Zhaoming Wu

We wrote this introductory review on how concepts from dynamical systems can help us understand developmental biology, hope it’s useful to somebody! It was a lot of fun to put together, and great to collaborate with brilliant colleagues across theory and experiments

Directed cell migration is a versatile mechanism for rapid developmental pattern formation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.24.666657v1

I thought the clouds were snowy mountains at first sight! I love every season of both the Lantau Peak and Sunset Peak.

The heat almost knocked me out on the way up, if the view wasn't so beautiful I would've totally hated myself for being a dumb ass who does this in August 😂

Hong Kong is really beautiful

Boundary constraints can determine pattern emergence The robust patterning of cell fates during embryonic development requires precise coordination of signalling gradients within defined spatial constraints. Using a geometrically confined in vitro syste...

New work with Saunders & Charras labs

Physical boundaries guide cell fate decisions during human trunk development

Reaction Diffusion model shows how geometry shapes biology with TBXT expression forming consistent domains regardless of colony size & shape

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

Considering the current dreadful status of it, X is a more suitable name than Twitter after all

Our newest collab paper showing an interplay between common regulatory SNVs and rare coding variants in SHROOM3 in Craniofacial Microsomia is now online ahead of print @genomeresearch.bsky.social: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40234029/. Huge shoutout to Yong-Biao Zhang’s team again.

What started with many quail eggs and put me on stage in a chicken suit has now resulted in a preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Microsurgery with human eye-lashes, laser ablations, great analysis and insightful theory from @neipel.bsky.social told us more about avian L/R symmetry breaking.

Robots demonstrate principles of collective intelligence Lessons from developmental biology can be used to guide the behaviour of robot swarms.

What links developmental biology and mini-robots?

- Complex adaptive systems

Nice N&V piece on recent work on developmental biology inspired robotics

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Michaut, A., Chamolly, A., Alegria-Prévot, O., Phan, C., Corson, F., & Gros, J. (2025). Direct measurements of active forces and material properties unveil the active mechanics of early embryogenesis. bioRxiv, 2025-05. #EpithelialMechanics doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Plants monitor the integrity of their barrier by sensing gas diffusion - Nature A study using Arabidopsis shows that plants can monitor the integrity of their outer barriers by sensing gas diffusion, enabling them to initiate wound repair to prevent water loss and pathogen entry.

How plants sense injury in their barrier tissue, periderm? Painstakingly detailed and amazing work by post doc Hiroyuki Iida shows that wounding is sensed by the diffusion of two gases: ethylene and oxygen. @treebiocoe.bsky.social‬ @erc.europa.eu‬ 1/x 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 Second preprint of the week!

We uncover the multiscale dynamics of active viscoelastic buckling in epithelia.

We harness these mechanical instabilities for synthetic morphogenesis.

Led by @onenimesa.bsky.social 🙌. Theory by Marino Arroyo etal. @ibecbarcelona.eu

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

A dream come true: my first first-author publication! 🧬 🎉 Working to unravel the mysteries of long-range gene regulation has been an incredible journey. Endless gratitude to Evgeny, the lab, and all of the amazing collaborators who helped make this happen 🙌

Reactivation of mammalian regeneration by turning on an evolutionarily disabled genetic switch Mammals display prominent diversity in the ability to regenerate damaged ear pinna, but the genetic changes underlying the failure of regeneration remain elusive. We performed comparative single-cell ...

By flipping an evolutionarily disabled genetic switch involved in Vitamin A metabolism, researchers in Science have enabled ear tissue regeneration in mice.

Learn more: scim.ag/3TzUSnH

Hello! Ever wonder what's "talking to" your favorite transcript, but were too scared to ask? In our review in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social, @mardakheh.bsky.social and I highlight new RNA-focused tools for discovering RNA interactions across organizational scales. Checkit!

tinyurl.com/ydn6e3ac

Teeth first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient fish, fossil scans find Anyone who has ever squirmed through a dental cleaning can tell you how sensitive teeth can be. This sensitivity gives important feedback about temperature, pressure—and yes, pain—as we bite and chew ...

New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team!
Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05...
Open Access Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Left: Scanning electron micrograph of two male-specific scale types found on the wings of male sulphur butterflies, with UV-iridescent scales (pink) and brown lanceolate scale from the marginal region. Image credit: Arnaud Martin / The George Washington University. Right: UV coloration, which is invisible to the human eye, is used as a male courtship signal in orange sulphur butterflies, shown here in magenta. Butterfly wings consist of two layers of microscopic scales, and in UV-iridescent butterflies, the upper layer harbors unique optical properties. These scales reflect ultraviolet thanks to complex layers of chitin on their surfaces, a nanostructure that resembles Christmas trees and is absent from non-UV scales. Image credit: Illustration by Julie Johnson/Life Science Studios (CC-BY license agreement provided to Arnaud Martin)

Wiring the sexes: @evolvwing.bsky.social &co use CRISPR knockouts & single-nucleus transcriptomics to decipher the regulatory logic of #SexualDimorphism in sulphur #butterflies, where males display bright UV colors thanks to specialized iridescent scales @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/445Iz7d

Plexin/Semaphorin antagonism orchestrates collective cell migration and organ sculpting by regulating epithelial-mesenchymal balance An axon guidance factor restricts gap growth in a non-neuronal migrating cell sheet, allowing organ sculpting.

Super excited to see the work of @maikbischoff.bsky.social and team revealing a new role for Plexin/Semaphorin signaling in collective cell migration now out in Science Advances 1/2
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Lysosomes play a central role in regulating ECM homeostasis by influencing intracellular and extracellular molecular turnover and degradation through their biogenesis, localization, and acidification. Lysosomal biogenesis coordinates ECM homeostasis by regulating the release of ECM-degrading enzymes, promoting autolysosome-mediated degradation, and modulating lysosomal trafficking pathways. This process affects the degradation, recycling, and assembly of ECM components. Lysosomes are equipped with motor proteins, including dynein-dynactin complexes, kinesins, and small GTPases, which facilitate their trafficking along microtubules. Lysosomal acidification is essential for the breakdown and recycling of ECM components internalized by endocytosis and exocytosis, ensuring proper ECM turnover and homeostasis.

New discoveries are reshaping how scientists understand the molecular connections between the extracellular matrix and lysosomes—and the resulting implications for research and therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders.

Learn more in this #ScienceSignaling Review: scim.ag/4kG61io

Wow this is really exciting! Too bad I am on a trip to Barcelona for a meeting...

Edwards et al. discovered that endosomal trafficking, is essential for delivering key proteins to the correct locations during trachea and esophagus development. Published in Developmental Cell. www.xenbase.org/xenbase/doNe... #science #devbio #xenopus #frogs

Proliferation-driven mechanical compression induces signalling centre formation during mammalian organ development - Nature Cell Biology Shroff and colleagues report that cell proliferation induces localized mechanical compression in the tissue, driving the formation of the main mouse tooth signalling centre via differential YAP…

Shroff, N. P., Xu, P., Kim, S., Shelton, E. R., ..., Campàs, O. & Klein, O. D. (2024). Proliferation-driven mechanical compression induces signalling centre formation during mammalian organ development. Nature Cell Biology. #EpithelialMechanics www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hello from HKU Dentistry!

我觉得他们就是在有意识地provoke

This paper by @scientificdiscovery.dev, on the other hand, proves that one can write about genetics without cryptic abbreviations, and with explanations that are actually accessible to non-insiders. 10/10, exactly what I needed for my second lecture on the interpretation of genetic findings!

A novel self-organizing embryonic stem cell system reveals the role of WNT signaling parameters in anterior-posterior patterning of the nervous system A Wnt activity gradient is essential for the formation of the anterior-posterior (AP) axis in all vertebrates. The relationship between the dynamics of Wnt signaling and specification of AP coordinate...

Nice work from Du & Warmflash using micropatterned hESCs to dissect midbrain-hindbrain boundary formation

Timing of WNT signalling, not strength or duration, specifies midbrain-hindbrain boundary

Good example of recapitulating developmental signalling in vitro

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

PDGFRα is required for postnatal cerebral perivascular fibroblast development https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.07.658411v1

The most striking thing about the LA protests is how many people just dropped everything to show up and yell at federal agents. There are people in suits, and carrying dogs, and wearing flip flops or bike helmets.

These are not people who planned to do this today. But there they are.

DNA-guided transcription factor interactions extend human gene regulatory code - Nature A large-scale analysis of DNA-bound transcription factors (TFs) shows how the presence of DNA markedly affects the landscape of TF interactions, and identifies composite motifs that are recognized by ...

It's an interesting phenomenon that some of the deepest questions about how life works have become what looks like impossibly obscure molecular biology stuck right at the back of Nature, which will never get covered by the science media. Like this. /1
www.nature.com/articles/s41...