A Press Release from Development A section of a mouse juvenile brain (cerebral cortex) showing cell nuclei (blue), microglia (red) and the activation of a specific gene called Hes1 (white). No parent wants to risk their child having a serious infection, least of all while still in the womb, but did you know that the immune response to a viral infection during pregnancy could also affect the development of the unborn offspring? Scientists from Harvard University in Cambridge, USA, have shown that immune reactions in pregnant mice are detected by a specific type of brain cell in the de ..read more

Where is the lab? Daniel Kierzkowski: Our lab is part of the Plant Science Research Institute (fr. Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale – IRBV) established through a partnership between the University of Montréal and the City of Montréal. We are located in the beautiful Montréal Botanical Garden. Institute website: irbv.umontreal.ca/?lang=en Lab website: kierzkowski-lab.com/ Research summary Our group studies the fundamental aspects of plant organogenesis. We aim to understand how tiny primordia, composed of groups of undifferentiated cells, give rise to the amazing diversity of organs ..read more

Development’s Deputy Editor Steve Wilson (UCL) hosts three early-career researchers studying brain development Wednesday 5 June – 15:00 BST Akanksha Jain (ETH-Zurich) ‘Unveiling the choreography of human brain development: Longterm lightsheet imaging reveals patterning morphodynamics in human brain organoids’ Noelia Antón-Bolaños (Harvard University) ‘Multi-donor human cortical Chimeroids reveal individual susceptibility to neurotoxic triggers’ Yuxiang Liu (UT Southwestern Medical Center) ‘Function of human CLOCK during embryonic development of neocortex’ Register to attend At the sp ..read more

Introducing the Node’s new search and filter function. Just over a year ago, I was applying to become the Node’s Community Manager. One of the pre-interview tasks was to come up with ideas for the Node, so I wanted to look back at what’d been done already. While I enjoyed discovering random posts from the early days of the Node, I quickly realised that the search function was rather limited: I could only filter by date or category, and it wasn’t possible to filter by date and category.   Now, I’m delighted to introduce our brand new ‘Advanced search’ function, where you can search and fil ..read more

Authors: Sandra Franco-Iborra (ASAPbio Community Lead), Pablo Ranea-Robles (Postdoctoral Fellow, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen), Lonni Besancon (Assistant Professor, Linköping University) & Jonathon Alexis Coates (Assoicate Director, ASAPbio; jonny.coates@asapbio.org) Scientific publishing is experiencing a reckoning; scientists are resigning across a wide range of editorial boards, the dominance of traditional publishers has been successfully challenged, open access has revolutionized publishers’ business models, there’s a lac ..read more

Elizabeth A. Williams and Gemma Anderson-Tempini, University of Exeter. As biologists we work regularly with images to collect, interpret and communicate our data, findings and ideas. These days, however, images are almost entirely digital, and it is becoming increasingly uncommon to incorporate manually drawn pictures or 3D hand-crafted models into research, either during experimental observations or to communicate findings. Accurate scientific illustration is an important skill to record anatomical detail during an organism’s life, and realistic drawing was the main working method for early ..read more

FocalPlane features… open microscopy and accessible workflow Open microscopy projects are flourishing with researchers contributing new technology and accessible workflows with the hope of democratising access to microscopy. In our upcoming webinar on Thursday 16 May at 15:00 BST, we’ll be hearing from Richard Bowman, Jan Huisken and Dumisile Lumkwana about three very different projects, OpenFlexure, Flamingo and VP-CLEM-KIT. Richard will speak about OpenFlexure Microscopes, which are open-source optical microscopes that are built using 3D printed components and off the shelf ..read more

When I was 25 and having a particularly bad day, crying to my mum about how exhausted and in pain I was during my studies, she recalled a passing comment made about my 10-year-old self by a homeopath who was treating my brother. The homeopath looked at me inquisitively, and then asked me if I could walk up and down the corridor at a comfortable pace. His response: “She’s just running on nothing, absolutely no energy reserve”. This man identified an issue 10 years prior to any diagnosis, and a further 10 years to being properly assessed. And I am still an incredibly slow walker. I have spent ..read more

The School is designed for Master’s students, PhD students and Postdocs who work in the field studying the Transcriptional Control of the Genome during Embryonic Development, Cell Differentiation, and Disease, or for those who would like to approach it. Look at our PROGRAM and REGISTER! One of the primary focuses will be to discuss how to combine “wet” and “dry” technologies to address computationally demanding, important biological questions. A key feature of this course will be the low ratio between participants and teachers/speakers. This will allow each participant to come in close contact ..read more

In this SciArt profile, we meet Philipp Dexheimer, who combines his research background and love for art to effectively communicate complex ideas in science to a broad audience. As an artist at heart and a scientist in mind, Philipp’s creations are inspired by the concepts and molecular aesthetics of nature. He works with diverse techniques and media, from Molecular Graffiti to scientific illustrations and videography. C. elegans Graffiti in Vienna C. elegans Graffiti in Vienna C. elegans Graffiti in Vienna Can you tell us about your background and what you work on now? As a scientist, I ..read more