preLights

We’ve seen twofold, tenfold and some other folds before… but now, thousandfold expansion microscopy!?? 🫨🤯 check my latest preLights post about this fascinating technique. Kudos to all authors 🎉 https://lnkd.in/eNqybZdS

what a day! a Nature News feature picking up the #Swimming-pool analogy, and a preLights article highlighting the #meme that somehow became part of the paper. #Science works in #mysterious ways. #preLights: https://lnkd.in/etubYKfG #Nature: https://lnkd.in/eAV4UbJb

Some genes are so large that switching them on is only the beginning. In Drosophila spermatocytes, giant Y-linked fertility genes can take much of the long spermatocyte growth phase to transcribe. Sustaining that means keeping vast, repetitive stretches of DNA accessible and RNA polymerase II productive for hours on end. In a new #biorxiv preprint, Jaclyn Fingerhut and colleagues show how the cell meets that demand. As spermatocytes mature, the nucleolus winds down ribosome production, and the structure that remains becomes the place where active RNA polymerase II and the nascent transcripts of these giant Y-linked genes gather, an existing organelle repurposed rather than dismantled. These giant genes work like a magnifying glass: their scale makes visible the organisational work that "ordinary" genes allow the nucleus to hide. Check my latest highlight covering this work at preLights: https://lnkd.in/emh_cD_i Congratulations to the authors and the Yamashita lab at the Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. #DevelopmentalBiology #CellBiology #GeneRegulation #NuclearOrganisation #preLights

As summer begins and we spend more time in the sun, melanoma awareness becomes especially important. Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer because of its ability to spread to other parts of the body. A key step in this process is cell movement, and understanding how melanoma cells attach to their surroundings and begin to move is essential for future research. Researchers from the Ruđer Bošković Institute, in collaboration with colleagues from the United Kingdom, have published two studies in Cell Communication and Signaling, a Springer Nature journal, providing new insights into the spatially distinct functions of KANK2 in melanoma cell adhesions. The studies investigate how melanoma cells interact with their extracellular environment through different adhesion structures, and how these interactions influence cell migration, a key process linked to metastatic progression. The first paper shows that KANK2 localizes to both focal adhesions and fibrillar adhesions, where it has distinct roles. At focal adhesions, KANK2 contributes to adhesion maintenance and dynamics, while at fibrillar adhesions it influences cell migration through a microtubule-dependent mechanism. Notably, reducing KANK2 in different adhesion contexts produced different effects on melanoma cell motility. The second paper extends this work to reticular adhesions, a more recently described adhesion type, and examines how KANK2 and talin2 regulate these structures in two melanoma cell lines. Together, the results highlight that protein function cannot be fully understood only through expression levels or molecular identity. Subcellular localization, adhesion context and molecular interactions are essential for understanding how adhesion proteins regulate melanoma cell behaviour. The significance of this work was also recognized by the scientific community through a preLights feature by The Company of Biologists, highlighting the first study as a particularly interesting contribution to the field. The studies were led by corresponding authors Dr Andreja Ambriović-Ristov Ambriović Ristov and Dr Nikolina Stojanović, with Dr Marija Lončarić and Dr Anja Rac sharing first authorship. The research brought together scientists from RBI’s, The Manchester Metropolitan University and The University of Manchester, and was supported by the Hrvatska zaklada za znanost (Croatian Science Foundation), Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard Award. #MelanomaResearch #CancerResearch #CellBiology

View the programme for DMM's 2026 Journal Meeting on Innovative Preclinical Models for Pediatric Cancer Research, taking place on 13-15 October 2026 at Nationwide Children's Hospital Conference Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA. The meeting is organised by Pratiti (Mimi) Bandopadhayay, Ana Banito, and DMM Editors James Amatruda and Elaine Mardis. The programme will features talks from an outstanding set of speakers from all over the world and will delve further into this important area of research.  Find out more and secure discounted early-bird registration by 19 June 2026: https://lnkd.in/ectygjXy Speakers: Delilah Hendriks Princess Máxima Center, The Netherlands Caroline Hutter St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute, Austria Kevin B. Jones The University of Utah, USA Genevieve Kendall Nationwide Children’s Hospital, USA Claudia L. Kleinman McGill University, Canada Verena Körber University of Oxford, UK Lena Kutscher Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), Germany JP Martinez-Barbera, University College London, UK Phoenix, Timothy University of Cincinnati, USA Martine Roussel St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA Alice Soragni Univerity of California, Los Angeles, USA Joelle Straehla Seattle Children’s, USA Eleni Tomazou St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute, Austria Michael Underhill University of British Columbia, Canada Michelle Wedemeyer Nationwide Children’s Hospital, USA Marc Zuckermann, Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), Germany #PaediatricCancer #OncologyResearch #CancerResearch #PediatricOncology #PediatricCancer

Haven't caught up with the Node lately? Why not explore our most-read posts from May? 🥳 📚 From comparison to mechanism: decoding heart regeneration by Shih-Lei (Ben) Lai https://lnkd.in/er9W4TAN A day in the life of a Reviews Editor (at Development) by Ingrid Tsang https://lnkd.in/ep9k2ApA What does a Reviews Editor do? by Saanjbati Adhikari, PhD https://lnkd.in/ewDmDGCe New evo-devo textbook ‘Eco-Evo-Devo: The Environmental Regulation of Development, Evolution, and Health’ by Scott Gilbert https://lnkd.in/eAbn7XJP preLighters’ choice – A curated selection of recent preprints by the amazing preLights team Theodora Stougiannos, Jawdat Sandakly, Sristilekha Nath, Deevitha Balasubramanian. https://lnkd.in/eh_pZVP8