Pierfrancesco Pagella

"Jane Goodall showed us what a life in science could look like: rigorous discovery paired with fierce advocacy for what you study. She gave the world six decades of groundbreaking research on chimpanzees and their habitats, then turned that knowledge into a global movement for conservation." (1/2)

SMAD4 induces opposite effects on metastatic growth from pancreatic tumors depending on the organ of residence - Nature Cancer Using mouse pancreatic cancer models, Tsanov et al. show that reactivation of SMAD4 at metastatic sites promotes tumor growth in the lung through RUNX1 but restrains metastatic growth through KLF4 in the liver, influenced by organ-specific epigenetic states.

SMAD4 induces opposite effects on metastatic growth from pancreatic tumors depending on the organ of residence

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Thrilled to share our new paper @cp-cell.bsky.social:
“Microglia–astrocyte crosstalk regulates synapse remodeling via Wnt signaling.”

This work demonstrates the necessity of glia–glia communication and coordination during synapse remodeling.

🔗 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Faust et al., Cell 2025

Open positions in bioengineering Learn more about open scholarship positions in bioengineering at IFM.

We are hiring! 2 years postdoctoral fellowship, to work on the generation of all-human, vascularized and innervated organ-on-chip systems & model infection & inflammation - in Sweden 🇸🇪 @liu.se

Details in the link - please help me spreading the announcement!

liu.se/en/organisat...

Thank you Gustavo!

SOX2 and NR2F1 coordinate the gene expression program of the early postnatal visual thalamus Summary: The transcriptional regulators SOX2 and NR2F1 drive the development of the visual thalamus. Mutations in these genes cause visual impairment in humans.

SOX2 and NR2F1 cooperate
to make #neurons in the #Thalamus
for visual input from the #retina

#DevBio

journals.biologists.com/bio/article/...
‪
@biologyopen.bsky.social

In collab w Sara Mercurio and Silvia Nicolis @btbsunimib.bsky.social

Driven by Linda Serra and @annanordin.bsky.social

Open positions in bioengineering Learn more about open scholarship positions in bioengineering at IFM.

We are hiring! 2 years postdoctoral fellowship, to work on the generation of all-human, vascularized and innervated organ-on-chip systems & model infection & inflammation - in Sweden 🇸🇪 @liu.se

Details in the link - please help me spreading the announcement!

liu.se/en/organisat...

An Innovative “Tooth‐On‐Chip” Microfluidic Device Emulating the Structure and Physiology of the Dental Pulp Tissue This work presents a “tooth-on-chip” device that mimics dental pulp tissue. By co-culturing key cell types, it recreates vascular networks, stem cell niches, the odontoblast/dentine interface, and tr...

Glad to share the latest effort to emulate dental tissues on-chip: an organ-on-chip design including human dental pulp stem cells & HUVECs, odontoblasts, and a dentin powder-containing compartment, all innervated by mouse trigeminal ganglia! 👇🏼

advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Portrait photo of me (Emma R Andersson, Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet), Helge Rask-Andersen (Professor Emeritus at Uppsala University), and Lena Nordlund (journalist, host of Vetenskapspodden, and originally a chemist!)

If we lose our inner ear hair cells, we lose our hearing.. but reptiles can repair their sensory organs 🐊🤩

Tune in to Vetenskapspodden on Swedish radio P1, Sun 07:03, Mon 18:33, or bit.ly/4oCDHzP from Sunday, to hear me & Helge Rask-Andersen discuss crocodiles & regeneration with Lena Nordlund!

Liebenberg syndrome severity arises from variations in Pitx1 locus topology and proportion of ectopically transcribing cells - Nature Communications Here the authors show that reducing enhancer-promoter distance at the Pitx1 locus increases proportion of Pitx1 forelimb expressing cells, worsening skeletal defects in Liebenberg syndrome. They also ...

Our work bridging enhancer-promoter proximity to phenotypic outcomes in vivo is out! Shout out to @olimpiabompadre.bsky.social, to Marie Kmita's lab, and to all the co-authors. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Can using synthetic approaches to build biology help teach us the design principles of how embryos build themselves? 👷‍♀️🔧

If this is a question that interests you, come and share your thoughts at this Royal Society Workshop on Generative Biology

royalsociety.org/science-even...

Always a great pleasure to see high-level work on tooth 🦷& craniofacial development!

Amazed as always by how this field combined top-notch science with unmatched collegiality and collaboration -
Thanks to all participants, organizers, and all who supported this great event - cannot wait for the next edition!
#WNT
@liu.se

This field that spans the frontiers of biochemistry, molecular biology, genomics, developmental biology, cancer biology, regenerative medicine, and bioengineering (always remember: organoids are a child of the Wnt field 😀 ).

Closed up the Wnt Signaling GRS/GRC - honoured for the possibility of serving as co-chair in this amazing event!

Incredibly useful thread! Thank you @juliaeckert.bsky.social !!

What is buckling, and why is it relevant in understanding epithelial morphogenesis? 🧐

I am @onenimesa.bsky.social and I will share some papers to understand this aspect of #EpithelialMechanics

Modular integration of epithelial, microbial, and immune components to study human intestinal biology. Amazing team project with Rubén López-Sandoval, Marius F. Harter, Qianhui Yu, Matthias Lütolf, Mikhail Nikolaev, and Nikolche Gjorevski! biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

They even try to make you feel guilty 😆

Always amazed by the sheer amount of e-mail traffic wasted by hopeless academic spam: this time, "dear Prof. [NAME]", "any contribution", from a "MEGA Journal of Case Reports" - waiting for Giga, Tera, and more!

Cannot thank you enough @neilshubin.bsky.social for such an amazing contribution 🦷!!

Immunofluorescence images of YAP, β-catenin, and DAPI in cell cultures

YAP, a protein known to help #cancer cells survive treatment, behaves very differently in cell culture models depending on how they are grown in the lab, highlighting the importance of mimicking tumour architecture to guide better drug strategies.
buff.ly/KQ9bkLg

Thank you @shuntaroyamada.bsky.social and @unibergen.bsky.social for inviting me to give a talk at such a stimulating event - MRCRM 3rd International Meeting on Regenerative Medicine 2025 in Bergen, Norway!
www.helse-bergen.no/en/arrangeme...
Looking forward to our continued collaboration!

Fresh out of press: our new chapter on the TBX3/WNT liaison, and how it drives metastasis-related genes expression in colorectal cancer, out on @pnas.org

Enjoy the “bluetorial” by @claudiocantu81.bsky.social below! 👇🏼

#WNT #CRC @liu.se

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Registration is still open for our upcoming Gordon Research Conference (GRC, June 22-27) and Seminar (GRS, June 21 -22) on Wnt Signaling in Maine, US
PhD students and postdocs, the GRS is for you, still possible to get selected for a talk - apply here!
👇🏼👇🏼
lnkd.in/d6ii4vDE
lnkd.in/dfZ_v3Qk

The Gulbenkian Institute of Molecular Medicine (GIMM) is one of the best research institutes in Portugal. It's currently recruiting for three Group Leaders (junior or senior) across different areas, including systems biology and bioinformatics.
gimm.pt/jobs/open-ca...

Program and application instructions for the 2025 Mechanobiology of tissue morphogenesis and disease workshop in Baeza, Spain, October 21-23. Apply at https://www.unia.es/estudios-y-acceso/oferta-academica/formacion-continua/workshop-mechanobiology-of-tissue-morphogenesis-and-disease

Interested in Developmental Mechanics??? We are organizing a mechanobiology workshop in Baeza, Spain, October 21-23, 2025. Come join us (and please help us spread the word)!!!

Psychedelic control of neuroimmune interactions governing fear - Nature Inflammatory monocytes in the brain meninges promote stress-induced fear behaviour, and the pathways involved can be modulated using psychedelic compounds.

EGFR signalling in amygdala astrocytes mediates neuroimmune interactions associated with FEAR 😨

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

Registration is still open for our upcoming Gordon Research Conference (GRC, June 22-27) and Seminar (GRS, June 21 -22) on Wnt Signaling in Maine, US
We have slots for short talks to be filled at both the main conference and the seminar - apply here!
👇🏼👇🏼
lnkd.in/d6ii4vDE
lnkd.in/dfZ_v3Qk

😱 A very hungry #PacManoid ate the original post 🍬🍬🍬

Here’s the 🧵 on our latest in @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social again!

Gastruloids w/ a sweet tooth better model natural embryos: doi.org/10.1016/j.st...

Spearheaded by @cryaaa.bsky.social & Alba Villaronga-Luque @mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social