Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 6d

An inspiration to so many of us. I can say with no hesitation that reading John Gurdon's papers as an undergraduate changed my life. I was reprogrammed from a slightly bored biochemistry student into a person with a life-long love of developmental biology. I have much to thank him for.

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Andrew Wood @andrewwood.bsky.social · 10d

With storm Amy approaching, it’s an ideal time to get your SLiPERs on!

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 13d

Hot off the press!

Cell-type-specific functionality encoded within the intrinsically disordered regions of OCT4

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cell-type-specific functionality encoded within the intrinsically disordered regions of OCT4 - Nature Communications

Here they perform a systematic dissection of OCT4 and reveal how intrinsically disordered regions can be used to serve specific functions during reprogramming and embryonic development. This can be exploited to engineer more efficient and specific reprogramming factors.

www.nature.com

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 13d

Hot off the press!

Cell-type-specific functionality encoded within the intrinsically disordered regions of OCT4

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cell-type-specific functionality encoded within the intrinsically disordered regions of OCT4 - Nature Communications

Here they perform a systematic dissection of OCT4 and reveal how intrinsically disordered regions can be used to serve specific functions during reprogramming and embryonic development. This can be exploited to engineer more efficient and specific reprogramming factors.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 15d

Nice work from Val Wilson & co on neuromesodermal progenitors

SOX2/TBXT co-expressing cells are self-propagating bipotent NMPs

Increasing TBXT levels (not SOX2/TBXT ratio) switch NMPs from neural- to mesoderm-biased

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Brachyury expression levels predict lineage potential and axis-forming ability of in vitro derived neuromesodermal progenitors

Neuromesodermal progenitors (NMPs) produce the spinal cord and musculoskeleton in the elongating anterior-posterior axis. In vivo, NMPs possess dual potency, coinciding with regions coexpressing SOX2 ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Mireia Artola Magrans @mireiaartola.bsky.social · 23d

Ever thought about exploring Stem Cells in different fields of biomedical research while surrounded by the beauty of a Greek island? That's exactly what the European Stem Cell Summer School offers – an inspiring learning experience on the outstanding island of Spetses 🇬🇷 @stemcellsummer.bsky.social

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Biomedical Picture of the Day BPoD @bpodaily.bsky.social · 27d

An image analysis toolkit to streamline the study of cell fates in embryo development

Image made with @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social microscopy

📷 Matthew French et al @cellysally.bsky.social lab University of Edinburgh in @plosbiology.org

➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025...

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 28d

Very excited to have this back-end-of-an-embryo cell-neighbour-analysis image from our latest paper featured as today's Biomedical Image of the Day!

Congrats to first author and ace image-analyst Matthew French

bpod.org.uk/archive/2025...

BPoD | Following Fate

Following Fate - Biomedical pictures for September 2025.

bpod.org.uk

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

the Node @the-node.bsky.social · 28d

👀 Do you have an idea for a post on the Node that you have been postponing writing for a while? This is your chance to publish your piece at last for a chance to win £200. Submit your post by 30 September 2025. 📝

thenode.biologists.com/the-node-wri...

#devbio #stemcell

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Stem Cell Summer School @stemcellsummer.bsky.social · 28d

The Scientific Distillery

Could you distil a complex scientific concept so that it can be explained in 30 seconds and be understood by a lay person, but *without* sacrificing scientific depth?

The delegates at #SCSS2025 were brilliant at this task 👏

A slide displaying an image of a whisky distillery plus a list of 22 specialist biological terms, some from the stem cell and developmental biology field. These include transcription factor, central doga, gastrulation, stem cell niche, mRNA, flow cytometry, chromatin, cell culture, and more.

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Sep 14

Austin Smith points out that naive pluripotent cells in the embryo only self- renew rarely, if ever.

In response to some heckling from the faculty, he says “You can call ES cells artifacts if you want, but they’re still bloody marvellous” 😃

#SCSS2025

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Stem Cell Summer School @stemcellsummer.bsky.social · Sep 14

A provocative opening this morning from Cedric Blanpain, who sets out to argue that most tissues are maintained by unipotent stem cells. We look forward to hearing him make his case.. #SCSS2025

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Sep 7

Thirst for knowledge?

The 2025 Stem Cell Summer School starts next Friday! We have an uncommonly spectacular array of faculty, and have no doubt that our delegates will also be spectacular

Follow ‪@stemcellsummer.bsky.social‬ and #SCSS2025 for updates during the meeting

Stem Cell Summer School @stemcellsummer.bsky.social · Apr 7

The 2025 European Summer School in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine will take place 12-19 Sept 2025, on the beautiful Greek island of Spetses.

Keep an eye on our website www.stemcellsummerschool.org for updates, or give us a follow 😀

Deadline for applications: 30th May 2025

Poster listing the faculty for the 2025 stem cell summer school on Spetses. Check our website (URL in bio) for full details.

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Sep 7

positively deranged 😍

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Sep 7

Thirst for knowledge?

The 2025 Stem Cell Summer School starts next Friday! We have an uncommonly spectacular array of faculty, and have no doubt that our delegates will also be spectacular

Follow ‪@stemcellsummer.bsky.social‬ and #SCSS2025 for updates during the meeting

Stem Cell Summer School @stemcellsummer.bsky.social · Apr 7

The 2025 European Summer School in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine will take place 12-19 Sept 2025, on the beautiful Greek island of Spetses.

Keep an eye on our website www.stemcellsummerschool.org for updates, or give us a follow 😀

Deadline for applications: 30th May 2025

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Sep 4

Patrick Vallance hits pause on Research Excellence Framework

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/patrick...

Patrick Vallance hits pause on Research Excellence Framework

Science minister announces review of controversial changes to research environment assessment

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Sep 4

Wow! Happy Silver Briscoeversary!

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Katja Röper @katjaroeper.bsky.social · Sep 3

If you love cytoskeleton and tissue morphogenesis, have a read!

Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · Sep 1

Supracellular actomyosin assemblies: master coordinators of development

In this Review, Katja Röper @katjaroeper.bsky.social discusses supracellular actomyosin structures, tissues where they function, their known roles as well as potential properties

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Sep 2

An interesting new paper from Meijer, Dale & co explains how stability of Notch1 is regulated to tune the timing of sequential somite formation

Here's my outlook on their work (& the 2nd time in recent years that I've snuck a Bowie quote into a biology paper 🙂)

genesdev.cshlp.org/cgi/content/...

Speed of life: tuning the ticktock of the segmentation clock

A biweekly scientific journal publishing high-quality research in molecular biology and genetics, cancer biology, biochemistry, and related fields

genesdev.cshlp.org

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Aug 27

You made a tunable system so it needed a tune to be tunable to 🙂

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Journal of Experimental Biology @jexpbiol.bsky.social · Aug 26

The Company of Biologists @biologists.bsky.social has a strong commitment to sustainability including our sustainability hub www.biologists.com/sustainabili... & event carbon calculator
www.biologists.com/sustainabili...
Find out more about what our initiatives & the carbon footprint of your event

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Aug 26

"🎵 Efficient, logical, effective, and practical 🎶". Also: beautiful.

Congratulations @dbenzinger.bsky.social & @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social. Your #PaperThemeTune is "ChemiOptoGenetic Engineering" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oddg... #ShowingMyAge

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Giulia Paci @giuliapaci.bsky.social · Aug 22

Very excited to organise this Workshop with @rocha-lab.bsky.social ! Thanks @biologists.bsky.social for selecting our proposal 😍

Mauricio Rocha @rocha-lab.bsky.social · Aug 22

The Company of Biologists Workshops 2027: Excited to share that our workshop concept, "Bridging Scales and Disciplines to Understand Robust Development”, has been selected! 🤩@giuliapaci.bsky.social and I are looking forward to organizing it. Stay tuned for details! @biologists.bsky.social

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Reposted by Sally Lowell

Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · Aug 19

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Anzy Miller

Here, @anzymiller.bsky.social talks about about her research interests at the intersection of developmental biology and modelling, as well as her advocacy for inclusivity and sustainability in science.

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

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Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · Aug 19

"Whatever people say that I am, that is what I'm not"

Nanog, named for the Land of the Ever Young, famed for maintaining pluripotency. Now revealed to also do the opposite. A mass of contradictions, just like the rest of us.

Congrats to @fredwck.bsky.social & co

www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

NANOG is repurposed after implantation to repress Sox2 and begin pluripotency extinction | The EMBO Journal

imageimageSOX2 and NANOG are core transcription factors governing pre-implantation pluripotency in the developing embryo. Here, extensive in vivo imaging and genetic analysis uncovers a novel post-imp...

www.embopress.org

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