Soumya Das: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the number one killer world-wide and in India. IHD is primarily caused by coronary occlusions. Most patients are ineligible to undergo the invasive treatments (like stenting, coronary bypass surgeries) for IHD. An alternate is to create artery to artery connections called collateral arteries which can perfuse tissue downstream of an occluded artery. Our group investigates cellular mechanisms, molecular drivers and physiological triggers which facilitate the de novo formation of collaterals. Using mouse genetics, single cell RNA sequencing analyses and whole heart confocal imaging at single cell resolution, we show that young mouse artery cells can de-differentiate and proliferate in response to myocardial infarction, a phenomenon absent in older hearts. Additionally, combining genetic lineage labeling/tracing with in vivo live imaging of mouse embryos, we show that artery cells extend on pre-determined microvascular tracks to build pial collaterals in brain. Our study reveals that Vegf/VegfR2 axis facilitates pial artery-tip extensions in the developing brain, but drives coronary proliferation in injured hearts. Thus, while developmental pathways reactivate in response to injury, their mode of action may be distinct. Together, our work suggests organ-specific mechanisms drive collateral formation in the heart and brain.
Currently, we are identifying other molecules and physiological factors which tune the process of collateral making. We are also exploring the relevance of multiple (cellular) processes to create these collaterals, and what is the impact on overall organ function.
Lab roll call
Bhavnesh Bishnoi (2021-present) is a graduate student investigating the biochemical contribution of cardiac cells towards coronary artery development and collateral formation. He is the first graduate student of the young Das lab at NCBS.
Swarnadip Ghosh (2022-present) is a graduate student who is exploring the mechanisms underlying collateral development in the brain. He is also interested in the mechanobiology of vessels. He was a critical part of the recent study (Kumar et al., Cell Reports, 2024) describing the cellular and molecular regulation of pial collaterals in development and homeostasis.
Ravindra Kailasrao Zirmire (2023- present) is a postdoctoral fellow interested in uncovering the role of artery cell proliferation in coronary collateral vessel formation and its effect on cardiac regeneration. He is also interested in parsing out the details of inflammation-mediated cardiac fibrosis, and the role of vasculature in the process.
Alfia Nirguni Saini (2024- present) is a graduate student who focuses on developing tools to study Artery Reassembly in vitro. She also wants to capture ischemia-driven (and specific) artery cell behavior, which significantly contributes to collateral formation in an injured mouse heart.
Zidhan Subair (2024- present) is a project associate interested in using microfluidics to study blood-flow induced mechanosensory pathways in cardiovascular remodeling.
JerushaEmanuel (2025- present) is a graduate student who just joined the lab and wants to explore if and how cellular interactions between vascular and non-vascular cells facilitate collateral formation in the heart and brain.
Over the past few years we also had a postdoctoral fellow, few Masters thesis students and some interns who were a delight to work with.
Lab alumni visiting
Favorite technique, and why?
Soumya: We like to not limit ourselves to a single technique, and develop them as and when needed. That being said, a significant amount of our work is primarily driven by mouse genetics and microscopy. We have developed ways to perform whole organ imaging at cellular and sub-cellular resolution, in fixed and live tissues. This has allowed us to capture the cellular dynamics of endothelial cells during embryogenesis, adulthood, and in diseased states. Together, we now probe deeper questions which seemed unapproachable earlier.
Apart from your own research, what are you most excited about in developmental and stem cell biology?
Soumya: What intrigues me most is the genetic variation that exists within the genome of a population─ how did it come to place, and how has it evolved over time. This eventually reflects on various measurable observations, and I wonder if we can predict the evolutionary trajectory learning from these changes in structures and functions.
How do you approach managing your group and all the different tasks required in your job?
Soumya: I am lucky that there is not much to be “managed”. My young team at NCBS, (though small) is extremely driven, smart and efficient. At NCBS, students and postdocs run the lab─from procurement of lab equipment/consumables to steering their projects. I meet with each member of my team individually, to discuss “raw” data, every couple of weeks, and sometimes multiple times within the same week, or even a day. This happens on a need basis. We have weekly lab meetings where one team member would present their analyzed data. This is to give everyone a bigger picture, brainstorm ideas and decide on the next logical step of experimentation. We also have weekly journal clubs where we discuss a unique discovery or novel technology. Apart from these interactions, everyone is welcome to stop by my office and have a conversation if and when needed. Additionally, everyone is encouraged to participate in meetings and conferences and science competitions. The other (significant) aspects of being a PI in academia is procuring funds, editing/reviewing manuscripts, and performing administrative duties.
What is the best thing about where you work?
Soumya: What I like most about working with my team at NCBS is the freedom to do the science I want to do and pursue the questions that intrigue me. One of the best feature of NCBS is the on-campus creche (Dolna), which is a life-saver to all parents working at NCBS. We are able to give our 100% to science because we know our little ones are happy and safe at Dolna.
Bhavnesh Bishnoi: The opportunity to explore new ideas, engage with diverse scientific fields, and discuss research with the community are some of the greatest aspects of NCBS.
Swarnadip Ghosh: The best part about NCBS is the technical support we get for our research work. The staff is very sincere, the environment is extremely supportive and student-friendly.
Ravindra Kailasrao Zirmire: The freedom to pursue an idea even if it is exploratory and seems out-of-the-box.
Alfia Nirguni Saini: The access to many instruments and devices to do experiments and of course the collaborative atmosphere.
Zidhan Subair: The best part of being at NCBS is the support and freedom to pursue projects that truly excite me. There is always an opportunity to learn, and the NCBS community is always willing to assist with both technical and academic matters.
JerushaEmanuel: I love that NCBS has a diverse scientific community, not a day goes by without us learning something new. Interacting with people who are excited about science inspires me. The campus being gorgeous and having many cafeterias is a major plus.
Lab chai time
What’s there to do outside of the lab?
Soumya: As a team, we occasionally go out for lunches or dinners. We try to celebrate every big or small victory with chai and samosas in one of the many cafes on campus─be it an acceptance of a manuscript or a student passing their comprehensive (qualifying) exam. Most of us spend their weekends with family and friends. I like spending time with my 2 years old daughter, I am currently learning gardening skills and over the weekend, I like to gettogether and relax with close family and friends.
Bhavnesh Bishnoi: What I enjoy most outside the lab is watching movies and taking long walks in nature.
Swarnadip Ghosh: Outside the lab, in the afternoon, the lab goes for tea, spends time and discuss about science and non-science matters. We also often go for swimming and play indoor games.
Ravindra Kailasrao Zirmire: Outside of the lab, I like swimming, listening to music and learning and brainstorming about entrepreneurship ideas.
Alfia Nirguni Saini: There’s so much greenery outside the lab and many places to sit and chat with lab mates and friends. It helps me unwind after a long day.
Zidhan Subair: Outside the lab, I love reading, exploring the open road, and discovering new restaurants around town.
JerushaEmanuel: When not in the lab, I like going on long walks, playing the piano and singing. There’s a ton of extracurricular activities on campus─from movie screenings to concerts. I enjoy being a part of them occasionally.
The use of preprints in biology has thrived over the past decade. Many groups now regularly share their latest papers on a preprint server with the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the incredible value of preprints as a mechanism to promptly disseminate the latest research findings.
To work toward our mission to make communication in the life sciences more open and transparent, ASAPbio promotes the productive use of preprints. Many researchers do not receive training in scholarly publishing or communication. Additionally, many researchers have become familiarized with preprints by hearing about them from colleagues or by finding a preprint reporting the latest work in their field. These researcher-to-researcher interactions are invaluable to raise awareness about preprints. To foster more of these conversations, ASAPbio started a Fellows program in 2020.
The ASAPbio Fellows drive engagement and adoption of preprints
The ASAPbio Fellows program provides participants with a comprehensive overview of the preprint and preprint review landscape. The program provides opportunities to explore trends, tools and the outlook for preprints in the life sciences while connecting with others interested in preprints and science communication. The program also allows Fellows to help shape and develop ASAPbio strategic initiatives, develop their own preprint based talk or to optionally take forward a project of their choice.
Community is the heart of ASAPbio, and the Fellows program encapsulates this focus perfectly. In addition to the training that Fellows of previous years have received, in 2024, there was a greater emphasis on embedding Fellows in their local communities as preprint experts. All Fellows were asked to prepare slides and deliver a local talk on preprints. Fellows had full choice over the exact topic, with a variety of topics chosen. Nineteen Fellows successfully delivered a local preprint talk with their slide decks available to all through a Zenodo repository.
In addition to the local talks, Fellows engaged in optional projects. One project, specifically focussed on the African region, involved a series of webinars to raise awareness of preprints for researchers based in Africa. Over 140 people registered for the webinar series with the Fellows delivering 3 of the 4 sessions. This 4-part webinar series is available on the ASAPbio YouTube channel.
Two Fellows took up the opportunity to produce three podcast episodes; one on the perspective of librarians towards preprints and two on the role of preprints in tenure and promotion. These episodes are available via the Preprints in Motion podcast, and you can listen to the librarian episode here and the tenure and promotion episodes here and here.
Continuing the more creative theme, another group of 2024 Fellows created animated YouTube videos to tackle persistent preprint myths. Despite preprints having been established for over 10 years in the Life Sciences, a number of persistent myths remain. To tackle these myths and build from previous efforts of ASAPbio Fellows, a group of 2024 Fellows produced whiteboard-style animated videos. Fellows chose to tackle myths on preprints being preliminary work and scooping.
Institutional recognition is a vital step towards greater preprint adoption. Frequently cited as a significant barrier to preprint use by researchers, it is essential that institutions adopt policies that support and reward preprint use. Building on a previous ASAPbio funder’s toolkit, a group of Fellows developed expanded policy wording for a greater number of institutionally-focussed stakeholders. This whitepaper was preprinted and is available on Zenodo.
These are just some of the 2024 projects that Fellows got involved in. You can learn more about the highly productive 2024 Fellows on the ASAPbio website.
Engage with preprints & open science – Become a 2025 ASAPbio Fellow
Building from the hugely successful 2024 Fellows cohort, this year we will be continuing to offer a wide range of opportunities and support. Our Culture & Community track will run from March-August and include the delivery of local talks, 1 on 1 meetings and small group meetings. The optional projects track will run until May-September and include a variety of projects that are aligned with ASAPbio’s strategic direction.
The 2025 ASAPbio Fellows program is now open for applications, and we invite all interested in preprints and science communication to apply. There are no restrictions related to geographical location or career stage. We just ask you to bring an interest in preprints and availability to give the program a few hours per month from March to September 2025.
Interested?Apply to the 2025 Fellows program now! You can learn more about the program in the Fellows handbook, or contact Jonny with any questions (jonny.coates@asapbio.org). Applications will close 10th Feb 2025.
Over the last few weeks, we asked you to vote for your favourite 2024 Development cover image. Thank you to everyone who voted. Now that the poll is closed, let’s reveal the results!
*Drumroll*
The 2024 Development cover of the year is the image of a superimposition of three stages of embryonic mouse lungs! Congratulations to Paramore et al.!
A superimposition of three stages of embryonic mouse lungs (E12 in white, E13 in cyan and E14 in magenta) demonstrating changes that can be observed over a 3-day period. The pulmonary mesenchyme regulates the lengthening and widening of airways via the protein Vangl2, revealing a previously unreported role for this tissue compartment in the shaping of the airway tree. See Research article by Paramore et al.
Drosophila optic lobe at 72 hours after puparium formation. Tm9 neurons are labelled with GMR24C08-GAL4 expressing UAS-myristoylated Tomato (cyan), the medulla, lobula and lobula plate neuropils are labeled with anti-N-cadherin (magenta), and specific layers of these neuropils are labeled with anti-connectin (yellow). Image credit: Maria Bustillo. See Research article by Bustillo et al.
Collage of RNA expression in the tail of a whole-mount zebrafish embryo composed from the channels of a 10-plex, quantitative, high-resolution RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization experiment performed using spectral imaging with signal amplification based on the mechanism of hybridization chain reaction (HCR). See Research article by Schulte at al.
Development of transgenic Lytechinus pictus, the first transgenic echinoderm lines, expressing cyan fluorescent protein fused to a nuclear marker (histone 2B) driven by a polyubiquitin promoter. Developmental stages expressing the transgene are depicted from blastula (12 h post-fertilisation) through the larval stages, to the competent larva (22 days post-fertilisation), and finally to the juvenile stage at center. The juvenile has an additional membrane stain (grey) for contrast. See Research article by Jackson et al.
Happy New Year, everyone. 2025 is a big year for us at The Company of Biologists, marking 100 years since the Company was founded. We’re using this opportunity to reflect on what we do, how we got here and what lies ahead, alongside some special celebrations of this once-in-a-lifetime milestone.
Here, I highlight four projects to look out for during the year. You can help celebrate by visiting our anniversary page here, where you can register for updates, or by following #biologists100 on social media (The Company of Biologists is on BlueSky, X, Mastodon and LinkedIn).
The Company of Biologists: celebrating 100 years
To begin celebrating our 100-year anniversary, four of our Directors (Sarah Bray, Stephen Royle, Holly Shiels and Daniel St Johnston) reflect on the story of The Company of Biologists so far. They consider the Company’s current charitable activities and support for our communities, and highlight some of the inspiring articles and activities to come this year. You can read the cross-title Editorial in Development here.
During 2025, we will be publishing lots more content across each of our journals about the past, present and future of the Company and its activities, as well as some articles about the biology published in the journals. Keep an eye on our anniversary collection as it continues to grow here.
100 extraordinary biologists
Throughout 2025, we will be featuring 100 biologists with extraordinary links to The Company of Biologists, highlighting a new pair of researchers each week. We begin with our founder, George Parker Bidder III, who hit the news most recently in 2015 after one of his messages in a bottle was discovered – the oldest of its kind at the time. If you’re on social media, you can follow our collection using the hashtag #100biologists, and if you’re not, you can take a look at the developing archive on our anniversary page here.
Message in a bottle
Inspired by George Parker Bidder III, we have set up our own digital ‘message in a bottle’ project. We would like to hear stories about how The Company of Biologists has supported you over time and the impact that has had on your research or career.
For example, we want to hear from you if you have:
published in one of our journals
received a Travelling Fellowship or other Company grants
received support from the Company as a member of BSCB, BSDB or SEB
attended a scientific meeting hosted by the Company
contributed to one of our community sites
acted in the role of Director, Editor or other partner
worked with us in one of the many other projects we have run over the past few decades
Tell us your story by sending us your own digital ‘message in a bottle’ here.
Biologists @ 100 conference
A key event in our programme of activities is our interdisciplinary Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, which brings together each of the communities served by The Company of Biologists’ journals. You can learn more about the programme and register to attend on the conference website here.
We’ve made a video (below) that discusses some of the ways we’ve made this a sustainable event and encourage you to also think sustainably when making travel plans to join us in March. See you there?
In plants, the vascular cambium, a bifacial stem cell niche, drives wood formation by generating the xylem on one side and the phloem on the other. In this post, Ari Pekka Mähönen, Peter Etchells and Kirsten ten Tusscher tell the story behind their paper “Identification of cambium stem cell factors and their positioning mechanism”.
Ari Pekka Mähönen:
In the autumn of 2009, I returned from my post-doctoral period in Ben Scheres’ lab, located then in Utrecht. During my postdoc I was working on the roles of PLETHORA/AINTEGUMENTA-LIKE (PLT/AIL) transcription factors in stem cell regulation in the root meristem. Moving back to Finland my idea was to study whether any of these factors are expressed in Arabidopsis root cambium, the meristem I intended to study in my newly established research group. It was exciting to see that PLT5 showed very specific expression in the dividing cambial cells (Figure), however, further studies had to wait for several years due to my focus on finalizing ongoing projects. After obtaining funding for my research group, a PhD student, Gugan Eswaran, started to work on the project, and he discovered that ANT, PLT3 and PLT7 are also expressed in the cambium, suggesting genetic redundancy in cambium development. Unfortunately, ant single mutants and plt triple mutants showed only slightly reduced secondary growth. I was expecting a stronger phenotype from putative stem cell factors of cambium. In subsequent attempts, generation of the quadruple mutant failed due to unexplained lethality, and an artificial microRNA approach did not provide stronger phenotypes either. This was disappointing and thus Gugan started to focus more on his side projects. Then, rescue for the project came a few years later from a technical innovation. Xin Wang, a PhD student in my lab, invented an inducible genome editing system (IGE) for plants (Wang et al Nature Plants 2020). This IGE system was used to generate a conditional quadruple ant/plt mutant. Finally, this mutant showed severely reduced radial growth, something one would expect from loss of stem cell factors. This was great, but of course now we had a new question to answer – what regulates CAMBIUM-EXPRESSED AINTEGUMENTA-LIKE (CAIL) (the name we gave to ANT, PLT3, PLT5 and PLT7) expression in such a narrow, specific domain? I think, this was the point where you Peter contacted me, or was it even earlier than when we got the conditional quadruple mutant results?
pPLT5-GUS shows expression in dividing cambial cells.
Peter Etchells:
I got in touch while Gugan was making the IGE construct. I had been working on putting the pieces of PXY signalling together since joining Simon Turner’s lab in Manchester in 2007, and this continued when I moved to Siobhán Brady’s lab at UC Davis in 2013. Over that whole period, through my work and that of others in Hiroo Fukuda’s lab, a series of PXY-downstream targets, WOX4, WOX14, BES1, LBD4 and TMO6 were identified (Hirakawa et al Plant Cell 2012; Etchells et al Development 2013; Kondo et al Nature Comms 2015; Smit et al Plant Cell 2020). However, I was never satisfied that all the transcriptional targets of TDIF-PXY had been uncovered. PXY is homologous to CLAVATA1, which famously regulates the shoot apical meristem via regulation of the homeodomain transcription factor WUSCHEL (WUS). WOX4 and WOX14 are homologous to WUS, so they were a natural focus for investigation, but wox4 wox14 mutants only have a mild cambium phenotype. BES1, LBD4 and TMO6 are also only responsible for regulation of a subset of the pxy phenotypes. It seemed like we were missing something. The key was a transcriptomic experiment which demonstrated that CAIL genes were differentially expressed in both pxy and TDIF over-expression lines, performed just as I was transitioning out of Siobhán’s group to start my own lab in 2015. To test for a genetic interaction between the CAILs and TDIF-PXY, we crossed the TDIF over-expression line, which is characterised by ectopic cambium, to plt357 mutants. Although the plt357 line alonedid not have a cambium phenotype, it did suppress phenotypes associated with TDIF over-expression, which, combined with the CAIL expression patterns that Ari Pekka’s group had, demonstrated that the CAIL genes did have a cambium function and were likely controlled by TDIF-PXY. It was not long after that Gugan’s IGE line came through which sealed the deal. Still, the story was incomplete because the PXY expression domain is so broad relative to that of the CAILs.
Ari Pekka Mähönen:
So, now we knew that CAILs are regulated by the TDIF-PXY ligand-receptor pathway. However, we still did not know how come CAILs are only expressed in such a narrow region in stem cells, given that the PXY receptor expression domain spans from the stem cells into the xylem. A few researchers in my lab participated to hunt for the mechanism underlying this tight spatial control, and we indeed found a few regulatory feed-back mechanisms that could help excluding the CAILs from the xylem. On top of this, we wondered whether efficient sequestration of diffusing TDIF peptide by the PXY receptor could play a role in focusing CAIL signalling. With all the feedback regulation and a possible sequestration of TDIF, we were quite unsure which one of these mechanisms (or whether any of these mechanisms) could contribute to narrow CAIL expression in planta. Therefore, I contacted Kirsten ten Tusscher, a computational biologist, with whom I had collaborated before on addressing the role of PLT genes in root zonation (Mähönen, ten Tusscher et al. Nature 2014). I suggested that we could address these different scenarios in TDIF-PXY-CAIL signalling in a computational model.
Kirsten ten Tusscher:
As I had greatly enjoyed our previous collaboration, and questions on patterning are the bread and butter of computational biology, this was of course an offer I could not refuse. Luckily, a talented PhD student in my group, Jaap Rutten, was quite far already with the results for the main project of his PhD thesis and waiting for experimental data. Thus, it was not hard at all to convince him to broaden his horizon beyond the control of root meristem size that we were working on together with Sabrina Sabatini to the control of cambium patterning and positioning together with Ari Pekka and Peter. To investigate the importance of different feedback mechanisms as well as the potential of ligand sequestration in defining the narrow domain of CAIL cambium expression, we started building a model incorporating all the important molecular players and the regulatory interactions between them, using both new and previously published data. As a start we developed a model for a single cell and tested whether it could model xylem, phloem and cambium cells depending on the incoming signals. However, for non-modelers it often seems that if models are complex enough and you tweak parameters you can make them do anything you want. Therefore, it was important to show that the models’ capacity to simulate phloem, xylem or cambium forming cells was a very generic property of the modelled network architecture, not of precise parameter values or details. To achieve this Jaap performed a whopping 1,768,593,750 simulations to extensively test different model settings, occupying some of our computers for weeks, and show that overall model behaviour remained the same. In the process we could already confirm that some of the feedback uncovered by Ari Pekka’s team indeed limited cambium formation and promoted xylem formation. As a next step we could now move to a one-dimensional model of a strip of cells spanning from xylem to phloem and start testing the ligand-sequestration hypothesis. Key to this was to include an auxin-dependent PXY gradient starting from the xylem end of the tissue, and a TDIF gradient arising from the diffusion of TDIF from TDIF producing phloem cells into our model. With this in place, Jaap demonstrated that if binding of TDIF ligand to PXY receptors is sufficiently strong, at the tissue position where TDIF meets the first low levels of PXY receptors, TDIF is bound and effective diffusion is halted, preventing TDIF-PXY interaction further towards the xylem. Interestingly, this also explains why cambium stem cell patterning is robust under various cambium sizes: when the xylem and phloem are further apart, the TDIF will diffuse further before it reaches the first PXY receptors and until that time it diffuses freely ensuring it will still meet PXY receptors! However, an important issue remained: the regulatory feedback mechanism uncovered earlier could to some extent limit CAIL expression. So, to test which of these potential mechanisms occurs and/or is most important in planta, we tested in silico what would happen if we decreased PXY expression or elevated TDIF levels. Next these experiments were also performed in the lab, with lab outcomes matching the predictions made by the sequestration-based model. This finally enabled us to cement the importance of sequestration for defining the CAIL expression domain.
Ari Pekka Mähönen, Peter Etchells, Kirsten ten Tusscher:
So, now we could confidently say that sequestration of TDIF is the key to focusing the TDIF-PXY signalling and thus CAIL expression in a narrow domain to define the stem cells. The manuscript was submitted, and we got constructive comments from the reviewers, especially on providing more evidence for the sequestration mechanism. Xixi Zhang, a post doc in the Mähönen lab, had already earlier started to work on the generation of PXY reporter lines. She noticed, among other findings, that the translational reporter pPXY:PXY-YFP has a significantly sharper gradient within the cambium than the transcriptional reporter line pPXY:erYFP, indicating that the PXY-YFP fusion protein is more unstable in phloem-side cambium cells than in the cells on the xylem-side of the cambium. Since TDIF ligand originates from phloem, this suggest that the TDIF binding to PXY could make PXY-YFP unstable. Thus, regulation of TDIF-PXY stability could be the key mechanism for the sequestration, and this is what Xixi is studying now, as a follow up of the published work.
In the end, seeing this paper published was particularly satisfying, both because of the long journey it took to finalize it and because of the enjoyable collaboration we had while working together on this project.
Two years ago, we organized the inaugural symposium dedicated to Women in Tunicate Biology. It was a joyful event, celebrating women scientists from the 19th century to the present. A special issue of the journal genesis was published in November 2023, collecting the biographies and research talks from the symposium (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1526968x/2023/61/6).
We would like to announce that the second edition of this symposium will take place on Tuesday March 25th and Wednesday 26th, 2025 by Zoom. In this upcoming event, we will include talks by graduate students and postdocs working in the field of tunicate biology, as well as PIs.
If you are interested in participating, whether as a speaker or attendee, please let us know. All researchers are welcome to attend!
Thanks for your attention and best wishes, Anna Di Gregorio and Marie Nydam adg13@nyu.edu mnydam@soka.edu (1 votes) Loading...
In 2023 I was awarded a NC3Rs 20th Anniversary Public Engagement Award to develop and print a “Biological Research Trump Cards” game. I have now designed and printed 100 packs of the game, and my aim is to share them with the scientific community and educators. I hope they will prove a fun and engaging public engagement tool in a variety of different settings.
A researcher in an academic setting who would like to use the cards in your outreach programme
A teacher at primary or secondary school and would be interested in having some packs / hosting a workshop (see below for an example)
Interested in using them but unsure if they are suitable for your audience
So what are “Trump Cards”?
There are few people who have gone through life without encountering Top Trumps in some form. First published in 1978, there are now hundreds of different varieties, from football teams to dinosaurs. The gameplay is simple, with users comparing numerical data to try and trump and win an opponent’s card. It is this simplicity, along with the easily adaptable format, that makes it ideal as a customisable public engagement tool.
Why this format?
I have always wanted to create a card game on a scientific theme that is both fun and educational, and Trump cards are an obvious choice – no complicated rules, compact, and the numerical categories offer the opportunity to convey a lot of information on a single card. The idea for the specific theme of these cards came to me after attending an NC3Rs early career researcher event, where I learnt about all the different research models and systems scientists were using for their research.
How was the game developed?
After extensive research into different research models, I came up with a full set of Top Trumps, including systems ranging from mathematical models to sea urchins. I decided to focus the game on the3Rs message, specifically the replacement of animals in research. Each card has 5 categories, including “replacement potential”, which is based on whether the system is an animal, partial replacement, or full replacement. Together with the NC3Rs team, I fine tuned the cards, making sure it conveyed the 3Rs message in a clear and accessible way. The other categories are “genome size”, “speed”, “size”, and “popularity”, with “speed” referring to how quickly experiments can be carried out, and “popularity” based on the number of articles published in 2019. I designed the cards myself using Adobe Illustrator, and spent many evenings deciding the perfect colour scheme, fonts, and drawing cartoons of fruit flies playing cards.
What is in the pack?
Each pack contains a set of Trump cards, along with explanatory cards for each of the categories, what the NC3Rs is and their mission, and a “how to play” card.
Who are the intended audience?
Top trumps are a well-loved game by children and adults alike, and no prior knowledge of scientific research is necessary to engage with the activity. Most adults and secondary school pupils will have some understanding of how we use animals in research and may have opinions about this, but I anticipate that they will not have been introduced to the myriad other model systems that scientists use. The aim is to promote discussion around the use of animals and alternatives. Younger children will enjoy the pictures and facts about unusual animals, and hopefully it will pique their interest in scientific research.
How do you use the cards?
I have 100 packs for distribution to schools and other researchers for use in their public engagement activities and would be delighted to share them with you. Their use is not limited to playing the full game from start to finish- here are some other examples of ways they can be used:
Short format – one card is chosen at random by each player and one turn is played. This would be most appropriate for stands at science fairs, for example, where people are passing through quickly.
As illustrations – if you are focusing on one or a few different model systems, the cards can be laid out, or images of them displayed on screen, as a quick way to convey a lot of information about that system. In addition to the numerical categories, there is a description on the bottom of the card explaining what the organism or system is used for.
Workshops in schools – in addition to simply playing the game, they are a useful tool to get students thinking about why scientists might use different model systems. For example, I have designed a workshop where students are given three scenarios and they have to choose what they think the best three models are for each research aim. This gets them thinking and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of different models, with support from scientists leading the workshop.
Trump Cards in action at an Motor Neuron Disease Association Legacy event at the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience. Here we used the cards as illustrations for the different models we use to research MND, as part of a stand showcasing fruit flies and mouse models.
Example workshop
I have designed a workshop aimed at secondary school and sixth form students, which is available for you to download. It can easily be adapted to suit different abilities. The workshop begins with a short introduction to modelling and why we do it, followed by examples. It also touches on what to consider when choosing a model. The main activity involves the students choosing three models for each research aim. During this activity, I would allocate one volunteer per group if possible to sit with the students whilst they discuss. This is helpful because they may have technical questions about different systems that would influence their choices. Additionally, you can probe their reasoning and get them to think about less obvious choices. For example, they might not know that fruit flies can be used for exercise experiments, or consider that mathematical modelling could be used for looking at the relationship between diet and motor neuron disease.
Xiao-Feng Zhao, Rafi Kohen, Eljo Y. Van Battum, Ying Zeng, Xiaolu Zhang, Craig N. Johnson, Karen Wang, Brian C. Lim, Juan A. Oses-Prieto, Joshua M. Rasband, Alma L. Burlingame, R. Jeroen Pasterkamp, Matthew N. Rasband, Roman J. Giger
Marie Zilliox, Gaëlle Letort, David Sanchez, Christian Rouviere, Pascale Dufourcq, Frédérique Gaits-Iacovoni, Anne Pizzoccaro, Violaine Roussier-Michon, Patrick Blader, Julie Batut
Renata Coutinho-dos-Santos, Daniele G. Santos, Lupis Ribeiro, Jonathan J. Mucherino-Muñoz, Marcelle Uhl, Carlos Logullo, A Mendonça-Amarante, M Fantappie, Rodrigo Nunes-da-Fonseca
Luca Caputo, Cedomir Stamenkovic, Matthew T. Tierney, Maria Sofia Falzarano, Rhonda Bassel-Duby, Alessandra Ferlini, Eric N. Olson, Pier Lorenzo Puri, Alessandra Sacco
Rachel Forman-Rubinsky, Wei Feng, Brent T. Schlegel, Angela Paul, Daniel Zuppo, Katarzyna Kedziora, Donna Stoltz, Simon Watkins, Dhivyaa Rajasundaram, Guang Li, Michael Tsang
Archana Prabahar, Connie S. Chamberlain, Ray Vanderby, William L. Murphy, William Dangelo, Kulkarni Mangesh, Bryan Brown, Barsanjit Mazumder, Stephen Badylak, Peng Jiang
Byron W.H. Mui, Joseph Y. Wong, Toni Bray, Lauren Connolly, Jia Hua Wang, Alexander Winkel, Pamela G. Robey, Kristian Franze, Kevin J. Chalut, Mekayla A. Storer
Asya Bastrich, Daniil Antonov, Aleksandra Podzhilkova, Darya A. Petrova, Svetlana V. Pylina, Dmitriy N. Laptev, Elena A. Sechko, Sergey N. Kuznetsov, Ekaterina A. Vetchinkina, Natalia G. Mokrysheva
Ruiqi Hu, Linda L. Boshans, Bohan Zhu, Peiwen Cai, Yiran Tao, Mark Youssef, Gizem Inak Girrbach, Yingnan Song, Xuran Wang, Alexander Tsankov, Joseph D. Buxbaum, Sai Ma, Nan Yang
Georgios Tsissios, Marion Leleu, Kelly Hu, Alp Eren Demirtas, Hanrong Hu, Toru Kawanishi, Evangelia Skoufa, Alessandro Valente, Antonio Herrera, Adrien Mery, Lorenzo Noseda, Haruki Ochi, Selman Sakar, Mikiko Tanaka, Fides Zenk, Can Aztekin
Madhura P Nijsure, Brendan Tobin, Dakota L Jones, Annemarie Lang, Grey Hallström, Miriam Baitner, Gabrielle I Tanner, Yasaman Moharrer, Christopher J Panebianco, Elizabeth G Seidl, Nathaniel A Dyment, Gregory L Szeto, Levi Wood, Joel D Boerckel
Erin N. Sanders, Hsuan-Te Sun, Saman Tabatabaee, Charles F. Lang, Sebastian G. van Dijk, Yu-Han Su, Andrew LaboD, Javeria Idris, Marco Marchetti, Shicong Xie, Lucy Erin O’Brien
Harshita Mangal, Kyle Linders, Jonathan Turkus, Nikee Shrestha, Blake Long, Xianyan Kuang, Ernest Cebert, J. Vladimir Torres-Rodriguez, James C Schnable
Antoine Nicolas, Panagiotis Papadopoulos, Matteo Caroulle, Bernard Adroher, Magali Goussot, Anne-Sophie Sarthou, Nicolas Arnaud, Aude Maugarny, Patrick Laufs
Joel Rodríguez Herrera, Kenia Aislinn Galván Alcaraz, Ramsés Uriel Albarrán Hernández, Juan Pablo Villa Núñez, Gustavo Rodríguez Alonso, Svetlana Shishkova
Melissa Dipp-Alvarez, J. Luis Lorenzo-Manzanarez, Eduardo Flores-Sandoval, Domingo Méndez-Álvarez, Annie Espinal-Centeno, Jesús León-Ruiz, Fernando Olvera-Martínez, John L. Bowman, Mario A. Arteaga-Vázquez, Alfredo Cruz-Ramírez
Markéta Luklová, Marieke Dubois, Michaela Kameniarová, Klára Plačková, Jan Novák, Romana Kopecká, Michal Karady, Jaroslav Pavlů, Jan Skalák, Sunita Jindal, Ljiljana Tubić, Zainab Quddos, Ondřej Novák, Dirk Inzé, Martin Černý
Tomás Urzúa Lehuedé, Victoria Berdion Gabarain, Miguel Angel Ibeas, Hernan Salinas-Grenet, Romina Acha, Tomas Moyano, Lucia Ferrero, Gerardo Núñez-Lillo, Jorge Perez, Florencia Perotti, Virginia Natali Miguel, Fiorella Paola Spies, Miguel A. Rosas, Ayako Kawamura, Diana R. Rodríguez-García, Ah-Ram Kim, Trevor Nolan, Adrian A. Moreno, Keiko Sugimoto, Norbert Perrimon, Karen A. Sanguinet, Claudio Meneses, Raquel L. Chan, Federico Ariel, Jose M. Alvarez, José M. Estevez
Katie A. Long, Ashleigh Lister, Maximillian R. W. Jones, Nikolai M. Adamski, Rob E. Ellis, Carole Chedid, Sophie J. Carpenter, Xuemei Liu, Anna E. Backhaus, Andrew Goldson, Vanda Knitlhoffer, Yuanrong Pei, Martin Vickers, Burkhard Steuernagel, Gemy G. Kaithakottil, Jun Xiao, Wilfried Haerty, Iain C Macaulay, Cristobal Uauy
A.P Lipinska, G. Cossard, P. Epperlein, T. Woertwein, C. Molinier, O. Godfroy, S. Carli, L. Ayres-Ostrock, E Lavaut, F. Marchi, S. Mauger, C. Destombe, M.C. Oliveira, E.M. Plastino, S.A. Krueger-Hadfield, M.L. Guillemin, M. Valero, S.M. Coelho
Guy Teichman, Mor Sela, Chee Kiang Ewe, Itai Rieger, Sarit Anava, Yael Mor, Péter Szántó, David H. Meyer, Hila Doron, Or Shachar, Vladyslava Pechuk, Hila Gingold, Meital Oren-Suissa, Matthew McGee, Michael Shapira, Björn Schumacher, Oded Rechavi
Feline W. Lindhout, Hanna M. Szafranska, Ivan Imaz-Rosshandler, Luca Guglielmi, Maryam Moarefian, Kateryna Voitiuk, Natalia K. Zernicka-Glover, Daniel J. Lloyd-Davies Sánchez, John Minnick, Mircea Teodorescu, Madeline A. Lancaster
Aleksandra Babicheva, Ibrahim Elmadbouh, Shanshan Song, Michael Thompson, Ryan Powers, Pritesh P. Jain, Amin Izadi, Jiyuan Chen, Lauren Yung, Sophia Parmisano, Cole Paquin, Wei-Ting Wang, Yuqin Chen, Ting Wang, Mona Alotaibi, John Y.-J. Shyy, Patricia A. Thistlethwaite, Jian Wang, Ayako Makino, Y.S. Prakash, Christina M. Pabelick, Jason X.-J. Yuan
Oliver Arnolds, Eve M. Carter, Madison Edwards, Edvard Wigren, Evert Homan, Pauline Ribera, Kirsty Bentley, Martin Haraldsson, Nmesoma Theo-Emegano, Peter Loppnau, Magdalena M Szewczyk, Michelle A Cao, Dalia Barsyte-Lovejoy, Karen Vester, Anna Thrun, Alexandra Amaral, Ralf Lesche, Jens Münchow, W. Felix Zhu, Louisa Temme, Christoph Brenker, Timo Strünker, Michael Sundström, Matthew H. Todd, Aled M Edwards, Claudia Tredup, Opher Gileadi
Eva L Simpson, Ben Wetherall, Liam P Cheeseman, Aleksandra Byrska, Tania Mendonca, Xiaomeng Xing, Alison J Beckett, Helder Maiato, Alexandra Sarginson, Ian A Prior, Geraldine M Hartshorne, Andrew McAinsh, Suzanne Madgwick, Daniel G Booth
Yan Huang, Nina Bucevic, Carmen Coves, Natalia Felipe-Medina, Marina Marcet-Ortega, Nikoleta Nikou, Cristina Madrid-Sandín, Maria Lopez-Panades, Carolina Buza, Neus Ferrer Miralles, Antoni Iborra, Anna Pujol, Alberto M Pendás, Ignasi Roig
Paula Fernandez-Guerra, Pernille Kirkegaard Kjær, Simone Karlsson Terp, Jesper S. Thomsen, Blanca I. Aldana, Herma Renkema, Jan Smeitink, Per H. Andersen, Johan Palmfeldt, Kent Søe, Thomas L. Andersen, Moustapha Kassem, Morten Frost, Anja L. Frederiksen
Danielle Pi, Jonas Braun, Sayantan Dutta, Debabrata Patra, Pauline Bougaran, Ana Mompeón, Feiyang Ma, Stuart R Stock, Sharon Choi, Lourdes García-Ortega, Muhammad Yogi Pratama, Diomarys Pichardo, Bhama Ramkhelawon, Rui Benedito, Victoria L Bautch, David M Ornitz, Yogesh Goyal, M. Luisa Iruela-Arispe
Antonia Weberling, Natalia A. Shylo, Bonnie K. Kircher, Hannah Wilson, Melainia McClain, Marta Marchini, Katherine Starr, Thomas J. Sanger, Florian Hollfelder, Paul Trainor
Jessica C. Edge, Olga Amelkina, Haidee Tinning, Gianluca Giovanardi, Elena Mancinelli, Samantha Gardner, Elton JR Vasconcelos, Virginia Pensabene, Karen Forbes, Mary J O’Connell, Peter Ruane, Niamh Forde
Luke TG Harland, Tim Lohoff, Noushin Koulena, Nico Pierson, Constantin Pape, Farhan Ameen, Jonathan Griffiths, Bart Theeuwes, Nicola K Wilson, Anna Kreshuk, Wolf Reik, Jennifer Nichols, Long Cai, John C Marioni, Berthold Gottgens, Shila Ghazanfar
Vincent Boudreau, Ashley R. Albright, Therese M. Gerbich, Tanner Fadero, Victoria Yan, Ben T. Larson, Aviva Lucas-DeMott, Jay Yung, Solène L.Y. Moulin, Carlos Patiño Descovich, Mark M Slabodnick, Adrien Burlacot, Jeremy R. Wang, Krishna K Niyogi, Wallace F. Marshall
Alma Zuniga Munoz, Kartik Soni, Angela Li, Vedant Lakkundi, Arundati Iyer, Ari Adler, Kathryn Kirkendall, Frank Petrigliano, Bérénice A. Benayoun, Thomas P. Lozito, Albert E. Almada
Luiz Fernando Silva Oliveira, Radhika S. Khetani, Yu-Syuan Wu, Venkata Siva Dasuri, Amanda W. Harrington, Oluwabunmi Olaloye, Jeffrey Goldsmith, David T. Breault, Liza Konnikova, Shannan J. Ho Sui, Amy E. O’Connell
Christopher J. Panebianco, Maha Essaidi, Elijah Barnes, Ashley Williams, Karin Vancíková, Margot C. Labberté, Pieter Brama, Niamh C. Nowlan, Joel D. Boerckel
Dana E. Cobb-Lewis, Devin Synder, Sonya Dumanis, Robert Thibault, Barbara Marebwa, Elisia Clark, Lara St. Clair, Leslie Kirsch, Michelle Durborow, Ekemini Riley
Some of you may have been so fortunate as to receive gift cards for Amazon.com or local bookstores in your Christmas stockings. While I wouldn’t think of dissuading you from purchasing the latest Louise Perry mystery or the memoirs of pre-eminent singers and chefs, I would recommend that you consider a new intellectual thriller, Evolution Evolving.
Imagine if two outstanding evolutionary biologists realized that evolutionary theory cannot explain adaptation and biodiversity without incorporating developmental biology. Imagine them inviting three developmental biologists to work on a book with them to construct the foundations of a more complete evolutionary theory. This book will become Evolution Evolving: The Developmental Origins of Adaptation and Biodiversity, a volume co-authored by evolutionary biologists Kevin Lala and Marcus Feldman, together with evolutionary developmental biologists Tobias Uller, Nathalie Feiner, and me.
This is not a textbook. It is a symposium, a working out of ideas, such that the reader is in dialogue with the book. The book presents evidence for certain views — that plasticity is universal and fundamental for evolution; that organisms are multigenomic holobionts whose symbionts can create new phenotypes and reproductive isolation in the animals they co-create; that there are multiple pathways of inheritance, including symbionts, epialleles, culture, and parental effects, and that some of these modes of inheritance allow the transmission of environmentally induced traits. Most of us had trained to see evolution as changes in gene frequency and development as changes in gene expression. This book organizes evidence that these genocentric explanatory mechanisms are inadequate to explain adaptations or the diversity of life.
Reading the book should make one question and refine one’s own ideas, to question one’s assumptions. Yes, these developmental phenomena happen; but are these differences important enough to change the way you think about evolution, organisms, development, and science? This book presents evidence that these phenomena — developmental plasticity, developmental symbiosis, and epigenetic inheritance systems — are critically important and that evolutionary biology gains enormous explanatory power only if it fully incorporates them. Some people have agreed with us. Marc Kirschner has called the book “a tour de force,” and Jessica Riskin has nominated the volume as a Scholarly Book of the Year, calling it “exhilarating reading. It is not just a book but an intellectual revolution.” Some people have disagreed. Evolutionary biologist David Houle doesn’t think these phenomena are important enough to change the way we think about evolution; moreover, “they are difficult to study.”
Twenty-five years ago, I predicted that evo-devo would cease to exist because it would become part of normative evolutionary biology. This is now happening. Look at the recent articles in PNAS about the genes responsible for the cryptic and mimetic pigmentation of insect wings. They are not classified under “developmental biology,” or even as “evolutionary developmental biology.” Rather, they are listed as “evolution.” Similarly, an evo-devo paper on the rates of prehistoric human teeth and brain development is listed in the “evolution” category, not as “development.” It seems that evolutionary developmental biology is becoming part of evolutionary biology. This book shows the many ways in which these fields can be merged.
Evolution is undergoing a metamorphosis, retaining some features, while jettisoning and repurposing others. It is evolution, but not as we knew it. It is an evolution where proximate and ultimate causes co-mingle, and where developmental mechanisms can bias the directions of evolutionary change. It is an evolutionary biology where the environment not only selects the phenotype but helps construct it. Evolution Evolving is an evolutionary biology book where developmental mechanisms are major players in the evolutionary processes that create adaptations and biodiversity.
The application deadline for the workshop is the 24th of January.
This is a residential workshop at Chicheley Hall on 2nd- 4th April 2025.
An important part of science is getting your results and ideas across to others, through papers, presentations, theses, grant proposals, conversations and interviews. Your audience may include specialists in the field, those from other disciplines, industry, or the general public.
How can you best communicate your science?
This workshop brings together experts in different fields to help you explore and develop your communication skills.
Working together with others on the course you will learn how to structure stories, bridge disciplines, simplify concepts and communicate effectively with a range of audiences. You will also get in-depth tutoring and practice in storytelling and public talks, developing hands-on demonstrations and multimedia (podcasts/YouTube/TikTok).
The Genetics Society will cover travel (within the UK only), accommodation and meals for successful applicants.
Tutors will include: Helen Keen (Award winning comedy writer and performer; author of the Radio 4 series, “It Is Rocket Science!”) First Create the Media (Led by award-winning writer and broadcaster Kat Arney) Alison Woollard (Presenter of the 2013 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and Lecturer at University of Oxford)
Organiser: Jonathan Pettitt (Professor in Genetics, University of Aberdeen; Winner of the 2020 Genetics Society JBS Haldane Lecture) Cristina Fonseca (Science Communicator)
Who can attend?
The course is open to PhD students and postdoctoral researchers working in genetics and related areas.
Carer’s Award. In recognition of carer’s responsibilities, an award of (up to) £60/day will be made available to enable participants with carer responsibilities to attend this workshop. Awardees can spend this money as they think will best support their attendance.
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