I just made a contribution to save the Drosophila Genetic Database. From my pocket, as I have no lab funds. It's too important not to act. https://t.co/4M58hkTShN @FlyBaseDotOrg

There are a lot of follow-up questions, which we will try to answer over the next few years, funding permitting. I'd like to send from here a shout-out to all the small labs that are fighting not just for the next grant, but for their very existence.

Then my @EssexLifeSci colleague, Patrick Varga-Weisz, with his student Vinícius Dias Morello, helped with their expertise analysing scRNAseq data from the @FlyCellAtlas. Helen Moor help with microscopy data analysis was instrumental.

On the bright side @JeromeKorzelius had been working on something very similar, and came to the rescue with new RNAseq data from FACS-purified cells, which we didn't have the capacity to generate. Working with him, Sina Azami, Svenja Dettmann, and Bruce A Edgar has been great.

This has been the PhD work of Aleix Puig [ https://t.co/z1XqBidNfl], a long ago. The paper got into limbo when I had to move cities, the lockdowns pulled me out of the lab for almost a year, funding run out; other things run out too, which I am not yet prepared to talk about.

I find interesting that Da:Da and Da:Sc dimers, which can both promote neural differentiation, here they seem to collaborate promoting non-overlapping aspects of self-renewal and antagonise each other in secretory differentiation. This may make the "circuit" more flexible.

— another one, towards absorptive cell type, by expressing class ID protein (Emc), which blocks the activity of Daugtherless (and Scute).

— one towards secretory cell type by expressing bHLH of class A (Scute), which heterodimerizes with Daughterless to induce enteroendocrine cells (this bit was well known already, starting with the work of @BardinLab)

we describe a bHLH network of interactions that allow cells to remain undifferentiated through the activity of E protein homodimers (Daugtherless), or exit this state through two alternative doors —

So it would make sense to have an integrated mechanism that links ISC differentiation with the cell type to be replaced. I cannot claim we have put this question to rest, however,

We started with the problem of how ISCs balance not only self-renewal vs differentiation, but also which differentiation route to take. Drosophila ISCs do not seem to be spouting new cells by default - they rather wait for them to be needed.

I've been away from X for some time, but I'm very happy to share that we just got a paper out describing how a network of bHLH transcription factors simultaneously regulates #Drosophila #IntestinalStemCell self-renewal and bipotential differentiation https://t.co/2in3Ye1guh

I don't know why so many Americans have this idea that Germans all feel guilty about WWII. I don't know anyone my generation or even my parents' generation who feels this way. I think this is a story that Americans are telling themselves. What is true is that at least the

¿A qué se debe el cambio de lenguaje en la convocatoria FPU24? ¿Por qué no se reconoce explícitamente la relación laboral entre el centro de adscripción y el personal investigador en formación? @CienciaGob @DianaMorantR @CigudosaJuan

The Tories put this person in charge of their country.

Debbie Prentice is best paid Vice Chancellor in @RussellGroup She also gets "£30000 for accommodation & property taxes, £42000 for relocation expenses & £22500 for personal travel" What are "personal travel costs"? £30000 is a lot for "property taxes" https://t.co/i1BvoSTMZs

I'm very happy to announce that I have retired! I'm equally happy that @janetiwasa has agreed to continue the Molecule of the Month @buildmodels. Read about this at

Join us this year to celebrate the 100th birthday of @Co_Biologists! 🥳

Another day, another @Telegraph headline designed to get the Right OUTRAGED at all the work shy, lazy, benefits scroungers Bah Humbug and all that😡 The article is behind a paywall, so the headline will be all most people will read Let’s take a look behind it… 🧵1/11

Very uplifting thread about the UK industry. I leave it an exercise to the reader to guess how many of these things would survive without having a graduate and postgraduate training ecosystem that is on par. Maybe the whiskey?