Emma Rawlins

Saddened to learn of the death of John Gurdon today. He was the supreme scientist. And truly inspirational lecturer and speaker. The Gurdon Institute @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social has been a wonderful place to run a lab - and he will be truly missed.

www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/nobel-laurea...

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...

John Gurdon's research inspired me in my own scientific pursuits as a stem cell biologist. Starting my lab at
@gurdoninstitute.bsky.social was therefore particularly exciting. Seeing him around daily only underscored his admirable dedication to science and research. RIP John.
tinyurl.com/nha6z25h

Looking forward to working with new colleagues on a collaborative project in lung disease modelling and transcriptomics - please share! And email Jenny @jennydickens41.bsky.social, or me, with any questions. 😀

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52936/

Registrations for the Respiratory Genomics Conference, and abstract submissions, closes on the 15th October. Sign up today – limited availability!

‘From Stem Cells to Human Development’ over the years. (A,B) Official conference photos from the 2014 (A) and 2024 (B) meetings, both held at Wotton House in Surrey, UK. (C) Word cloud summarising feedback from meeting attendees at the 2014 event asked to describe their experience in four words. The largest and most immediately visible are: 'friendly atmosphere', 'interactive', 'inspirational', 'interesting', 'innovative', 'stimulating'. (D) Aggregate responses to questions from each post-event survey asking attendees to rate the meeting on a scale of 1-10 (orange bars) and whether they would recommend one of our events to a colleague. The recommendation score shows the percentage that responded ‘yes’ (green diamonds).

From stem cells to human development: supporting a growing field

This Perspective from @katherine-brown.bsky.social reflects on the history of our journal meetings and their impact on both the developmental biology community and @biologists.bsky.social

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

Going to be a great meeting...

Our 2025 GI retreat prize winners are:
🎉Social Engagement: Giada Vanacore and Shay Melamed
🙂 Research Culture: Theresa Gross-Thebing
🙌 Good Citizen: Sam Banjo
🔬Image Competition: @geraldinejowett.bsky.social
🌳Green: Tamara Romero
Thank you all for your great community spirit and positive vibes!

Rawlins lab members sitting by the river Cam with their feet in a punt.

On the Cam: Emma punting - lab members drinking wine.

Our Masters student recently left the lab to begin her PhD - hooray! Fantastic achievement which we were happy to celebrate with a punting trip, but it's always sad to say good bye to lovely people.

Fantastic opportunity here - we are keen to get a range of applicants!

Great opportunity to work with the fabulous Jenny here.

Landscape - The Forest of Biologists

I love getting links to @biologists.bsky.social Company of Biologist trees - go peer review! forest.biologists.com/landscape/?i...

Good morning All. Putting a request out there. If you are a National Trust member (UK), please read and vote for the Members’ resolution on increasing Tick-bite prevention awareness amongst visitors. Please also report to NT if you get bitten by a tick and sick at an NT site.

Frozen potential: embryo research at the crossroads of ethics, regulation and scientific opportunity ABSTRACT. In an era of expanding reproductive possibilities, the human embryo has come to represent both immense potential and profound constraint. Advances in medically assisted reproduction (MAR) ha...

"Yet, despite their growing availability, access to embryos for research remains restricted."

Read this Perspective from @marta-shahbazi.bsky.social and colleagues on an important and necessary discussion for science and society. Published today in @dev-journal.bsky.social ↓

🚨 New call for preLighters!🚨

Help us highlight the most exciting biological #preprints. Share your insights, build your profile, and be part of a supportive community! 🌍

Interested? Apply today & help shape the future of science publishing! 📢

More info: prelights.biologists.com/news/join-th...

FEBS Press It is easier for young animals to regenerate damaged or missing tissues. In this Viewpoint, we propose that this is, in part, attributed to epigenetic changes, with chromatin becoming more closed and....

Excited to share our recent viewpoint with @storerlab.bsky.social led by Kirsten Sadler, on epigenetic mechanisms of regenerative resilience.

Ageing versus developmental silencing: Answers from the epigenome - Sadler - The FEBS Journal - febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This was a great opportunity for Odara who is a star! ⭐

🚨 I’m looking for two enthusiastic scientists to join our team at Cambridge to explore the molecular mechanisms of lactation, early nutrition, and their long-term impact on health.

Apply here:
👉 RA: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51988/
👉 Postdoc: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51984/

Please share 🔬👩‍🔬

Great work from the Dickens lab!

Will be an excellent meeting!!

Development presents... Wednesday 9 July 15:00 BST, chaired by Alex Eve. Talk 1: Lakshmi Balasubramaniam (Gurdon Institute) ‘Tissue spreading couples matrix remodelling during avian gastrulation’ Talk 2: André Dias (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) ‘Opposing Nodal and Wnt signalling activities govern the emergence of the mammalian body plan’ Talk 3: Nikhil Mishra (Institute of Science and Technology Austria) ‘Geometry-driven asymmetric cell divisions pattern cell cycles and zygotic genome activation in the zebrafish embryo’

Sign up to attend our next Development presents... webinar on early #embryogenesis, featuring talks from @lakshmib02.bsky.social, @dias-andre.bsky.social ‬and @nikhil-mishra.bsky.social

📅Wed 9 July 15:00BST (UTC+1)

Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

#DevBio @dev-journal.bsky.social

The Company of Biologists 100 logo to the left and QR code to the right. Portrait of Sally Lowell to the left, text to the right 100 extraordinary biologists Sally Lowell Stem cell biologist Sally Lowell from The University of Edinburgh, UK, has been a Director since 2019. Sally was involved in introducing The Company of Biologists’ Sustainability Initiative and is the current chair of the Sustainability Committee. #100biologists #biologists100

We are featuring Sally Lowell, Director of @biologists.bsky.social and current chair of the Company's Sustainability Committee, as our 50th extraordinary biologist. #100biologists @cellysally.bsky.social

🌟Congratulations to Azim Surani @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk for receiving the 2025 Kyoto Prize - Basic Sciences. Azim's research fundamentally advanced our understanding of developmental biology🔬🧬 www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/kyoto-prize-...
#KyotoPrize #AzimSurani #DevelopmentalBiology

Congratulations Amy - great news!!!

Phew! Success this time following previous major disappointments in applications to different grant schemes. Persistence and extensive preliminary data paid off this time! Thank you ERC!

Love this!!

Feeling very privileged and grateful to receive an ERC Advanced grant "LungDeCode" for the lab - all down to the hard work of my amazing group and our fabulous behind the scenes UCam support team!

Congratulations Walid!! 😀

Frontiers | Lowe Syndrome and Me: a co-creation video series connecting patients, caregivers, and researchers Lowe syndrome (LS) is a rare genetic disorder leading to significant physical and cognitive impairments. Recognizing the need to bridge the gap between resea...

The Gurdon Institute Public Engagement team, Lowe Syndrome Association patient charity and Gallop laboratory have written an article about their co-production collaboration for the 2024 International Lowe Syndrome Symposium www.frontiersin.org/journals/cel...

We don't normally dress up to come to the lab - but lots of fun to get dressed up prior to leaving the lab for a celebration!