We are looking for a highly motivated PhD student interested in zebrafish brain development, RNA metabolism, gene editing and transcriptomic analyses to join the Nikolaou Lab at the University of Bath. The deadline for applications is 31st January 2021. The anticipated start date for this project is early October 2021. Applicants should hold, or expect to receive, a First Class or good Upper Second-Class Honours degree (or the equivalent). A master’s level qualification would also be advantageous. UK and EU candidates (with settled or pre-settled status in the UK) applying for this project will be considered for a University Research Studentship which will cover UK/EU tuition fees, a training support grant of £1,000 per annum and a tax-free maintenance allowance at the UKRI Doctoral Stipend rate (£15,285 in 2020-21) for a period of up to 3.5 years.
Brief description of the project:
Regulation of pre-mRNA splicing plays a significant role in neurons by diversifying the proteome and modulating gene expression during development and in response to physiological cues. Although most pre-mRNA processing reactions are thought to occur in the nucleus, numerous RNA splicing regulators are also found in neurites, however, very little is known about their extra-nuclear functions. Our recent work showed for the first time that the non-nuclear pool of a major spliceosome component (SNRNP70) modulates the production of alternative spliced mRNA isoforms essential for motor connectivity and protects transcripts from degradation.
This project aims to investigate further the extra-nuclear activities of SNRNP70 in the context of neuronal connectivity in zebrafish. The ease of genetic manipulations together with the translucency and small size of their offspring allows us to monitor neural cell behaviour and function and observe changes in neuronal connectivity. We will use a range of genetic tools, including transgenic over-expression of cytoplasmic SNRNP70 and nuclear-only SNRNP70 zebrafish knock-in lines to establish developmental functions attributed to the cytoplasmic pool of SNRNP70. The results from this project will contribute to our understanding of how local RNA metabolism in axons contributes to the normal development of neural connections in the brain.
The International C. elegans Conference takes place every two years and features cutting-edge research in a diverse array of topics, including physiology, neurobiology, development, evolution, behavior, aging, ecology, gene regulation, genomics, and more. For 2021, #Worm21 has been reimagined for a virtual platform and will focus on early career researchers at every stage.
We’re happy to confirm the next webinar in our Development presents… series will be chaired by our Editor Swathi Arur (The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), who has brought together talks that span her interests in C. elegans development, the germline and cell signalling.
The webinar will be held in Remo, our browser-based conferencing platform – after the talks you’ll have the chance to meet the speakers and other participants at virtual conference tables. If you can’t make it on the day, talks will be available to watch for a couple of weeks after the event (look out for details on the Node).
For more information about what to expect in Remo, go to
Updated 11 January. Let us know if we missed anything
Various organisations and looser assemblies of locked down researchers have begun to put together online seminar and talk series, many of which are open to anyone (usually with registration), and many of which also have previous talks recorded.
Here’s a list of what we’ve found recently, developmental biology and adjacent – please let us know if we missed anything so we can keep it up to date. For upcoming virtual developmental biology conferences/symposia, see our Events calendar page.
First up from us is Development presents…, the webinar series hosted each month by a different Development Editor which will be a platform for early career researchers to share their work. As well as the talks, you also have the chance to meet the speakers and other participants at interactive video tables – giving the developmental biology community the chance to network virtually.
The next webinar will be Wednesday 13 January, 16.00 GMT, hosted by Swathi Arur and featuring talks from Brandon Scott Carpenter, Hayao Ohno and Swann Floc’hlay.
Next talk: January 14, Evolutionary Studies:
Just Under the Surface: Leveraging Zebrafish to Understand the Interplay Between Evolution and Development
We currently have an opening for a Reviews Editor as a maternity cover position on Development. As this is a temporary position, we are specifically looking for candidates with editorial experience.
Core responsibilities of the position include:
Commissioning, handling peer review and developmental editing of material for the front section of the journal
Representing the journal at international conferences and within the wider scientific community
Writing press releases, article highlights and material for Development’s community website ‘the Node’
Creative involvement in the journal’s development
For further details and instructions on how to apply, please see the full job advert here. If you are interested in applying, but would like further information or have any questions, please feel free to drop me an email.
Naa12 rescues embryonic lethality in Naa10-Deficient Mice in the amino-terminal acetylation pathway
Hyae Yon Kweon, Mi-Ni Lee, Max Dörfel, Seungwoon Seo, Leah Gottlieb, Thomas Papazyan, Nina McTiernan, Rasmus Ree, Andrew Garcia, Michael Flory, Jonathan Crain, Alison Sebold, Scott Lyons, Ahmed Ismail, Elaine Marchi, Seong-keun Sonn, Se-Jin Jeong, Sejin Jeon, Shinyeong Ju, Simon J. Conway, TaeSoo Kim, Hyun-Seok Kim, Cheolju Lee, Tae-Young Roh, Thomas Arnesen, Ronen Marmorstein, Gholson J. Lyon, Goo Taeg Oh
Serine Palmitoyltransferase Controls Stemness of Intestinal Progenitors
Ying Li, Bhagirath Chaurasia, Vincent Kaddai, Joseph L. Wilkerson, J. Alan Maschek, James Cox, Peng Wei, Claire Bensard, Peter J Meikle, Hans Clevers, James A Shayman, Yoshio Hirabayashi, William L. Holland, Jared Rutter, Scott A. Summers
CTCF is a Barrier for Totipotent-like Reprogramming
Teresa Olbrich, Maria Vega-Sendino, Desiree Tillo, Wei Wu, Nicholas Zolnerowich, Andy D. Tran, Catherine N. Domingo, Mariajose Franco, Marta Markiewicz-Potoczny, Gianluca Pegoraro, Peter C. FitzGerald, Michael J. Kruhlak, Eros Lazzerini-Denchi, Elphege P. Nora, Andre Nussenzweig, Sergio Ruiz
Robust integrated intracellular organization of the human iPS cell: where, how much, and how variable?
Matheus P. Viana, Jianxu Chen, Theo A. Knijnenburg, Ritvik Vasan, Calysta Yan, Joy E. Arakaki, Matte Bailey, Ben Berry, Antoine Borensztejn, Jackson M. Brown, Sara Carlson, Julie A. Cass, Basudev Chaudhuri, Kimberly R. Cordes Metzler, Mackenzie E. Coston, Zach J. Crabtree, Steve Davidson, Colette M. DeLizo, Shailja Dhaka, Stephanie Q. Dinh, Thao P. Do, Justin Domingus, Rory M. Donovan-Maiye, Tyler J. Foster, Christopher L. Frick, Griffin Fujioka, Margaret A. Fuqua, Jamie L. Gehring, Kaytlyn A. Gerbin, Tanya Grancharova, Benjamin W. Gregor, Lisa Harrylock, Amanda Haupt, Melissa C. Hendershott, Caroline Hookway, Alan R. Horwitz, Chris Hughes, Eric J. Isaac, Gregory R. Johnson, Brian Kim, Andrew N. Leonard, Winnie Leung, Jordan J. Lucas, Susan A. Ludmann, Blair M. Lyons, Haseeb Malik, Ryan McGregor, Gabe E. Medrash, Sean L. Meharry, Kevin Mitcham, Irina A. Mueller, Timothy L. Murphy-Stevens, Aditya Nath, Angelique M. Nelson, Luana Paleologu, T. Alexander Popiel, Megan M. Riel-Mehan, Brock Roberts, Lisa M. Schaefbauer, Magdalena Schwarzl, Jamie Sherman, Sylvain Slaton, M. Filip Sluzewski, Jacqueline E. Smith, Youngmee Sul, Madison J. Swain-Bowden, W. Joyce Tang, Derek J. Thirstrup, Daniel T. Toloudis, Andrew P. Tucker, Veronica Valencia, Winfried Wiegraebe, Thushara Wijeratna, Ruian Yang, Rebecca J. Zaunbrecher, Allen Institute for Cell Science, Graham T. Johnson, Ruwanthi N. Gunawardane, Nathalie Gaudreault, Julie A. Theriot, Susanne M. Rafelski
Dog color patterns explained by modular promoters of ancient canid origin
Danika L. Bannasch, Christopher B. Kaelin, Anna Letko, Robert Loechel, Petra Hug, Vidhya Jagannathan, Jan Henkel, Petra Roosje, Marjo K. Hytönen, Hannes Lohi, Meharji Arumilli, DoGA consortium, Katie M. Minor, James R. Mickelson, Cord Drögemüller, Gregory S. Barsh, Tosso Leeb
Molecular topography of an entire nervous system
Seth R Taylor, Gabriel Santpere, Alexis Weinreb, Alec Barrett, Molly B. Reilly, Chuan Xu, Erdem Varol, Panos Oikonomou, Lori Glenwinkel, Rebecca McWhirter, Abigail Poff, Manasa Basavaraju, Ibnul Rafi, Eviatar Yemini, Steven J Cook, Alexander Abrams, Berta Vidal, Cyril Cros, Saeed Tavazoie, Nenad Sestan, Marc Hammarlund, Oliver Hobert, David M. Miller III
Automated hiPSC culture and sample preparation for 3D live cell microscopy
Mackenzie E. Coston, Benjamin W. Gregor, Joy Arakaki, Antoine Borensztejn, Thao P. Do, Margaret A. Fuqua, Amanda Haupt, Melissa C. Hendershott, Winnie Leung, Irina A. Mueller, Angelique M. Nelson, Susanne M. Rafelski, Madison J. Swain-Bowden, W. Joyce Tang, Derek J. Thirstrup, Winfried Wiegraebe, Calysta Yan, Ruwanthi N Gunawardane, Nathalie Gaudreault
Scalable production of tissue-like vascularised liver organoids from human PSCs
Sean P Harrison, Richard Siller, Yoshiaki Tanaka, Yangfei Xiang, Benjamin Patterson, Henning Kempf, Espen Melum, Kathrine S Åsrud, Maria E Chollet, Elisabeth Andersen, Per Morten Sandset, Saphira Baumgarten, Flavio Bonanini, Dorota Kurek, Santosh Mathapati, Runar Almaas, Kulbhushan Sharma, Steven R Wilson, Frøydis S Skottvoll, Ida C Boger, Inger L Bogen, Tuula A Nyman, Jun J Wu, Ales Bezrouk, Dana Cizkova, Jaroslav Mokry, Robert Zweigerdt, In-Hyun Park, Gareth J Sullivan
We live in an ageing society with high incidence of cognitive, sensory and motor decline, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Fronto-temporal Dementia (FTD). Although decay of synaptic functions is a clear hallmark of the aforementioned conditions, we know too little about the underlying causes. The overarching aim of this project is to study roles of the ageing- and neurodegenerative disease-related factor Tau during the regulation of synapses in health, ageing and disease.
Synapses are specialised neuronal cell junctions which contain complex machinery for rapid transmission of signals to partner cells. This machinery is frequently disrupted during ageing and in neurodegeneration and the resulting synaptic malfunction is an important cause for cognitive, sensory and motor decline. The underpinning mechanisms are poorly understood. To bridge this knowledge gap, we focus on Tau. Tau plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders and is also linked to physiological ageing. Accordingly, Tau is an important therapeutic target for the development of treatments of AD and FTD.
Considering Tau’s crucial roles during pathogenesis and treatment of dementia, it is vital to understand its physiological function. Tau loss is known to lead to age-related synaptic deficits both in mice and the fruit fly Drosophila, and our work has started to deliver first explanations. Thus, we have shown that Tau loss triggers aberrations of microtubule networks and axonal transport deficits affecting synapse formation and maintenance (Voelzmann et al., 2016, eLife 5, e14694ff.; Hahn et al., 2020, bioRxiv 2020.08.19.257808ff.). We now find from our proteomic and preliminary functional studies that Tau plays even more direct roles by binding to factors that are important for synaptic function. The aim of this project is to understand these synaptic mechanisms of Tau. For this, we will use the model organism Drosophila which harbours Tau and synaptic machinery that is well conserved with humans, but can be studied far more effectively than in other model organisms. Using Drosophila‘s efficient genetics, powerful experimental strategies and simple robust behavioural assays, you will study the functional links between Tau and its synaptic binding partners. This will involve inter-disciplinary approaches using genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, cell culture and in vivo studies, cutting-edge bioimaging of synaptic activity and behavioural studies. You will unravel mechanisms of Tau at synapses as a means to understand neuronal decay during ageing and in neurodegeneration.
Applications from candidates, ideally with some background in cell biology, genetics, neuroscience and/or biomedical sciences are encouraged to apply. The successful applicant will be based in the Institute of Systems, Molecular & Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, supervised by Dr Sánchez-Soriano (https://sanchezlab.wordpress.com/research/), whilst working closely with Dr Olena Riabinina (http://insectneurolab.com/) at the Department of Biosciences, Durham University. Interested applicants should contact Dr Sanchez-Soriano to discuss the project: n.sanchez-soriano@liverpool.ac.uk.
A postdoctoral research associate position is available immediately to investigate the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as physiological signaling molecules in axonal growth and guidance in the lab of Dr. Daniel M. Suter at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN https://suterlab.bio.purdue.edu/. Specifically, the work will investigate the molecular and cellular mechanisms of how ROS regulate axonal growth and guidance in vitro and in vivo. The successful applicant has experience in cell biology and molecular biology. Additional expertise in developmental neuroscience, microscopy, and working with zebrafish is desirable but not required. This position is supported through funding from the NIH.
Highly motivated candidates with a PhD in cell biology, molecular biology, or neuroscience who are interested to participate in this exciting project at the interface of cellular and developmental neurobiology are invited to send their CV, a brief statement of research interests and contact information of three referees to Dr. Suter.
Dr. Daniel M. Suter
Department of Biological Sciences
Purdue University
915 West State Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907
USA dsuter@purdue.edu
765-496-1562
The BiOf lab http://biof-lab.org/ has developed a microfluidic technique, the Cellular Capsules Technology, that allows them to produce multicellular spheroids and organoids in a high throughput and controlled format. The applications in tissue engineering, oncology and regenerative medicine and toxicology testing are numerous. The recruited postdocs will be involved in the interdisciplinary projects pursued by the team in engineering multiscale vascularized tissues, reconstructing a functional liver lobule, deciphering the impact of mechanical cues on hepatocarcinoma and glioblastoma progression in vitro models, developing innovative microscopy techniques for thick tissue imaging.
We seek for talented scientists with exceptional motivation and outstanding expertise (i.e. PhD) in biophotonics /image analysis, cancer or stem cell biology, microfluidics, biophysics or tissue engineering.
The proposed funding is for 12 months and can be renewed up to 36 months. The salary will be adapted to the experience of the applicant. Starting date will be between March and June 2021.
A postdoctoral research position is available in the group of Dr. Kristen Panfilio at the University of Warwick, UK, to join our BBSRC-funded project on how polyploid nuclear structure influences cellular function in dynamic epithelial tissues. This is a full-time, fixed-term position for up to 36 months, integrating developmental biology, bioinformatics, cell cycle regulation, genome organization, and 4D live cell imaging.
Polyploidy is hypothesized to aid epithelial barrier formation and its repair after wounding and to rapidly supply gene products by transcription from multiple gene copies. Yet polyploid genomic structure may be unstable and require active inhibition of apoptosis through regulatory processes that are not yet well understood. Investigating the costs and benefits of polyploidy is essential to understand tissue-specific development, homeostasis, and ageing.
The two extraembryonic tissues of insects offer an excellent – and inherently comparative – research model, spanning key developmental stages for morphogenesis and cellular physiology. Our research species is the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, which offers advanced genetic resources and where we integrate fluorescent live cell imaging and next-generation sequencing approaches (see the lab’s recent publications in eLife 5:e13834, Development 143:3002, Commun. Biol. 3:552). The project uses methods to assess nuclear size and tissue integrity, quantify gene expression, and genetically challenge barrier organization and cell number. Altogether, we will test long-standing hypotheses on polyploidy function and its end-stage implications in animal tissues. A complete description of the project is available at: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FV002392%2F1.
You will have a Ph.D. or equivalent and good knowledge and experience in genetics, cell and developmental biology, standard molecular biology techniques,and working with NGS data, as evidenced by your Ph.D. thesis and/or authored papers in peer-reviewed journals. Familiarity with the fields of insect developmental genetics and comparative genomics would also be highly advantageous. Practical experience in any of the following is desired: advanced microscopy (including light sheet fluorescence microscopy),RNAi, FACS, RT-qPCR, and computational work with either sequencing or imaging data. We will provide full training in new techniques, supported by the possibility for international travel and collaboration.
Enquiries and expressions of interest directly to Kristen (K.Panfilio@warwick.ac.uk) are welcome, with applications made on-line (post number 103508). Full applications will include contact details for at least two referees, a CV, and covering letter stating why you are interested in the topic and what you would bring to the project. The application closing date is 7th February 2021.
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