Anahí Binagui-Casas

Anahí Binagui-Casas

@abinagui.bsky.social

DevBio in Val Wilson's Lab @edinuni-irr.bsky.social - Embryos, tails, cell fate decisions and a soft spot for all things endothelial | Prev @geneticsub.bsky.social #SinCienciaNoHayFuturo #diversityinSTEM

1.3K followers231 following57 posts

Pinned

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

🚨Can embryos regenerate their tails? A question I had. With support from @biologists.bsky.social, Val Wilson, Elly Tanaka and Wouter🙏, I visited Vienna to start by cutting axolotl embryo tail buds. The answer: Not always!😮...Sparking a fun and exciting collaboration that is only the beginning.

Wouter Masselink@woutermasselink.bsky.social

🚨 New preprint 🚨 Massive shoutout to first author @abinagui.bsky.social !!! The common view is that regenerative competence declines with age. We challenge this idea by showing that axolotl tail regenerative competence is emerges during a defined embryonic window. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgbiorxiv.org

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

Osvaldo Chara
@osvaldo-chara.bsky.social

🧵 What do zebrafish notochord cells 🐟 and Galilean relativity 🚀 have in common? Quite a lot, apparently. 😄 Check this out in the published version of our article in @dev-journal.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1242/dev.... 1/7

doi.orgCoupling Vgll4b/Yap-regulated posterior cell addition with anterior vacuolation enables robust notochord elongationHighlighted Article: YAP activation in notochord progenitors of vgll4b mutant zebrafish leads to enhanced progenitor addition to the notochord, compromising the ability of notochord cells to undergo v...
Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

So happy & excited to see our paper out in @plosbiology.org ! 🎉 With contributions from many past & present members of the Lowell & Wilson labs @edinuni-irr.bsky.social , and a fantastic collaboration with @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social & @alberto-ceccarelli.bsky.social. 🧵👇(1/10)

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org

Neuromesodermal progenitor cells generate multiple tissues. This study by @abinagui.bsky.social @edinuni-irr.bsky.social @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social @cellysally.bsky.social &co maps their functional heterogeneity and links TF expression thresholds to #cellFate. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/4xWA8Ze

View full thread
Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

Instead, we find that SOX2 & TBXT carry separate information. TBXT is the main, high-precision fate predictor & SOX2 adds a shallow signal that mostly marks the NMP-competent zone (with the interesting exception of the midline). We started seeing this as independent toggles, not a tug-of-war. (9/10)

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

So happy & excited to see our paper out in @plosbiology.org ! 🎉 With contributions from many past & present members of the Lowell & Wilson labs @edinuni-irr.bsky.social , and a fantastic collaboration with @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social & @alberto-ceccarelli.bsky.social. 🧵👇(1/10)

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org

Neuromesodermal progenitor cells generate multiple tissues. This study by @abinagui.bsky.social @edinuni-irr.bsky.social @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social @cellysally.bsky.social &co maps their functional heterogeneity and links TF expression thresholds to #cellFate. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/4xWA8Ze

View full thread
Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

So happy & excited to see our paper out in @plosbiology.org ! 🎉 With contributions from many past & present members of the Lowell & Wilson labs @edinuni-irr.bsky.social , and a fantastic collaboration with @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social & @alberto-ceccarelli.bsky.social. 🧵👇(1/10)

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org

Neuromesodermal progenitor cells generate multiple tissues. This study by @abinagui.bsky.social @edinuni-irr.bsky.social @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social @cellysally.bsky.social &co maps their functional heterogeneity and links TF expression thresholds to #cellFate. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/4xWA8Ze

View full thread
Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

We found that, in the dish, NMPs emerge like they do in the embryo: cells start SOX2+, then switch on TBXT. Staining real embryos confirmed it, NMPs emerge from a pre-existing SOX2+ field that later gains TBXT (magenta→striped = co-expressing). (5/10)

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

Plating single cells proved these double-positive cells are true bipotent NMPs: one cell can make neural cells, mesoderm, AND self-renew. This is the first formal demonstration at clonal level that individual Sox2/Tbxt co-expressing cells from a standard NMP protocol are bona fide NMPs. (6/10)

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

So happy & excited to see our paper out in @plosbiology.org ! 🎉 With contributions from many past & present members of the Lowell & Wilson labs @edinuni-irr.bsky.social , and a fantastic collaboration with @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social & @alberto-ceccarelli.bsky.social. 🧵👇(1/10)

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org

Neuromesodermal progenitor cells generate multiple tissues. This study by @abinagui.bsky.social @edinuni-irr.bsky.social @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social @cellysally.bsky.social &co maps their functional heterogeneity and links TF expression thresholds to #cellFate. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/4xWA8Ze

View full thread
Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

How does a cell decide if it becomes neural/spinal cord or mesodermal/muscle? Neuromesodermal progenitors (NMPs) build the head-to-tail body axis and their localisation in vivo coincides with co-expression of Sox2 (neural) + Tbxt (mesoderm). (4/10)

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

So happy & excited to see our paper out in @plosbiology.org ! 🎉 With contributions from many past & present members of the Lowell & Wilson labs @edinuni-irr.bsky.social , and a fantastic collaboration with @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social & @alberto-ceccarelli.bsky.social. 🧵👇(1/10)

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org

Neuromesodermal progenitor cells generate multiple tissues. This study by @abinagui.bsky.social @edinuni-irr.bsky.social @osvaldo-chara.bsky.social @cellysally.bsky.social &co maps their functional heterogeneity and links TF expression thresholds to #cellFate. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/4xWA8Ze

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

🚨Save the date for BSDB 2027! What a great line up...in beautiful Edinburgh! ...Become a BSDB member, join the meeting... See you all then!

British Society for Developmental Biology@bsdb.bsky.social

Save the date! The 2027 BSDB Spring Meeting will take place on 19 - 22 April in Edinburgh. An exciting programme with a fantastic lineup of speakers showcasing developmental biology across scales! More details soon!

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

😍 Really beautiful summary!

Alex Neaverson@alexneaverson.bsky.social

I illustrated my way through the @bsdb.bsky.social Spring Meeting a couple weeks ago - here's my illustrated summary of the conference! I sketched (almost) all the speakers and glimpses of the science that made it such a great few days.

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

nvargesson.bsky.social
@nvargesson.bsky.social

Honoured to have been awarded the 2026 British Society for Developmental Biology Lewis Wolpert Medal - means so much; as i was Lewis’s last PhD student,recognition for continuing his legacy of public engagement & impact of our research on Thalidomide & Primodos survivors. bsdb.org/2026/03/24/2...

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

Amy Diehl, Ph.D.
@amydiehl.bsky.social

Study of 8M biomed & life science articles finds those led by women spent 7 to 15 days longer in review than those led by men. Over a career, women's papers could spend 350 to 750 additional days in review. Delays could slow promotion, esp to full professor. www.the-scientist.com/women-s-rese...

the-scientist.comPeer Review Timelines Show Gender Gap, Large Study ReportsA study of millions of life science papers revealed that manuscripts with women in key authorship roles spent longer between submission and acceptance.

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

Alex Eve
@amjeve.uk

I think the latest cover helps to remind us that Development is not just a faceless brand of a journal eager to line shareholder pockets - it's a group of people who share a love for #devbio and, in my experience, really are trying to do their best for their community. #not-for-profit

Development@dev-journal.bsky.social

Issue 24 is complete! Marking the end of #biologists100, the cover features members of our community, including some featured 'extraordinary biologists' #100biologists, as well as our Editors and in-house team. Thank you to all our authors and reviewers, past and present, for their contributions.

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

James Briscoe
@jamesbriscoe.bsky.social

Nice work from Val Wilson & co on neuromesodermal progenitors SOX2/TBXT co-expressing cells are self-propagating bipotent NMPs Increasing TBXT levels (not SOX2/TBXT ratio) switch NMPs from neural- to mesoderm-biased www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgBrachyury expression levels predict lineage potential and axis-forming ability of in vitro derived neuromesodermal progenitorsNeuromesodermal progenitors (NMPs) produce the spinal cord and musculoskeleton in the elongating anterior-posterior axis. In vivo, NMPs possess dual potency, coinciding with regions coexpressing SOX2 ...

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

BehavEcolPapers
@behavecolpapers.bsky.social

A toolkit for mapping cell identities in relation to neighbors reveals conserved patterning of neuromesodermal progenitor populations @PLOSBiology.org

dlvr.itA toolkit for mapping cell identities in relation to neighbors reveals conserved patterning of neuromesodermal progenitor populationsby Matthew French, Rosa P. Migueles, Alexandra Neaverson, Aishani Chakraborty, Tom Pettini, Benjamin Steventon, Erik Clark, J. Kim Dale, Guillaume Blin, Valerie Wilson, Sally Lowell Patterning of cell fates is central to embryonic development, tissue homeostasis, and disease. Quantitative analysis of patterning reveals the logic by which cell-cell interactions orchestrate changes in cell fate. However, it is challenging to quantify patterning when graded changes in identity occur over complex 4D trajectories, or where different cell states are intermingled. Furthermore, comparing patterns across multiple individual embryos, tissues, or organoids is difficult because these often vary in shape and size. This problem is further exacerbated when comparing patterning between species. Here we present a toolkit of computational approaches to tackle these problems. These strategies are based on measuring properties of each cell in relation to the properties of its neighbors to quantify patterning, and on using embryonic landmarks in order to compare these patterns between embryos. We perform detailed neighbor-analysis of the caudal lateral epiblast of E8.5 mouse embryos, revealing local patterning in emergence of early mesoderm cells that is sensitive to inhibition of Notch activity. We extend this toolkit to compare mouse and chick embryos, revealing conserved 3D patterning of the caudal-lateral epiblast that scales across an order of magnitude difference in size between these two species. We also examine 3D patterning of gene expression boundaries across the length of Drosophila embryos. We present a flexible approach to examine the reproducibility of patterning between individuals, to measure phenotypic changes in patterning after experimental manipulation, and to compare of patterning across different scales and tissue architectures.

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

openRxiv
@openrxiv.bsky.social

We are proud to recognize & thank ‪The University of Edinburgh for its support of bioRxiv & medRxiv. Their commitment helps sustain open access to preprints in biology & medicine, ensuring timely and globally-available sharing of scientific knowledge. Thank you! 💚 #bioRxiv #medRxiv #OpenScience

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

the Node
@the-node.bsky.social

"Because I had a long incubation time, I’m more resilient to the stress that comes with an academic career" Thank you Eve Seuntjens @eveseuntjens.bsky.social for sharing your career journey and your advice to people currently in the endless postdoc period #AcademicLife Read our interview with Eve:

thenode.biologists.comBecause I had a long incubation time, I'm more resilient to the stress that comes with an academic career - the NodeNo such thing as a standard career path – an interview with Eve Seuntjens

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

Berta Verd
@bertaverd.bsky.social

Experimental embryology postdoc available in my lab at the @biology.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk working on the evolution of vertebral counts. Reach out if you’re passionate about EvoDevo, enjoy lab work and microscopy and are into or could get into cichlid fishes. Deadline on the 16th June. Please share!

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

Did you attend Biologists @ 100 in Liverpool last week? Then help out and fill in the feedback form- get your thoughts heard!

The Company of Biologists@biologists.bsky.social

We enjoyed at Biologists @ 100 hearing about researchers’ experience of sustainable practices in science. You can still share your thoughts on how we could support you to make research more sustainable. Have your say in our feedback form here: www.biologists.com/100-years/su... #biologists100

biologists.comShare your sustainable ideasSustainability – what we have done so far? We are committed to ensuring our environmental impact is kept to a minimum and we are working hard to make sustainability a consideration in everything we…
Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

Incredibly transformative for young people. So far I benefited from BSDB travel grants to go to conferences, attended a CoB workshops in 2019 & got a Development travel fellowship in 2023 to visit another lab to explore new ideas! Couldn’t have done this without the @biologists.bsky.social support!

Sally Lowell@cellysally.bsky.social

Now @steveroyle.bsky.social tells us the many ways that not-for-profit publisher @biologists.bsky.social supports and funds the activities of biologists. Stark contrast to some other publishers, who suck £££$$$ out of science and into the pockets of shareholders #biologists100

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

Sally Lowell
@cellysally.bsky.social

Exhausted at the thought of having to resubmit your paper to a new journal after rejection? 🙁 Did you know you can transfer your paper+reviewers reports from any journal to any of @biologists.bsky.social journals, and get a quick decision, from editors who are working biologists 😃 #biologists100

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

Daniel Gorelick
@danielgorelick.bsky.social

I spoke at #biologists100 about Fast & Fair— a peer review model built not on speed alone (7 working day turnaround), but on the quiet heroism of academic editors @biologyopen.bsky.social who believe science deserves better

Alissa Armstrong@armstrongflylab.bsky.social

The fast and fair initiative works - quality reviews and decisions within 7 days. Submit your manuscripts to @biologyopen.bsky.social

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

Please do- I am biased but it is really a fantastic role. Do reach out online if you have questions or, even better, come chat to @lebektamina.bsky.social and I at #Biologists100 in Liverpool!

Katherine Brown@katherine-brown.bsky.social

If you’re a PhD or postdoc developmental biologist in the UK who cares about the field and the community, please nominate yourself to join the BSDB committee. Great opportunity to get involved, have real input and give back to the community @bsdb.bsky.social #biologists100

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

Development
@dev-journal.bsky.social

Are you enjoying all the exciting science at #biologists100? Want to spread the love of developmental biology to your friends and family? Together with @bsdb.bsky.social, we've produced a documentary video to showcase the fascinating world of #DevBio: 🎥

youtu.beBSDB - The Fascinating World of Developmental Biology (full length)In this half-hour long documentary we showcase some of the beauty, as well as the translatability, of developmental biology research being undertaken current...

Anahí Binagui-Casas reposted

Katherine Brown
@katherine-brown.bsky.social

Find out more about this exciting initiative from Biology Open in this editorial and the accompanying preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgFast & Fair peer review: a pilot study demonstrating feasibility of rapid, high-quality peer review in a biology journalTraditional peer review is slow, often delayed by the time-consuming process of identifying reviewers and lengthy review turnaround times. This study tests the feasibility of the Fast & Fair peer revi...
Biology Open@biologyopen.bsky.social

We are excited to be launching the next phase of our Fast & Fair peer review initiative: offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days. #fastandfairpeerreview Read the Editorial by EiC Daniel Gorelick @danielgorelick.bsky.social at: bit.ly/4kYD1mL

Anahí Binagui-Casas
@abinagui.bsky.social

It was a fantastic way to kick off the @biologists.bsky.social 100 years celebration and the @bsdb.bsky.social and @bscb-official.bsky.social Spring annual meeting!

The Company of Biologists@biologists.bsky.social

Thank you to keynote speaker Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social and organisers Anahi Binagui-Casas @abinagui.bsky.social , Emily Lucas @emilyxlucas.bsky.social and Aymen al-Rawi @aymen-alrawi.bsky.social for a great early-career researcher session this afternoon. #biologists100