Erick Rojas Pacheco

🧵 Why the obsession with p < 0.05 is hurting science.

Germany's Helsing unveils 'Europa' combat drone German defence startup Helsing unveiled a new autonomous combat drone, joining a race to build remote-piloted systems that can swarm into battle with fellow robots or team up with crewed fighters to help reshape the future of air warfare.

...we fund more to kill than to live

When a society pours more time and money into more creative ways to kill fellow humans than into better lives or a livable planet, we’re off course.

www.reuters.com/business/aer...

C. elegans Biology: IV LAWM This EMBO Workshop on C. elegans Biology is t he IV Latin American Worm Meeting. It will convene in Mérida, Mexico. The overall mission of this meeting is to create an inclusive environment that pro…

Learn all things C. elegans #research at the EMBO | The Company of Biologists Workshop "C. elegans Biology: IV LAWM" in Merida, Mexico, 24–28 February 2026.

Registration by 16 January 2026
Abstract submission by 17 October 2025

meetings.embo.org/event/26-worm
#EMBOWorms2026 #EMBOevents 🧪

Adhesion to a common ECM mediates interdependence in tissue morphogenesis in Drosophila For organs to be functional, the cells and tissues that constitute them must effectively interact with each other and coordinate their behaviours. Halfway during Drosophila embryogenesis, two lateral ...

We submitted our ms to @reviewcommons.org, the feedback we got was really good! We thank the reviewers for their comments. They suggested some really interesting experiments that we had not thought about, we have just posted our revision plan; you can find it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Handmade time-lapse of zebrafish-like development. Credit to Dr. Andro Montoya. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

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Confused by plus/minus strands, coding/template, or forward/reverse in DNA data? You're not alone. Here's how to never mix them up 🧵

Human-specific transposable elements shaped the evolution of craniofacial development through regulation of neural crest migration Craniofacial development and neural crest specification are evolutionarily conserved processes, yet subtle modifications to their gene regulatory networks drive species-specific craniofacial diversity...

New preprint from my group! Here we studied the contribution of a subset of human- and hominoid-specific transposons (SVA, LTR5HS) to the evolution of human craniofacial development. We specifically focussed on cranial neural crest (CNCC) formation and migration 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

As one of the subjects in this study, I can tell you that the closest natural color to 'olo' is achieved by mixing two parts #Midori and one part #BlueCuracau. Not sure what those are? Just reach to the back of your parent's liquor cabinet, it'll be beside the Galliano.

Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale Image display by cell-by-cell retina stimulation, enabling colors impossible to see under natural viewing.

This paper is the result of >20 yrs of hard work by talented students, postdocs and collaborators, but none more than my co-author Ren Ng and his team in EECS.
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Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This country is becoming unrecognizable. What we’re seeing is state-funded fear. We’ve warned people: keep filming, go live on social media so these moments are documented and shared. This wasn’t a case involving masked ICE agents—but that’s happening too.

5⃣ New approach for cell clustering in single-cell data

Detecting reliable cell types from single-cell omics is a challenge. CHOIR, a new random forest-based method, outperforms existing tools and robustly predicts cell types from single-cell omics data.

🔗 nature.com/articles/s41...

The Microsymposium of the Mexican Society of DevBio was a success (yes, tacos included!)

Adhesion to a common ECM mediates interdependence in tissue morphogenesis in Drosophila For organs to be functional, the cells and tissues that constitute them must effectively interact with each other and coordinate their behaviours. Halfway during Drosophila embryogenesis, two lateral ...

The first original research paper from my lab is now out in @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Tracheal development is an amazing model to study morphogenesis. There are great works out there that show how this tissue elongates, interconnects, and forms branches (1/n)

The Company of Biologists 100 logo to the left and QR code to the right. Portrait of Daniel Ríos Barrera to the left, text to the right 100 extraordinary biologists Daniel Ríos Barrera Daniel Ríos Barrera has been featured in Development's ‘Transitions in development’ interviews and the Node's ‘Lab meetings’ series, as well as contributing a Biology Open ‘Future leader’ review. Daniel is a group leader at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico. #100biologists #biologists100

Our next extraordinary biologist is Daniel Ríos Barrera, a group leader at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico. Daniel has been featured in @dev-journal.bsky.social's ‘Transitions in development’ interviews and @the-node.bsky.social's ‘Lab meetings’ series. #100biologists

Cover of issue 5: A 3D reconstruction from a light-sheet fluorescent microscopy image stack depicts parallel networks of vessels (PECAM1+, CD31, magenta) and nerves (PRPH+, yellow) in a human heart at 10.0 post-conceptional weeks. Whole-organ immunofluorescence was used to examine the spatial arrangement of blood vessels and peripheral nerves during human heart development. See Research Article by De Bono et al.

Issue 5 is complete!

On the cover: A 3D reconstruction from a light-sheet fluorescent microscopy image stack depicts parallel networks of vessels (PECAM1+, CD31, magenta) and nerves (PRPH+, yellow) in a human heart at 10.0 post-conceptional weeks. See De Bono et al.
doi.org/10.1242/dev....

A group of around 35 people are on a zoom screen and smiling at the camera The text reads: EMBL-EBI course Introduction to RNA-seq and functional interpretation 24 - 28 February 2025, EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute Virtual

A group of around 35 people are on a zoom screen and smiling at the camera The text reads: EMBL-EBI course Single-cell RNA-seq analysis with Python 17 - 21 February 2025, EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute Virtual

It's been great to get our 2025 courses underway over the last few weeks! We've already run two virtual courses, with attendees learning more about #RNAseq and use of #Python for data analysis.

Want to join us in 2026? Take a look at our courses: www.ebi.ac.uk/training/liv...

🧪🧬🖥️ #GeneSky

Here is the 2025 embryo alphabet from alligator to zebrafish. Developmental biology is stunning & leads to important discoveries for human medicine.
@socdevbio.bsky.social

Image Source: https://science.org/content/article/eloquent-mice-point-protein-may-have-shaped-human-speech In an immunofluorescence image, the NOVA1 protein is lit up in green in neurons of a mouse’s brain. Darnell Laboratory/Rockefeller University

A protein that may have shaped human speech.

NOVA1 is a protein expressed in the central nervous system, possibly involved in the development of spoken #language through differential RNA regulation during #brain development.

#Science Wow!
➡️ science.org/content/arti...
➡️ nature.com/articles/s41...

Just posting a good memory from the 2024 solar eclipse with Escalante's lab!