We are looking for a highly motivated and talented PhD candidate to investigate the role of enteric glial cells in the assembly and maintenance of the intrinsic neural circuits that regulate gastrointestinal function and homeostasis.
During the course of this PhD research project, which will take place at Maastricht University (The Netherlands), novel genetic and neurophysiological tools will be combined with cutting-edge live cell microscopy techniques to study the role of enteric glial cells in enteric neuron connectivity. You will make use of in vivo models to investigate how enteric glial cells adapt to safeguard gastrointestinal function and homeostasis. You will run a research project in an international multidisciplinary lab and collaborate with (inter)national research groups to complement the know-how within our research group with state-of-the-art external expertise. This PhD position is part of a NWO-funded Vidi project, entitled “Glia of the bowel, landscapers in the second brain” that was recently awarded to Dr. Werend Boesmans.
Additional information about the vacancy can be obtained from: dr. Werend Boesmans (w.boesmans[at]maastrichtuniversity.nl). Interested candidates should send a letter of motivation, a detailed CV and the contact details of two referents.
The Buckley lab at the department of Physiology, Development and
Neuroscience (PDN), University of Cambridge is recruiting a Research
Assistant or Research Associate to help further develop their
optogenetic technology. The lab uses optogenetic and live confocal
imaging approaches within the whole zebrafish neural tube and mammalian
embryo stem cell (mESC) culture to manipulate the polarity of single
cells. In combination with CRISPR-mediated functional knock down
experiments, we are directly testing the role of cell polarity in
building epithelial integrity during organ development and breaking in
it during normal developmental processes such as EMT and during abnormal
disease states.
The post is for 1 year in the first instance from early 2020 and funding
is available for potential contract extension.
An Engineer position in Molecular Biology is available starting January 2020 in the group of Thomas Lecuit at the Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille (IBDM, CNRS UMR7288), Marseille, France. Funding is provided by an ERC grant. The appointment will be made for 1 year, with a possible extension to up to 4 years.
We are seeking a highly-motivated candidate with strong expertise in Molecular Biology. Experience in CRISPR/CAS9 editing and/or Drosophila genetics is valued. The working language in the laboratory is English, so the candidate should have a good practice in English.
The Engineer will perform standard molecular biology techniques and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in vivo. We are seeking a highly motivated and flexible individual to join our team.
Essential Skills
Advanced knowledge of molecular biology and associated practical techniques. Experimental dexterity and attention to detail; quality driven.
Excellent organizational and planning skills.
A high level of interpersonal and communications skills.
Ability to follow instructions accurately and efficiently, correctly interpret scientific data and work under supervision.
Position Summary:
The MBL is seeking a candidate for the position of Postdoctoral Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Blair Paul to investigate accelerated protein evolution in aquatic bacteria. The lab uses computational and molecular tools to study processes that diversify microbial genes and to understand the functional importance of hypervariable proteins. To this end, the prospective research will involve a synergistic combination of experimental biology and bioinformatics to investigate genome variation and protein evolution/optimization in microorganisms and their viruses. The ideal candidate will bring expertise in molecular biology and microbial genetics, which will be complemented with training in genome bioinformatics through this postdoc experience.
Additional information:
The position is for one year with anticipated extension to 2+ years, contingent on performance. For more information about MBL and living on Cape Cod, please visit: https://www.mbl.edu/hr/employment/our-community/.
Basic qualifications:
A Ph.D. in biology, microbiology, molecular biology, or a related field is required.
Preferred qualifications:
Experience in the following areas is desirable: microbiology (including isolation or cultivation from environmental populations), molecular techniques (especially bacterial or archaeal genetics), or protein biochemistry.
Development invites you to submit your latest research for our upcoming special issue: The Origins and Mechanisms of Developmental Disorders. This issue will be coordinated by two guest editors: Sally Dunwoodie and John Wallingford.
Developmental disorders are among the most lethal diseases of childhood, and this recent decade has witnessed significant advances in our understanding of their genetic and environmental basis. Studies in model systems, alongside clinical research and human genetics, have been foundational to this effort but major challenges remain. Congenital disorders are characterised by a high incidence of sporadic cases, a low recurrence risk, and variable penetrance and expressivity of identified genetic mutations even within families, indicating that gene-gene and gene-environment interactions are likely to be important. In model systems, the impact of various teratogens and environmental factors on embryogenesis demonstrate both the robustness and the fragility of specific developmental processes. In mammals, placental function and the pathophysiology of the mother are also disruptors of embryogenesis.
Development has a long history of publishing leading research in these areas and, for this special issue, we welcome submissions encompassing congenital disorders, teratogenic and environmental impacts on development, and links between development and paediatric tumours.
The issue will be published in mid-2020 (although note that, in our new ‘continuous publication‘ model, we will be able to publish your article as soon as it is accepted; you will not have to wait for the rest of the issue to be ready) and the deadline for submission of articles is 31 January 2020*. This special issue will be widely promoted online and at key global conferences – guaranteeing maximum exposure for your work. Please refer to our author guidelines for information on preparing your manuscript for Development, and submit via our online submission system. Please highlight in your cover letter that the submission is to be considered for this special issue. Prospective authors are welcome to send presubmission enquiries, or direct any queries, to dev.specialissue@biologists.com
We also welcome proposals for Review articles; if you’re interested in contributing a Review, please send a brief synopsis of your proposed article to dev.specialissue@biologists.com by 31 October 2019.
* Please note that not all articles accepted for publication will be included in the special issue; they may instead be published in earlier or later issues of the journal.
Why choose Development?
Submissions handled by expert academic Editors
Competitive decision speeds and rapid publication
Format-free submission
Strong commitment at first decision – over 95% of invited revisions accepted
Free to publish – no page or colour charges, no hidden fees
The Lawton Lab is seeking a talented and motivated graduate student to study the cell and tissue mechanics regulating cerebellar morphogenesis and brain folding.
Sagittal midline sections of mouse cerebellum at embryonic day E16.5, E17.5 and E18.5 show the initiation of folding.
The beautiful and robust folds of the human cerebral cortex and the cerebellum increase the synaptic volume and compartmentalize the neural circuits. We have previously shown that the murine cerebellum initiates folding, without a pre-pattern, through differential expansion – between an outer fluid-like layer and an inner solid mass – together with radial and circumferential tension. However, it is not known how the folding amount or pattern is set. Nor is it known how the measured tension is regulated or how the fluidity of the outer layer is maintained. The Lawton Lab uses developmental and mechanical assays, live-imaging, and quantitative analysis to address these issues and to discover the cellular and emergent tissue-level regulation of brain folding.
This project will provide training in classical developmental biology assays, ex vivo slice culture, histology, confocal microscopy, and quantitative analysis.
Granule cell precursors labeled with membrane GFP. Cell shapes are masked and quantified
Applying:
Position is to begin fall semester of 2020.
The ideal candidate will have a strong interest in developmental biology, and some experience with microscopy, image analysis, and Matlab. Those with a background in mathematics or physics are also strongly encouraged to apply.
Please send a statement of research interest and a CV with references to alawton@biology.msstate.edu
Apply your developmental biology / molecular biology / neurobiology skills to the problem of brain cancer.
The lab of Dr. Jennifer Chan seeks to recruit a motivated postdoctoral fellow to investigate cell fate decisions during the process of brain tumour development and progression. Research in the lab focuses on growth factor signalling and transcriptional regulation as determinants of neural precursor identity and fate. We use models that include patient-derived glioma cultures, xenografts, and engineered mouse models generated from in utero and postnatal electroporation to address our research questions.
The successful candidate will collaborate with investigators in bioinformatics to apply tools of genomics, epigenomics, and transcriptomics to further define key alterations during neoplastic transformation, and will collaborate with medicinal chemists to determine if identified alterations may be potential therapeutic targets. Early-stage postdocs (within 3 years of receiving PhD or equivalent) with experience in advanced immunohistochemistry, fluorescence microscopy, gene editing, and molecular biology; and/or experience in genomic approaches like RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq will be preferentially considered.
The position is available immediately.
Other information
Located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the Chan Lab is part of the Charbonneau Cancer Institute at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine. Within the Charbonneau Institute, we are part vibrant multidisciplinary research groups focused on childhood cancers and brain cancers. Calgary is a very livable and family-friendly city located less than an hour’s drive from the Canadian Rocky Mountains – a haven for outdoor enthusiasts.
Application details
Submit a brief letter of interest, your academic CV, and the names and contact information of at least three references.
Applications should be submitted as a single PDF file and sent as an email with the subject line “Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Glioma Biology” to: jawchan@ucalgary.ca
Welcome to our monthly trawl for developmental biology (and related) preprints.
In recent preprint news, CSHL, which runs bioRxiv, launched Transparent Review in Preprints (TRiP), a new project enabling journals and peer review services to post peer reviews of submitted manuscripts. In linked news EMBO Press and ASAPbio launched Review Commons, a platform that peer-reviews research manuscripts in the life sciences before submission to a journal, and enables authors to publicly post the reviews and their own response to them bioRxiv. Finally, PeerJ Preprints, regular source of preprints for this list, announced it would no longer be accepting new content. So long and thanks for all the preprints!
This month we found a typical wealth and breadth of preprints hosted on bioRxiv, PeerJ, andarXiv. Let us know if we missed anything, and use these links to get to the section you want:
Essential omega-3 fatty acids tune microglial phagocytosis of synaptic elements in the developing brain
C. Madore, Q. Leyrolle, L. Morel, J.C. Delpech, A.D. Greenhalgh, C. Lacabanne, C. Bosch-Bouju, J. Bourel, A. Thomazeau, K.E. Hopperton, S. Beccari, A. Sere, A. Aubert, V. De Smedt-Peyrusse, C. Lecours, K. Bisht, L. Fourgeaud, S. Gregoire, L. Bretillon, N. J. Grant, J. Badaut, P. Gressens, A. Sierra, O. Butovsky, M.E. Tremblay, R.P. Bazinet, C. Joffre, A. Nadjar, S. Layé
STAG2 cohesin is essential for heart morphogenesis
Magali De Koninck, Eleonora Lapi, Claudio Badia-Careaga, Itziar Cossio, Daniel Gimenez-Llorente, Miriam Rodriguez-Corsino, Elena Andrada, Andres Hidalgo, Miguel Manzanares, Francisco X Real, Ana Losada
The enteric nervous system of the human and mouse colon at a single-cell resolution
Eugene Drokhlyansky, Christopher S. Smillie, Nicholas Van Wittenberghe, Maria Ericsson, Gabriel K. Griffin, Danielle Dionne, Michael S. Cuoco, Max N. Goder-Reiser, Tatyana Sharova, Andrew J. Aguirre, Genevieve M. Boland, Daniel Graham, Orit Rozenblatt-Rosen, Ramnik J. Xavier, Aviv Regev
Systematic assessment of regulatory effects of human disease variants in pluripotent cells
Marc Jan Bonder, Craig Smail, Michael J. Gloudemans, Laure Frésard, David Jakubosky, Matteo D’Antonio, Xin Li, Nicole M. Ferraro, Ivan Carcamo-Orive, Bogdan Mirauta, Daniel D. Seaton, Na Cai, Danilo Horta, YoSon Park, HipSci Consortium, iPSCORE Consortium, GENESiPS Consortium, PhLiPS Consortium, Erin N. Smith, Kelly A. Frazer, Stephen B. Montgomery, Oliver Stegle
PI 3-kinase delta enhances axonal PIP3 to support axon regeneration in the adult CNS
Amanda C. Barber, Rachel S. Evans, Bart Nieuwenhuis, Craig S. Pearson, Joachim Fuchs, Amy R. MacQueen, Susan van Erp, Barbara Haenzi, Lianne A. Hulshof, Andrew Osborne, Raquel Conceicao, Sarita S. Deshpande, Joshua Cave, Charles ffrench-Constant, Patrice D. Smith, Klaus Okkenhaug, Britta J. Eickholt, Keith R. Martin, James W. Fawcett, Richard Eva
Evolution of the growth plate into a spatially separated structure allows bone growth on land
Meng Xie, Pavel Gol’din, Anna Nele Herdina, Jordi Estefa, Ekaterina V Medvedeva, Lei Li, Phillip T Newton, Svetlana Kotova, Boris Shavkuta, Aditya Saxena, Lauren T Shumate, Brian Metscher, Karl Großschmidt, Shigeki Nishimori, Anastasia Akovantseva, Irene Linares Arregui, Paul Tafforeau, Kaj Fried, Mattias Carlström, Andras Simon, Christian Gasser, Henry M Kronenberg, Murat Bastepe, Kimberly L. Cooper, Peter Timashev, Sophie Sanchez, Igor Adameyko, Anders Eriksson, Andrei S Chagin
Profiling cellular diversity in sponges informs animal cell type and nervous system evolution
Jacob M. Musser, Klaske J. Schippers, Michael Nickel, Giulia Mizzon, Andrea B. Kohn, Constantin Pape, Jörg U. Hammel, Florian Wolf, Cong Liang, Ana Hernández-Plaza, Kaia Achim, Nicole L. Schieber, Warren R. Francis, Sergio Vargas R., Svenja Kling, Maike Renkert, Roberto Feuda, Imre Gaspar, Pawel Burkhardt, Peer Bork, Martin Beck, Anna Kreshuk, Gert Wörheide, Jaime Huerta-Cepas, Yannick Schwab, Leonid L. Moroz, Detlev Arendt
Universality of clone dynamics during tissue development
Steffen Rulands, Fabienne Lescroart, Samira Chabab, Christopher J. Hindley, Nicole Prior, Magdalena K. Sznurkowska, Meritxell Huch, Anna Philpott, Cedric Blanpain, Benjamin D. Simons
Negligible-Cost and Weekend-Free Chemically Defined Human iPSC Culture
Hui-Hsuan Kuo, Xiaozhi Gao, Jean-Marc DeKeyser, K. Ashley Fetterman, Emily A. Pinheiro, Carly J. Weddle, Hananeh Fonoudi, Michael V. Orman, Marisol Romero-Tejeda, Mariam Jouni, Malorie Blancard, Tarek Magdy, Conrad L. Epting, Alfred L. George Jr., Paul W. Burridge
Cell type specific novel lincRNAs and circRNAs in the BLUEPRINT haematopoietic transcriptomes atlas
Luigi Grassi, Osagie G. Izuogu, Natasha A.N. Jorge, Denis Seyres, Mariona Bustamante, Frances Burden, Samantha Farrow, Neda Farahi, Fergal J. Martin, Adam Frankish, Jonathan M. Mudge, Myrto Kostadima, Romina Petersen, John J. Lambourne, Sophia Rowlston, Enca Martin-Rendon, Laura Clarke, Kate Downes, Xavier Estivill, Paul Flicek, Joost H.A. Martens, Marie-Laure Yaspo, Hendrik G. Stunnenberg, Willem H. Ouwehand, Fabio Passetti, Ernest Turro, Mattia Frontini
Anthony Etuk, Felix Shaw, Alejandra Gonzalez-Beltran, David Johnson, Marie-Angélique Laporte, Philippe Rocca-Serra, Elizabeth Arnaud, Medha Devare, Paul J Kersey, Susanna-Assunta Sansone, Robert P Davey
Location: The Francis Crick Institute, Midland Road, London
Contract: Fixed-term, 4 years, full time
Salary: Competitive with benefits, subject to skills and experience
Vacancy ID: 12287
Short summary
Dr Niakan’s laboratory focuses on understanding the mechanisms of lineage specification in human embryos and the derivation of novel human stem cells. Details of research projects currently being undertaken can be seen at: http://www.crick.ac.uk/kathy-niakan
Research techniques used in the laboratory include: molecular biology, advanced microscopy and image quantification, human and mouse preimplantation embryo culture and micromanipulation, genome modification, genome-wide techniques including single-cell RNA-sequencing, multi-omics analysis and human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell derivation.
We seek candidates who are energetic, focused, motivated, productive and collaborative with a desire to work in a congenial, dynamic, and collaborative research environment. Good organisational, analytical, and communication skills are essential.
Project scope
The aim of the project is to characterise early lineage specification in human preimplantation embryos. We aim to generate reporter embryos to perform in vivo lineage tracing to elucidate developmental trajectories of individual cells. The project will explore a range of single cell, imaging and genome editing techniques to understand early lineage specification mechanisms in human embryos. This knowledge will provide fundamental insights into human biology.
About us
The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to translate discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases.
An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King’s College London.
The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under in one building in Europe.
The Francis Crick Institute is world-class with a strong national role. Its distinctive vision for excellence includes commitments to collaboration; developing emerging talent and exporting it the rest of the UK; public engagement; and helping turn discoveries into treatments as quickly as possible to improve lives and strengthen the economy.
If you are interested in applying for this role, please apply via our website.
The closing date for applications is 01 November 2019 at 23:45.
All offers of employment are subject to successful security screening and continuous eligibility to work in the United Kingdom.
Dorsal view of the left hand of a 10-week old human embryo. The dorsometacarpales are highlighted: these muscles (like others described in this study) are present in adults of many other limbed animals, while in humans they normally disappear or become fused with other muscles before birth. CREDIT: Rui Diogo, Natalia Siomava and Yorick Gitton
A team of evolutionary biologists, led by Dr. Rui Diogo at Howard University, USA, and writing in the journal Development, have demonstrated that numerous atavistic limb muscles – known to be present in many limbed animals but usually absent in adult humans – are actually formed during early human development and then lost prior to birth. Strikingly, some of these muscles, such as the dorsometacarpales shown in the picture, disappeared from our adult ancestors more than 250 million years ago, during the transition from synapsid reptiles to mammals.
Also remarkably, in both the hand and the foot, of the 30 muscles formed at about 7 weeks of gestation one third will become fused or completely absent by about 13 weeks of gestation. This dramatic decrease parallels what happened in evolution and deconstructs the myth that in both our evolution and prenatal development we tend to become more complex, with more anatomical structures such as muscles being continuously formed by the splitting of earlier muscles. These findings offer new insights into how our arms and legs evolved from our ancestors’, and also about human variations and pathologies, as atavistic muscles are often found either as rare variations in the common human population or as anomalies found in humans born with congenital malformations.
Since Darwin proposed his evolutionary theory, scientists have argued that the occurrence of atavistic structures (anatomical structures lost in the evolution of a certain group of organisms that can be present in their embryos or reappear in adults as variations or anomalies) strongly supports the idea that species change over time from a common ancestor through “descent with modification”. For example, ostriches and other flightless birds have vestigial wings, while whales, dolphins and porpoises lack hind limbs but their embryos initiate and then abort hind limb development. Similarly, temporary small tail-like structures are found in human embryos and the remnant of the lost ancestral tail is retained as our coccyx. Researchers have also suggested that atavistic muscles and bones can also be seen in human embryos, but it has been difficult to visualize these structures clearly, and the images that appear in modern textbooks are mainly based on decades old analyses.
This is changing with development of new technology that provides high-quality 3D images of human embryos and fetuses. In the new study published in the journal Development the authors have used these images to produce the first detailed analysis of the development of human arm and leg muscles. The unprecedented resolution offered by the 3D images reveals the transient presence of several of such atavistic muscles. Dr. Diogo said: “It used to be that we had more understanding of the early development of fishes, frogs, chicken and mice than in our own species, but these new techniques allow us to see human development in much greater detail. What is fascinating is that we observed various muscles that have never been described in human prenatal development, and that some of these atavistic muscles were seen even in 11.5-weeks old fetuses, which is strikingly late for developmental atavisms “.
He further added: “Interestingly, some of the atavistic muscles are found on rare occasions in adults, either as anatomical variations without any noticeable effect for the healthy individual, or as the result of congenital malformations. This reinforces the idea that both muscle variations and pathologies can be related to delayed or arrested embryonic development, in this case perhaps a delay or decrease of muscle apoptosis, and helps to explain why these muscles are occasionally found in adult people. It provides a fascinating, powerful example of evolution at play.”
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understanding the mechanisms of lineage specification in human embryos and the derivation of novel human stem cells. Details of research projects currently being undertaken can be seen at: 
