Ryan Hulett

Final week to apply!

PUMAS is designed specifically for community college students ready to gain hands-on research experience at Gladstone.

Don’t miss this opportunity to spend your summer in the lab learning from world-class scientists.

Apply now ➡️ https://bit.ly/2UVIaST

Wendy Valencia Montoya Receives Weintraub Graduate Student Award for Groundbreaking Thesis on the Evolution of Sensory Worlds - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology Wendy Valencia Montoya has been named a recipient of the prestigious 2026 Harold M. Weintraub Award in recognition of her doctoral thesis, an ambitious and interdisciplinary body of […]

Wendy Valencia Montoya Receives Weintraub Graduate Student Award for Groundbreaking Thesis on the Evolution of Sensory Worlds 🧠 🧪🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd
www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @nbellono.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @basicsci.fredhutch.org @harvardoeb.bsky.social

Efficient genome editing using CRISPR–Cas9 in reef-building corals - Nature Protocols In this protocol, the authors present straightforward and efficient methods to genetically modify corals and study gene function throughout various life-history stages using CRISPR–Cas9-based mutagene...

To increase the use of gene editing in corals, we have made a comprehensive methods paper describing the protocol. We hope this helps the field of functional genetics in corals. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Calling all researchers working on *Genomics of Adaptation to Extreme Thermal Environments*
I'm serving as a guest editor of an upcoming collection in BMC Genomics and am eager to read your submission! More on scope and how to contribute here: bit.ly/4kH3PIx 🧪 @springer.springernature.com

Our new paper reveals critical new regulators of stem cell differentiation that control where the right kinds of cells are made in planarians.

In particular, we find Anosmin—a gene responsible for Kallmann Syndrome—as a restrictor of neurogenesis.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#basicresearch

Establishment of a transgenic protocol in Trichoplax adhaerens https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41493084/ #EvoDevo

Our research scientist Núria Ros-Rocher won the 1st prize @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social microscopy contest with this beautiful choano colony www.zeiss.fr/microscopie/... 🥳

C. flexa might not yet be a genetic model, but it is now at least a calendar model, which counts for something. I think.

Deep conservation of cis-regulatory elements and chromatin organization in echinoderms uncover ancestral regulatory features of animal genomes Nature Ecology & Evolution - Analysis of the 3D chromatin architecture and cis-regulatory elements in a sea urchin and a sea star reveals mechanisms of 3D chromatin organization in echinoderms...

Our work on the evolution of the regulatory genome of echinoderms is now out in @natecoevo.nature.com. Led by my former PhD Marta Magri, Danila Voronov & Saoirse Foley. Great collaboration of Arnone, Hinman & Maeso labs, started long time ago with our missed José Luis Gomez-Skarmeta: rdcu.be/eXX8l

Shout out to the fellow Olga Raikova stan last night

Happening today at 2:30 pm #sicb2026

Interested in transposable elements, genome evolution, and jellyfish? Be sure to check out graduate student Ayanna Mays’ talk TODAY at 11:45 in B114 (first SICB talk!) #SICB2026

He Studied Why Some Female Birds Look Like Males

"I don’t know why my fellowship was terminated. I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary of what we expect to see in nature, with completely different males and females."

@carlzimmer.com profiles my wonderful coauthor @jjinsing.bsky.social Gift link.

Api New Year! 🎉 For anyone attending SICB next week, I will be presenting my work on marine apicomplexans in SYM-1A (Host-microbe interactions) on Sunday at 8:45 AM! 🪸🐟🪱 #SICB2026 #Protists

Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies an ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, pollination occurs via a synchronized rhythm of floral sex timing between two hermaphroditic flowering types. A-type plants present female-phase flo...

Did you know there are 2 types of avocado varieties? A-types switch from female to male, B-types male to female, within a single day. This reciprocal sex alternation promotes cross-pollination and has a simple genetic basis. Read more in this recent preprint from the final chapter of my PhD thesis 🥑

Bacterial diversity within the accessory nidamental gland of a Hawaiian bobtail squid (E. scolopes), showing Alphaproteobacteria (magenta), Verrucomicrobia (yellow), and Flavobacteriia (green). CREDIT: Nidhi Vijayan

Hawaiian bobtail squid maintain distinct microbiota in different organs, including bioluminescent bacteria in their light organs, by deploying immune factors with tailored expressions in each niche. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/QxLo50XPnyS

Sustained ERK signaling couples the injury response to organizer formation during Hydra head regeneration https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.27.696609v1

🚨 POSTDOC OPENING 🚨
NIH-funded Bio-Fluid Mechanics Postdoc in my lab @univmiami.bsky.social
Hofstenia miamia | cilia-driven flows | behavior & neuroscience
Collab w/ Mansi Srivastava @harvard.edu
🕒 Start: Jan–Feb 2026
⏳ 1 yr, renewable | Email me ASAP!
#Postdoc #Biophysics #FluidDynamics

Are you going to SICB in Jan2026? I can't but I'll be there in spirit with these plates I am donating for the Division of Invertebrate Zoology Libbie Hyman Auction. Show up and support student travel funds by bidding for them! Featuring #membracids #acoels #cnidarians #rotifers @sicb.bsky.social

Hofstenia miamia with beanie and labware as a Christmas ornament

A miamia Christmas

An updated and spatially validated somatic single-cell atlas of Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus - BMC Genomics Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has revolutionized transcriptomic research, enabling the creation of detailed tissue, organ, and species-level atlases for model organisms. In Hydractinia, a cni...

A new Hydractinia single-cell atlas from the Schnitzler lab: >47K cells from feeding polyps and stolon tissue that refines major somatic cell lineages and recovers a novel population of putative immune cells – a valuable resource for the cnidarian research community and beyond! tinyurl.com/hsymSC

Two species of sea slugs on a black background.

Neon colors. External gills. Regenerative superpowers. If you’re not a fan of sea slugs yet, we’ll get you there: buff.ly/hUCF15A

The Hydractinia Genome Project Portal: multi-omic annotation and visualization of Hydractinia genomic datasets AbstractMotivation. The colonial hydroid Hydractinia exhibits several unique biological properties, including its remarkable regenerative capacity and the

We've updated our Hydractinia Genome Project Portal! The site includes genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic datasets, genome browsers, an interactive single-cell gene expression atlas, proteome-scale structure predictions, a custom BLAST interface, and more. Check it out! tinyurl.com/hydractinia

Ancient Plants Used Infrared Radiation to Attract Their Pollinators - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology Long before flowers painted the planet in brilliant colors, some of Earth’s earliest plants were glowing—not with pigment, but with heat. A new study from the lab of […]

Ancient Plants Used Infrared Radiation to Attract Their Pollinators #research 🧠 🧪🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd
www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @nbellono.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @harvardoeb.bsky.social @science.org

Calling all postdocs! Applications are open for Dept. of Molecular Biosciences 3rd Trailblazers Postdoctoral Symposium @utaustin.bsky.social. Come to Austin, meet your peers, showcase your work. Application is easy and all expenses are paid! Spread the word!

tinyurl.com/yw7ffjn9

Interested in cell adhesion, evolution of multicellularity, or developing tools for emerging marine models?

My lab at UM is hiring a postdoc, and the application is now open:
🔗 tinyurl.com/28jvu4aa

If you know anyone looking for a postdoc, please pass this along!

A cell clump that looks scary

Today as a “cell”

Smed-pou4-2 regulates mechanosensory neuron regeneration and function in planarians A conserved POU4-dependent developmental program underlies mechanosensory neuron regeneration in adult planarians.

Our study on the role of the Pou4 gene in planarian neural regeneration has been published. Congratulations to the trainees and team members who led this work!

doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Tomorrow is VGZT day! 🚀

Don’t miss the great talks from
👉 Allison Kann (@apkann.bsky.social)
👉 Joana da Silva (on X: @joanamsilva14)

Beautiful work (as usual)! Always excited to see the work the lab produces!

Will be doing this for journal club in the upcoming weeks.

Candid photo of Zara Weinberg. She has short red hair, bangs and glasses. She is laughing.

The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor.

The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.

www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/