Antonio Torres-Méndez

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...

Animal senses: The electric attraction of fruit flies Electricity is an omnipresent force in the natural world. A new study shows that the larvae of Drosophila melanogaster respond behaviourally to electric fields and identifies a single pair of neurons ...

I had a lot of fun writing this invited dispatch for @currentbiology.bsky.social about the amazing paper by @julieriedl.bsky.social and many non-bluesky colleagues, describing how Drosophila larvae can detect electric fields:

www.cell.com/current-biol...

📢 Fresh off the press and featuring new exciting experiments! 🧪
We show how glycolytic activity instructs germ layer proportions through regulation of Nodal and Wnt signaling - happy to finally share this 😊
doi.org/10.1016/j.st...

B2B with @jesseveenvliet.bsky.social lab: doi.org/10.1016/j.st... 🤩

Sensation of electric fields in the Drosophila melanogaster larva Tadres et al. show that Drosophila larvae detect electric fields, moving toward the cathode via electrotaxis. Gr66a neurons encode field orientation, revealing a new larval sensory ability and expandi...

Fly larvae keep on surprising us - check out this new paper from the Louis lab: www.cell.com/current-biol...
Sensation of electric fields in the Drosophila melanogaster larva.
Such cool little critters 🪰

Evolution of Wolbachia male-killing mechanism within a host species Male-killing bacterial symbionts, prevalent in arthropods, skew population sex ratios by selectively killing male progeny, profoundly impacting ecolog…

@haraipapilio.bsky.social paper on evolution of Wolbachia MK mechanism through prophage acquisition in molina butterflies - avoiding suppression by the host. Now out! #symbiosky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... With @daisukekageyama.bsky.social @bolinabug.bsky.social and others

Glutamine-glutamate intercellular relay model for brain sparing

Our latest preprint…Adrien Franchet, Yuhong Jin et al @crick.ac.uk show that circulating glutamine drives brain sparing during nutrient restriction. Great collab with labs of Yaël Grosjean and Ian Gilmore.
#metabolism #Drosophila #neuralstemcells

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

🚨Registration for the UK #EvoDevo meeting is open! Join us on July 11th in London to enjoy an exciting day of talks, posters, friends, and superb science!
-Registration (only £5!): shorturl.at/9cQGL
-More info: londonevodevo.ac.uk

The PAN-GO paper is a remarkable milestone. It not only provides the most comprehensive picture of human gene function to date, but also carefully maps this knowledge across the tree of life! Congratulations @marcfeuermann.bsky.social, Pascale Gaudet & collaborators!

www.sib.swiss/news/sib-hel...

Defense Against Dishonest Charts This is a guide to protect ourselves and to preserve what is good about turning data into visual things.

This excellent interactive tutorial on misleading data visualizations explores the idea of a "counter chart" — the graph you draw in response to refute a misleading claims

flowingdata.com/projects/dis...

Exciting news! My PhD work with @flor-iacaruso.bsky.social is now online as a preprint!
We explored how the timing between visual and auditory stimuli shapes multisensory interactions. Check it out!

New position in the lab to work on a very cool project on how viruses hijack behaviour 🐛🦠Please spread! :)

De novo designed proteins neutralize lethal snake venom toxins - Nature Deep learning methods have been used to design proteins that can neutralize the effects of three-finger toxins found in snake venom, which could lead to the development of safer and more accessible an...

EXTREMELY cool and demonstrates clearly the promise of deep learning + bio.

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