Yesterday the Schier lab had the pleasure of celebrating Yiqun’s PhD defense! A zoom seminar and then outdoor, socially distanced gathering. Congratulations on a stellar PhD, we’re looking forward to following what exciting things you do next!
Congratulations to Dave on his new BioRxiv paper on Vg1 processing!
Vg1 acts with Nodal to induce mesoderm formation in embryos. Interestingly, Vg1 is only processed and secreted with Nodal. Dave used synthetic biology techniques he had previously developed to address outstanding questions of the mechanisms of Vg1’s retention, processing and secretion.
Learn more by reading the paper here or by his informative gif on twitter, don’t forget to follow him!
Congratulations to Phil on his Killifish axis formation story now on bioRxiv
Axis formation in embryos of fish and amphibians is prepatterned by maternal genes. However, annual killifish embyros go through a diapause state where cells of the blastomere disperse and reaggregate. How this dispersion-reaggregation process affects the molecular mechanisms of patterning is unclear.
Read more here
Schier/Regev collaboration paper chosen as one of Nature Biotechnology's 25 landmark papers!
Nature Biotechnology is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a collection of 25 landmark papers published in their journal, including a collaborative paper from the Schier and Regev labs. To read more about the collection click here
To read the paper titled Spatial reconstruction of single-cell gene expression data by Rahul, Jeff, David, Alex and Aviv click here
Bushra Raj opens her own lab at UPenn's Perelman School of Medicine
Bushra’s lab will open in April/May at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania!
Will be very exciting to see what exciting discoveries she’ll make next!
Learn more about her research and opportunities in her lab here
Nate Lord opens his lab in Pittsburg!
Congratulations to Nate Lord who started his lab at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine! We’re excited to see what he and his lab will do.
Learn more about his research here
Congratulations to Yinan on being awarded a EMBO Long term fellowship!
Yinan has received a prestigious and highly competitive EMBO Long term fellowship for her work in the Schier lab. We look forward to the new discoveries she will make!
Max's paper on cell type diversification in Mexican Cavefish and Zebrafish out on BioRxiv!
Bushra's newest work published in Neuron!
Bushra’s newest work on the “Emergence of neuronal diversity during vertebrate brain development” has been published in Neuron . As part of this work Bushra and coauthors cataloged ∼220,000 zebrafish brain cells encompassing 12 stages from embryo to larva to establish a zebrafish brain development atlas. They segment these cells into ∼800 clusters with both known and novel gene markers and provide an overview of the diversification of neurons and progenitors across these time points.
To find out more read the paper here!
Congratulations to Max and Annika on being awarded a SNSF Spark grant!
The aim of Swiss National Science Foundation Spark Grant is the rapid funding of projects that show unconventional thinking and introduce a unique approach. Max and Annika will be investigating behaviour and ecology in Lake Tanganyikan cichlids in collaboration with Walter Salzburger’s group at the Zoological Institute at the University of Basel.
To find out more about spark click here
To find out more about the Salzburger lab and their work on cichlid speciation click here
Photo credit: Maxwell Shafer
Congratulations to Oded on his award of a EMBO Long Term Fellowship!
Oded has been awarded highly competitive EMBO Long Term Fellowship, congratulations!
Jakob becomes a Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Fellow
Congratulations to Jakob on being awarded a prestigious BIF PhD fellowship! We look forward to seeing your project grow
Congratulations to Emily on her fellowship!
Emily is now a fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, congratulations Emily!
Alex Schier elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Congratulations Alex on being elected to the American National Academy of Sciences, a huge achievement reflecting the huge impact Alex has had on our understanding of logic governing cellular differentiation .
Read more about it here: https://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/news-events/news/details/silvia-arber-and-alex-schier-elected-to-the-national-academy-of-sciences/
Alex awarded George Streisinger Award
The International Zebrafish Society (IZFS) established the George Streisinger Award to honor Dr. Streisinger's outstanding contribution to the field. This award recognizes sustained and foundational work within the zebrafish field that has had wide benefit to our field.
Congratulations Alex!
To learn more follow this link: https://www.izfs.org/awards/george-streisinger-award
Alex publishes review on single-cell multimodal omics
Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has revolutionized many fields by allowing high-throughput analysis of cell transcriptomes at an individual level. In a newly published review Alex writes about how scRNA-seq has been paired with other methods to obtain more complete knowledge of the genotypes and phenotypes of cells.
Read more here: Single-cell Biology: Beyond the Sum of Its Parts
New bioRxiv paper on Nodal morphogen signaling gradients
Congratulations to Nate and Adam as their new paper is up on the BioRxiv!
How morphogen signaling gradients are established is incompletely explained yet crucial for our understanding of how organisms develop into precisely formed animals. Nate and Adam have investigated the role of Nodal co-receptor Oep and find that it is important for generating correct Nodal signaling patterns by restricting ligand spread and sensitizing cells. Read more here:
The pattern of Nodal morphogen signaling is shaped by co-receptor expression
Bushra's new paper on the emergence of neuronal diversity is now on the bioRxiv!
Congratulations to Bushra on her new paper: Emergence of neuronal diversity during vertebrate brain development
Here she describes the developmental trajectory of >200,000 brain cells in 12 stages from 12 hours post-fertilization to 15 days post-fertilization. She finds stage and tissue specific neurogenic regulatory paradigms.
Madalena awarded a prestigious EMBO Long-term Fellowship
Congratulations Madalena on being awarded this highly competitive fellowship! Well deserved!
Schier lab settles into the Basel Biozentrum
The Schier lab has increased its Basel numbers in the last couple of months! We’re very happy to welcome a few new faces to the lab including:
Postdocs: Madalena (Portugal), Oded (Israel) and Lucia (New Zealand)
PhD student Jakob (Germany)
Administrator: Alexandra (Germany)
A warm belated welcome to you all!