International Society of Developmental Biology

How can cells use information from neighboring cells to improve the spatial precision of morphogen patterns? 🤔

We show that cells can gain positional information by "talking" to their neighbors - how much depends critically on spatial correlations of the patterns.

buff.ly/w56OUJT

A fantastic line up of speakers! Register is now open.

Registration is OPEN for the 2026 Santa Cruz Meeting on Developmental Biology!!! Please spread the word!

@mads100tist.bsky.social @socdevbio.bsky.social @bsdb.bsky.social @xenbase.bsky.social @isdb.bsky.social @devbiol.bsky.social @the-node.bsky.social

scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

A fantastic line up of speakers! Register is now open.

Many congratulations to all the winners! Fantastic.

Society for Developmental Biology logo Society for Developmental Biology 2026 Award Winners Edwin G. Conklin Medal Headshot of Lee Niswander Lee Niswander, University of Colorado Boulder Society for Developmental Biology Lifetime Achievement Award Headshot of Alexandra Joyner Alexandra Joyner, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize Headshot of Roberto Mayor Roberto Mayor, University College London Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award Headshot of Jeffrey Farrell Jeffrey Farrell, National Institutes of Health Society for Developmental Biology Trainee Science Communication Award Headshot of Nicholas Desnoyer Nicholas Desnoyer, The Sainsbury Laboratory

Congrats to the 2026 SDB Award Winners!
Conklin Medal: Lee Niswander
SDB Lifetime Achievement Award: Alexandra Joyner
Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize: Roberto Mayor
Hay New Investigator Award: Jeffrey Farrell
SDB Trainee SciComm Award: Nicholas Desnoyer
bit.ly/4afnjiC

It’s a real honour to receive the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize from the SDB. Teaching is one of the most rewarding parts of my life. Thanks to the SDB and the hundreds of students and faculty at the Quintay course who have made it such a joy.

Fig. 1. What determines the anatomical setpoint of regenerative homeostasis? Planarian flatworms regenerate after amputation using a resident population of stem cells. This process reliably stops when the correct species-specific head shape is restored. The following thought experiment illustrates the profound knowledge gap in our understanding of the rules of morphogenesis despite ample information about genes required for neoblast differentiation. (A) Fragments from a round-head species result in a round-headed regenerate; (B) Fragments from a flat-head species result in flat-headed regenerates. (C) A chimera can be produced by irradiating one species (removing half of the stem cells) and receiving injections of donor neoblasts from a flat-head species. (D) When neoblasts from diverse species combine in the same body, and the head is amputated, what head shape will the regenerative process construct? Despite genomic and molecular-biological information on regeneration in multiple species, the field as yet has no models which make a prediction. This illustrates the importance of chimeras in identifying gaps in our understanding of the rules of emergent processes such as anatomical homeostasis and collective decision-making by cell groups.

✂️ the head of round-head worm => new round head formed.
✂️ the head of flat-head worm => new flat head formed.
What shape will it be if we ✂️ the head of a worm with 50:50 round + flat stem cells?
Check out this exciting review by @drmichaellevin.bsky.social lab!
#chimerism
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

Special issue announced, for those interested ✨

🎇 Calling for paper submission to our Special issue "Tissue Biology – at the interface between immunology and developmental biology". This issue focuses on the interactions between resident immune cells and the surrounding tissue.

Deadline: ‼️30th March 2026‼️

www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Animal caps are the original organoid!

A whole embryoid is wild. Check out this review by Makoto Asashima et al.

A whole embryoid is wild. Check out this review by Makoto Asashima et al.

Fig. 1. Animal cap assay and sandwich method as in vitro induction systems. In amphibians, a blastocoel cavity clearly forms inside the animal hemisphere during the blastula and early gastrula stages. The cap-like portion lining the roof of the blastocoel cavity is the animal cap. This region consists of a sheet of pluripotent cells, organized into one or several layers. In the animal cap assay, the animal cap was treated with a physiological saline solution containing inducing factors and then cultured. Depending on the type, concentration, and duration of exposure to the inducing factors, animal caps can differentiate into various cell types. In contrast, the sandwich method, involves culturing the inducer source in between two animal caps. In this technique, the sources of induction can include the dorsal lip of the blastopore (organizer), adult tissues, pelletized soluble factors, or animal caps pretreated with soluble factors. In this figure, activin is used as an example of an inducing factor.

Fig. 12. Summary of the in vitro induction system using activin as an inducing factor. This in vitro induction system utilizes activin and retinoic acid as inducing factors to treat animal caps, employing techniques such as animal cap assay, dissociation/reaggregation protocol, and the sandwich method. By applying these methods, various levels of self-organization can be replicated and controlled in vitro, ranging from lower-order cell differentiation to higher-order tissue differentiation, organogenesis, and even the formation of fundamental body plans. Abbreviations: Dorsal [D], ventral [V], and retinoic acid [RA].

Fig. 11. Formation of embryoids by artificial activin concentration gradients. To create embryoids, animal caps were prepared through treatment with low (0.5–1 ng/ml), intermediate (5–10 ng/ml), or high (50–100 ng/ml) concentrations of activin. These three types of activin-treated animal caps were then sequentially arranged and cultured with untreated animal caps. After 3 days of culture, embryoids with distinct head and trunk-tail structures were formed (A). Histological sections revealed differentiation into head tissues, such as the cement gland [cg] and eyes, and trunk-tail tissues including the ear vesicle [ev], brain [br], notochord [not], muscle [mus], and gut (B). When newt embryos are used in similar combination cultures, neural plate structures forming the brain [white arrow] and axial structures forming the trunk-tail regions [black arrow] are sometimes observed (C).

Fig. 7. In vitro heart formation and in vivo transplantation experiment. When treated with a high concentration of activin, the animal caps of Xenopus embryos did not differentiate into heart tissue. However, if the animal cap dissociates into individual cells before activin treatment and then reaggregates, it forms a beating heart [arrow] with 100 % efficiency (A). This heart expresses differentiation marker genes, such as Nkx2.5, GATA-4, Tbx5, MHCα, TnIc (cardiac troponin I), and ANF, none of which are expressed in an animal cap treated with activin alone, without dissociation/reaggregation (B). Electron microscopy reveals the presence of intercalated discs [id] specific to the cardiac muscle, along with visible mitochondria [m] and Z-bands [z] (C). When the reaggregated heart tissue is orthotopically transplanted into the cardiac primordium of a neurula-stage embryo, it integrates without rejection and continues to beat (D), although it does not persist through host metamorphosis. In contrast, when the reaggregated tissue is ectopically transplanted into the ventral region of the neurula, it begins to beat synchronously with the host heart and gradually reddens as it initiates blood circulation (E).

A fascinating review on the role of Activin in organ induction. Isn't it wild that in Xenopus embryos, a piece of the animal cap can be induced with Activin at different concentrations and buffers to form the ❤️, kidney, the pancreas, head, tail, and even a whole embryoid 🤯:
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

Header image with the paper title: "Improved in vivo gene knockout with high specificity using multiplexed Cas12a sgRNAs"

Make your gene knockouts more efficient with multiplexed Cas12a sgRNAs. Our new paper is out now, with tools available from @addgene.bsky.social , www.plasmids.eu and @vdrc-flies.bsky.social.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#CRISPR #geneediting #Drosophila 🧪🧬✂️🔬🪰

Summary 🧵 below.

So proud to share my paper on collective chemotaxis and force coordination in epithelial and mesenchymal cells, developed in the Mayor Lab and now published in JCB. Deeply grateful for everything I learned from Xenopus NC and the amphibian world, where adaptation is everything🐸

A new paper published in @jcb.org by postdoc Jorge Diaz from the Mayor lab at UCL shows that during collective migration, epithelial-like clusters generate traction force mainly through cryptic protrusions at the centre, while mesenchymal clusters do so at their periphery:
doi.org/10.1083/jcb....

A new paper published in @jcb.org by postdoc Jorge Diaz from the Mayor lab at UCL shows that during collective migration, epithelial-like clusters generate traction force mainly through cryptic protrusions at the centre, while mesenchymal clusters do so at their periphery:
doi.org/10.1083/jcb....

Happy #FluorescenceFriday. Here are some labelled myeloid cells from frog 🐸 embryos migrating inside tissue.
📹: @anhhle2702.bsky.social, postdoc fellow at @ucl-cdb.bsky.social

Fig. 1. Embryonic origins of Schwann cell precursors. Transverse cross-section through the neural tube showing three pathways giving rise to Schwann cell precursors (orange) that have been discussed in the literature: 1. Neural crest cells (blue) migrate from the dorsal neural tube and give rise to Schwann cell precursors along the dorsal root along which they migrate into the periphery. 2. Neural crest cells (blue) migrate to the site of the future dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) or future motor exit point (MEP) where they give rise to boundary cap cells (green). These boundary cap cells then give rise to Schwann cell precursors along the dorsal and ventral roots. 3. The neuroepithelium (purple) is a currently contested source of Schwann cell precursors along the ventral and possibly dorsal roots. Arrows show direction of migration. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 2. Schwann cell precursor derivatives. Schwann cell precursors (orange) have been shown to give rise to a diverse range of cell types (blue). Grey circles represent axons, viewed in transverse cross-section. Arrows show direction of differentiation. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Did you know that melanocytes, chondrocytes, and even osteoblasts can be differentiated from Schwann Cell Precursors? These cells don't only give rise to Schwann cells as the name suggests but many other cell types. Check out this interesting review by Marianne Bronner et al: doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

Happy #FluorescenceFriday. Here are some labelled myeloid cells from frog 🐸 embryos migrating inside tissue.
📹: @anhhle2702.bsky.social, postdoc fellow at @ucl-cdb.bsky.social

Congratulations, @rashmi-priya.bsky.social. Rashmi's works focus on the mechanics of heart development using zebrafish as a model system. Fantastic achievement!

We are delighted to announce that @rashmi-priya.bsky.social from @crick.ac.uk has been awarded the 2026 Women in Cell Biology Early Career medal

You can read about Rashmi's prize-winning work on heart morphogenesis here:

bscb.org/wicb-early-c...

2-head frogs? 😲

3D image of the apical Drosophila pupal eye with depth-coding applied and a pronounced dome-like appearance of ommatidia, owing to the highly organized network of apical rib-like actin filaments (ARAFs)

Our first issue of Vol 153 (2026) is complete!

On the cover: 3D image of the apical Drosophila pupal eye with depth-coding applied, showing a dome-like ommatidia.

See the Research Article by Bhattarai ( @abhibhattarai.bsky.social) et al. from @ruthjohnsonlab.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1242/dev....

2-head frogs? 😲

Fig. 1. IGF2 and Cerberus mRNAs cooperate in ectopic head induction in Xenopus embryos. Embryos were microinjected into the ventral marginal zone of a single blastomere at the 4- to 8-cell stage. (A) Uninjected control sibling at early tailbud stage (n = 81). (B) A single ventral injection of IGF2 mRNA caused a small ectopic head protrusion with a pigmented cement gland on the belly (n = 86, 68 % with ectopic structures). (C) Cerberus mRNA induced a secondary head-like structure (n = 78, 94 % with ectopic heads). (D) Co-injection of IGF2 and Cerberus mRNAs induced a large ectopic head with an expanded cement gland (n = 90, 98 % with ectopic heads). (E–H) Panoramic views of control and injected embryos. Injected mRNA doses per embryo were: Cerberus, 100 pg; IGF2, 2 ng. Results from two experiments. Scale bars are 500 μm (A-D) and 2 mm (E-H).

Fig. 6. Dominant-negative IGF receptor 1 blocked ectopic head formation by Cerberus mRNA in single ventral injections. (A) Control embryo at stage 24 injected with LacZ (100 pg) mRNA but not stained for β-galactosidase (n = 50). (B) DN-IGFR (600 pg) and LacZ injected embryos (n = 20, all normal). (C) Cerberus (100 pg) injected embryos with ectopic heads (n = 56, 96 % ectopic heads). (D) DN-IGFR blocked Cerberus ectopic heads (n = 33, 88 % with no ectopic structures, 12 % with small cement glands). (E–F) LacZ staining for (A–D). Scale bar, 500 μm.

A very curious paper from the De Robertis lab shows how Cerberus - a growth factor that inhibits Wnt signalling, and IGF - a growth factor that activates MAPK signalling, can synergistically induce a new head (aka ectopic archencephalic differentiation) in Xenopus embryos.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

#JobOffer

Join an exciting project in a growing team!

@sebioldev.bsky.social @izfs.bsky.social @segenetica.bsky.social @sebbm.bsky.social @isdb.bsky.social @the-node.bsky.social @pablodeolavide.upo.es @csicandalextrem.bsky.social

#Collagen IV intercellular concentrations mediate cell–cell #adhesion in the #Drosophila #adipose tissue. New study from Almasoud, Franz et al. @ucl-cdb.bsky.social finds that the adipose tissue has apical-basal cell #polarity, which regulates this adhesion. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

I am absolutely delighted to share the invited speakers for our upcoming @bsdb.bsky.social "Molecules to Morphogenesis" meeting!

Registration and abstract submission is now open - join us!

bsdb.org/meetings/

March 23-26, 2026 - UK