Flavio Zolessi

Colegas latinoamericanos: hoy cierra esta excelente oportunidad de reunirse en nuevas redes o sociedades de neurociencias donde no existen, y además, asociarse a IBRO! Último día!

⏰ Only 2 days left to complete your application for the Seeding Neuroscience #Grants!
Don’t miss this opportunity to strengthen your emerging #neuroscience society or thematic network
https://ibro.org/grant/seeding-neuroscience-grants/

Deadline: 15 Oct

#IBROinAsiaPacific #IBROinAfrica #IBROinLatAm

Reaffirming the value of model organisms in training scientific minds - Nature Cell Biology As biomedical research prioritizes human models and translational promise, classic model organisms are increasingly dismissed. Here we argue that they have a lasting value, both in enabling discovery and in cultivating scientific thinking, by training researchers in systems reasoning, integrative thinking and independent inquiry.

The importance of model organisms for research and training www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Severe microphthalmia and retinal layering defects in the smarce1-/- zebrafish mutant.

Recent publication from a great collaboration with my friends in Cuernavaca, México: The Smarce1 subunit of the BAF complex performs distinct, stage-specific functions during zebrafish retinal development doi.org/10.1016/j.ne.... Support @ibroorg.bsky.social, publish in @ibrojournals.bsky.social

Mechanical conditions preventing live cell extrusion during primary neurulation in amniotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.08.668972v1

Interested in Science Communication? Love #devbiol? Apply for the @socdevbio.bsky.social SciComms Interns Program!

www.sdbonline.org/science_comm...

📣 Call for #PAPERS!
Share your work in #IBRO #Neuroscience Reports’ special issues on early career #research and on perspectives from #AfrAbia! 🧠🌍

Learn more: www.ibroneuroreports.org/call-for-pap...

#IBROjournals #IBROauthors @ibroorg.bsky.social

Are you a woman #neuroscientist eager to share your research and inspire others on stage? 🎤
Join the WWN Speaker’s Bureau - a public platform designed to help event organizers find expert speakers in neuroscience.

🔗 Sign up or learn more: buff.ly/C5GXkOu

@worldwomenneuro.bsky.social

I just realized Santiago is in Bluesky! You can contact him here: @sabr-bio.bsky.social

I personally thank Santi's thesis co-supervisor, Julio A. Hernández. This work was possible thanks to our great graduate program PEDECIBA; to Universidad de la República, which funded research through CSIC and SB fellowship through CAP; to the Advanced Bioimaging Unit at Institut Pasteur Montevideo.

A reduction in apical/basal tension, on the other hand, would produce extensive cell extrusion after a period of relative stability. When extrapolated to a living tissue, these observations could be explained by cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion, relying on F-actin-generated tension across cells.

Making a long story short, and skipping the quantitative part (if interested, ask Santi), what we found is that the relatively crowded simulated pseudostratified epithelium was stable as long as apical/basal tension was kept high relative to lateral tension. An example is reproduced in the video.

Diagrams illustrating the different simulations considered in the analysis of the energy model. A. State of a typical system at time t as obtained by dynamical simulation. Vertices are colored according to the type of interface they belong to (cell-cell interfaces are blue, while apical and basal interfaces are orange and yellow, respectively), and each cell contains a nucleus tagged according to the cell number. Periodic boundary conditions are used in the x-axis. Both axes are taken to be relative to the characteristic length scale 𝐿0=√𝐴0. B. To study the stability of a simple cell layer we consider an infinite tissue made up of alternating, identical wedge-shaped cells. The shape of one of these cells may be determined by its height (ℎ) and its basal width (𝑏𝑏), assuming that the apical and basal interfaces correspond to circular arcs and that cell-cell interfaces are straight. The width of any two adjacent cells adds up to double the average cell width 𝑏, which is used to characterize cellular density.

Different initial conditions and relative tension parameters lead to different outcomes in the simultated pseudotstratified epithelia.

Here is where theoretical modelling enters the story. The goal was to simulate a pseudostratified epithelium using an energy-based 2D vertex model to get cells with flexible borders, able to respond to the changing positions of non-deformable nuclei. The "fake neuroepithelium" is seen from a side.

Caspase inhibitor QVD-OPh treatment of chick neurulas did not affect normal morphology of the neuroepithelium, or the occurrence of apical cell extrusion upon PMA treatment.

QVD-OPh treatmen effectively reduced apoptotoc cell death, without preventing apical cell extrusion in neural plate cells of chick embryos.

Apical cell extrusion could be due either to an induction of cell death, folowed by expulsion, or by live cell extrusion, a response to epithelial overcrowding. The experiments in the present report indicate the latter to be responsible for PMA effect, hence: mechanical forces must be involved!

In @gaparicio.bsky.social previous work, we showed that knock-down of the actin-modulating protein MARCKS, or its phosphorylation (by activating PKC with PMA), caused neural tube closure failure, and loss of apico-basal polarity with apical cell extrusion in the chick embryo. doi.org/10.1002/dvg....

Mechanical conditions preventing live cell extrusion during primary neurulation in amniotes During primary neurulation in amniote embryos, the neural plate gives rise to the neural tube in a process requiring the coordination of forces at different scales throughout a geometrically complex t...

Preprint alert! Just from the oven, the adventures of a young theoretical biophysicist (Santi Bosch) in a usually strictly wet lab (BCDN): how is it that extreme forces in amniotes primary neurulation do not break the highly dynamic neuroepithelium apart?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A note to Uruguayans: you can have access to all the articles in the Special Issue from Timbó, timbo.org.uy

IBRO gathers more than 90 neuroscience societies all around the globe, supporting with grants the efforts of researchers and students who push the boundaries of knowledge in this relevant area. These funds largely come from these two journals. Publish in @ibrojournals.bsky.social!!

We are also thankful to the whole team at Neuroscience @ibrojournals.bsky.social @elsevierconnect.bsky.social, whose professionalism made this VSI a reality. Neuroscience and Neuroscience Reports are published by the International Brain Research Organization @ibroorg.bsky.social. What is IBRO?

The guest editors, A. Silva, N. Vitureira and myself thank the 53 authors that wrote the 15 articles on cutting-edge research connecting Uruguay with the world. A tribute to the founders of @socneurouy.bsky.social, but also to the 100 years of neuroscience history in Uruguay.

The Virtual Special Issue of Neuroscience celebrating the 30th anniversary of @socneurouy.bsky.social is completed, and with a cover! Find it and read it in full here: sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
@ibroorg.bsky.social @ibrojournals.bsky.social

Mañana viernes!!
bsky.app/profile/fzol...

El próximo viernes 25 de julio, a las 10 AM, en el Salón de Seminarios 1, de Facultad de Ciencias, Gonzalo Aparicio hará la defensa pública de su Tesis de Doctorado (PEDECIBA Biología). Los esperamos!

🚨🚨🚨 Tol2kit announcement! We have rebuilt the wiki that was corrupted a few months ago! We’re in the process of also linking it to the original address. Please visit us here:
tol2kitkwan.genetics.utah.edu
Thank you for your patience!!
#zebrafish #transgenesis #plasmids #sharing

Find the Virtual Special Issue here (still not completely finished): www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Happy to share the last article of the Virtual Special Issue of Neuroscience @ibrojournals.bsky.social devoted to the 30th anniversary of @socneurouy.bsky.social: the editorial! Coauthorship shared with Ana Silva and Nathalia Vitureira. authors.elsevier.com/a/1lL%7Eq_6z...
@ibroorg.bsky.social

🚨 Call for proposals! We’re putting together the #IBRO2027 Scientific Program Committee—and we want your input! Do you know someone who would bring valuable perspective & expertise? Submit your proposals by 30 May: buff.ly/kD3n8nf

#conference #neuroscience @thebalelab.bsky.social

Llegó el momento!
Este miércoles comienza el IV Congreso Nacional de Biociencias, organizado por la Sociedad Uruguaya de Biociencias (SUB)
Como en otras oportunidades, en el marco de ese evento realizaremos las XXI Jornadas de la SNU

+ info:
sociedadneurociencias.uy/jornadas-2025/

Los esperamos!

‼️ Mañana ‼️
Mesa abierta: Neurociencias e Inteligencia Artificial 🧠💻

🗓️ Martes 27/5 17:15
📍 Espacio Colabora

Exponen:
Juan Carlos Valle Lisboa, Universidad de la República, Uruguay
Pamela Guevara, Universidad de Concepción, Chile
Diego Fernández Slézak, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Mañana en el Espacio Colabora 👇
Asistencia libre!