the community site for and by developmental biologists
the community site for and by developmental biologists
Posted by NatalyaZahn on August 29th, 2017
Illustrator Natalya Zahn on the role of observation and visual interpretation in her work creating an addendum to Nieuwkoop and Faber’s classic Normal Table of Xenopus laevis As an artist of science and nature subjects, I’m often asked what makes the work I do better than a photograph. It makes perfect sense to imagine that a[…]
Posted by Xenopus2 on August 9th, 2017
Curator position at Xenbase, the Xenopus Model Organism database Xenbase (www.xenbase.org) is the Xenopus bioinformatics and genomics resource. Xenopus is a major model for fundamental cell and developmental biology and a model for human disease. Xenbase is a totally free, and globally accessible database, used by Xenopus researchers worldwide, and is funded by the National[…]
Posted by the Node on August 3rd, 2017
To interview Jim Smith I took a train to London and visited the Francis Crick Institute for the first time. The building had opened in 2016 and, by the time I visited, most if not all of the labs had settled in. Architecturally it was quite stunning, especially looking down from one of the higher[…]
Posted by the Node on May 4th, 2017
On a bright, cold morning at the beginning of March, I went back to the institute I once worked in to interview the man after whom the place was named. Greeting me at the entrance, John Gurdon apologised for being a little late and asked if it was alright to delay the interview for five minutes[…]
Posted by the Node on April 21st, 2016
Every year, the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB) awards the Beddington Medal to the best PhD thesis in developmental biology. The 2016 award went to Elena Scarpa, who did her PhD with Roberto Mayor at University College London (UCL). We caught up with Elena at the BSCB/BSDB Spring meeting, and we asked her about[…]
Posted by karenjliu on February 12th, 2016
In order to encourage applicants to the 2016 Xenopus Course at Cold Spring Harbor, we able to offer substantial support to offset course costs thanks to support from the NICHD, Helmsley Charitable Trust, and HHMI to eligible candidates. We are particularly interested in scientists with an interdisciplinary or non-traditional background, or scientists new to Xenopus.[…]
Posted by Muriel Perron on October 7th, 2015
Xenopus represents a prime model for dissecting in vivo the signalling network that controls retinal stem cell behaviour. Its retina indeed retains a reservoir of active neural stem cells in a peripheral region, the ciliary marginal zone (CMZ), that sustains continuous eye growth throughout life. To identify regulatory mechanisms underlying retinal stem cell activity in[…]
Posted by Mike Levin on August 13th, 2015
My lab works on developmental bioelectricity, studying how cells communicate via endogenous gradients of plasma membrane resting potential (Vmem) in order to coordinate their activity during pattern regulation (Levin, 2013; Levin, 2014b; Tseng and Levin, 2013). It is well-known that resting potential is an important regulatory parameter for individual cells’ proliferation, differentiation, and oncogenic potential[…]
Posted by hg3conferences on August 13th, 2015
First Announcement The 16th International Xenopus Conference Sunday 28 August – Thursday 1 September, 2016 Venue: Orthodox Academy of Crete, Chania Please join us for the 16th International Xenopus Conference to be held 28 August – 1 September 2016 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete. This conference has been held biennially since 1984 and brings together[…]
Posted by Mike Levin on June 29th, 2015
A really interesting recent paper on bioartificial limbs underscored the prospect of transplantation for problems in regenerative medicine. One key issue facing transplant technology is establishing appropriate innervation to the host. What factors control the amount of nerve emanating from an organ graft and the paths that this innervation takes? Alongside the familiar diffusible signaling[…]
