Neha Ghosh

Very happy to see our preprint on how the mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1 controls intercellular junction maturation by balancing cortex and membrane tension now published in @jcellsci.bsky.social Congratulations to Ahsan & team! journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Hi bsky!

Do embryonic tissues have backup plans🔀? Gastruloids (model of body elongation) can build an axis through different cellular mechanisms when on adherent substrates instead of free floating. A case of developmental plasticity!

w/ A. Delahaye & ‪@bensteventon.bsky.social‬

shorturl.at/v01DO

#DBfeature

Mesenchymal cell contractility regulates villus morphogenesis and intestinal architecture

by Taylor Hinnant @taylorhinnant.bsky.social , Caroline Joo, Terry Lechler @terrylechler.bsky.social

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

I’m currently reading Fred Sanger – Double Nobel Laureate by George G. Brownlee. He was a pretty amazing guy. And he has two Nobel Prizes to show for it! One for sequencing proteins and one for DNA. When people talk “Sanger sequencing” though, they’re almost always talking about DNA sequencing.

A Genome-wide CRISPR Screen Reveals ZDHHC8-Dependent Gαq Palmitoylation as a Key Regulator of GPCR Signaling G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that couple to the Gαq signaling pathway control diverse physiological processes, yet the full complement of cellular regulators for this pathway remains unknown. H...

A Genome-wide CRISPR Screen Reveals ZDHHC8-Dependent Gαq Palmitoylation as a Key Regulator of GPCR Signaling
Muhammad Ahmad, Norbert Perrimon, Raghuvir Viswanatha, Ah-Ram Kim
bioRxiv 2025.08.06.668953; doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Tissue bending through localized BM growth or dissolution.

Alteration in tissue morphology by intrinsic stresses in an assembling BM network.

Branching morphogenesis driven by localized deposition of interstitial matrix.

Asymmetric tissue expansion through anisotropic BM remodeling.

Maybe it's time we rethink the idea that development is a cell centric process? In this beautiful review, María-del-Carmen and @stramerlab.bsky.social discussed how the ECM underlies and influences many morphogenesis processes from wing unfolding to mammary gland development.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

Basement membrane perforations guide anterior–posterior axis formation - Nature Communications Chen et al. show that in mice, extracellular matrix remodeling drives early migration of the anterior signaling center, establishing the body axis sooner than expected—a mechanism potentially conserve...

Beautiful paper from former student @dy-chen.bsky.social now postdoc in Zernicka-Goetz lab. Human embryos, stem cell models & mice: BM heterogeneity drives AP symmetry breaking. High-end microscopy, live imaging, physical modeling, mechanistic tests. Tour de force. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Images of Streptomyces venezuelae consuming the chitin-rich exoskeleton of a dead grasshopper (top), cricket (middle) and superworm (bottom).

More than a billion tons of #chitin are produced on Earth each year. This study shows that the soil #bacterium #Streptomyces venezuelae thrives on chitin from #insect #exoskeletons, using a potent mix of chitinases and a dedicated chitobiose importer @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/45sg4S5

Out now! Our very first paper@crick.ac.uk, an impressive feat by @tobyandrews.bsky.social where we show how a developing heart grows and scales up its morphological complexity to keep beating...an excellent summary below ⬇️
www.cell.com/developmenta...

Fascinating study! Congratulations @tobyandrews.bsky.social and @rashmi-priya.bsky.social

I am sorry you lost a friend! Take care

Very happy that the first article from my postdoc work in the Tomancak lab is now published @PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... We studied the self-organization of actin in aggregates made from Hydra cells. Thread below (1/9)

A genetically tractable non-vertebrate system to study complete camera-type eye regeneration Nature Communications - Accorsi et al. show that the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata has eyes similar to humans and can fully regenerate them. They then developed genetic tools to establish these...

Evolution’s eye game is wild, but mollusks take it to another level

CRISPR in apple snails gives us a new model to dissect how nature rebuilds complex organs like the camera-type eyes we humans possess

It turns out Evolution doesn’t just innovate, it rewinds, remixes, & regenerates

rdcu.be/ezw0t

Fig. 1. The knockdown of Sfmbt or Scm in addition to toy transforms the eye-antennal disc. (A-G) Third-instar eye-antennal imaginal discs knocking down a PcG member with DE-GAL4; stained for Antp. (A′-G′) Third-instar eye-antennal imaginal discs knocking down a PcG member and toy with DE-GAL4; stained for anti-Antp (green), anti-Elav (blue) and Phalloidin (red). Wild type [DE-GAL4 (A) or DE-GAL4, toy RNAi (A′)] eye-antennal disc from a third-instar wandering larvae. (H) Simplified model of the Pc eye-to-wing transformation (left) proposed in Brown et al. (2023), where the presence of Vg and Sd drives the wing transformation (brown) in the dorsal eye field, while continued presence of Pax6 maintains some eye fate (green). The combined loss of toy and Sfmbt, Scm or Pc (right) leads to an ‘enhanced’ eye-to-wing transformation more drastic than that of ey>Pc RNAi or DE>Pc RNAi alone. Please note that we have idealized the drawing of the ectopic wing for simplicity.

Fig. 3. The eye-to-wing transformation clusters separately from morphologically wild-type eye-antennal discs. (A) CPM normalized transcript counts of 120 h AEL ‘wild-type’ (orange: DE-GAL4, DE-GAL4>UAS-toy RNAi, DE-GAL4>UAS Sfmbt RNAi and DE-GAL4>UAS-Scm RNAi) and transformed (purple: DE-GAL4>UAS-Pc RNAi, DE-toy>UAS-Pc RNAi, DE-toy>UAS-Sfmbt RNAi and DE-toy>UAS-Scm RNAi) eye-antennal discs. Heatmap depicts hierarchical clustering of the top 100 most variable genes. (B) MA plot of differentially expressed genes between wild-type (DE-GAL4) eye-antennal discs and DE-toy RNAi (toyKD) (n=108) eye-antennal discs. (C) Enriched GO analysis of differentially expressed genes between wild-type (DE-GAL4) eye-antennal discs and toyKD eye-antennal discs.

‘Toy’ing with eye fate in Drosophila

Read this Research Highlight showcasing work from Haley E. Brown, Claude Jean-Guillaume, Brandon P. Weasner, Justin P. Kumar:

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

I enjoyed reading your interview thoroughly. I really like how you always re-invent yourself. Best wishes for the journey ahead. 🎉

Picture of Sandra Schmid, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco E.B. Wilson Medal Presented to distinguished researchers for their far-reaching contributions to cell biology over a lifetime in science.

Congrats to Sandy Schmid , a scientific hero, winner of @ascbiology.bsky.social's E.B Wilson Medal. She shaped our understanding of molecular mechanisms & regulation of clathrin-mediated endocytosis, is a leader in the cell biology community & a remarkable mentor🧪
www.ascb.org/society-news...

This thread below is criminally under-liked and under-shared!

Young #Drosophila researchers (PhDs, postdocs, and early-career Drosophilists): fill out the survey by Sept 1st to get matched with a mentor who can support you with your career.

Established Drosophilists, like/share Shefali's Thread ;)

a man with a mustache in a blue suit says tiny celebration in front of a group of people ALT: a man with a mustache in a blue suit says tiny celebration in front of a group of people

Happy Friday! The female adult fly brain-and-nerve-cord (BANC) connectome is now LIVE!

Explore the data here: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc

Check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

#FlyCROSS mentee surveys are open for #earlycareer #Drosophila scientists. If you're a #gradstudent #postdoc or pretenure faculty or equivalent - fill up the survey by Sept 1 to participate & be matched by #mentor of your preferences to gain guidance to your unique needs. @flybase.bsky.social

Wound repair in plants guided by cell geometry Mathew et al. show that growth conflicts reshape cells after injury, forming rhomboidal geometries that trigger diagonal divisions. This reorients cell files to restore tapered morphology. A two-step ...

Our new paper is out!
1/14 How does an organ rebuild its shape after injury? It's not just about making new cells, but aligning them in the right direction — like bricks shaping a structure. We show that it's all driven by Cell Geometry!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

A red algal polysaccharide influences the multicellular development of the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta Perotti et al. find that polysaccharides from algae promote multicellular development in the choanoflagellate S. rosetta. Because algal polysaccharides are abundant in the aquatic environments where S...

A red algal polysaccharide influences the multicellular development of the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta

in @currentbiology.bsky.social

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Somatic cells compartmentalise their metabolism to sustain germ cell survival To ensure success in reproduction, organisms dedicate substantial resources to supporting the germline. In testes, somatic gonadal cells form a barrier that isolates germ cells from circulating nutrie...

🆕🧪‼️
New lab preprint!
We study how germ cells (the cells that give rise to gametes, in this case sperm) are supported by somatic (non-germ) cells of the gonad. This matters for our understanding of reproduction - without germ cell development, animals are sterile.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Huge congratulations, Leo!!! Best wishes for the exciting journey ahead

Congratulations! It’s gorgeous 😍

pYtags - our in vivo biosensors for receptor tyrosine kinases - in all their beauty on the cover of Cell Reports! Read more here: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Featured image with Maik Bischoff - FocalPlane Featured image with Maik Bischoff - News

Our featured 🔬image this #FluorescenceFriday is of a portion of testis from Drosophila hydei, acquired by @maikbischoff.bsky.social.

Learn more about the image and Maik’s research ⤵️
focalplane.biologists.com/2025/07/18/f...

There is so much cool #aECM work going on but most of the researchers don’t know or talk to each other; this is an attempt to change that! Link below

Yadav, Jadhav, @hanasedlackova.bsky.social et al present a novel cell-permeable biotin-HaloTag ligand. The reported ligand expands the HaloTag toolbox by enabling in vivo labeling & providing capabilities for efficient affinity capture of protein variants from live cells rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Calling all aECM enthusiasts!

Patterning of cell identities in the posterior E8.5 mouse embryo. Co-expression of mesoderm marker TBXT (blue) and neural marker SOX2 (green) identifies cells in the neuromesodermal (NMP) progenitor region at the intersection of their respective gene expression gradients. TBX6 (red) marks paraxial mesoderm and also marks sporadic mesoderm-committed cells emerging within the NMP region. LAMINB1 (white) marks the nuclear envelope of all cells. Credit: Matthew French.

Measuring properties of individual cells in relation to their neighbors in 3D tissues is challenging. @cellysally.bsky.social &co develop a computational toolkit to facilitate this, analyzing developmental patterning in mouse, chick & #Drosophila #embryo @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4lQMeNu