Jake Cornwall-Scoones

Excited to share this new work from Ana Raffaelli, in collaboration with Ewa Paluch's lab and involving several of my colleagues at Cyclana Bio. In this paper, we show that basement membrane mechanics instructs developmental signalling and fate patterning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Break to build: fracture as a unifying morphogenetic strategy Summary: This Review presents mechanical fracture as a unifying morphogenetic strategy and describes how developmental systems actively exploit mechanical fracture to drive morphogenesis, reproduction...

Our latest with @torres-sanchez.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/dev/article-...
Breaking isn’t always a bad thing! Think of birth, seed release...
We highlight how living tissue not only tolerates fractures but actively fracture to grow, shape, reproduce, or adapt – across species and scales.

Mechanistic tradeoffs between local and long-range signaling activity in natural and synthetic morphogens https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.06.704427v1

Registration and submissions for poster presentations will remain open for a few more weeks: meetings.embo.org/event/26-hom...

Feb 1 deadline approaching for our @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social QBio summer course on Physical Principles of Morphogenesis in Plants and Animals. @streichan.bsky.social
@maurazimmermann.bsky.social @maizel-lab.org @yusuke-mori.bsky.social @akankshi.bsky.social @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social

Excited to share Alison's @alisonkickuth.bsky.social paper from the lab out in @nature.com this week! We uncovered how a mechanical ratchet mechanism drives cytokinesis in early #zebrafish embryos. Read more in this thread 🧵 and at www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩
@poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

Generative epigenetic landscapes map the topology and topography of cell fates | PNAS Epigenetic landscapes were proposed by Waddington as the central concept to describe cell fate dynamics in a locally low-dimensional space. In mode...

Very happy to share our 'Evoscape' paper, now published in PNAS ! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A poster listing the names of invited speakers at the upcoming BSDB 2026 meeting at the University of Warwick, 23-26 March

Meeting schedule now online for @bsdb.bsky.social 2026 spring meeting: Molecules to Morphogenesis!

***Abstracts due in by January 16***

Join the outstanding line up! Submit your abstract for a short talk, flash talk, or poster presentation:
👇👇👇
bsdb.org/meetings/

Pleased to say that Jonas Hartmann (bs-less) and I have finally released DySTrack (“diss track”) - Dynamic Sample Tracking.

It’s a Python-based, modular tool that brings smart microscopy to everyday imaging on commercial systems.

Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

[1/6]

Specialized signaling centers direct cell fate and spatial organization in a mesodermal organoid model Stem cell–derived mesodermal organoids reveal how signaling centers guide cell fate and tissue organization.

🎉 Our deconstructed, stem-cell–based approach to studying signaling centers and limb-development cell types is out! 🥳 So nice to see it in its final form after the preprint— and huge thanks to the community for all the enthusiasm and interest since then!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thank you to @cp-devcell.bsky.social for selecting our story to feature on the cover of today’s issue of Developmental Cell!
Thank you to Zoë Ruiz for the wonderful art work! Read more here: www.cell.com/developmenta...

📣 I hereby make my Bluesky debut to announce that our work linking DNA binding affinities and kinetics 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘰 and 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘰 for the human transcription factor KLF1 just got published in Cell! @cp-cell.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Key findings in a thread (1/6):

Boris Shraiman points a physicist’s eye on biological quandaries Boris Shraiman is awarded the American Physical Society’s Max Delbrück Prize in Biological Physics.

Boris Shraiman points a physicist’s eye on biological quandaries news.ucsb.edu/2025/022264/... 🧪

The lab’s first pre-print! We investigated how growth-inducing Erk activity waves are regulated in regenerating zebrafish scales. We discovered that Erk waves are followed by waves of expression of their own inhibitors, as predicted by excitable waves theory. tinyurl.com/26r2cmpj

Group photo of Workshop attendees

Thank you to organisers Alex Dunn, @zevgartner.bsky.social, @adrianjacobo.bsky.social and Matthew Kutys and everyone who joined us for our Workshop on New Technologies for Studying and Reprogramming Development.
#BiologistsWorkshops
biologists.com/workshops

It's always special when you find your own paper in the table of contents of the journal 😍

"The cis-regulatory logic integrating spatial and temporal patterning in the vertebrate neural tube" -> Now out in its final form

www.cell.com/developmenta...

MultiSite Assembly of Gateway Induced Clones (MAGIC): a flexible cloning toolbox for use in vertebrate model systems Summary: A comprehensive suite of Gateway-compatible plasmids for in vitro and in vivo transgenesis in vertebrate model systems has been developed, together with a relational, modifiable, open-source ...

New paper from the lab on a new Gateway compatible toolkit for transgenesis in eukaryotes, led by former technician Will Gillespie.

Open access @dev-journal.bsky.social

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

How can we organize current theoretical approaches for developmental biology - from information to dynamical systems & GRNs - into a common framework?

We propose to think along Marr's 3 levels: computational problem, algorithm, implementation

Check out our review:
arxiv.org/abs/2510.24536

Hierarchical lineage architecture of human and avian spinal cord revealed by single-cell genomic barcoding The formation of neural circuits depends on the precise spatial and temporal organisation of neuronal populations during development. In the vertebrate spinal cord, progenitors are patterned into mole...

Thrilled to share my main postdoc work with @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social

We used genomic barcoding + scRNAseq in chick & human embryos to reveal a lineage architecture that reshapes how we understand neural tube development & cell fate decisions
🧵👇

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hierarchical lineage architecture of human and avian spinal cord revealed by single-cell genomic barcoding https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.24.684328v1

We are looking forward to spending the next two days discussing INTERESTING THINGS at our workshop on Generative Biology: new approaches to study developmental design principles #GenBio25

Thanks to my excellent coorganisers @jcornwallscoones.bsky.social & @dbenzinger.bsky.social & all participants

En route to Brighton—for the 1st time—for the @royalsociety.org Generative Biology meeting organised by @jcornwallscoones.bsky.social, @dbenzinger.bsky.social & @cellysally.bsky.social. Happy to chat about @dev-journal.bsky.social, @the-node.bsky.social & @biologists.bsky.social. Also have freebies!

Happy to share the last version of our story @currentbiology.bsky.social on the role of interfacial tension in mechanical cell competition led by @leovalon.bsky.social and Alexis Matamoro Vidal
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I wrote something on developmental biology and disability and put it up on the node last night:

thenode.biologists.com/developmenta...

I've been nervous to share because some of it veers a bit personal but they are thoughts that won't stay quiet. Would love to know what people think about it!

Really excited to share our latest work led by @mattiaubertini.bsky.social and @nesslfy.bsky.social: we report that cohesin loop extrusion creates rare but long-lived encounters between genomic sequences which underlie efficient enhancer-promoter communication.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A🧵👇

🚨 Excited to introduce FuChi (Fucci chicken), the first avian cell cycle reporter line. Thank you to all those who contributed to putting this paper together. I really think it showcases the power and beauty of the chick embryo as a developmental biology model. 🐥 🥚 🔬 @roslininstitute.bsky.social

Development does not happen in isolation! Material properties, geometry, stiffness, fluid flows...can all steer how development unfolds. If you’re exploring these kinds of questions, we’d love to see your work @dev-journal.bsky.social
More info below ⬇️

Gene Network Organization, Mutation, and Selection Collectively Drive Developmental Pattern Evolvability and Predictability The historical order in which mutations appear during evolution determine the evolutionary trajectory of gene regulatory networks and influence how developmental patterns change and diversify over tim...

Fresh from the press💥 We asked what happens when you evolve gene regulatory networks computationally at scale. Do general principles of GRN evolution jump out? Is the process predictable? Read on to find out @prxlife.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk @ucl-ipls.bsky.social 👉 journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...

1/3 After 6+ years at @crick.ac.uk I split my last cells and hung up my lab coat! Thank you to the brilliant community from fellow PhDs/Postdocs, LOAs, STPs, academic training team and to all past/present @santoslab.bsky.social members. My Crick journey would not have been the same without you all!

Can a single cell learn? Even without a brain, some microbes show simple forms of cognition. Can this basal cognition be engineered? Check our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social on the minimal synthetic circuits & their cognitive limits. @drmichaellevin.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...