Our latest: Minimal essential requirements for neural tube self-organisation
How does a single cell give rise to a tissue with the right cell types in the right proportions?
We deconstruct and rebuild a self-organising tissue from first principles
A thread🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A big preprint from my group!
Muller Elements are considered to be conserved in flies. We tested it by reconstructing the ancestral dipteran karyotype using 340 chromosomal genomes and suprise suprise, they're not...
Led by @juliagries.bsky.social and Sam Ebdon. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧵👇
Our paper "Gene ancestries reveal diverse microbial associations during eukaryogenesis.” is finally out in Nature.
Eukaryogenesis was likely a gradual process shaped by multiple microbial partners and virus-mediated gene transfer, rather than a single binary symbiosis.
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
A fossil nervous system meets modern neurobiology.
We found that a living comb jelly preserves neural architecture remarkably similar to those inferred from Cambrian fossils over 500 million years old 🤩.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Capolavoro 🎨 alert 🚨! What is the role of gene body methylation in invertebrates? Despite extensive speculation linking it to plasticity and environmental responses, its mechanistic effects and heritability remain unclear. Our take out in @natecoevo.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/
Here’s the last major paper from the PhD of @paulknabl.bsky.social.
We were trying to understand what BMP signaling does in the sea anemone Nematostella when it is not patterning its second body axis. Check out Part 1 in BMC Biol. 2025; and here's is our Part 2
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
We are looking for a new colleague to join us in Galway. The position is in Biochemistry and if research focus lines up we hope the successful person will join us in the Centre for Chromosome biology (chromosome.ie). Reach out if you are interested in applying!
tinyurl.com/2jy4rj3r
Video
Long-term aggregation induced by bacteria in the filasteran Ministeria, with increased mating frequency inside aggregates. Truly remarkable observations by JP Gerdt, @multicellgenome.bsky.social and team! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The reliable generation of diverse cell types in precise proportions is essential for the formation of functional tissues during embryonic development. Three-dimensional organoid models derived from p...
Experiments in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis show a role of gene body methylation in transposable element suppression and that epigenetic inheritance is constrained by chromatin context and tra...
www.nature.com
Bilaterian animals with centralized nervous systems have patterns of BMP signaling activity gradient that suggest an “anti-neural” ancestral role, but the evidence for this remains unclear. This study...
"Humbled to receive this recognition. This belongs as much to my team, my family, & to my home, Palestine: the people, the place, the joyful stubbornness to enjoy life."
Cheers buddy @gautamdey.bsky.social
Thx to my mentors @sophiemartinlab.bsky.social, @paveltomancak.bsky.social, & Pierre Gönczy.
Alex de Mendoza
Nature - A unicellular relative links aggregative multicellularity to animal origins
sPYce is now published in Nature Ecology and Evolution!
sPYce is a method to integrate single-cell regulatory data across species, without requiring whole-genome alignments between species.
More below ⬇️
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This paper presents sPYce, a method that integrates single-nucleus ATAC-seq data across species, allowing for comparison of gene regulatory evolution across species.
Congratulations to Gautam Dey (EMBL) and Omaya Dudin (University of Geneva) for being awarded the EMBO Gold Medal 2026 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the #LifeSciences in Europe! 🧪 https://www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-gold-medal-2026-awarded-to-gautam-dey-and-omaya-dudin/
