The Node was full of activity in February. Here are some of the highlights!

 

Research:
 
- Jennifer Fish and Richard Schneider wrote about their recent paper studying jaw size evolution using quail and duck.

- Groups at the MPI-CBG in Dresden and Fritz Lipmann Institute in Jena showed that integrin and thyroid hormones promote expansion of progenitors in the developing neocortex.

- And a recent Cell paper uncovered the structural basis of why different auxin response factors are able to activate only specific gene subsets.

 


Model organism series:

Great additions to our ongoing series this month!

- A day in the life of an Arabidopsis lab, by Narender Kumar (Louisiana State University).

- A day in the life of an ascidian lab, by Alicia Madgwick and Marion Gueroult-Bellone (CNRS, Montpellier).

- A day in the life of a sea urchin lab, by Tanvi Shashikant (Carnegie Mellon University).

- A day in the life of a butterfly lab, by Leila Shirai (IGC Lisbon).

 
 

Outreach:

- Alison Woollard considered her experience presenting this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.

- Simon Bishop wrote about his internship at the Naked Scientists, bringing developmental biology to the radio.

 

Also on the Node:

- We reposted an article by SDB president Martin Chalfie, with his advice on getting the postdoc you want.

- Mirana wrote about how a travel fellowship to visit a collaborating lab helped her establish her own lab.

- Development made a short movie about the history of their covers and the beauty of developmental biology.

- and the Node will be at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory conference on Avian Model Systems.

 
 

Happy Reading!

 

January was a busy month on the Node, particularly our jobs page, which included several new postdoctoral positions, as well as PhD studentships, group leader and technician positions.

Here are some of the other highlights:

 

Research:

- Yan Yun wrote about his recent Development paper examining the origins of aneuploidy by tracking chromosomes and their kinetochores in oocytes from young and aged mice.

- Oguz discussed the development of Raeppli, a new technique that allows whole tissue labelling in Drosophila.

- and Christele’s stem cell image choice this month is from a Cell Reports paper showing that the junctional adhesion molecule JAM-A is essential for the survival and growth of the cancer stem cells found in glioblastoma.

 

Science life:

- Erin kicked off our model organism series in 2014 with her post ‘A day in the life of a Parhyale lab’- make sure to read it to learn all about using beach hoppers in developmental biology.

- Máté discusses the experience of returning to his home country Hungary to establish his own lab after a PhD and postdoc abroad.

- And Sonia, a postdoc at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in India, wrote about her recent collaborative visit to a lab in California.

Also on the Node:

- If you are keen in writing on the Node but have never blogged before, we collated a list of handy tips to get you started.

- We had a look at our stats to find the top posts of 2013.

- And there is less than a month left to participate in our outreach competition!

 
 
 

Happy reading!

 

 Writing image: Wellcome Library, London

Happy new year everyone!

To wrap up 2013 we had a look at our stats to find what out which were the most popular posts of the last year. 2013 saw the usual varied mix of news, research, meeting and discussion posts, so there was a lot to read!

 

 

Most viewed posts:

1- There and back again- Kara’s account of returning to the bench after working as an editor

2- Overly honest methods- a collection of the best tweets with this popular hashtag

3- Where scientists fear to tread- Caroline’s account of how ‘alternative’ careers are perceived

4- Breakthrough Prize floors winners with sheer amount of money- Eva commented on this newly established prize

5- A website for Postdocs and PhDs- the PostPostDoc website

 

Best rated posts:

1- There and back again- not only the most viewed but also the best rated!

2- The end of Biology?- Thomas’ thought provoking piece discussing some of the issues of science

3- Cellular Reincarnation- A literary interpretation of cellular reprogramming

4- A day in the life of.. a zebrafish lab

5- An interview with Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado

 

Other highlights:

2013 was a year that saw many people writing about their research and discussing their recent papers. Some of the most popular research posts this year included Making sense of Wnt signaling and a post by the University of Chicago journal club on the limb-to-fin transition. As has been the case in the past, our image competitions, such as our stem cell image competition or those featuring images from the Woods Hole course, have been extremely popular.

This last year also saw the beginning of two new series on the Node. A day in the life provides an account of a typical day in developmental biology labs working on different model organisms, and we have already covered many of the classical model systems. Our outreach series has already provided many case studies of outreach, as well as activity suggestions that you can try in your own outreach projects. Both series are continuing in 2014, so keep an eye out for more posts! We also launched a photography competition as part of our current outreach series- do participate for a chance to win a £50 Amazon voucher!

 

 

The Node is your community blog, and could not exist without your participation. So a big thank you to all of you who wrote, commented, rated or simply read the Node posts in 2013. We look forward to another exciting year of developmental biology in 2014!

 

 

Image: Andrea Pavanello (wikimedia commons)

This month saw many interesting posts on the Node, in addition to several job and PhD studentship adverts in our jobs page. Here are some of the highlights!

 

Node series

Our two series continued at full steam this month:

- In our outreach series, the Cosy Science team presented their ongoing project of bringing science to the relaxed environment of the pub, while Worm Watch Lab is a citizen science project in which the public helps scientists study egg laying in C.elegans. The Biology Builders participated in our series by sharing their experience of organising a stand in a science festival, as well as suggesting an easy outreach activity involving ping-pong balls!

- In our ‘A day in the life’ series Stephen Freeman described a day in the life of a chick lab, while James Lloyd wrote about the mysteries of working with moss.

 

 

Research

- Atsushi Miyawaki and colleagues wrote about their recent paper in Development using Fucci technology to comparatively characterise endoreduplication and endomitosis.

- The Chicago Journal club is back  and their first post of this academic year was a Cell Stem Cell paper on the importance of cell sorting in spatial patterning.

- and Christele considered a recent paper assessing the role of dickkopf-1 (dkk1) in neural progenitors.

 

 

Meeting reports

- Megan attended ComBio, the largest annual life sciences conference in Australasia, and wrote about her highlights.

- Lauren and Ioanna reported from the UPMC/Curie Developmental Biology course 2013.

- the Node attended the first joint meeting of the French Society for Developmental Biology and for Genetics.

 

 

Also on the Node

- We interviewed cardiovascular developmental biologist and Development editor Benoit Bruneau.

- Olivier introduced Manteia, a database that allows the comparison of embryological, expression, molecular and etiological data from human, mouse, chicken and zebrafish simultaneously

- and the deadline for the next round of Company of Biologists Travelling Fellowships, to help cover the costs of visiting another lab, is fast approaching

 
Happy Reading!

 
The Node was full of activity in October. Here are some of the highlights!



New series

- ‘A day in the life’ is our new series on the model organisms used in developmental biology. Check out the current posts already available:

   A day in the life of a Xenopus lab

   A day in the life of a zebrafish lab

   A day in the life of a mouse lab

   A day in the life of a Drosophila lab

 

- As if one series was not enough, we also launched a series on Science Outreach, which we hope will highlight interesting projects out there, as well as few easy activities you may want to try. Check out our first case studies: Science outreach in music festivals, the EMBL programme bridging the gap between labs and schools, how to combine music, art and performance to talk about Evo Devo, and what it is like to participate in ‘I’m a scientist, get me out of here!’. Also have a look at our two first activities- speed dating with scientists and explaining protein folding.

 

Meeting reports

- The students who attended the 13th FASEB Plant Biology conference on ‘Mechanisms in Plant Development’ wrote about the meeting.

- Francesca reposted her article for the BSDB newsletter about the BSDB meeting on Axon Guidance and Regeneration.

- Steve and Alexandra wrote about attending the Company of Biologists workshop on the evolution of the human neocortex, while Katherine reported on the associated public talk at the Royal Society.

- and we summarised some coming meeting deadlines that you might want to put in your diary.

 

 

Research

- This month’s Stem Cell Beauty post is on a Cell Stem Cell paper where Andoniadou and colleagues identify a pool of stem cells in the adult pituitary gland.

- A recent paper by the Benitah lab (IRB Barcelona) described the daily cyclic activity of the genes in skin stem cells, and how disruption of this cyclical activity has implications for disease.

 

Also on the Node

- We interviewed mouse and stem cell developmental biologist and current ISSCR president Janet Rossant.

- Ewart wrote a literary interpretation of cellular reprogramming.

- and Thomas posted an opinion piece where he considered what may be wrong with the current structure of science.
 
 
Happy Reading!

September was a little bit more quiet than usual, but we still had many interesting posts. Here are the highlights!

 

Research

- Gary examines a recent Science paper on the titration of replication factors in the Midblastula transition in Xenopus.

- Karuna followed up on a previous Node post by writing about her recent paper on identifying a protein that controls the positioning of squint RNA in the zebrafish embryo

- Nadia discussed her group’s recent paper on the role of fluid forces in epicardium morphogenesis.

- and Christele continued her Stem Cell Beauty blog by writing about a recent paper on the importance of insulin signalling in the development of ovarian stem cell niches.

 

 

Spotlight on the Woods Hole embryology course

- This year marks the 120th anniversary of the Woods Hole course, so we interviewed Professor Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, one of the current co-directors of the course.


- September also saw an exciting update on the Woods Hole competitions here on the Node, as this year’s last round featured 4 beautiful movies taken at the course. Many of you voted, and the big winner was the ascidian metamorphosis movie!

 

Books

- Development’s Associate Reviews Editor (stem cells), Caroline Hendry, interviewed author and researcher Paul Knoepfler on his new book ‘Stem cells- an Insider’s Guide’.

- while Teisha presented her new book  ‘Biology Bytes: Digestible Essays on Stem Cells and Modern Medicine’.

 
 
 
 

Also on the Node
- Once again we summarised our best spots on science and (developmental) biology from around the internet in one post.

 

 

Happy Reading!

August might be the month when most people go on holidays, but the Node was still full of activity! Here are some of the highlights:

 

Research

- Stefano de Renzis wrote about his recent paper using powerful microscopy techniques to study the role of endocytosis in morphogenesis.

- Tatsuya posted on what is like working with turtles and the background to his paper on the evolution of turtle carapaces.

- Gary discussed a new paper using X-ray tomography and synchrotron radiation to study gastrulation in frogs.

- and Christele started her ‘Stem Cell Beauty’ blog, in collaboration with EuroStemCell, by choosing a great image from a paper describing how to make hepatocytes in vitro.

 

Interviews

This month saw two new interviews on the Node:

- An interview with NIMR developmental neurobiologist and new editor of Development, François Guillemot, focused on his career, research and his lab’s future move to the Crick Institute.

- while the Node interviewed Marianne Bronner at the ISDB meeting, and asked her about her fascination for the neural crest and  her passion for mentoring.

 

 

Resources:

- Mario introduced his new software silicoCROSS, which may make your genetic cross writing that little bit easier.

- while Florian described E-CRISP, a software that allows the design of CRISPR constructs in 8 different organisms.

 

Also on the Node:

- Patricia chose her favourite Biology TED talks- a great selection!

- Caroline examined how ‘alternative’ careers are perceived in science, by discussing the reactions of people around her to her decision to leave the bench for a career as a reviews editor at Development.

- and check out the jobs page for the several new positions advertised this month.

 

Node news:

- The Company of Biologists, the non-for-profit company behind Development and the Node, launched its YouTube channel- check it out for some amazing research movies!

- the Node summarised the best (developmental) biology content spotted on the internet this month- look out for more great internet content on the Node in the future!

- and we revealed the new Node postcards, which you will be able to collect in future conferences!

 

Happy reading!

Another busy month on the Node, with a particular focus on zebrafish. Plenty of meeting reports, research, interviews and more, as well as new job posts. Here are the highlights:

 

Meeting Reports

With conference season well underway, the Node saw several meeting reports this month:

- Leonardo and Joaquin posted several reports from the 8th european zebrafish meeting: an excellent summary of the talks on developmental biology topics, and 2 posts on the workshops preceeding the conference: the genome resources workshop and the morphogenesis workshop. Cat also posted on the lighter side of the conference, commenting on her first attendance of a fish meeting.

 

- Students from this year’s Woods Hole Embryology course wrote on their experience after 4 weeks and at the end of the course.

- And Alfonso shared his thoughts on the Morphogen Gradients meeting that took place in Oxford.

 

Research

- Keeping with the fish theme, we had several fish research posts on the Node this month: Neil wrote about his paper on a model of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder; while Megan wrote on a recent paper focusing on sex reversal in fish 

- Gary described a paper showing that waves of Cdk1 might be involved in the quick cell division of the early frog embryo

- and Mike Levin wrote about his recent paper showing that planaria can recall memories after decapitation, suggesting that memory storage can happen outside the brain

 

Interviews

This month also featured interesting interviews:

- The Node interviewed developmental biologist and EMBO director Maria Leptin

- Megan started her series of posts on developmental biology in New Zealand by interviewing clinical geneticist and developmental biology Stephen Robertson

- And the BSDB-SDB poster winner chain continues with an interview with the winner of the SDB poster prize at the ISDB meeting Kara Nordin

 

 

Also on the Node:

- Thomas gave his take on the new Crick institute in London and what it reveals about research in the UK

- Xujiang described his visit to a lab in Sydney to study honey bee behaviour, sponsored by a Travelling Fellowship from the Company of Biologists

- The Node followed the #sciconfessions discussion on twitter, and collated the best lab confessions (don’t tell Health & Safety!)

- and T.H.Morgan’s 1920s fly room was reconstructed for a new exhibition in New York

 Happy Reading!

June saw a lot of interesting posts on the Node! Meeting reports, research posts, and more, as well as few new jobs in our jobs page. Here are some of the highlights:

 

Meeting reports

Several meetings were covered on the Node this month:

• - Harry attended the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) annual meeting in Boston, and posted a series of reports on the meeting


• - The Node was at the International Society of Development Biology (ISDB) in Cancun, and posted daily updates.


• - Rachael attended the satellite symposium on left-right asymmetry that preceded the ISDB, and wrote a post on her highlights.

 

Research Highlights

- Kif Liakath-Ali highlighted two recent papers that used insects as an inspiration to develop new technologies.

- Cantas discussed his recent paper on the formation of the primitive streak and the induction of mesoderm.

- And Albert described how he applied the brainbow technique to zebrafish.

 

Woods Hole embryology course

This year’s Woods Hole embryology course is underway, and Lara wrote a post about her impressions on the first few weeks of the course. We also had another round of beautiful images from last year’s course up for voting, and the big winner this time was a skeleton preparation of a pig embryo. This winning image will feature in the cover of Development in a coming issue.


 

Also on the Node: 

- Kara wrote a personal account of how she returned to the bench after working as a journal editor, showing that leaving academia doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t come back.

- And Erin’s stem cell image blog focused on a recent paper on retinal regeneration.

 

Happy Reading!

 

May was another busy month on the Node, with a combination of research, publishing and Node news, in addition to several job posts. One very exciting news was that the Node has a new community manager! You can learn more about Cat on her introductory post and you can always contact her with suggestions and comments.

Woods Hole Image Competition- round 2

Round 2 of the ever popular cover competition of pictures taken by last year’s Woods Hole course students was underway this month, with a last minute victory by the two headed regenerated planarian! Congratulations to Chang Liu of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology for the winning image, which will feature in the cover of Development  in the next few weeks.

Research highlights

We had three very interesting posts this month about recent research papers:

- Kif Liakath-Ali posted about a recent paper on lingual epithelium stem cells

- Chris Dooley focused on two recent papers on the sequencing of the zebrafish genome and the associated gene knockout project

- And Bruce Morgan commented on his recent paper describing how changes in the hair follicle niche cells can lead to hair loss

Publishing news

This month saw a group of editors and publishers signing the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), a set of recommendations trying to address some of the issues with the current citation and impact factor system. Katherine posted about DORA, so if you have a comment or view on it, please join the discussion!

A recent post on the Node also announced a new Stem Cells & Regeneration website within Development, highlighting stem cell-related content in the journal, alongside a special issue on this area.

Interviews:

This month featured two very interesting interviews on The Node. The first interview was with biochemist-turned-sculptor Briony Marshall, and focused on some of the beautiful developmental biology-inspired pieces in her current exhibition in London. The Node also interviewed Aditya Saxena, a PhD student in Helen Skaer’s lab who won the poster prize at the last BSDB meeting.

Also on the Node:

- EuroStemCell announced a Stem Cell-themed non-fiction writing competition, alongside other news

- PostPostDoc discussed bullying and intimidation in the lab

- The Node followed the #LiteraryPaperOpenings hashtag on twitter and collated some of the best tweets in a storify

Happy Reading!