Oliver Harschnitz

Viral RNA blocks circularization to evade host codon usage control - Nature Rather than adapting to the codon usage of their host, viruses use viral 5′ untranslated regions to initiate translation, which allows them to produce viral proteins in host cells efficiently despite poor codon usage profiles.

Nature research paper: Viral RNA blocks circularization to evade host codon usage control

go.nature.com/4iB6yCh

Reversibility, regulation, and the community of development: the legacy of Sir John B. Gurdon - Nature Communications Nature Communications - Reversibility, regulation, and the community of development: the legacy of Sir John B. Gurdon

We have just published a tribute to John Gurdon, reflecting on his scientific legacy and the profound influence he had on generations of developmental biologists.

The piece is available open access in Nature Communications:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The regenerative potential of adult Nestin+ cerebellar astroglia is limited compared to in neonates There is a crucial need for strategies that stimulate repair in the adult brain. The neonatal mouse cerebellum can regenerate via the adaptive reprogramming of nestin (Nes)-expressing progenitors (NEP...

Excited to share the final piece of my postdoctoral work from the Joyner Lab, exploring the regenerative potential of the adult cerebellar astroglia in collaboration with @ricardkoche. 🧠

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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...

So exciting to see this in print! Ever wondered how embryonic cells know what (fate) to become during early development? In particular when they might see different signaling cues? We investigated this!

And a lovely cover from Zoe Ruiz and @oliveringe.bsky.social!

www.cell.com/developmenta...

Please consider applying, @dev-journal.bsky.social provides:
- Profile raising
- Mentor sessions
- Leadership training

and a growing network of supportive peers.

Looking for some Thanksgiving reading? 🦃🦃🦃

🚨Check out our new preprint on CRISPore-seq!🚨

Combining pooled CRISPR perturbations with single-cell sequencing has been tremendously powerful... but we are missing a lot with current approaches like Perturb-seq and ECCITE-seq.

PhD position in my lab in #AI #RNA, in co-supervision with superstar @florianjug.bsky.social

www.polimi.it/dottorato/fu...

This week we introduced an #assembloid-based platform to begin studying how #enteroviruses affect human neuromuscular systems.

This is a collaboration with Jan Carette here at Stanford.

Work led by Christine Peters, Jimena Andersen and Min-Yin Li.

Incredibly proud of Greta Galeotti for passing her first year Thesis Committee Meeting today after presenting her work on HSV-1 latency in human trigeminal neurons. A huge thanks to Greg Smith and @ilegnini.bsky.social for their input and the productive discussion. #ProudPI

Modelling human adult V-SVZ niche assembly and ependymal cell generation in brain organoids | EMBO reports imageimageHuman progenitors are programmed into ependymal cells in brain organoids via GEMC1 and MCIDAS expression. This strategy recapitulates hallmarks of the adult human V-SVZ niche, providing a pl...

Modelling human adult V-SVZ niche assembly and ependymal cell generation in brain organoids | EMBO reports www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Huge congratulations to @nicolapalazzi.bsky.social for successfully passing his PhD viva. It has been an amazing journey and a privilege to work with you over the past years! Can't wait to share the exciting discoveries you made. Thanks also to the examiners Mirko Cortese and Ilija Brizic. #ProudPI

Just wait until you find out not all PNS neurons are neurectoderm-derived 😉

Spatial dynamics of brain development and neuroinflammation - Nature A tri-omic atlas of the mouse brain from postnatal day 0 to P21 reveals that layer-specific projection neurons have a role in coordinating axonogenesis and myelination.

Our latest collaboration with @rongfan8.bsky.social, spatial triomics to investigate myelin and cortical brain development, and demyelination, spearheaded by Leslie Kirby in our lab @ki.se and Di Zhang in Rong's lab! Check it out @nature.com

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

Volume 152 Issue 20 | Development | The Company of Biologists

Development that lasts a life time. Check out the 2025 special issue of @dev-journal.bsky.social on Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues

journals.biologists.com/dev/issue/15...

A phenotypic brain organoid atlas and biobank for neurodevelopmental disorders Wang and colleagues present a phenotypic brain organoid atlas for neurodevelopmental disorders, revealing disease-specific cellular and molecular alterations that illuminate NDD pathogenesis. Integrat...

New work by @gleesonlab.bsky.social & colleagues in @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social
“A phenotypic brain organoid atlas and biobank for neurodevelopmental disorders” 🧪🧠🧫🧬

www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce...

Already 53 phenomenal papers published in the @jhumimmunity.org ! Look it up and submit your best papers to the only journal focused on human inborn errors of immunity, their phenocopies, and related topics in human immunology:
rupress.org/jhi

In vitro approaches to study centriole and cilium function in early mouse embryogenesis Although centrioles and primary cilia play an essential role in early mammalian development, their specific function during the interval between their initial formation and the subsequent arrest of em...

Really excited to see this out in the open: www.life-science-alliance.org/content/9/1/...! @isabellavoelkl.bsky.social explored and compared different in vitro developmental model systems to study ciliogenesis.

Amazing work Christa, congrats to the whole team! Will read in more depth also regarding the cilia KOs.

Epigenetic lockdown of type I interferon sensing and signalling in human pluripotent cells. The Human Silencing Hub (HUSH) complex safeguards genome integrity in human somatic cells by repressing transposable elements and regulating type I interferon (IFN-I) induction. In early development, ...

How do pluripotent stem cells resist harmful interferon responses to safeguard development? Through total epigenetic lockdown of ligands, sensors and effectors of IFN-I. In our preprint, James Holt shares his PhD discoveries on the ground state of immune evasion 😊: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

An amazing day as Eleonora Conti successfully defended her PhD, a first for the lab. It is difficult to put into words how proud I am of Eleonora and the stellar work she has done. Truly a star in the making! Big thanks to the examiners @antoinezalc.bsky.social and @ilegnini.bsky.social. #ProudPI

Join us for this exciting meeting! @embo.org Workshop "Pathogen Immunity and Signalling", 8-12 June, 2026, Leiden, The Netherlands meetings.embo.org/event/26-pat...

Engineered 3D immuno-glial-neurovascular human miBrain model | PNAS Patient-specific, human-based cellular models integrating a biomimetic blood–brain barrier, immune, and myelinated neuron components are critically...

'This multicellular system with induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons, microglia, oligodendroglia, astrocytes, pericytes, and brain microvascular endothelial cells has potential for opening possibilities for disease modeling, drug discovery and development'
#Immunology #Neuroimmunology

Excited to be co-organizing this @embo.org Workshop on #Pathogen #Immunity and #Signalling next June 8-12 2026 in Leiden! 🥳🥳🥳 #Savethedate

Could not be prouder of @analaura-duarte.bsky.social who passed her first year Thesis Committee Meeting today discussing her project on the neuropathology induced by inborn errors of immunity. Very exciting times ahead! Big thanks to Aleksandra Badura and Alice Giustacchini for their input. #ProudPI

🧠 The Lipid #Brain Atlas is out now! If you think #lipids are boring and membranes are all the same, prepare to be surprised. Led by @lucafusarbassini.bsky.social with Giovanni D'Angelo's lab, we mapped membrane lipids in the mouse brain at high resolution.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Many thanks to @nicolasrivron.bsky.social for today’s External Seminar Series at @humantechnopole.bsky.social. It was amazing to learn all about early human pregnancy using stem cell-based models, species-specific differences and the role of evolution on early development.

A wonderful autumn hike.

New preprint from the lab! We discovered a transient fluidization in the basal region of human forebrains by tracking microdroplets in cerebral organoids.This “basal fluidization”, absent in gorilla and mouse, may contribute to greater surface expansion in human forebrains
1/
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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...

The ethical framework for embryo models needs clarity and simplicity. The spirit of the integrated/non-integrated distinction was to more prominently regulate models that could potentially develop into a fetus. Hafez Ismaili M’hamdi discusses this. www.progress.org.uk/complexity-w...