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
New strings for the puppeteer of evolution
Posted by Mark Rebeiz, on 30 April 2021
Sarah Jacquelyn Smith, Lance Davidson and Mark Rebeiz share the story of their recent paper on the evolution of morphological novelties.Out on a Flimb or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Trust the Mapping
Posted by mbrenthawkins, on 20 April 2021
Brent Hawkins recalls how mapping the zebrafish rephraim mutation brought insights into the fin-to-limb transitionMCC loss during mucociliary epithelium remodeling: new insight into a debated topic and a decade mystery.
Posted by Alexia Tasca, on 29 March 2021
Introduction In mucociliary epithelia, such as the mammalian airway epithelium or the embryonic epidermis of Xenopus tadpoles, the correct balance between multiciliated cells (MCCs) and secretory cells provides the functional …Is it in yet? How the direct transdifferentiation of glia-to-neurons ensures nimble male mating
Posted by Carla Lloret-Fernandez, on 25 March 2021
Rachel Bonnington, Carla Lloret Fernández and Laura Molina García tell a tale of transdifferentiationReshaping morphogen gradients, one miRNA at a time
Posted by Marcos Simoes-Costa, on 15 March 2021
Jacqueline Copeland and Marcos Simoes-Costa Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA The neural crest has long been referred to as “the fourth germ layer” for …Precision by design: Setting boundaries in patterning
Posted by Edgar Herrera Delgado, on 1 March 2021
Developmental patterning is an essential process for multicellular development, as it drives the cell-fate decisions that determine an organism’s body plan. One of the aspects that has fascinated me is …Pairing of segmentation clock genes results in robust pattern formation
Posted by Ertugrul Ozbudak, on 4 February 2021
Oriana Zinani, Kemal Keseroğlu, Ahmet Ay and Ertuğrul Özbudak on how gene pairing promotes oscillations in segmentation4D Morphological Atlas of C. elegans Embryogenesis
Posted by Guoye Guan, on 2 February 2021
A joint research team co-led by Prof. Chao Tang (Peking University, PKU), Prof. Zhongying Zhao (Hong Kong Baptist University, HKBU) and Prof. Hong Yan (City University of Hong Kong, CityU) …
“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.