Ana Santacruz
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anasaruz.bsky.social
Ana Santacruz
@anasaruz.bsky.social
73 followers 76 following 11 posts
Scientist, fish - parasite fan | #cavefish | 🏳️‍🌈
Postdoc at the Rohner lab at @uni-muenster.de
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Reposted by Ana Santacruz
zebrafishrock.bsky.social
Fluorescent micrograph of the enteric nervous system of a Pachon/surface hybrid cavefish. Credit to @pavaniperera.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪
Side view of a cavefish embryo with several features of the intestine marked by different colors. Anterior to left.
November 9, 2025 at 5:09 PM
anasaruz.bsky.social
apnews.com/article/nobe... Nobel Prize in medicine goes to 3 scientists for key immune system discoveries
The Nobel Prize in medicine goes to 3 scientists for key immune system discoveries
They won for their work on peripheral immune tolerance, which is one way the body helps keep the immune system from getting out of whack and attacking your own tissues..
apnews.com
October 7, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
globalimmuno.bsky.social
Looking forward to our next #globalimmuno talk this Wednesday, October 8th, at 9am PST, noon EST, 4pm GMT by Dr. Mauro Gaya.

Title: “B cell memory in barrier tissues”
ZOOM LINK: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
LIVE ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/@GLOBALIMMUNOTALKS
October 6, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
cavefish.bsky.social
I am happy to report that the lab has its first preprint! We looked at odor perception in cavefish and found a strong attraction to ancestrally negative odors, including appetitive behavior and brain activity when smelling death!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The evolution of cavefish odor perception shifts fish response from avoidance to approach when exposed to alarm and death odors.
An animals survival is dependent on activating the correct behavioral circuit in response to a sensory stimulus. These stimuli include environmental odorants that evoke positive approach behavior and ...
www.biorxiv.org
October 3, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
tillymommersteeg.bsky.social
More new work from the lab! @idrm.ox.ac.uk @oxforddpag.bsky.social
Do all zebrafish regenerate their hearts equally? Also featuring the Mexican cavefish☺️
Thanks to all co-authors and especially the incredibly talented DPhil student Kostas Lekkos who drove the project. #zebrafish #heartregeneration
October 1, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
jevbio.bsky.social
Ribeiro et al. studied #MHC class II variation and infection by a sexually transmitted bacterium (C34) in black-legged #kittiwakes. They found sex-specific links between MHC supertypes, bacterial load and reproduction, suggesting STIs may influence immune gene evolution:
doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
An MHC class II supertype confers resistance to a sexually transmitted bacterium in females but not in males in a genetically monogamous seabird
Abstract. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a gene cluster essential for pathogen recognition in jawed vertebrates. It encompasses the MHC clas
doi.org
October 2, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
newyorker.com
The naturalist Jane Goodall died today at 91. Hope, she argued, is not merely “passive wishful thinking” but a “crucial survival trait.” Revisit a conversation with Goodall, from 2021: nyer.cm/F55JtsS
An image of Jane Goodall and a chimpanzee, from 1965. Photo courtesy CBS Photo Archive / Getty.
October 1, 2025 at 10:05 PM
anasaruz.bsky.social
“We (humans) have been so jolly arrogant to think we’re so special.”

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...
Jane Goodall, primatologist and friend to chimpanzees, dies at 91
She used her global fame to draw attention to the plight of dwindling chimpanzee populations and, more broadly, to the perils of environmental destruction.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 1, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
creative-flunky.bsky.social
This gorgeous being is thwaitesia argentiopunctata. Also known as the sequinned spider, mirror spider and is found in Australia. Absolutely beautiful! I am at a loss for words.

#nature #arachnid #insect #mirrorspider #Australia
Beautiful mirror spider.from Australia.
September 26, 2025 at 12:20 PM
anasaruz.bsky.social
Excited to start being part of the Postdoc Network Münster #PNM! @uni-muenster.de as a board member! A chance to give back to the community, and to the sometimes ‘grey’, neglected minority we postdocs are 💪✨
September 25, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
iamshef.bsky.social
#Behindthepaper stories: @accorsi-alice.bsky.social & @planaria1.bsky.social share how curiosity & passion driven research revealed that apple snails can regenerate full camera type eyes.

@the-node.bsky.social
@ucdavis.bsky.social
@stowersinstitute.bsky.social
#regeneration #applesnails #devbio
In the apple eye of evolution: Camera-type eye regeneration - the Node
Behind the paper stories from "A genetically tractable non-vertebrate system to study complete camera-type eye regeneration" We are all stepping into a
thenode.biologists.com
September 23, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
plosbiology.org
How do your #linguistic, #economic & #gender backgrounds impact your #scientific productivity? @tatsuya-amano.bsky.social & co reveal that being a woman, a non-native English speaker, and from a low-income country is associated with a 70% reduction in productivity @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4n3RLRQ
Scientific productivity gap based on English-language peer-reviewed papers. Shown are the maximum % differences in the number of peer-reviewed papers published by female native English speakers from a high-income country (-45%), female non-native English speakers from a high-income country (-60%), and female non-native English speakers from a lower-middle income country (-70%), compared to male native English speakers from a high-income country (red flag). Credit: Tatsuya Amano
September 19, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
neilshubin.bsky.social
Congrats to Aurelie Hinterman aurhin.bsky.social, Chase Bolt chasebolt.bsky.social, and Brent Hawkins @homeobox.bsky.social!

Coverage in NYTimes by @carlzimmer.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/s...
September 17, 2025 at 5:35 PM
anasaruz.bsky.social
Amazing work, my friend! @aurhin.bsky.social, always thinking outside the box!
aurhin.bsky.social Aurelie Hintermann @aurhin.bsky.social · Sep 17
Are digits modified fins, or evolutionary innovations? Read how we tackled this old question from a new angle🧪
A story with @chasebolt.bsky.social, @homeobox.bsky.social and myself, coordinated by @denisduboule.bsky.social from @college-de-france.fr and published in @nature.com today!
#InHoxWeTrust
hoxd13a reporter in a zebrafish larva
September 18, 2025 at 12:25 AM
anasaruz.bsky.social
Back from the Cavefish Retreat — amazing people, gorgeous location, great science, and a strong community! 🐟✨

The future looks bright for the #cavefish field!
September 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
globalimmuno.bsky.social
🧬2nd Semester 2025 lineup is here!
Join us for a new round of cutting-edge immunology seminars from top researchers around the world!

Mark your calendar & share!
For more info: linktr.ee/globalimmuno...
August 5, 2025 at 8:35 AM
anasaruz.bsky.social
These days at @naturalsciences-be.bsky.social I had the chance to visit the world’s largest otolith collection! Mostly marine specimens from a project started more than 100 years ago! Amazing to be a scientist and get the chance to go behind the scenes!

#fish #otolith
September 4, 2025 at 3:49 PM
anasaruz.bsky.social
Back from my first #FishBase conference! It felt like a journey through the history of key databases and the exciting ones still to come! Times are changing, and so is how we understand #fish.

Truly honored to have been invited to speak at this one!
September 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
plosbiology.org
What determines the human gut fungal community? @emilyvansyoc.bsky.social @erdavenport.bsky.social @symbionticism.bsky.social &co present the first #GWAS of human genetic loci that influence the abundance of gut #fungi, linking these to disease risk #mycobiome @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/42bCKou
Human fungi-associated variants (FAVs) associate with 9 fungal taxa and overlap protein-coding genes. A Manhattan plot shows all FAVs and their associated fungal taxa at the three significance levels (exploratory, black; genome-wide, red; study-wide, blue).
September 3, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
gamonasterioo.bsky.social
Back from one of the best conferences I’ve attended!The @embo.org Workshop on Barrier Immunity,brilliantly organized by @maurogaya.bsky.social & @immunologyking.bsky.social!

Outstanding science from many, including @mucosalimmunology.bsky.social, @danmucida.bsky.social& @martinaparigi.bsky.social
August 30, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
mgenner.bsky.social
In crater Lake Masoko one fish species is splitting into shallow and deep-living ecotypes occupying different light environments. New research shows their visual systems are diverging, and how colours of male eggspots have changed to maximise their visibility. doi.org/10.1093/molb...
Lake Masoko in Southern Tanzania, also known as Lake Kisiba, is only ~40m deep and 600m in diameter. It was formed around 50,000 years ago, and is isolated from all nearby rivers and lakes. Genetic data suggest it was colonised by Astatotilapia calliptera around 10,000 years ago. In Lake Masoko, Astatotilapia calliptera has two ecotypes. The shallow living "littoral" ecotype has yellowish males, while the deep living "benthic" ecotype has blueish males. Recently published research led by Madeleine Carruthers and colleagues shows how these fish occupy different light regimes, and have correspondingly different visual sensitivities. Males of these ecotypes have brightly coloured eggspots, used to signal their prowess. The colours of those spots have shifted to maximise their visibility to other fish of the same ecotype. Genetic data suggest these ecotypes are largely reproductively isolated, and started to separate only 1000 years ago. Photos are kindly provided by Ad Konings.
August 28, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
maxshafer.bsky.social
Now published @natecoevo.nature.com with @annika-nichols.bsky.social, our latest on the evolution of 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 across 𝟲𝟬 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 of cichlid fishes! doi.org/10.1038/s415...
with members of the @schierlab.bsky.social and Salzburger labs, as well as the burgeoning Shafer lab @uoftcellsysbiol.bsky.social
August 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
dianaematei.bsky.social
Amazing fantastic great talks so far @embo.org Barrier ImmuniTy 🤩 what better place to learn all about B/T cells in the gut/lung/liver/bladder/brain - eeeeeverywhere!!
#EMBOBarrierTissues
August 28, 2025 at 9:22 AM
anasaruz.bsky.social
An extremely engaging talk on a sometimes overlooked tissue, the bladder, by Molly A. Ingersoll at #EMBO. Not only that, the study showed that 'sex matters,' and it matters a lot during infection, with strong differential responses between sexes!!!

Learning so much!!

#EMBOBarrierTissues
August 28, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Ana Santacruz
ejvillablanca.bsky.social
Great analogy to illustrate the question @carlanowosad.bsky.social is pursuing on her lab: how GC are form and how GC cells find their way to their specific locations

#embo workshop Basel

#immunalogy
August 27, 2025 at 12:07 PM