Justin Crocker
@justinmcrocker.bsky.social
Biologist studying evolution, development, and gene-regulation. Group leader at EMBL, Heidelberg. Climber.
Reposted by Justin Crocker
Thrilled to share our new paper!
With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste.
Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste.
Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Evolution of taste processing shifts dietary preference - Nature
Calcium imaging of taste neurons and the ventral brain provides insight into evolutionary divergence of food choice in Drosophila species, supporting a role of sensorimotor processing in addition to p...
www.nature.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Thrilled to share our new paper!
With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste.
Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste.
Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Justin Crocker
High-resolution single-cell analyses reveal evolutionary constraints and evolvability of sexual circuits in Drosophila | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
High-resolution single-cell analyses reveal evolutionary constraints and evolvability of sexual circuits in Drosophila | PNAS
Understanding how the cellular and molecular composition of neural circuits evolves
to generate species-specific behaviors remains a major challeng...
www.pnas.org
November 25, 2025 at 4:05 PM
High-resolution single-cell analyses reveal evolutionary constraints and evolvability of sexual circuits in Drosophila | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Justin Crocker
We are looking for a postdoc to join our team! If you're interested in translating a cutting edge genomics technology (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) to real-life applications in hematology, this is for you. We offer a unique working environment ON THE BEACH: recruitment.crg.eu/content/jobs...
November 20, 2025 at 9:36 AM
We are looking for a postdoc to join our team! If you're interested in translating a cutting edge genomics technology (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) to real-life applications in hematology, this is for you. We offer a unique working environment ON THE BEACH: recruitment.crg.eu/content/jobs...
Reposted by Justin Crocker
✨This week at the DB unit seminar @embl.org, Noa Ottilie Borst, a PhD student in the Crocker group @justinmcrocker.bsky.social presented her work on cell-type-specific interallelic interactions, and how they simultaneously allow for robustness and evolutionary innovation.
November 14, 2025 at 11:29 AM
✨This week at the DB unit seminar @embl.org, Noa Ottilie Borst, a PhD student in the Crocker group @justinmcrocker.bsky.social presented her work on cell-type-specific interallelic interactions, and how they simultaneously allow for robustness and evolutionary innovation.
Reposted by Justin Crocker
🚨 TODAY: Abstract submission for #Dros26 closes at 7:59 pm EST, so make sure you've completed your submission by then: buff.ly/OGr96Zx
Don't miss out on the opportunity to present your work to 1,200+ scientists from across the globe doing important work in Drosophila.🪰
Don't miss out on the opportunity to present your work to 1,200+ scientists from across the globe doing important work in Drosophila.🪰
November 13, 2025 at 7:00 PM
🚨 TODAY: Abstract submission for #Dros26 closes at 7:59 pm EST, so make sure you've completed your submission by then: buff.ly/OGr96Zx
Don't miss out on the opportunity to present your work to 1,200+ scientists from across the globe doing important work in Drosophila.🪰
Don't miss out on the opportunity to present your work to 1,200+ scientists from across the globe doing important work in Drosophila.🪰
Reposted by Justin Crocker
Can confirm. I am okay and more motivated than ever to speak up.
Nothing scares this administration more. Their power lies in our silence.
Nothing scares this administration more. Their power lies in our silence.
NIH program officer @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social has been placed on admin leave, sources say.
Norton has been outspoken about the Trump administration's dismantling of science, and she signed the Bethesda Declaration.
Bhattacharya has said that "science is dead without free speech".
Norton has been outspoken about the Trump administration's dismantling of science, and she signed the Bethesda Declaration.
Bhattacharya has said that "science is dead without free speech".
November 14, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Can confirm. I am okay and more motivated than ever to speak up.
Nothing scares this administration more. Their power lies in our silence.
Nothing scares this administration more. Their power lies in our silence.
Reposted by Justin Crocker
The European Drosophila Society #flyEDS extends the condolences on the passing of Antonio García-Bellido, considered the founder of the Spanish school of #Drosophila genetics and an influential figure in developmental biology research worldwide. May he rest in peace.
November 11, 2025 at 2:15 PM
The European Drosophila Society #flyEDS extends the condolences on the passing of Antonio García-Bellido, considered the founder of the Spanish school of #Drosophila genetics and an influential figure in developmental biology research worldwide. May he rest in peace.
Reposted by Justin Crocker
I am very excited to announce the opening of the submission site for the upcoming Conférences Jacques Monod on Developmental Biology, May 18-22, 2026 cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc...
@lionlchristiaen.bsky.social and I have an exciting program of speakers and slots for selected short talks, etc.
@lionlchristiaen.bsky.social and I have an exciting program of speakers and slots for selected short talks, etc.
October 23, 2025 at 12:49 PM
I am very excited to announce the opening of the submission site for the upcoming Conférences Jacques Monod on Developmental Biology, May 18-22, 2026 cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc...
@lionlchristiaen.bsky.social and I have an exciting program of speakers and slots for selected short talks, etc.
@lionlchristiaen.bsky.social and I have an exciting program of speakers and slots for selected short talks, etc.
Reposted by Justin Crocker
If you’re applying to your dream lab for an internship/PhD/postdoc, always send a second email 1-2 weeks after the first one if you don’t hear back.
I promise we will be grateful rather than annoyed. My email inbox is a disaster and I’m quite junior - and very few of us have secretarial support
I promise we will be grateful rather than annoyed. My email inbox is a disaster and I’m quite junior - and very few of us have secretarial support
October 4, 2025 at 5:47 AM
If you’re applying to your dream lab for an internship/PhD/postdoc, always send a second email 1-2 weeks after the first one if you don’t hear back.
I promise we will be grateful rather than annoyed. My email inbox is a disaster and I’m quite junior - and very few of us have secretarial support
I promise we will be grateful rather than annoyed. My email inbox is a disaster and I’m quite junior - and very few of us have secretarial support
Reposted by Justin Crocker
Check out our new preprint on the evolution of enhancer loss. Turns out there are 50 ways to lose a function. We found four of them.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Distinct mechanisms decommission redundant enhancers to facilitate phenotypic evolution
The evolutionary loss of morphological traits is often driven by changes in gene regulation. Many developmental genes are controlled by multiple, redundant enhancers, raising the question of how robus...
www.biorxiv.org
October 28, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Check out our new preprint on the evolution of enhancer loss. Turns out there are 50 ways to lose a function. We found four of them.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Justin Crocker
After all these years, It eventually got the frame it deserves. Respect 🪰
October 28, 2025 at 8:03 PM
After all these years, It eventually got the frame it deserves. Respect 🪰
Reposted by Justin Crocker
October 12, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Reposted by Justin Crocker
A good day to remember John Gurdon’s school report from his biology master at Eton
October 7, 2025 at 8:45 PM
A good day to remember John Gurdon’s school report from his biology master at Eton
Reposted by Justin Crocker
The DB unit also celebrated Anne Ephrussi at this wonderful symposium! Anne was our unit head from 2007-2021. Congratulations on a remarkable career, Anne! 🎉
October 2, 2025 at 8:49 AM
The DB unit also celebrated Anne Ephrussi at this wonderful symposium! Anne was our unit head from 2007-2021. Congratulations on a remarkable career, Anne! 🎉
Reposted by Justin Crocker
Congrats to my friends in the Boettiger lab for this really beautiful live imaging work. A big leap forward in understanding the dynamic side of genome organization. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Kinetic organization of the genome revealed by ultraresolution multiscale live imaging
Genome function requires regulated genome motion. However, tools to directly observe this motion in vivo have been limited in coverage and resolution. Here we introduce an approach to tile mammalian c...
www.science.org
September 19, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Congrats to my friends in the Boettiger lab for this really beautiful live imaging work. A big leap forward in understanding the dynamic side of genome organization. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Justin Crocker
Very proud of our paper on "scrambling-by-hopping" LADs, which was just published: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Congrats to Lise Dauban and the rest of the team – this was a real tour-de-force!
September 2, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Very proud of our paper on "scrambling-by-hopping" LADs, which was just published: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Congrats to Lise Dauban and the rest of the team – this was a real tour-de-force!
Reposted by Justin Crocker
Functional maps of a genomic locus reveal confinement of an enhancer by its target gene by the @basvansteensellab.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Functional maps of a genomic locus reveal confinement of an enhancer by its target gene
Genes are often activated by enhancers located at large genomic distances, and the importance of this positioning is poorly understood. By relocating promoter-reporter constructs into thousands of alt...
www.science.org
September 19, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Functional maps of a genomic locus reveal confinement of an enhancer by its target gene by the @basvansteensellab.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Justin Crocker
Very excited to see this work in press! I think there is a reason to believe that this is a common means of stabilizing large-effect polymorphisms in general and might be an important reason for why diploidy is so common. news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...
September 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Very excited to see this work in press! I think there is a reason to believe that this is a common means of stabilizing large-effect polymorphisms in general and might be an important reason for why diploidy is so common. news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...
Reposted by Justin Crocker
Join this year's CSH Asia Systems Biology of Gene Regulation & Genome Editing meeting in beautiful Suzhou, China, Oct 20-24. Let's bring the international communities together! Abstract deadline Sept 19! Infos and registration at csh-asia.org?content/2767. Please repost!
September 11, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Join this year's CSH Asia Systems Biology of Gene Regulation & Genome Editing meeting in beautiful Suzhou, China, Oct 20-24. Let's bring the international communities together! Abstract deadline Sept 19! Infos and registration at csh-asia.org?content/2767. Please repost!
Reposted by Justin Crocker
‘Our Ancestors the Fish’, a course by Prof. @neilshubin.bsky.social, Univ of Chicago, invited Prof @college-de-france.fr. in Paris @psl-univ.bsky.social. Four conferences, free access, open to everyone, with Tiktaalik as a guest star. Friends, colleagues and fossils in Paris and around, please RT🥁
September 3, 2025 at 6:53 AM
‘Our Ancestors the Fish’, a course by Prof. @neilshubin.bsky.social, Univ of Chicago, invited Prof @college-de-france.fr. in Paris @psl-univ.bsky.social. Four conferences, free access, open to everyone, with Tiktaalik as a guest star. Friends, colleagues and fossils in Paris and around, please RT🥁
Reposted by Justin Crocker
On the new acting CDC director. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
August 29, 2025 at 1:59 AM
On the new acting CDC director. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Justin Crocker
My lab cannot afford donating at the moment, so I donated privately. Even if you don’t work on flies we all owe so much to FlyBase. Consider donating, and importantly, let’s strive to make the more official funding bodies aware of how much is at stake.
August 27, 2025 at 8:07 AM
My lab cannot afford donating at the moment, so I donated privately. Even if you don’t work on flies we all owe so much to FlyBase. Consider donating, and importantly, let’s strive to make the more official funding bodies aware of how much is at stake.
Reposted by Justin Crocker
+1 here.
Reach us out early enough !
Getting funding and personal timelines aligned rarely happens over night !
Reach us out early enough !
Getting funding and personal timelines aligned rarely happens over night !
Final year PhD students, I know you’re desperately trying to finish experiments/revisions/submissions/write a thesis & just survive - but please spare a few minutes to apply to your dream postdoc labs.
It easily takes A YEAR from first contact, even if everything goes to plan on both sides.
It easily takes A YEAR from first contact, even if everything goes to plan on both sides.
August 27, 2025 at 10:46 AM
+1 here.
Reach us out early enough !
Getting funding and personal timelines aligned rarely happens over night !
Reach us out early enough !
Getting funding and personal timelines aligned rarely happens over night !
Reposted by Justin Crocker
Drosophila research without FlyBase would be untenable. Time for all labs who can afford it to step up.
A reminder you/your lab can support FlyBase at Cambridge through the following link. Every bit helps. Please share if you yourself can't donate.
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
August 14, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Drosophila research without FlyBase would be untenable. Time for all labs who can afford it to step up.
Reposted by Justin Crocker
A Summer reading recommendation: new primer in @dev-journal.bsky.social explains how dynamical systems theory unlocks the logic of developmental patterning
Everything from bistable switches & oscillators to phase portraits & more with Python code to explore
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Everything from bistable switches & oscillators to phase portraits & more with Python code to explore
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
From genes to patterns: five key dynamical systems concepts to decode developmental regulatory mechanisms
Summary: Dynamical systems theory provides a powerful quantitative and intuitive framework to understand developmental processes. This Primer brings key concepts of this framework to the ever-growing ...
journals.biologists.com
August 4, 2025 at 8:44 AM
A Summer reading recommendation: new primer in @dev-journal.bsky.social explains how dynamical systems theory unlocks the logic of developmental patterning
Everything from bistable switches & oscillators to phase portraits & more with Python code to explore
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Everything from bistable switches & oscillators to phase portraits & more with Python code to explore
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...