Roberto Toro
r3rt0.bsky.social
Roberto Toro
@r3rt0.bsky.social
Into brain development and evolution (+open science, generative art, genomics, music, 🇨🇱...). If you have questions about mechanical morphogenesis, I have more!
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6671-858X
Reposted by Roberto Toro
I wrote a little bit about the "missing heritability" question and several recent studies that have brought it to a close. A short 🧵
The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered
Not with a bang but with a whimper
theinfinitesimal.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
My book "The Brain, in Theory" on the publisher's website (out in April 2026):
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
The Brain, In Theory
Why engineering and computational analogies are poorly suited to the study of biological cognition
press.princeton.edu
November 18, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
Axonal pathfinding of zebrafish retinal ganglion cells forms the optic nerve. Credit to Dr. Matthew Bostock @houartlab.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪
November 16, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
For semantic map lovers, update of maps.gargantext.org with few exciting topics : #glyphostate, #acetamiprid, #disinfo campaigns, #Mastodon debates on #ClimateChange, #opinionDynamics literature ... #GarganText
GarganText semantic maps made with love @CNRS
Mapping textual corpora of all types with the free CNRS software GarganText http://gargantext.org
maps.gargantext.org
November 15, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
New Phil Trans B issue on the ‘Evolutionary functions of consciousness’

royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1939
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 15, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
At Sfn? Join us at the Cajal Club Social! Sunday, Nov. 16th, 6:30PM–8:30PM. Salt & Whiskey bar@Horton Grand Hotel, www.hortongrand.com/dine-bar. We will learn about an exhibition on Cajal's Work and give out this year's awards to outstanding trainees and established scientists in our community!
Salt & Whiskey - Horton Grand Hotel
Serving elevated comfort foods and classic handcrafted cocktails, Salt & Whiskey at the Horton Grand Hotel pays homage to grandeur of the Victorian era.
www.hortongrand.com
November 15, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
First time on Bsky and first big announcement!

I am excited to announce that our new study explaining the missing heritability of many phenotypes using WGS data from ~347,000 UK Biobank participants has just been published in @Nature.

Our manuscript is here: www.nature.com/articles/s41....
Estimation and mapping of the missing heritability of human phenotypes - Nature
WGS data were used from 347,630 individuals with European ancestry in the UK Biobank to obtain high-precision estimates of coding and non-coding rare variant heritability for 34 co...
www.nature.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
I have always wondered if there is a best method/software to process T1w image (at a vertex/voxel wise level). Elise Delzant has some answers in her first published paper from her PhD. She compared FreeSurfer, CAT12 and FSL across several traits and analyses (association, prediction).
November 6, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
Brückner, D. B., & Tkačik, G. (2024). Information content and optimization of self-organized developmental systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, #EpithelialMechanics www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 10, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
A big review of the evolution of bats:
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio
November 9, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
Our intelligence and cognitive abilities are perhaps due to an expansion of our cerebral cortex. But surprisingly, compared to highly intelligent birds, primates have many more neurons in their cerebellum as compared to the cerebral cortex.

doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
November 9, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
We just published a paper in PNAS, showing microstructural changes to the hippocampus in aging and presymptomatic Alzheimer's disease - in humans, in vivo.

We continue to show the value of structural MRI beyond simply measuring large-scale atrophy!

Read here: ow.ly/1NvV50XkXnX
November 9, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
une petite pièce
March 6, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
New issue of Nature - with NINE studies on #brain #development from the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) 🧠🧪🔬

An amazing set of resources for all scientists working on the brain!

🧠 Immersive feature:
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

🧠 Perspective:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 5, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
This is 🤯

All publicly available. Looks like an amazing new histology-based human probabilistic atlas and parcellation tool.

#neuroskyence #mri #brainmapping

A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation | Nature share.google/5AD0iW7pxgb4...
A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation - Nature
NextBrain is an open source, probabilistic atlas of the entire human brain, assembled using artificial-intelligence-enabled registration and segmentation methods to reconstruct the multimodal serial h...
share.google
November 6, 2025 at 5:35 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
Which features of tissue flows are most robust and how do they emerge from #EpithelialMechanics?

I’m @alex-plum.bsky.social (@mattiaserra.bsky.social group) and I’ll be sharing some papers on characterizing and controlling avian gastrulation flows.
November 2, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
The first (1955) Danish edition of Ray Bradbury’s FAHRENHEIT 451. Later editions did not convert the title, so this is the only SI-compatible edition! 🎢
November 1, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
"Spherical cows and bipedal goats: perspectives on mathematical models in biology". 13 and 14/11/2025 (Salle Jaurès, ENS-PSL, rue d'Ulm, Paris). More info about the event: montevil.org/talks/2025--...
November 1, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
Just a regular thing at @pasteur.fr cantine.
The Friday crème brûlée is back! @institutpasteur.bsky.social
October 31, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
I’ll be speaking about the mechanical development of crocodile and tortoise head scales next Wednesday at 4pm for the @tlmcambridge.bsky.social seminar series. Subscribe to the mailing list to hear more about my work, and that of @maltemederacke.bsky.social!

lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...
October 30, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
Literal perfection. ;) www.youtube.com/shorts/8-lgJ...
We Have AI Now
YouTube video by Eleanor Morton
www.youtube.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
🦖🐬🧪An incredible "fossil brain" of a fossil fur seal (Thalassoleon macnallyae) from the Pliocene Purisima Formation near Santa Cruz. This incredible specimen preserves a cranial endocast with exquisite detail. Read more about fossil fur seals on my blog: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
October 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Roberto Toro
When #HHMIJanelia released the #Drosophila hemibrain in 2020, rendering all cell types at once with full shading/shadows was too hard, so the video showed them region by region. Technology has since advanced, and I went back and rendered them all together. I like how it shows the internal structure.
October 27, 2025 at 8:16 AM