Joshua Hislop

Unified Generation of Regionalized Neural Organoids from Single-Lumen Neuroepithelium https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.18.689013v1

If you’ve ever wondered why you can inject things into the yolk early and it affects the embryo, this phenomena is the reason it works! 👇 #zebrafish

When I was submitting a few years ago and having a similar problem the solution I was recommended by the GRFP support was close to this, a printed and scanned copy of the official transcript. Dumb workaround, but functional.

Dismantling the Institutional Review Board (IRB), that oversees all human subjects research, is bad. Really bad.

I find the Record tool (Plugins>Macros>Record) very useful for this, in case it's helpful - do what I need once and then I have some code that is at least a basis for tweaking.

Signaling reprogramming via Stat3 activation unravels high-fidelity human post-implantation embryo modeling Enhanced STAT3 activation combined with TGF-β inhibition reprograms human PSCs into cells specifying all early embryonic lineages. Upon 3D suspension culture, these cells self-organize within 6 days i...

(1/8) Very Happy to share our lab’s 3D post-implantation human embryo model, made via signalling reprograming!
🙌 Huge thanks to the entire team and our collaborators, special shout-out to @cc0447.bsky.social (led the work) and @jinjin-0101.bsky.social (comp. analysis).
www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce...

YO, what's up with all these almost-witchcraft techniques?? In this paper, they develop a way to freeze cells so quickly that it preserves Calcium waves midway!! WHAT??? HELLO??? So now you can do 3D reconstruction of calcium waves with just a normal confocal. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Investigating morphogen and patterning dynamics with optogenetic control of morphogen production Morphogen gradients provide the patterning cues that instruct cell fate decisions during development. Here, we establish an optogenetic system for the…

Our latest: We developed a chemo-optogenetic system for precise spatiotemporal control of morphogen production. Using dual light + small molecule control of Sonic Hedgehog production, we recapitulated neural tube patterning in vitro & measured spread of Shh

🧵

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 1, 2025) – The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today that it will begin an orderly wind-down of its operations"

cpb.org/pressroom/Co...

Brain Surfaces of 70 primate species

1
To predict the behaviour of a primate, would you rather base your guess on a closely related species or one with a similar brain shape? We looked at brains & behaviours of 70 species, you’ll be surprised!

🧵Thread on our new preprint with @r3rt0.bsky.social , doi.org/10.1101/2025...

An active torque dipole across tissue layers drives avian left-right symmetry breaking Unlike in mice, frogs, and fish, left-right (L/R) body axis formation in avian embryos does not arise from the chiral beat of cilia. Instead, a counter-clockwise tissue rotation around Hensen′ node, t...

(1/10)
I am excited to finally share our work on avian left/right symmetry breaking with you. We reveal a tissue-scale active torque dipole generated at the Hensen’s node, thanks to crazy experiments by Julia @juliapfanzelter.bsky.social and some analysis by me.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

3D reconstruction of a human Carnegie stage 9 embryo provides a snapshot of early body plan formation The Carnegie stage 9 (CS9) embryo is a pivotal phase signifying the conclusion of gastrulation and the onset of early organogenesis, crucial for initi…

3D reconstruction of a human Carnegie stage 9 embryo provides a snapshot of early body plan formation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Have you ever thought about inflating tissues?
Or maybe quickly deflating those inflated tissues?

New #EpithelialMechanics pre-print: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
🧵 with pressure control, multiscale buckling, controlled wrinkling

While helping out on a cool genomics project recently, I came to realise I’d been taught a pretty big inaccuracy about the events that occur at fertilization. I suspect that almost everyone reading this has the same misapprehension, so let’s do some learning together: 1/

Post-gastrulation amnioids as a stem cell-derived model of human extra-embryonic development An embryonic stem cell-based 3D model that accurately recapitulates the size, morphology, and functional features of the human amnion at 4 weeks, termed the post-gastrulation amnioid (PGA), is develop...

Beautiful work from @santoslab.bsky.social

A 3D model of human amnion from hESCs

These recapitulate amniotic sac development, revealing GATA3 as key amniogenesis driver & autoregulatory BMP/Wnt feedback loops

And check out the size of them in the video

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Our chromosome-scale genome assembly of Nanomia septata, a siphonophore - doi.org/10.1101/2025... . Much larger than many other cnidarian genomes, fewer chromosomes, and highly rearranged. No smoking gun for how they achieve complex colony-level organization. Great work Namrata Ahuja and friends!

How can biological systems anticipate future events? In our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social, we show how a simple genetic circuit can predict future trends through a simple (and perhaps widespread) mechanism @drmichaellevin.bsky.social @koseskalab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Seconding this! Definitely reach out to Mo!

N2B27 media formulations influence gastruloid development https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.15.643474v1

Our next western/evening 🌙 session seminar is happening next week! Join us to learn about

human embryo models with @bailweatherbee.bsky.social

and

pancreatic organoids with @amandaanderssonr.bsky.social

🗓️ Thursday, February 20th at
⏰ 09:30 PST / 12:30 EST / 17:30 UTC / 17:30 GMT / 18:30 CET

an email that says "Sarah, One of the hats I wear is secretary of a cub scout pack. We have a space themed Blue and Gold celebration coming up and were expecting an NASA astronaut to be able to talk to us. With everything *waves hands crazily* this unfortunately feel through. Is there someone space themed (Astronomer, astrophysicist etc) that you could put us in touch with. The talk would HAVE to be Feb 24th, at approximately 6:30 pm Eastern (During our pack meeting). thanks for any help in this matter. Regards"

We have a CUB SCOUT EMERGENCY.

Space people, anybody able to help here?

Using social media for this bc
1) urgent
2) at a specific date and time

@philplait.bsky.social @astrochic73.bsky.social @astrokatie.com

The placenta is unlikely to generate blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). This schematic shows how, in mouse embryos, Hoxa13-Cre lineage tracing labels virtually all endothelial cells within the mouse placenta. However, virtually no HSCs are labeled by Hoxa13-Cre. This suggests that the placenta is unlikely to form HSCs. Rather, these results suggest that HSCs are produced elsewhere in the developing embryo and subsequently migrate to the placenta, which serves as a landing pad for HSCs.

Is the placenta is a source of, or merely a niche for, blood-forming #hematopoietic #StemCells? This Primer explores a @plosbiology.org study showing that the placenta does not directly give rise to hematopoietic stem cells. 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4hl3qZF Primer: plos.io/40R1VeE

Announcing this upcoming conference:

GASTRULATION RELOADED:
Developing, engineering, and evolving the body plan

Join us as we explore the latest research on gastrulation and axis formation/elongation, featuring common, exotic, and synthetic embryos!

📅 14–17 October 2025
📍 Paris, France

It's actually theft of taxpayers money when websites go dark. We paid for that data

1/3 Embryogenesis requires fit cells. Here, following work from @miguel-torres-1963.bsky.social & @tristanrodriguez72.bsky.social and led by @joshifrenster.bsky.social we develop a #gastruloid model of #CellCompetition
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
showing it recapitulates much of the embryo 🧵

Resolving forebrain developmental organisation by analysis of differential growth patterns The forebrain is the most complex region of the vertebrate CNS, and its developmental organisation is controversial. We fate-mapped the embryonic chick forebrain using lipophilic dyes and Cre-recombin...

Excited to present our new preprint clarifying forebrain developmental organisation. Complex growth patterns shape the forebrain but distort the A-P + D-V axes, hence prior confusion over brain layout. Big love for chicken embryos, simpler to interpret than mouse 🐣1/3 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

For some time now we’ve been aware that Chiron #gastruloids, while representing well axial elongation, exhibit a shortage of anterior fates. Here www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@Dias and colleagues uncover the reason and explain the implications for our understanding of mammalian gastrulation
🧵

Figure 1 (B) Top: protocol used for the data shown in C-E. Bottom: confocal maximum projections showing unconstrained and micropatterned (μPatterns) cultures. Notice some variability between colonies, likely due to initial differences in seeding density across the well. The colony shown in C is indicated with a yellow outline. Scale bar: 200 µm.

In vitro modelling of anterior primitive streak patterning with human pluripotent stem cells identifies the path to notochord progenitors

Read this #OpenAccess Research Article by Miguel Robles-Garcia, Guillaume Blin and colleagues @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social:
https://buff.ly/3ZMtzc6

Modelling co-development between somites and neural tube with human Trunk-like Structures (hTLS) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.16.628661v1

In toto analysis of multicellular arrangement reduces embryonic tissue diversity to two archetypes that require specific cadherin expression https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.06.626808v1