Behind the paper stories
Every paper has a story behind it, and we regularly commission scientists to tell theirs. In this collection you’ll discover the highs and the lows, the chance encounters and life changing discoveries from the breadth of developmental biology and stem cell research.
Recent posts
Behind the paper: What bats can tell us about the evolution of mammalian teeth
Posted by Alexa Sadier, on 25 September 2023
Find out about the behind the paper story from Alexa Sadier about the origin of tooth classes in bats.Patterning the butterfly wing through Wnt signaling
Posted by Tirtha Das Banerjee, on 31 August 2023
Read the story behind the paper from Tirtha Das Banerjee and Antόnia Monteiro about Wnt signaling in setting up butterfly wing patterns.A tale of two fishes
Posted by Krista Gert, on 25 August 2023
Krista Gert, a recent doctoral graduate from Andrea (Andi) Pauli’s lab at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria, recently published a study on how Bouncer, a small egg …Assembling a “Stem Cell Zoo”
Posted by Jorge Lazaro, on 12 July 2023
One of the most fascinating observations that comes from comparing mammalian development is the difference in developmental tempo across species (Ebisuya & Briscoe, 2018). Mice and humans develop through a …Living up to your cnidarian potential
Posted by Áine Varley, on 22 June 2023
Áine Varley tells the story behind the paper “Pluripotent, germ cell competent adult stem cells underlie cnidarian regenerative ability and clonal growth”.Behind the paper: how to turn scales into feathers
Posted by rorylcooper, on 16 June 2023
Read the story behind the paper about an experimental method for transforming chicken scales into true feathers.Uncovering the origins of the adult adipose tissue in flies
Posted by Tadashi Uemura, on 24 May 2023
Read the story behind the work by Taiichi Tsuyama, Tadashi Uemura and colleagues, uncovering the precursor cells that give rise to the adult fat body in Drosophila.Behind the Paper: the discovery of a novel cell type involved in fly touch sensing
Posted by Federica Mangione, on 23 May 2023
Read the story behind the paper where Dr Federica Mangione, Nic Tapon and colleagues report a new type of specialised epidermal cells involved in touch sensing in Drosophila.
“If you notice something unusual in your experiments, don’t just throw it away!”
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Our full archive going back to 2010 is filterable by category, tag and date.