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

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

Mehdi's paper published in eLIFE!

Our lab has published in eLIFE a study on long non-coding RNAs: “Individual long non-coding RNAs have no overt functions in zebrafish embryogenesis, viability and fertility”.

The functions of long-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) remain a mystery. In this study 25 zebrafish lncRNAs candidate genes were selected based on their conservation, expression pattern and proximity to developmental regulators. CRISPR-Cas9 was used to generate a total of 32 deletion alleles across these 25 lncRNAs. They found that none of these genes are required for embryogenesis, viability or fertility. This study suggests that lncRNAs don’t have obvious roles in embryogenesis, viability or fertility indicating they may have more redundant, subtle or context dependent roles.

Congratulations to lead author Mehdi, as well as Kathryn and Lindsey!

We will be joining the Biozentrum at the University of Basel

We will be moving to the Biozentrum at the University of Basel, Switzerland. The Biozentrum is one of the leading Life Sciences institutes in the world. Founded in 1971, it has been the birth place of many fundamental discoveries in biology and medicine (e.g. homeobox; TOR kinase) and spawned several Nobel Laureates. The Biozentrum currently consists of 30 groups that study how molecules and cells create life, spanning the scale from atom to organism. English is the working language. 

Basel is a cosmopolitan city ranked world-wide in the top 10 for quality of life. It has been home to Paracelsus, Bernoulli, Euler, Nietzsche, Jung, Hofmann, Arber and Federer, and is now the center for the Life Sciences in continental Europe, with institutes such as the Biozentrum, FMI and D-BSSE, and the headquarters of Novartis, Roche and Actelion. 

In 2019/2020 the Biozentrum will get a new home and move into a stunning new building (see image). Currently all of our research continues to take place at Harvard. The first cohort of lab members will move when our lab and fish facility in Basel are fully functional. Please contact Alex if you are interested in joining us (alex.schier@unibas.ch).