Posted by mike mcgrew, on 22 July 2014
Closing Date: 15 March 2021
A postdoctoral position is available in the Division of Developmental Biology at The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh. We are recruiting a post-doctoral research fellow for a joint academic/industrial project to develop avian stem cells for genome biobanking. For more information visit:
https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/
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Posted by NickyLB, on 18 July 2014
As you probably know, The Company of Biologists (the not-for-profit publisher behind the Node and Development) funds a variety of meetings and conferences every year, and since 2010 that it also organises its own series of workshops. The workshops are generally interdisciplinary in nature, aiming to bring together researchers who do not necessarily meet otherwise. The scientific organisers put together the program, but with strong support from The Company of Biologists, who take care of all the logistics and funding. At two recent workshops with a developmental biology focus, we took the opportunity to interview organisers and attendees, and ask them about their experience and the science discussed at the meetings. These have now been added to our YouTube channel.
You can find out more information about The Company of Biologists workshops by following this link. If you think that your field could benefit of an interdisciplinary meeting then find out more about how you can propose your own workshop.
“Evolution of the Human Neocortex: How Unique Are We?”
Organised by Arnold Kriegstein (University of California, San Francisco). You can read more about this workshop on the Node (here and here) as well as a meeting review published in Development.
“Coordinating Cell Polarity”
Organised by David Strutt (University of Sheffield), Enrico Coen (John Innes Centre, Norwich) and Nick Monk (University of Sheffield). A meeting review on this workshop will be published in Development in the near future.
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Posted by SAW, on 17 July 2014
“There is no such thing as a non-model organism”
R. Behringer
This bold statement was announced less than a week into our Embryology course and has left a lasting impression on lecturers and students alike. At first it seemed like a sympathetic statement to the extensive and diverse systems us students were arriving from… “yeah, your work is relevant, don’t worry, people care about sturgeon skeletal patterns.” But as the course has moved forward it’s become increasingly apparent that it’s not the system that’s relevant but rather what questions we now have the ability to answer in that system. Why is this? What has changed in the recent years or in particular this year? ..it’s kind of a one word answer – CRISPR/Cas9.
The CRISPR/Cas9 system has revolutionized the way we can now design experiments for any system for which we can obtain genomic or transcript sequence. Want to know how many functional neural crest genes amphioxus has? Just spend less than an hour designing and ordering a few guide RNA oligo templates. You can be injecting in a few days. Want to test the function of dorsalizing genes only in the neural lineage of Xenopus? Inject the guide RNAs into the corresponding blastomeres. Also think about all the cell-autonomous questions you could address with expressing CRISPR/Cas9 mosaically. For almost every lecture and sweat-box discussion we have had in the past weeks I think at least one of us has come up with a CRISPR/Cas9 answer to a pending question or hypothesis in organisms spanning the tree of life….also we’re embryologists, we really like designing experiments that involve injecting things.
It’s not just the CRISPR/Cas9 system that has changed the prospects of embryology and development biology this year; it’s also the cheap and plentiful influx of genome sequences of these ‘non-model’ organisms. The technology and financial feasibility of sequencing whole genomes and transcriptomes has broken down the barriers for the genome targeting possibilities of CRISPR/Cas9. These genomes are broadening our perspectives and giving researchers the ability to step away from the traditional model organisms, with all their caveats and developmental exceptions, and address broader questions about the evolution of developmental mechanisms used across whole genera or clades.
We have also heard some really inspiring possibilities and probably the future of developmental biology research labs using multiple organisms. Bronner and Wallingford really hammered home the idea that working on just one traditional organism is going to be real lame, real soon. I’m ok with that…if it doesn’t work on the first one, move on to the next right?
I’ll end this with some inspiring quotes and advice from some of our Embryology lecturers this year:
“Humbling, educational, awe-inspiring…spiritual….that’s what it’s like to look at the worm” –Dave Sherwood
“Just nurture them and let them grow and cherish them” –Athula Wikramanayake
“It worked because you didn’t know it wouldn’t” – Nipam Patel
“The only two things you need to make this work are spinning the tubes and FAITH” –Nipam Patel
“As you become embryologists, you are going to see a lot of beautiful things, but they may not all be essential.” – Geraldine Seydoux
“You have to just buy into the dream (CRISPR/Cas9)” –Richard Behringer
“BMP forever means you are a belly forever… which is not so exciting” –Brigitte Galliot
“Know your blastopore from a hole in the ground” –Ray Keller
“We’re all walking mutants in one form or another” –Paul Trainor
“Axolotologist” –Elke Ober
“You can even get natural Double D’s “- John Q Henry
“All you need is Wnt” –Mark Q Martindale
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Posted by SimonBullock11, on 16 July 2014
The moment I really got fascinated by biology was when, aged 16, I saw a water flea’s heart beating in a school lesson. Up until that point I liked the subject but had never been really excited. Labelling the parts of a flower or an eye was fine, but not thrilling!
I was discussing my experience with Daphnia with Isabel Torres, a like-minded post-doc in the same department, and we decided to establish an outreach project introducing the microscopic world to even younger children. The idea was to try to spark an interest in science that would persist for as a long as possible. It was an experiment; we did not know how much the children would take in or what they would like to see the most. We were very lucky to receive generous funding for educational microscopes and cameras from the Lister Institute and the MRC, who have supported primary research in my lab. We spent a fun few days trying different samples. One afternoon we had about a quarter of the LMB’s Cell Biology department along to marvel at Tetrahymena ingesting carmine particles!
Once reasonably confident in our “Microscopes4Schools” program we persuaded a local school to act as our guinea pigs. We found that the 10 and 11-year olds were thrilled by the microscopic world and were engaged by all the activities. With the help of many great volunteers from our institute, particularly Monica Brenni and Marwah Hassan, we’ve since run the workshop at several local schools, at three Cambridge Science Festivals and for hundreds of children at our institute’s open day.
The children use cheap, robust stereomicroscopes to identify mutant fruit flies and to match up samples (ladybirds, butterflies, seeds, flowers) with high magnification images that we provide. Activities with compound microscopes include looking at live Daphnia (!), Tetrahymena, Volvox and the children’s cheek cells.
We’ve learnt that it does not take a lot of money to run such an outreach activity. The stereomicroscopes cost approximately £40 (€50/$70) and the compound microscopes cost just under £200 (€250/$350), yet producing images of great quality (see diatom image below). Although we’ve typically taken several microscopes to schools I’ve recently run a scaled down version with a single educational compound scope and a CCTV camera, which I connected to a data projector. This was for five to seven year olds and they too were thrilled to see the samples.
Another successful initiative has been to lend a user-friendly digital microscope to local schools for two weeks so that they can take images of samples collected by the children. This has evolved into a “Science Image Award” (an example of an entry is shown below) with the best image winning an educational microscope, which is generously provided by a sponsor. This activity brings the children in contact with the natural world, which does not happen regularly for many of them.
We put together our experiences in a website, www.microscopes4schools.co.uk, which includes advice on sourcing suitable microscopes and supplies, as well as suggestions for experiments. Judging by Google Analytics this site has had a far-reaching impact (67,000 visitors from 186 countries in the two years it has been active).
As many of us engaged in outreach will attest, the whole process is a lot of fun and highly rewarding. Seeing children enthused by science is a great joy. Plus I still get to marvel at all kinds of things down the microscope, which is what got me into this game in the first place!
Simon Bullock
The “Stereomicroscope Challenge” in the classroom
Entry for Science Image Award: Dragonfly pupal case
Image of diatom from £200 educational microscope
This post is part of a series on science outreach. You can read the introduction to the series here and read other posts in this series here.
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Posted by the Node, on 16 July 2014
The Node’s next stop is the capital of Austria- Vienna! Our visit will be in two parts:
Cat, the Node community manager, will be giving a talk at the Vienna Biocenter Campus entitled ‘Joining the online conversation: how to use social media to communicate your science’. This will be an informal talk and Q&A which will discuss how scientists can use social media, especially Twitter and blogging, to share the word about their research and advance their career. The talk will take place at the IMP Lecture Hall, Institute of Molecular Pathology, and is open to everyone! Join us on Tuesday the 22nd of July at 12h30.
Cat will also be attending the 5th meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology, which will take place from the 22nd to the 25th of July at the Campus of the University of Vienna. She will be around for the whole meeting, and would love to meet you and hear your thoughts on the Node! Drop the Node an email or say hello to Cat if you see her. The Node will also be tweeting from the meeting.
We look forward to meeting you in Vienna!
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Posted by hmsouza, on 13 July 2014
By Henrique Marques-Souza and Rodrigo Nunes da Fonseca
Widely known as the country of soccer, samba and beautiful beaches, one might wonder if it is possible to perform high quality research in Developmental Biology in Brazil with so many distractions. What are the pros and cons of doing research in this area in Brazil? Is there any tradition? How is the actual funding situation and scientific environment? How many research groups research Developmental Biology and what are the future perspectives?
2014 is a special year for Brazil not only because of the World Cup but also because of the 150 years of the publication of the book of the great German Naturalist Fritz Mueller Fur Darwin (1864), which has beautifully described Brazilian Crustacean Development and its evolutionary relationships providing an astonishing support to Darwin’s theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection. Interestingly, Fritz Muller´s descriptions were done at home with the help of a simple microscope, since no universities were present at that time in Brazil.
Many years have passed since Mueller´s discoveries and it is reasonable to say that the field of Developmental Biology remained for a long time dormant in Brazil, even during the revolution that happened in Germany and in the US with the rise of Drosophila developmental genetics in the 80´s. Many laboratories in Europe and in the US have set the ground state of Evolutionary and Developmental Biology, as it was only in the late 90’s that Brazilian researches, that had joined these pioneer laboratories as postdoctoral fellows, started to change this situation by returning to establish their labs in Brazil. In 2001, these researchers joined efforts to organize the First International Symposium of Developmental Biology in the city of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, with several renowned speakers from Europe and US joining in. This meeting represented the first countrywide contact between researchers and was vital to attract many young students to the developmental biology field, including one of the authors of this post. In parallel, the Unesco Chair of Developmental Biology, led by Nicole Le Douarin, (http://www.anato.ufrj.br/catedraunesco2008/en/unesco.htmBrazilian) has organized and supported several practical courses in Developmental Biology since 1999, especially in less developed states in Brazil. Today, laboratories in different Universities, all over the country, are specifically dedicated to Developmental Biology, with a young and active research community that provides the field with a interactive network of peers and laboratories, allowing for critical discussions and exchange of students and techniques between labs. As a consequence, Brazilian researchers are a significant part of the Latin American Society of Developmental Biology (http://lasdbbiology.ning.com/), having today the Brazilian Developmental Biologist José Xavier-Neto as the president.
What about funding? Over the past years Brazil’s investments in science and technology has significantly increase. While federal funding agencies are the lonely responsible for the funding for most Brazilian states, the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, have their own funding agencies. Due to the higher state income taxes, these states have a much higher funding availability than the remaining regions of the Country. As a consequence, most research groups are located in these three states in Southeastern of Brazil. Only in 2013, the São Paulo funding agency (FAPESP) invested over US$511 million in funding awarded to research projects (http://www.scidev.net/global/funding/feature/funding-brazil-s-science-sao-paulo-s-success-story-1.html). With good scientists and funding available, is there any limitation to Brazil’s advance in Developmental Biology?
Participants of the last International Symposium on Developmental Biology, held in the charming coast city of Paraty, in November of 2013.
Here we highlight three issues that we consider some of the most important. First, the scientific community in Brazil studying Developmental Biology, although in the rise, is still very small, with national meetings hosting not more then 200 participants countrywide. This fact has a direct impact on the influence that this community could have scientifically and politically in the country and worldwide. Second, Brazil has one of the largest taxes and bureaucracies for imported goods. Antibodies, enzymes, primers, cell lines, media, genetically modified animals, and everything else related to research that comes from abroad has its price tripled due to taxes bureaucracy. Also, since we depend on importing most of our reagents and equipment, the experiments and lab stocks have to be tightly programed to avoid having to freeze research while reagents are being shipped. Third, science has the great advance of being fluent, stateless and worldwide. Today, through science, anyone can study anywhere at any time. In Brazil, the program Ciênicas sem Fronteiras has allowed Brazilian undergraduate and graduate students to spend time studying and doing research abroad. Also, the state funding agencies and graduate programs finance and stimulate students to perform part of their research abroad. This great advance of the fluency of science is still not that advantageous to Brazil. On can image that the best students are being recruited to the best universities and research institute all over the world. One day Brazil will for sure be also attractive for science, but until then, the brain evasion has being affecting us, especially in basic research such as Development Biology. As everywhere, the more impact our research make in the scientific community, more attractive it will be, not only for Brazilians abroad, but also for every scientist interested in competitive research. Great times are coming!
A recent wave of ‘comebacks’ happened in the past few years, with young scientists that did their PhD and postdoctoral training in the US and Germany returning and establishing research groups in different states of Brazil. These research groups are very well funded, creating solid networks of interaction among then and with research groups abroad, and hunger to help the pioneers to take Brazil’s Developmental Biology research to impact the world with original and cutting edge science!
If you are interested, we welcome you into this fascinating journey….
Rodrigo Nunes da Fonseca is a Professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Macaé, in Rio de Janeiro State, and Henrique Marques-Souza is a Professor at University of Campinas, in São Paulo State.
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Posted by the Node, on 12 July 2014
The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is an organization that ‘promotes excellence in the life sciences’ in Europe and beyond. With more than 1500 members (leaders in their respective fields), it is a driving force in European science. Since its inception in 1964, EMBO has played an active role in promoting research in the life sciences, organising meetings and workshops, publishing several important journals in the molecular biology arena, supporting young researchers and influencing science policy in Europe. Many European (and non-European) scientists have benefited hugely from EMBO’s activities over the years – including several of us here at The Company of Biologists!
To mark the occasion of EMBO’s 50th anniversary, we have highlighted below some of the past Node posts that have a connection with EMBO- either highlighting the annual EMBO meetings, reporting form a workshop, or interviewing an award winner or EMBO director. For a great overview of why EMBO was first formed and its history in the last 50 years, do read this great article in Nature. Happy birthday EMBO!
EMBO on the Node:
– Last year we interviewed EMBO’s current director, the developmental biologist Maria Leptin. In this interview she discussed her career and her vision for EMBO.
– Alexis Webb attended an EMBO course on lab management and considered the importance of postdocs acquiring the soft skills necessary to successfully run a lab.
– Alfonso Martinez-Arias shared his thoughts on the EMBO workshop ‘Morphogen Gradients’, and on the brave new world of quantitative developmental biology.
– Eva Amsen, the previous Node community manager, attended the EMBO meeting in 2012. She posted a day by day report (read the posts from day 1, 2, 3 &4). Eva also interviewed the winner of the EMBO Gold Medal 2012, the plant developmental biologist Jiří Friml and keynote speaker Linda Partridge.
– Natascha Bushati attended the EMBO meeting in 2011. There she had the opportunity to discuss the field with Eric Wieschaus and Marcos González-Gaitán, attend the career day and report from the talk sessions (here and here).
– In 2011 Ana Tavares was part of the committee organising the EMBO workshop on Biophysical Mechanisms of Development. They organised a science art competition entitled ‘The Physics of Life’ , and Ana’s post gave an overview of the competition (including a link to the competition’s beautiful image gallery!).
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Posted by Savraj Grewal, on 11 July 2014
Closing Date: 15 March 2021
The Grewal lab at the University of Calgary, Canada is looking to recruit new postdocs and grad students. Our lab investigates how growth is controlled during animal development. We use a combination of molecular and genetic approaches to investigate the cell-cell signalling pathways and the genetic mechanisms that govern the control of cell, tissue and body growth in Drosophila. Our main focus to-date has been the conserved insulin and TOR kinase pathways, and understanding how they regulate cellular and animal metabolism to drive growth. Further information on our research can be found here. Recent publications can be found here.
POSTDOCS: applicants with a Ph.D. and strong background in developmental biology, genetics, or molecular biology are encouraged to apply. Interested individuals should send a CV, a short statement of research interests, and three names of references to grewalss@ucalgary.
GRAD STUDENTS: applicants with a strong undergraduate degree in any area related to the biological sciences are encouraged to apply. Interested individuals should send a CV, a short statement of research interests, and three names of references to grewalss@ucalgary.
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Posted by stemcellsjobs, on 10 July 2014
Closing Date: 15 March 2021
Department/Location: Wellcome Trust – Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge
Salary: £28,132-£36,661
Reference: PS03788
Closing date: 10 August 2014
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 30 June 2017 in the first instance.
The Stem Cell Institute is a world-leading centre of excellence in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, supported by a strategic funding partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council (www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk).
Increasing awareness and understanding of the promise and challenges of stem cell research is embedded in the Stem Cell Institute vision; “deep understanding of stem cell biology for the prevention and treatment of human disease”. The Institute’s 5 strategic goals include “Communication and public engagement; providing reliable information, useful resources, and dialogue opportunities for a range of audiences including schools, policy makers, patient groups, professional bodies and the media”.
The central role of the Public Engagement Officer (PEO) is to foster a community of scientists who recognise the importance of dialogue with the public and who have the skills and opportunities to undertake public engagement activities. The PEO will build networks with local schools, arts groups and businesses to develop activities/events with/for them. The PEO will liaise with other Public Engagement officers in the University, Wellcome Trust Centres and Medical Research Council Institutes/Units and will participate in international networks via EuroStemCell, ISSCR and other trans-national initiatives.
We are seeking a dynamic, innovative and self-motivated individual who will bring expertise and leadership for the Institute’s outreach activities. Experience of working in the HE or research sector would be an advantage. Educated to degree level (or equivalent) in a scientific discipline, you will be responsible for growing a community of researchers who are enthusiastic about dialogue with the public and who have the skills and confidence to deliver stimulating interactive events.
The Stem Cell Institute, is currently spread across several sites in Cambridge, you will organise training, logistics and activities with the aim that all groups in SCI will contribute to at least one event each year. The PEO will expand the existing Public Engagement strategy and design and implement innovative public engagement activities that will interconnect the SCI with target audiences. You will develop measures for evaluating the effectiveness and impact of public engagement activities. You will submit reports to the Institute steering committee and sponsors and will prepare funding applications for public engagement activities.
You must demonstrate a proven track record in relationship building, event organisation, report writing, and data management. You will have outstanding organisational and administrative experience and be comfortable working to tight deadlines with minimal supervision. You should have demonstrable experience in web-based/social media communication and you should have excellent written and verbal communication and negotiation skills. You will be IT literate and able to work both on your own and as part of a team.
The post will report to the Institute Director. You will have a degree (or equivalent).
Once an offer of employment has been accepted, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a health assessment.
To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please visit: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/4403. This will take you to the role on the University’s Job Opportunities pages. There you will need to click on the ‘Apply online’ button and register an account with the University’s Web Recruitment System (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.
Please upload your current CV and cover letter with your application by Sunday 10th August 2014.
Informal enquiries are also welcome via email: cscrjobs@cscr.cam.ac.uk.
Interviews will be held towards the end of August 2014. If you have not been invited for interview by 18th August 2014, you have not been successful on this occasion.
Please quote reference PS03788 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.
The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.
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Posted by the Node, on 9 July 2014
Time for the second round of images from last year’s Woods Hole embryology course! Below you will find 4 fantastic images taken by students of the 2013 course. Choose the one you would like to see in the cover of Development by voting on the pole at the end of the post (you can see bigger versions by clicking on the images). The poll is set up to allow only one vote per person, so please stick to this rule to give all the images a fair chance!
Voting will close noon GMT on July the 30th.
1. Short-tailed fruit bat, Carollia perspicillata, at stage 20. This image was taken by Mary Colasanto (University of Utah) and Sophia Tintori (University of North Carolina).
2. Ovariole of a pupal stage Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) butterfly stained with DAPI (blue, nuclei) and Phalloidin (red, F- actin). Imaged on a Zeiss LSM 780 confocal. This image was taken by Ezgi Kunttas-Tatli (Carnegie Mellon University) and Duygu Ozpolat (University of Maryland).
3. Mouse embryo at E14.5 days. Preserved with Bouin’s fixative and imaged using a Zeiss Discovery V12 and a SPOT Flex camera. Multiple focal planes were assembled using Helicon Focus software. This image was taken by Georgina Stooke-Vaughan (University of Sheffield).
4. “Zebrabow” zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo 2 days post-fertilization. 4-Hydroxytamoxifen (4-OHT) administration at 24 hr post-fertilization, leading to ubiquitous expression of active Cre recombinase, and subsequent expression of GFP, RFP and CFP after recombination. Imaged on a Zeiss LSM 700 confocal. This image was taken by Brijesh Kumar (Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur).
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