James Briscoe

Very sad news, John Gurdon has died.

A developmental biologist's developmental biologist, Nobel prize winner

His work is the foundation of much of today's dev & stem cell bio.

An inspiration to many, including me. Always asking questions & wanting the answers

www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

This year's Crick @crick.ac.uk PhD programme is open for applications

- £27,715 tax-free student stipend per year for 4 years
- Tuition fees paid
- Student visa fee & health surcharges covered

Deadline 5 Nov

We have a project available. For all the details visit:

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Fine-tuning mechanical constraints reveals uncoupled patterning and gene expression programs in murine gastruloids Highlighted Article: A bioinert confinement system enables dissection of how stiffness and timing shape gastruloid development, revealing uncoupling between polarization and transcriptional programs.

Mechanical constraints disrupt gastruloid polarisation without changing gene expression - uncouples morphogenesis & patterning

Gregor & co use tunable hydrogels to show cell motility, not gene expression, drives axis formation in gastruloids

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

PhD students Our PhD programme attracts the brightest scientific minds and is an opportunity for talented people to embark on their career in biomedical research.

Motivated graduates with backgrounds in biological or biomedical sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering and/or computer science are invited to apply to our 4-year fully funded PhD programme.

Apply by 05 November 2025

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-...

It also makes me very happy @dev-journal.bsky.social @biologists.bsky.social planted a Hazelnut tree (#13987) in Derbyshire because of this article #DevBio🧪

Pathway to Independence: a forecast for the future of developmental biology ABSTRACT. In 2022, Development launched its Pathway to Independence (PI) programme, aimed at supporting postdocs as they transition to their first independent position. In 2025, we welcome our third c...

Meet the 2025 cohort of @dev-journal.bsky.social Pathway to Independence fellows

Read about the scientific visions of eight dev bio post-docs entering the academic job market

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

We've updated our first #preprint from the lab! A collaboration with @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social

🔥 now including in vivo 🐭&👤 embryo data

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

Brachyury expression levels predict lineage potential and axis-forming ability of in vitro derived neuromesodermal progenitors Neuromesodermal progenitors (NMPs) produce the spinal cord and musculoskeleton in the elongating anterior-posterior axis. In vivo, NMPs possess dual potency, coinciding with regions coexpressing SOX2 ...

Nice work from Val Wilson & co on neuromesodermal progenitors

SOX2/TBXT co-expressing cells are self-propagating bipotent NMPs

Increasing TBXT levels (not SOX2/TBXT ratio) switch NMPs from neural- to mesoderm-biased

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

Lots of illustrated trees. A sample image taken from the Forest of Biologists website.

In our Forest of Biologists we fund the restoration and preservation of ancient woodland and dedicate these trees to our peer reviewers.

There are now over 10,000 trees for peer reviews!

Thank you to all our peer reviewers. Find out more:
forest.biologists.com

#PRW2025 @peerreviewweek.bsky.social

A dual enhancer-attenuator element ensures transient Cdx2 expression during mouse posterior body formation Amblard et al. dissect the function of cis-regulatory elements regulating transient Cdx2 expression during mouse caudal body formation. They highlight the requirement of an attenuator, a transiently r...

Great to see this from @vmetzis.bsky.social & co published

Dissection of CDX2 regulatory elements identifies a repressive element that converts to an enhancer with a nuclear receptor motif switch

www.cell.com/developmenta...

Peter Rugg-Gunn

Excited for the #CSHAmeeting on Human Development - From Embryos to Stem Cell Models in Suzhou, China? Our Editor, Peter Rugg-Gunn, is attending and has curated a collection of review-type and Research Articles on this topic: journals.biologists.com/dev/collecti...

NEW PODCAST: ‘A Question of Science’ with Professor Brian Cox.

In every episode, panels of scientists and experts answer audience questions about some of the biggest issues facing us today.

Listen to the first episode, ‘Can we live forever?’: lnk.to/AQOSAgeingBB

Image of Debby Silver.

Excited for next week's #AXON2025 #neuroscience conference?

To complement the meeting, our Editor Debby Silver @debbysilver.bsky.social has curated a collection of review-type and Research Articles on #NeuralDevelopment:

journals.biologists.com/dev/collecti...

Combinatorial BMP4 and activin direct the choice between alternate routes to endoderm in a stem cell model of human gastrulation Inge et al. show that human endoderm originates from two converging developmental routes with distinct dynamics and efficiencies yet similar developmental potential. Combinatorial activin and BMP4 sig...

1/7 Really happy to see my PhD work published in ✨Developmental Cell✨ today! We find human endoderm is specified by two developmental trajectories 🔀, and the choice between alternate routes is dictated by the combinatorial BMP4/Activin signalling. www.cell.com/developmenta...

I do miss the view from my lab on the top floor, but not the rain that came through the window frames if the wind was in the wrong direction.

Ingrid Tsang

👋Introducing Ingrid - the new Reviews Editor for @dev-journal.bsky.social

thenode.biologists.com/introducing-...

On 4 September 2000 I arrived at MRC-NIMR Mil Hill, feeling a little anxious and out of my depth, for my first day as a group leader

Twenty five years later, not much has changed. Still trying to figure out what I'm meant to be doing and hoping not to be found out

Read BSDB Beddington Medal winner @rorymaizels.bsky.social interview with @the-node.bsky.social

Discussing his journey from undergraduate to PhD and beyond

An interview with BSDB Beddington medal winner Rory Maizels - the Node The 2025 BSDB Beddington Medal winner was Rory Maizels, who completed his PhD with James Briscoe at the Francis Crick Institute in London, UK. In this interview, we hear about Rory's career path, his ...

👀Interview with @bsdb.bsky.social Beddington medal winner @rorymaizels.bsky.social

We caught up with Rory to discuss his career path, his PhD with @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social and what he is excited about in #devbio.
thenode.biologists.com/an-interview...

Edith Heard

Exciting day for @crick.ac.uk today: Edith Heard takes over as Director

We're looking forward to this new chapter in the story

www.crick.ac.uk/about-us/lea...

Invisibility cloak pioneer Sir John Pendry awarded Royal Society’s top prize | Royal Society The Royal Society announces the medals and awards recipients 2025

Very honored to receive the Royal Society Research Culture Award - this represents the work of a great team who've worked non-stop since we launched bioRxiv in 2013 royalsociety.org/news/2025/08... www.cshl.edu/inglis-and-s...

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.

Check out the latest work by @dbenzinger.bsky.social and @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social !

Building gradients in space and time.

I am extremely biased but the Dec 15 issue of Dev Cell is 🔥🔥

Yeah, interesting questions. On the list, but easier to propose than to do....

Bottom line: DD-GAVPO represents a powerful tool for precise gene control. We used it to generate quantitative measurements of a mammalian morphogen but it is versatile and could be used in a wide range of applications

All credit to @dbenzinger.bsky.social who conceived & implemented the project.

Key finding #3: Dynamic xpts revealed progenitor identity depends on both concentration & duration of Shh

More ventral markers (Nkx2.2) appear later but domain sizes remain constant

This suggests progressive fate assignment reflects gene regulatory dynamics, not gradient dynamics

Similarly, the Shh interacting protein Scube2 increased Shh range by ~50%, confirming its role as a "gradient expander" in mammalian systems (previously shown in zebrafish)

The system provides a quantitative readout for morphogen modulator activity

Key finding #2: Cholesterol-modified Shh showed normal patterning, while non-cholesterol modified Shh (NShh) extended signalling range 3-fold

Membrane-tethered Shh-CD4 abolished long-range signalling

Key finding #1: Shh has an extracellular half-life ~1h. Turnover much faster than downstream gene expression dynamics, indicating morphogen gradient is continually renewed during patterning

Suggests Shh's effective diffusion rate: ~0.125 μm²/s, remarkably similar to Dpp/Wingless in Drosophila

We applied DD-GAVPO to control Sonic hedgehog (Shh) production in a stem cell model of neural tube development

Spatially restricted light illumination recreated long-range Shh gradients that faithfully recapitulated neural tube patterning