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In papers in Nature Biotechnology and Current Biology, the Schier lab reports how thousands of single-cell transcriptomes can be used to define cell types and reconstruct lineage relationships…
Neural circuits in the mammalian brain comprise hundreds to millions of neurons, connected with each other in complex and highly specific ways. Studies over the past few decades…
Lesioning (damaging) a particular brain region is one of the most important methods in neuroscience for determining the function of that region. Many groundbreaking discoveries were made through…
One of the simplest and highly conserved bacterial shapes is a rod. In order to grow, rod-shaped bacteria restrict their growth so that they maintain a constant width…
In three papers in eLife, the Schier lab provides surprising insights into the regulation of early vertebrate embryogenesis. Focusing on the roles of the TGF-b Nodal signaling pathway,…
Oxytocin and its cognate receptor have been proposed as essential mediators of social behaviors, physiological functions, and emotional responses in many animal species. Oxytocin is an evolutionarily conserved…
Guanosine tetraphosphate and pentaphosphate, collectively known as (p)ppGpp or magic spot nucleotides, are effectors of the stringent response, a stress response pathway activated during nutrient and energy deprivation.…
To make a change, we must replace old with new: plow the field to seed new plants, abandon old habits to adapt new ones, and erase the board…
When selecting fluorescent proteins (FPs), it is standard practice to select FPs with the highest in vitro brightness. However, it is well-known that in vitro brightness does not…
Behaviors such as mating, territorial defense, parenting or predator avoidance, despite being instinctive, are modulated by social experience. Because instinctive behaviors can be elicited without any previous social…
