HSCs.

Is the placenta is a source of, or merely a niche for, blood-forming #hematopoietic #StemCells? This Primer explores a @plosbiology.org study showing that the placenta does not directly give rise to hematopoietic stem cells. 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4hl3qZF Primer: plos.io/40R1VeE

Hepatic stellate cells control liver zonation, size and functions via R-spondin 3 Nature - Hepatic stellate cells regulate hepatocyte functions via R-spondin 3.

rdcu.be/ediAk