Exhibitors are crucial to fund society conferences like BSDB/Gensoc 2020, and since they did not have the chance to promote themselves in person, here we are showcasing some of them (the post will be added to as more come in, as they understandably have a lot on their plate right now!)

Who are you and what do you do?

Fluidigm develops, manufactures, and markets research products for life science analytical and preparatory systems for use in mass cytometry, high-throughput genomics, and single‑cell genomics applications.

Why were you planning to exhibit at the BSDB/GenSoc meeting this year – how is this community important to you?

Fluidigm offers solutions for people using PCR-based approaches to study SNPs, gene expression changes, copy number variations, and more.  At this year’s meeting, we planned to introduce our newest microfluidics product for RNA-Seq Library Preparation on our Juno System.  Our solution provides walkaway automation and significant cost savings to researchers who routinely use this application.

If you could get one message across to people registered for the meeting, what would it be?

Our systems are based on proprietary microfluidics technology and are designed to significantly simplify experimental workflow, increase throughput, and reduce costs while providing excellent data quality.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the BSDB and Genetics Society communities?

You can read about how Dr. Scott Magness at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine has implemented the Advanta RNA-Seq NGS Library Prep Workflow in his laboratory to study intestinal stem cells in 2D model systems, stating that the Advanta system was a “game changer” for their experimental needs.

Read about it here >

How can people sign up to find out more about your company and products/services?

Just go to https://go.fluidigm.com/ContactUs

Who are you and what do you do?

The Royal Society is a charitable organisation that recognises, promotes, and supports excellence in science.

Why were you planning to exhibit at the BSDB/GenSoc meeting this year – how is this community important to you?

We’re regularly attendees and are particularly excited that this year’s meeting joins the Genetics and Developmental Biology community. Our aim is to inform these communities about how we support international collaboration and demonstrate the importance of science to everyone through our publications and wider activities.

If you could get one message across to people registered for the meeting, what would it be?

Our international journals publish high quality science and provide an excellent service to our authors and readers. Open Biology, Proceedings B, Biology Letters, Royal Society Open Science and Philosophical Transactions B – offer publishing options for research, reviews and theme issues within Developmental Biology and Genetics.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the BSDB and Genetics Society communities?

Reasons to choose our journals include: articles handled by expert biologists; rapid processing; rigorous review; open access, open data, and Registered Reports available. We will also be launching a new article type on Open Biology called ‘Open Questions’ which highlights current advances in an area of biomedical science that is developing quickly and ripe for discovery https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsob/for-authors#question1

How can people sign up to find out more about your company and products/services?

Go to

https://royalsociety.org/journals/authors/

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/submit-proposal

Why were you planning to exhibit at the BSDB/GenSoc meeting this year – how is this community important to you?

We’re at this meeting every year – as a publisher of community journals it’s a very important opportunity for us to engage with the developmental biology community and find out how we can better understand and support their needs.

If you could get one message across to people registered for the meeting, what would it be?

We’re a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting biologists in many ways: from providing a smooth publishing journey to connecting people through our community websites; from offering meeting grants and travelling fellowships to organising workshops and meetings.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the BSDB and Genetics Society communities?

We’ve recently launched the Node Network, a global directory of developmental and stem cell biologists, designed to help find speakers, referees, panel members and potential collaborators. Find out more at https://thenode.biologists.com/network/

How can people sign up to find out more about your company and products/services? (Give us the URL)

Go to

https://www.biologists.com/subscribe

https://thenode.biologists.com/login

(1 votes)

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The BSDB/GenSoc meeting’s cancellation left organisers and us thinking about ways to try to replicate some of it online. Over on Twitter it’s been a blast – just look at #BSDBGenSoc2020 where you’ll find speaker profiles, poster sessions (which we also put on the Node: I and II), and lots of discussions. But what about talks? One option would have been to set up sessions of video conferenced talks – but we didn’t have the time, and even if we had, many if not most speakers have too much on their plate to commit to giving one. What we did instead was send out a call for people to submit their talks, in any form, and got a great response.

If you have any questions for the speakers and can’t find their contacts online, let us know and we’ll send the message on!

eTalks and teasers

Peter Sarkies – Epi-Evo: New insights into epigenetic regulation through evolutionary analyses

Peter used PowerPoint’s record function to give the talk he was due to give in the ‘Evolution of Development’ session.

Filipa Simões – New target identified for repairing the heart after heart attack

Filipa uploaded a video of her discussing the work she would have presented at the meeting (she also uploaded a poster).

Emma Rawlins – building and rebuilding the lung: insights from human lung development

Emma uploaded six teaser slides from the talk she was planning to give in the Human Development and Genetics session.

Andrea Streit – Cell fate decisions in the cranial sensory nervous system

Andrea uploaded a teaser slide of her talk that would have been in the ‘Gene Regulatory Networks in Development’ session.

Tweetorials

Usually used to go through new papers, the Tweetorial is just as good for presenting talks or posters!

Tim Fulton – Self-organised symmetry breaking in zebrafish reveals feedback from morphogenesis to pattern formation

Oluwaseun Ogundele – The role of chromatin remodellers in transcriptional response to extracellular signals

Alfonso Martinez Arias – Gastruloids: an ESC based model for mammalian gastrulation and body plan engineering

Part I

Part II

Jessica Forsyth – Describing the changing architecture of the preimplantation embryo using IVEN

Jake Cornwall Scoones – A dot-stripe Turing model of joint patterning

(1 votes)

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NEUcrest is a four-year project, funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme. The neural crest is an essential stem cell population of the vertebrate embryos. The project focuses on integrating academic, clinical and industrial research for a better understanding of neural crest development and neural crest related diseases. The NEUcrest network comprises 20 partners in academia, industry and hospitals from seven European countries.

Projects are available in the following labs and companies below.

Applicants are encouraged to apply to more than one project if they are interested. Please note some different deadlines apply:

ESR 5, supervised by Grant Wheeler (University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK): See the file with description

ESR 5: Modelling Neurocristopathies in Xenopus, mechanisms and drug screening

NUIG 197-19 Advert_rev130320

ESR 7 or 8 supervised by Gerhard Schlosser (University of Galway, Ireland):     See the file with description

ESR 7: Neural crest specification: elucidating the early origin of neural crest hypoplasia

ESR 8: Role of Sox9/Sox10 in syndromic neurocristopathies

ESR 13 supervised by Carmit Levy (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

ESR13: Tissue environment and melanocyte differentiation: role of the adipocytes

Training for transverse skills in outreach and industrial managements are deeply embedded in the programme. The NEUcrest ITN and PhD project is due to start in January 2020. Studentships can start anytime from now until October 2020.

Candidate Specification: First degree or Masters in Biological Sciences, Cell Biology, Genetics and Molecular Biology. Mobility requirement: Applicants must not have been based in the country of desired Ph.D. position for more than 12 months in the last 3 years prior to recruitment.

_______________________________________________________________

Personal data disclaimer: Please note that in order to demonstrate fair equal recruitment and to provide statistical data on the recruitment for MSCA program, NEUcrest management team may need to retain the following personal data of all applicants: full name, gender, nationality, copy of the CV.
In this case data will be preserved till maximum up to 5 years after the termination of the NEUcrest grant.
By applying for the advertised positions the applicant automatically gives the authorization to store his/her personal data.
The applicant may refuse, without having to give any explanations, the preservation of the data. In this case he/she needs to inform about it the management team of NEUcrest consortium upon submitting the application or sending a request at daria.barsuk@curie.fr or neucrest@gmail.com.
This disclaimer solely expresses the needs of the NEUcrest consortium and not the recruiting institutions – NUI Galway, UEA or Tel-Aviv Ubiversity.

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Here’s the second poster session of the virtual BSDB / Genetics Society 2020 meeting. The presenters would love to hear your comments and questions

1. Rebecca Lea (The Francis Crick Institute)

‘Identifying novel regulators of human pluripotency and embryogenesis’.

Fighsare link

2. Lara Busby (University of Cambridge)

‘Investigating time & cell fate decisions in the development of the avian posterior body’

Figshare link

3. Christian Schröter (MPI Dortmund)

‘Generation and maintenance of robust cell fate proportions by FGF/ERK signaling’

Figshare link

4. William Hamilton (DanStem)

‘Category errors in the pluripotency network’

Figshare link

5. Tim Fulton (University of Cambridge)

‘Self-organised symmetry breaking in zebrafish reveals feedback from morphogenesis to pattern formation’

Figshare link

6. Clare Benson (University of London)

‘Investigating Rho dysregulation in Adams-Oliver syndrome as a model of vascular development’

Figshare link

7. Monika Fluks (University of Warsaw)

‘Glucose import efficiency is reduced in transcriptionally active mouse GV oocytes’

Figshare link

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Scientist/Post-doctoral Associate position (100%) is available in the laboratory of ‘’Stem Cells and Leukemia’’ at the University Clinic of Hematology & Central Hematology, Department of Biomedical Research (DBMR), Inselspital Bern, Switzerland. We are looking for a highly motivated and creative scientist with a PhD or MD/PhD degree to contribute to research projects aiming to explore leukemic stem cell dependencies and vulnerabilities using transgenic mouse models of myeloid malignancies and primary patient samples from leukemia patients. The project is supported by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The employment starting date is 01.05.2020 (or negotiable).

Your profile

The potential candidate must be experienced in working with transgenic mouse models, primary patient samples and multicolor flow cytometry. Expertise in working with blood stem cells, and a strong background in cancer biology and/or metabolism is preferred. Demonstrated competence to independently conduct experiments and analyses, and willingness to collaborate internally and externally is mandatory. Applicant should have an excellent command of spoken and written English.

We offer you

The post-holder will be supported by a well-funded interdisciplinary research project in a young and dynamic environment. Our team works closely with clinicians and pharma industries in Switzerland and abroad. Department of Biomedical Research (DBMR) at the University of Bern and Inselspital Bern provides a stimulating environment and offers all the possibilities to be creative and highly productive. The position is limited to 3 years with a possibility of extension. The salary will be according to the guidelines of the SNSF.

Application / Contact

To apply for this position please submit your application in a single Pdf file including 1-page motivation letter specifying your research experience and interests, desired start date, CV, copies of PhD or MD/PhD degree, list of publications, and the names and contact details of 2-3 referees to: : tata.nageswararao@dbmr.unibe.ch

For further inquiries please contact:

Dr. Tata Nageswara Rao, PhD
Group leader
Stem Cells and Leukemia laboratory
University Clinic of Hematology
Department of Biomedical Research (DBMR)
Inselspital Bern, University of Bern
Murtenstrasse 40, 3008, Bern, Switzerland

(2 votes)

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The online version of the BSDB Genetic Society Spring meeting is well on its way over on Twitter (follow it at #BSDBGenSoc2020 and see our recently updated post for details about what we’re planning over the next couple of days).

Here we’re going to share the e-Poster session – 12 participants uploaded the posters they were due to present in Warwick to figshare. In the gallery below you’ll find images of the posters plus links to the high res versions and descriptions. Good poster sessions involve dialogue, and we’re hoping that some of you will reach out to the poster presenters with questions or comments – you can leave a comment here or on Twitter or contact them via the email addresses on the posters.

For participants who had a poster ready but have yet to upload it – there’s still time to join the second poster session tomorrow – just upload your poster to figshare and email thenode@biologists.com to tell us about it.

Davide Marchi ‘Bidirectional crosstalk between hypoxia-inducible factor and glucocorticoid signalling in zebrafish larvae’ https://figshare.com/articles/HIF-GC_crosstalk-DM_Poster_pdf/11987322/1

Filipa Simões ‘Macrophages directly contribute collagen to scar formation during heart repair and regeneration’ https://figshare.com/articles/Macrophages_directly_contribute_collagen_to_scar_formation_during_heart_repair_and_regeneration/11977344/1

Gabriela Toro-Tapia ‘Primary cilium remodelling mediates a cell signalling switch in differentiating neurons’ https://figshare.com/articles/Toro-Tapia_poster_BSDB/11981061

Jake Cornwall Scoones ‘A dot-stripe Turing model of joint patterning’ https://figshare.com/articles/A_dot-stripe_Turing_model_of_joint_patterning_in_the_tetrapod_limb/11982165

Mattias Malaguti ‘Id1 stabilises epiblast identity during peri-implantation development by modulating signal responsiveness’ https://figshare.com/articles/Id1_stablises_epiblast_identity_during_peri-implantation_development_by_modulating_signal_responsiveness/11987505

Michael Weinberger ‘Functional heterogeneity within the developing zebrafish epicardium’ https://figshare.com/articles/Functional_heterogeneity_in_the_developing_zebrafish_epicardium/11984187

Monika Fluks ‘Optical coherence microscopy as a label-free tool for imaging live oocytes and embryos’ https://figshare.com/articles/Optical_coherence_microscopy_as_a_label-free_tool_for_imaging_live_oocytes_and_embryos/11987250

Joaquin Lilao-Garzon ‘Fertibetes: A new mouse model to study fertility in age obesity and diabetic context’ https://figshare.com/s/e45a58ae42b5bc01e0f8

Quentin Lemaitre ‘Investigating the role of Prdm14 in non-ectodermal neurogenesis of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis’ https://figshare.com/s/2ab7426a7027f352894b

Ahlam Harasani ‘Epigenetic role of prc2 subunit ezh2 in embryo development’ https://figshare.com/articles/Epigenetic_Role_of_PRC2_Subunit_EZH2_in_Embryo_Development/11987931/1

Ana Jones ”Exploring the curves of the zebrafish inner ear’ https://figshare.com/s/bff451c1301586801f39

(1 votes)

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UPDATE 16 MARCH events timetable added below

Following the cancellation of BSDB/GenSoc2020, the meeting organisers have been seeking ways to maintain some elements of the meeting through online interactions. We do not plan to run a full virtual meeting, but we do plan to experiment with ways to recreate some of the useful and fun parts of the meeting online.

The activities will run from Monday 16 – Wednesday 18 March.

Timetable-in-progress

Check back for updates

Timings are for UK time (GMT)

Monday

12 -2pm          Poster session

3pm               Waddington Medal Winner annoucement

6pm                Tickle Medal Winner announcement

Tuesday

11am              Virtual Careers Session run by @BSDBgradstudent

12 -2pm         Poster session

3pm                Beddington Medal winner announcement

6pm                Conference party! Kitchen-dancing to the Spotify playlist at the end of this post

PLUS…Posters, talks, interviews, competitions and more will be linked to from @the_Node and can also be found using #BSDBGenSoc2020 throughout the e-meeting.

Here are the various various ways you can get involved:

Twitter

The best way to get involved is via Twitter, where you can follow the hashtag #BSDBGenSoc2020. The BSDB medal winners will also be announced on Twitter, and you will have a chance to interact with speakers and poster presenters. If you don’t have a Twitter account why not consider getting one?

Upload your talks/posters

If you’re disappointed about not being able to share your work in Warwick, why not share it online? This is a great opportunity, particularly for students and postdocs, to promote their work despite the cancellation of the meeting.

• Upload the talk slides/posters you were scheduled to give to figshare.
• Use #BSDBGenSoc2020 as a keyword so others can find it easily, and don’t forget to include contact details so interested parties can get in touch.
• Once you’ve uploaded your files, email the figshare link to thenode@biologists.com, and we’ll collate the documents into a Node post and help promote them on Twitter. The first 20 people to tell us about their uploads will get some goodies from The Company of Biologists!

Virtual talks

Speakers – in addition to thinking about sharing your slides, you could consider:

• A Tweetorial – a thread covering the talk, including some choice images/slides, visual abstracts or GIFs. See this great recent example from Jesse Venvliet
• Recording your talk on Powerpoint (see how to) or using a webcam or camera. If you do this, send us the file or a link and we will help promote it

Interviews and workshops

We hope to be posting interviews with medal winners and other speakers and there will be the chance to take part in our Careers workshop online…stay tuned for more

Interact

We strongly encourage everyone to send comments and questions to presenters of online posters and talks, whether publicly (e.g. through Twitter) or privately (by email to the presenter). This will help recapture the spirit of the BSDB meeting and give valuable feedback, especially to early career researchers.

Image competition

Tweet your favourite image from a talk or poster that you would have presented at #eBSDBGenSoc2020. The image caption should be contained within a single tweet along with the hashtag #eBSDBimages. Deadline noon 18 March!

Devbio on the dancefloor

Tweet your favorite song with #electroBSDB and we will add it to the eBSDB party playlist (or you should be able to add it directly yourself if you have a Premium account). Which track do you look forward to DJ Phil playing each year? Any guilty pleasures?

The BSDB and GenSoc are hugely grateful to the editors at Development and The Node for initiating these plans, providing expertise and infrastructure, and for their generous offer to put in the considerable amount of work to make this happen. Yet another reason to support your community journal!

(11 votes)

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“It is certainly as true as the gospel that when a man sleeps with his wife or his mistress with dirty and smelly feet, if he fathers a boy, the child will have smelly and unpleasant breath. If he fathers a girl, she will have a stinky rear end.”

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The coronavirus pandemic has led to travel restrictions, conference cancellations and university closures. How do labs function in various states of lockdown? What happens to model organisms and long running experiments? On the personal side, how can we counter the loss of lab camaraderie? And education – how can you run a course from home?

Here, we’ve collated a bunch of Twitter threads that deal with some of these issues, which hopefully will be relevant to many of you. If you have any questions for the community, or plans you would like to share, we’d love to hear from you – just comment below the post, or register here to write your own post.

This thread from Alex Shier’s lab on March 8 described how the lab would be working from now on.

Can we run labs on one person shifts?

https://twitter.com/JJ_Emerson/status/1237784345751867392

The Soragni lab is moving remotely as much as possible

Now this is not an easy decision, we are a wet lab almost exclusively, and a new one at that as we only opened the doors 3 years ago.
This break will come at a price. But societal risks are much more important than any single experiment and delay. So onwards and upwards we go.

— Soragni:Lab (@soragnilab) March 12, 2020

How Stephen Floor’s lab are approaching working from home

Maren Friesen shared her coronovirus lab plans:

Suspending lab access in Harvard:

So @Harvard science division is essentially shutting down research labs starting next week. At most 2-3 individuals per lab for maintaining cell/mouse lines. Expects suspended lab access to last *at least* 6-8 weeks pic.twitter.com/EyEWgXWrvY

— Tanush Jagdish (@TanushJagdish) March 12, 2020

Giulia Biffi, a PI in Cambridge:

Today I told my people to stop doing experiments and stay home. As a trainee, I know I would have been upset about this. As a PI, I cannot think about a good reason not to do it. I will carry on with their work (unless the institute shuts down). Stay well everyone.

— Giulia Biffi (@BiffiGiulia) March 12, 2020

A plea to funding bodies to consider mitigating actions

#Covid_19 must be affecting many labs. We have two major tumour studies now on hold indefinitely. This will impact timely publication and post-doc career progression. I hope @AMRC, @wellcometrust, #UKRI etc are considering mitigating actions.

— MossLabUCL #FBPE 🇪🇺 (@stephenemoss) March 13, 2020

Lots of ideas in this tweet and replies.

We’ve been advised to prep our labs for potential #COVID19 shutdown. We've discussed:
1. Flexibility to work from home
2. Avoid starting long-term studies
3. Freeze down cells
4. Reduce mouse cage numbers
5. Be prepared to separate breeding pairs

Other ideas? #InThisTogether

— Joy Wu, MD, PhD (@JoyYWu) March 9, 2020

We are also discussing what we need to do….Stock up on cell media, make sure liquid nitrogen topped up, trying to coordinate cell culture access to maintain some of our oldest iPSC-neurons (~1y) via minimal access, freeze down iPSC that need daily feeding…. https://t.co/dYNYqm8tIl

— Prof Selina Wray (@SelinaWray) March 11, 2020

The Yaniv lab is Staying positive

Here’s the @yaniv_lab keeping up the good spirit! With one student (corona positive 😱😱) interviewed by the Israeli news, and myself on quarantine (😔😔😔) after returning from @GordonConf lymphatics, we try our best to stay healthy and happy! pic.twitter.com/f96weOshCt

— 🎗️Karina Yaniv🎗️ (@KarinaYaniv) March 12, 2020

The Gallego lab is using the lockdown as a chance to become better, computationally speaking

We changed pipettes by computers! We didn't plan working from home… but this is a fantastic opportunity to strengthen our computational power. We'll be back in a few weeks, and we'll be better in
#bioinformatics #Imageanalysis #modeling #Python pic.twitter.com/VA4V2Y8Rv8

— Gallego Lab (@GallegoLab) March 12, 2020

48 hours to shut down the Bardelli lab in Italy

9pm Italy, we were given 48hrs to shut down the @BardelliLab, I wanted to be last to leave, and now is time to go. I said goodbye to my post docs, PhDs, techs, we are all part of a worldwide family. I will miss my team and look fwd to continue the fight against #cancer from home! pic.twitter.com/y4MeZ3Ztsc

— Alberto Bardelli (@Albert0Bardelli) March 11, 2020

And, please don’t do this, PIs!

Already hearing stories of postdocs being explicitly instructed by faculty that they are NOT to work from home, but must be in lab as usual. If you are a PI, PLEASE don't do this. If you hear of others doing it please exercise what powers of peer pressure you have.

— Dr. Sam Dundon (@serdundon) March 11, 2020

A thread on zebrafish emergency preparedness

Seems like C. elegans researchers are a little less worried!

Never been more thankful for C. elegans dauers than in this era of campus shutdowns. #ILoveWorms

— Piali Sengupta (@SenguptaLab) March 11, 2020

To fight social isolation, why not set up a virutal coffee break?

and engage with one another, with no agenda other than to connect and hopefully avoid some of feelings of isolation that can occur when working alone. I have instituted the same thing with my lab now, and hopefully it will help us all get through these unprecedented times /fin

— Gavin Sherlock (@gsherloc) March 12, 2020

Or a virtual happy hour?

https://twitter.com/JShendure/status/1237640592147931136

Keep educating: a thread on how to use Zoom to lecture from home

A perspective on online learning from the Open University

Online courses could help fill your days

Since I won't be leaving the house much in the coming weeks, I am particularly looking forward to participating in this free online course "Teaching Biology: Inspiring Students with Plant Science" Who wants to join me? Starts Monday.https://t.co/u17eX0J5ge

— mary williams (@PlantTeaching) March 12, 2020

Cancelled conferences? Why not share your talk and poster online:

Dear early career researchers,

If you conference was cancelled, share your poster or talk online & use the conference hashtag.

There is a good chance that you’ll have dozens—if not hundreds—of people who will check it out.

This is far more efficient way to share your work. https://t.co/gSn7mfUrXU

— Jay Van Bavel, PhD (@jayvanbavel) March 10, 2020

Indeed we are planning to help with this for the BSDB Spring meeting, which would have started on Sunday. More info here:

eBSDB/GenSoc 2020 plans

Virtual seminar series – more ideas in the replies

If things really shut down. Who wants to start a virtual seminar series with me. Or something.

— Tom Kash (@superkash) March 12, 2020

Help for conference organisers from OSF

Conference organizers, if you would like to promote sharing of conference presentations and posters amid COVID-19 cancellations, the free OSF Meetings service is available for authors to easily submit and share their work. Sign-up here: https://t.co/p2zXo1sy3k. https://t.co/rieeguq7tX

— Brian Nosek (@briannosek@nerdculture.de) (@BrianNosek) March 10, 2020

Please let us know if you find any other useful links.

(3 votes)

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Here at the Node and Development, the BSDB Spring meeting is always the first thing to go into our conference calendar, as an institution for the UK developmental biology community. The 2020 meeting, co-organised with the Genetics Society and due to start on Sunday, has just been cancelled due to concerns about spread of Covid-19 (more info will be available soon and we’ll share it here). It joins other recently cancelled developmental biology conferences (such as those in EMBL Heidelberg and Keystone). It seems to us to have been an inevitable decision, if a sad one, and we look forward to the next time a few hundred developmental biologists get together in the bar in Warwick!

Some photos of the last two meetings, ripped from Twitter:

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