Antonio Torres-Méndez

Join us *next Monday*!
#CrickXrays25
X-ray #nanoimaging of biological tissues

🇬🇧🌐 @crick.ac.uk & online
tinyurl.com/crickxrays25

Sponsored by @dectris.bsky.social, @webknossos.org and @biologists.bsky.social and backed by @brukercorporation.bsky.social and Histomography

#preprint:

We optimised the preparation of tissues for #X-ray phase contrast imaging.

Drying tissue samples (instead of embedding them) brings more signal in #X-ray phase contrast images.

The process largely preserves #ultrastructure.

@safekhan.bsky.social @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social

Critical point drying of brain tissue for X-ray phase contrast imaging X-ray phase contrast tomography is emerging as a powerful method for imaging large volumes of brain tissue at sub-cellular resolution. However, current sample preparation methods are largely inherited...

Our pre-print is out!
Critical point drying of brain tissue for x-ray phase contrast imaging.
@apeart.bsky.social @yuxinzhang.bsky.social @jkbrmn.bsky.social @apacureanu.bsky.social @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social
@carlesbosch.bsky.social
@esrf.fr
@crick.ac.uk
bioarXiv: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

🚨 🐜 is there a Bluesky starter pack for researchers who don’t study ants but who get lightheaded every time there’s an awesome ant paper? CC @mariusw.bsky.social @jrichardalbert.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Results so stunningly clear they inspired this classic xkcd (xkcd.com/2400/):

Super excited that our latest work is out!

We use optogenetics to dynamically control and study the formation of morphogen gradients.

If you are interested in optogenetic tools and/or how cells shape and process extracellular signals, check out @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social's thread and the paper.

Had time to finish another Aliens dive’s memory card from May 6&8, 2024.
1) #Phronima with behbehies in a fantastically-colored salp
2/3) #Siphonophore (don’t lick)
4) #Ctenophore
5) #Swordfish
6) #Polychaete worm
7) #Scaleworm
8) Ctenophore
9) #MantisShrimp

1. The philosophy of science sometimes gets an unearned reputation as a purely academic exercise that offers little by way of concrete tools for advancing research.

This is wrong.

And today, as we grapple with how AI is changing the nature of scientific activity, it's desperately wrong.

Thanks to all co-authors and to everyone who supported this work - check it out!

To promote the collection, I’ve launched a designer clothing line where synthetic biology meets aesthetics.

I will give out 100 free limited edition shirts to the first who retweet and order with their handle in the name! Available here → nickdesnoyer.com 🧵(6/7)

A wasteland of rubble, dust and graves: how Gaza looks from the sky The Guardian joins a Jordanian military airdrop for a rare chance to observe a landscape devastated by Israel’s offensive

Your taxpayer money at work…

A wasteland of rubble, dust and graves 🇵🇸 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

1/N What are the organizational principles underlying crossmodal cortical connections?
We address this in this new preprint, led by @alexegeaweiss.bsky.social & ‪@bturner-bridger.bsky.social‬ in collab w/ ‪@petrznam.bsky.social‬ @crick.ac.uk
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Marsupial single-cell transcriptomics identifies temporal diversity in mammalian developmental programs Menchero et al. generate a single-cell transcriptomic atlas in the opossum and show rapid progression of transcriptional programs in specific tissues relative to morphological landmarks. This shift in...

Thrilled to share that our latest work on marsupial heterochrony is now online at @cp-devcell.bsky.social @cellpress.bsky.social @lab-turner.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk We used scRNAseq to understand the asynchronous progression of developmental programmes in marsupials www.cell.com/developmenta...

There are 5 key drivers of biodiversity loss

Climate change; Land/Sea use change; Invasives; Over-exploitation; Pollution

Importantly, they interact synergistically to exacerbate nature degradation

So don’t dismiss any individual driver as being of lesser importance
doi.org/10.1002/fee....

We developed a compact and open-source, low-cost photodetector system for neuroscience experiments doi.org/10.1016/j.oh... @flor-iacaruso.bsky.social

Stop displaying journal names on your slides A mentoring event at a scientific Congress called for better support of early-career scientists — but what followed sent mixed signals…

I just published: Stop displaying journal names on your slides

A mentoring event at a Congress called for better support of early-career scientists - but what followed sent mixed signals. This blog reflects on those moments and ends with a pledge.

medium.com/p/stop-displ...

Quantification of transcript isoforms at the single-cell level using SCALPEL - Nature Communications Single-cell RNA-seq facilitates the study of transcriptome diversity in individual cells. Here, authors introduce a tool for isoform quantification at the single-cell level using 3’ scRNA-seq data, co...

I’m really happy to present #SCALPEL, a new #Nextflow tool to quantify transcript isoforms at the single-cell level using conventional 3’ scRNA-seq data #scRNA-seq #single-cell #tools #isoforms
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper:
More than 2700 human 3′UTRs are highly conserved. These 3′UTRs are essential components in mRNA templates, as their deletion decreases protein activity without changing protein abundance. Highly conserved 3′UTRs help the folding of proteins with long IDRs.

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

RNA codon expansion via programmable pseudouridine editing and decoding - Nature An RNA codon-expansion strategy enables incorporation of non-canonical amino acids into proteins of interest orthogonally to existing methods by inserting pseudouridine codons into specific mRNA transcripts and using an engineered decoder tRNA.

Nature research paper: RNA codon expansion via programmable pseudouridine editing and decoding

https://go.nature.com/3G8f3G4

Bogong moths use a stellar compass for long-distance navigation at night - Nature Every spring, Bogong moths use the starry night sky as a compass to navigate up to 1,000 km towards their alpine migratory goal.

cool new paper in @nature.com about moth migration, showing they use the stars to navigate up to the mountains in the summer 🧪🌍🐙

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

Systematic identification and characterization of eukaryotic and viral 2A peptide-bond-skipping sequences Rao et al. identified thousands of previously unknown 2A peptides across both viruses and eukaryotes using an HMMER analysis. The authors further identified a unique class of 2A peptides, class B, who...

Excited to see this collaborative work with Olivia Rissland's lab finally out. We found lots of 2A peptides and an entirely new 2A class.

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Just dropped a new preprint! 🧠✨ We did some exciting comparative connectomics and uncovered new insights into how neural circuits evolve. Check it out 👇 #neuroscience #connectomics #preprint #evolution

How do brain circuits evolve? We started looking for some answers by using synapse-resolution cross-species comparative connectomics on an entire olfactory circuit 👇

bit.ly/44aVm9E

WASP OR MOTH!? 🐝🤯

One of the most incredible mimics in the world, this Tiger Moth (Orcynia calcarata) looks so much like a wasp I was almost nervous holding it! 😳

There are so many tiger moths mimicking wasps in the Amazon it’s crazy! 😯🌳
How amazing is nature! 💛🖤

🥼 Hundreds of Janelia scientists worked for more than a decade to create tools to study the fly brain, releasing a “greatest hits” collection in 2024. hhmi.news/41EXaGU

⏩ A new peer reviewed #preprint outlines this #OpenScience resource, made possible by our FlyLight Project Team hhmi.news/3QJYuls

Neural activity in the brain when a #zebrafish recognizes food (paramecium). Credit to Dr. Akira Muto. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

How do horses meet exceedingly high bioenergetic demands & mitigate oxidative damage?☺️👇

KEAP1 mutation (R15➡️X15) & Opal stop codon (UGA) recoding (X15➡️C15) in Equus🐎 confer hyperactive NRF2, ⏫OXPHOS AND ⏬ROS

Can we edit KEAP1 R15C to make Superman?🥸

#Science 2025
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Spain at 82.84%

Spaniards, you are so close ! 82.84 % !
Sign the European citizens' initiative against conversion practice and tell a friend about it !

eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#...

My PhD project is out as a preprint!
We combined 2P and synchrotron X-ray to understand mouse olfactory bulb circuits, linking physiology to structure in 3 animals!
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
🙌 @carlesbosch.bsky.social, @apacureanu.bsky.social, @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social, @esrf.fr, @crick.ac.uk

Our new paper is out. We point out that large brained (and often smart) mammals and birds have evolved very different distribution of neurons numbers in the brain.
This means that similar cognitive abilities have evolved in very different brains.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...