Aditya Singh Rajput

Why did consciousness evolve at all? A superb special issue of @royalsocietypublishing.org brings together experts across disciplines to explore the functions of consciousness and why it emerged in some species but not others. @tecumsehfitch.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...

Interesting work suggesting the need for different mechanisms on the establishment of patterning www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... that echo some ‘old’ ideas along similar lines and also involving #Wnt
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.nature.com/articles/nrg...

A high-resolution, easy-to-build light-sheet microscope for subcellular imaging An accessible light-sheet microscope delivers subcellular-resolution, multicolor volumetric, and live-cell imaging, lowering barriers to state-of-the-art performance.

In @elife.bsky.social: A high-resolution, easy-to-build light-sheet microscope for subcellular imaging doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

A balancing act: preventing an overactive immune system How do immune cells strike a balance, unleashing rapid attacks against pathogens or cancer, while avoiding damage to healthy cells? Research into an immune kill switch holds potential for controlling ...

Researchers at the Crick, @cam.ac.uk and Sanquin Research Amsterdam have made a key discovery about how the immune system can switch from ‘on’ to ‘off’ so quickly.

The findings could offer potential new avenues for treating cancer or autoimmune conditions.

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2026-01...

An image of two BSDB supplement covers from Journal of Experimental Embryology and Morphology.

The Company of Biologists and the British Society for Developmental Biology: a model partnership

As part of the #biologists100 anniversary, Saanjbati Adhikari and Raman Das review the relationship between @biologists.bsky.social and @bsdb.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Excited to share Alison's @alisonkickuth.bsky.social paper from the lab out in @nature.com this week! We uncovered how a mechanical ratchet mechanism drives cytokinesis in early #zebrafish embryos. Read more in this thread 🧵 and at www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩
@poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

Biophysics of organoids In this review, Weichselberger, Moore et al. discuss how physics-based approaches illuminate organoid development and homeostasis by integrating mechanical, chemical, and informational processes. They...

Interested in the biophysics of organoids? We just published a review in Dev Cell—take a look! dlvr.it/TPyTb8 #Organoids #Biophysics

Dynamic Landscape Analysis of Cell Fate Decisions: Predictive Models of Neural Development From Single-Cell Data Building a mechanistic understanding of cell fate decisions remains a fundamental goal of developmental biology, with implications for stem cell therapies, regenerative medicine and understanding dise...

It makes the many hours of Zoom calls and discussion all worth while.

For a further extension of this strategy see:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCC): short-term return to multicellularity https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41287033/ #EvoDevo

An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine Multiple genetic codes developed during the evolution of eukaryotes and bacteria, yet no alternative genetic code is known for archaea. We used proteomics to confirm our prediction that certain archae...

Some archaea—an ancient group of microorganisms—have an entirely novel genetic code, according to a new study in Science.

The findings expand our understanding of how alternative genetic codes evolve and hint at new molecular tools for biotechnology applications. https://scim.ag/4omApQ7

The Moon-forming impactor Theia originated from the inner Solar System The Moon formed from a giant impact of a planetary body, called Theia, with proto-Earth. It is unknown whether Theia formed in the inner or outer Solar System. We measured iron isotopes in lunar sampl...

A giant impact between proto-Earth and a planet called Theia produced the Moon. Hopp et al. use isotopic measurements of lunar samples and cosmochemical modelling to show that Theia formed in the inner Solar System, probably closer to the Sun than Earth. ☄️ #planetsci
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Advanced grad students + postdocs: apply for the 2026 #kitpqbio summer course, "Physical Principles of Morphogenesis in Plants and Animals," at buff.ly/OXXMKEv. Apply by Feb. 1.
Course directors Adrienne Roeder (Cornell) and Sebastian Streichan (UCSB)

When evolution took flight Researchers have revealed how a genetic circuit may have helped the evolution of insect wings.

Researchers have identified a signalling feedback loop that may have been vital to the evolution of insect wings and therefore flight.

The signals, called morphogens, act like lighthouses in most developing tissues, guiding nearby cells towards their fate.

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-11...

If you are interested in an interdisciplinary project connecting tissue mechanics, synthetic approaches and dev bio, this is the position for you! we are excited to get this colaboration started!!👇👇🤩🤓👇👇

Hi, I’m David Brückner @davidbrueckner.bsky.social.

I’ll take you through how cells in a tissue can use information distributed by biochemical gradients to make decisions, and how we can measure such positional information.

buff.ly/RFxVeHh

Yellowed and aged book cover: "Für Darwin Von Fritz Müller / Mit 67 Figuren in Holzschnitt / Leipzig, Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann 1864" Source: Wellcome Collection.

#DBfeature

Fritz Müller’s "Für Darwin" (1864) bridged evolution and development, anticipating evo-devo and warning to the dangers of scientific dogma

By Scott Gilbert and Beatrice Steinert
tinyurl.com/3sccvcr5

#SpecialIssue on Research that transformed #DevBio

Active geometrodynamics predicts the emergence of cytokinesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.07.683232v1

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'

The United States was the leading destination for top scientists from all over the world.

That is ending. Politicians ended it. It will cripple our future competitiveness.

And it’s such a bitter tragedy. Almost no Americans, Conservative or Liberal, grasp what is now being stolen from them.

Despite higher cell numbers and longer lifespans, large animals don’t have a higher cancer rate: Peto’s paradox. Elephants carry extra copies of tumor suppressor genes, while whales rely on enhanced DNA repair mechanisms! It’s fascinating that nature found different solutions to the same problem

Principles of protein abundance regulation across single cells in a mammalian tissue Protein synthesis and clearance are major regulatory steps of gene expression, but their in vivo regulatory roles across the cells comprising complex tissues remains unexplored. Here, we systematicall...

This article is a homecoming for me.

As a PhD student, I focused on the growth-rate transcriptional regulation in yeast.

Now, ~ 20 years later, we report protein regulation scaling with the growth rates of single cells in mammalian tissues.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🤔 Can tissue patterning & tumor heterogeneity emerge in a self-organized way?

We show that self-organized mechanical stress & density gradients pattern tumors in vitro & in vivo, and this behavior is quantitatively predicted by a mechano-chemical active fluid model!

Check out Carlos' thread ⬇️

Can pressure gradients persist over long timescales in animal cells? We induced intracellular pressure gradients and examined the resulting flows in single cells. We reveal surprisingly long lasting pressure gradients.

More here: elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

Rapid Divergence of Visual Systems and Signaling Traits to Contrasting Light Regimes During Early Speciation of African Crater Lake Cichlid Fish Abstract. Sensory adaptation is widely hypothesized to drive ecological speciation, yet empirical evidence from natural populations undergoing early stage

Very proud of this extremely collaborative piece: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Here, we show that divergence in visual systems - in response to differences in the light environment - leads to rapid divergence in sexually selected colour traits. Work brilliantly led by Madeleine Carruthers. 🐟👀🎨

📣Our project, “Mechanometabolic Control of Vertebrate Limb Elongation,” has been funded by Wellcome!
Over the next 8 years, we’ll collaborate with @manningresearch.bsky.social and Nathalie Agar’s group to understand the mechanics of ECM-rich mesenchymal tissues! Funded positions available!🎉

The final version of our review on biological filaments is out in Philtrans A (w/@jcammann.bsky.social Hannah Laeverenz-Schlogelhofer & Marco Mazza) - we have 417 references!
Enjoy :)

doi.org/10.1098/rsta...
(see also other articles in this special issue on biological fluid dynamics) #biophysics

@natalieadye.bsky.social @mbisg.bsky.social opened the session discussing the importance of 3D imaging to understand how tissues grow in the correct direction – Full 3D imaging of Drosophila wing disc revealed new dynamics, pouches and folds in the apical surface. #MBIMPG2025

Out now in Seminars in Cell & Dev Biol!

doi.org/10.1016/j.se...

With thanks to co-authors @callumbucklow.bsky.social and @bertaverd.bsky.social

EvoChromo: Evolutionary approaches to research in chromatin Chromatin is the complex of DNA, RNA and protein that is found making up the chromosomes in eukaryotic cells. Chromatin is essential for proper genome function and is involved in chromosome segregati…

Please re-post:

Interested in chromatin and its evolution? Good news! There's still time to join us in beautiful Catalonia (9-12 Dec) to discuss eukaryotic, bacterial, archaeal, and viral chromatin and how it all hangs together meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo...

Abstract deadline: 30 September

Flies evolved a shock-absorber tissue used during embryonic development The role of tissue that forms between the head and trunk of a fly embryo has been unclear. It turns out that it absorbs forces when nearby cells move and divide.

The papers have been improved by reviewers @amartinezarias.bsky.social, @thibautbrunet.bsky.social & Cassandra Extavour. Thibaut synthesized the work beautifully in the #News_and_Views. None of that can happen without The Editor: @endofthepier.bsky.social (11/12)

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Super excited that our group will be supported by an ERC Starting Grant!

In project "InfoFate" we will study how cells use information in dynamical, neighborhood & mechanical signals to make decisions.

We'll have PhD and Postdoc positions available, please get in touch if interested!