Courtney Lancaster
Postdoc in the Steventon Group at University of Cambridge| PhD Pichaud Group UCL | How do you build a vertebral column? 🐥 🔬
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- Reposted by Courtney LancasterJob alert! 📣 I’m looking for a research assistant to join my new team @idrm.ox.ac.uk Were using #zebrafish to understand gene-environment interactions that shape the heart 🫀generate natural diversity 🐸🐭 and contribute to congenital defects ❤️🩹 Full info below, and please share! 🫶🏻 bit.ly/467TO0M
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterWe are delighted to announce that @giuliapaci.bsky.social from @ucllifesciences.bsky.social has been awarded the 2026 BSCB Postdoctoral researcher medal You can read about Giulia's work on how tissues withstand mechanical stress here: bscb.org/postdoctoral...
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- Reposted by Courtney LancasterThe Cambridge Morphogenesis Seminar Series is back! 🎉 Check out the flyer for a great lineup of speakers for Lent Term 2026! Don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list to get all the information, including the Zoom link. We are excited to see you again soon 👋
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterLatest paper from the Lloyd lab is out! Beautiful work by my best PhD (now both postdoc) lab-mate Alex 🥳🥳🥳 Microenvironmental TGF-β is an early driver of NF1-associated tumor formation: Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterLovely little pre-Christmas present to see this out @natcellbio.nature.com! Some 🔥 new results in here since the biorvix incl (1) a new RARE-GFP reporter ✳️🙌, (2) additional NMP quantification 🔢, (3) no neural tube patterning on RA inhibition 🙅 etc. Enjoy! 😍 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterMeeting 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/
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterPleased 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]
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterDo your samples move out of view? Tired of manually adjusting the stage? Introducing DySTrack developed by @zimengwu33.bsky.social and Jonas Hartmann from UCL, a tool that can be integrated into modern microscopes to automate the tracking of moving samples. #MicroscopyMonday doi.org/10.64898/202...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterHi bsky! How do cells coordinate fate with migration during development? 🐣 Turns out EMT doesn't just drive cell behaviour changes... it actively primes BMP signalling competence, creating a reciprocal coupling that drives collective invasion! (@bensteventon.bsky.social lab) tinyurl.com/2ncc8zap
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterNext Monday, 24th November at 2:30 PM (UK), we are welcoming two ERCs: Meng Zhu @zhumeng123.bsky.social (Harvard University) and Alex Plum @alex-plum.bsky.social (University of California San Diego). Don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list to receive the Zoom link! Hope to see you all! :)
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- Reposted by Courtney LancasterNext Monday, 17th November, we are excited to hear from two ERCs: @luca-guglielmi.bsky.social (MRC LMB) and Susannah McLaren (Gurdon Institute). This is happening in Bryan Matthews room in Physiology Building (PDN). There is a post-talk refreshment :) Everyone is welcome! See you all there👋
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterNext Monday, 10th November, at 2:30 PM, we are delighted to welcome @maitrejl.bsky.social from Institut Curie. Don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing list to receive the Zoom link! See you all there! 😊
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- Reposted by Courtney LancasterThe Cambridge Morphogenesis Seminar Series is back this Michaelmas Term 2025! Join us for an exciting lineup of talks exploring the many facets of tissue morphogenesis. Check out the flyer for the full list of speakers!
- Reposted by Courtney Lancaster🚨 PhD studentship alert! 🚨 Joint PhD with Münsterberg and Mok labs (UEA) with collaborators Macaulay and Haerty labs (EI) Explore how enhancers control heart, blood & vessel development using single-cell multi-omics biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/one... #PhD #DevBio #Cardiovascular
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterVery excited about this project: we believe that 3D anatomical atlases have a huge potential for developmental biology. As a starting point, we made the first ever Drosophila wing disc atlas!
- BrainGlobe branches out! New blog outlining our collaborative work with @giuliapaci.bsky.social from @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social to build anatomical atlases for developmental mechanobiology. brainglobe.info/blog/drosoph...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterHi bsky! Do embryonic tissues have backup plans🔀? Gastruloids (model of body elongation) can build an axis through different cellular mechanisms when on adherent substrates instead of free floating. A case of developmental plasticity! w/ A. Delahaye & @bensteventon.bsky.social shorturl.at/v01DO
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterVery sad news, John Gurdon has died. A developmental biologist's developmental biologist, Nobel prize winner His work is the foundation of much of today's dev & stem cell bio. An inspiration to many, including me. Always asking questions & wanting the answers www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...
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- Reposted by Courtney LancasterDr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterNext BIIG seminar is 12-1pm on Friday 10th October 🔬😄: - Anna Bajur (Imperial College London): “Quantifying cellular forces, one molecule at a time” - Virginia Silio (UCL): “Euro-BioImaging: From Access to Analysis”
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterMario Ledesma-Terrón, Diego Pérez-Dones, David Míguez and colleagues @cbm-csic-uam.bsky.social @ifimacuam.bsky.social present OSCAR, a framework to quantify 3D stacks with high cellular density. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article-...
- Reposted by Courtney Lancaster🚨 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
- FuChi: A cell cycle biosensor for investigating cell-cycle kinetics during avian development. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Courtney Lancaster🖤 We pay tribute to beloved @ucleye.bsky.social colleague Prof Pete Coffey. A pioneer in stem cell therapy, his research has helped restore sight to people with macular degeneration. www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ju...
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- Reposted by Courtney Lancaster📢New post on FocalPlane - Connecting Researchers Through Bioimaging: Reflections from UCL’s BioImage Interest Group Courtney Lancaster @courtneyl7a7.bsky.social reflects on the success of the BioImage Interest Group at UCL, offering a template for other communities.
- Excited to share reflections from UCL's BioImage Interest Group @biig-ucl.bsky.social 🔬 It highlights the value of collaboration, community, and having a lot of fun in the process! bit.ly/4fHm2TS
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterFlyBase, a Drosophila database, will lose a third of its team in early October because the Harvard grant that covered the employees’ salaries was canceled. Scientists warn that losing FlyBase could devastate fly research. By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterThrilled to share the first story from my postdoc! 🎉 A wonderful experiment + simulations collaboration. In the Drosophila wing, we find that 3D cell shapes affect signalling range and fine-tune developmental patterning www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Thread below ⬇️
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- Reposted by Courtney LancasterMaybe it's time we rethink the idea that development is a cell centric process? In this beautiful review, María-del-Carmen and @stramerlab.bsky.social discussed how the ECM underlies and influences many morphogenesis processes from wing unfolding to mammary gland development. doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterOur interdisciplinary @embo.org @biologists.bsky.social workshop on Biophysical and Molecular Mechanisms of Animal Homeostasis and Repair will take place in beautiful Haining, China, 6-10 April 2026. Exciting line up of international speakers! Register now: meetings.embo.org/event/26-hom...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterThrilled to bits to see our latest work online in Dev Cell! 🥳 We wanted to know how cells build functional organs with precision🫀🫁📏 Here we show how coupling of cell shape and organ function fine tunes the form and contractile power of the developing #zebrafish heart 1/n tinyurl.com/cell-stretch
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterMy Pathway to Independence interview is now live on @dev-journal.bsky.social ! I had a great time speaking with @amjeve.bsky.social about my research journey and what's ahead journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
- Reposted by Courtney Lancaster🆕🧪‼️ New lab preprint! We study how germ cells (the cells that give rise to gametes, in this case sperm) are supported by somatic (non-germ) cells of the gonad. This matters for our understanding of reproduction - without germ cell development, animals are sterile. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Courtney Lancaster🪰 A new ‘Eyemap’ developed by a team led by Arthur Zhao & @michaelreiser.bsky.social reveals how visual information detected by the fly’s eye shows up in neurons deep in the brain. Remarkably, the eye’s shape determines how flies see motion.👁️ 🔗 hhmi.news/4kSZjou
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- Reposted by Courtney LancasterA great way to end the week with some evo devo! A one day meeting hosted by @qmul.bsky.social #UKEvoDevo @biologists.bsky.social @chemamd.bsky.social
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterSARCOMERES divide! Mechanism how muscles grow while contracting - daughter sarcomeres appear everywhere. Seen live, registered on our cover. Pioneered by @clementrodier.bsky.social @friedrich-group.bsky.social Ian Estabrook @ibdm.bsky.social $ by @hfspo.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterEver wished to become an actin star? 😎 Then try getting suspended above a non-adhesive substrate. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Want to hear more about bioimaging and image analysis at UCL? Follow @biig-ucl.bsky.social This is a wonderful community for those bioimaging enthusiasts!
- Fun part of the job - Inspiring the next generation 🧪
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- Top journal cover 🦥
- Issue 5 is done and dusted! On the cover: Ricardo Villalba-Briones et al. show Bravo, a male two-toed sloth, wearing a backpack for monitoring purposes, during its release into the wild in the dry tropical forest of Prosperina Protected Forest, western Ecuador, after rehabilitation. bit.ly/3FYcd6o
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterDelighted to share our latest work on the mechanisms of epithelial curvature and 3D morphogenesis ! Amazing work from newly graduated Dr @courtneyl7a7.bsky.social 🎉 @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterEvery machine in a Hospital that diagnoses your body without cutting you open is based on a principle of Physics, discovered by a Physicist who had no interest in Medicine. If you think the world doesn’t need Basic Science, or that somehow Science has failed you, think again.
- Passed my PhD viva - I’m Dr Lancaster! 🙌🏻 Huge thanks to my examiners for a really fun discussion about my work @gcharras.bsky.social @kyracampbelllab.bsky.social Big thanks to my supervisor @fpichaud.bsky.social and the @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social for the endless support during my PhD! It’s been a blast
- Biggest challenge was trying to get through a giant cinnamon bun 🤩
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterDr Lancaster and her viva examiners- Guillaume Charras and Kyra Campbell 🎉
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterWhat do we see when looking at cells under the microscope? 👉Some are bigger than others, some are elongated and align with the neighbors & others seem to move. Cool, right? But wouldn't it be cooler to quantify these observations? I'm @juliaeckert.bsky.social. Let's explore some analysis software!
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterspotLights episode with @giuliapaci.bsky.social ⭐ We discuss her recent preprint on 3D single-cell imaging in live tissues, what it took to get there, and how preprinting supports #OpenScience & #ECRs. Catch her at #DevPres tomorrow! @dev-journal.bsky.social #spotLight ⬇️ 🎧 youtu.be/0JQMPq0hSEY
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterGreat new DNA/Q-Paint method published by our @ucl colleague Sabrina Simoncelli - lucky to have been part of it! Check out the Ecadherin and collagenIV imaging in the fly retina at up to 15micron depth www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Courtney LancasterRegister now to attend our #DevPres webinar next week, featuring the winners of the @bsdb.bsky.social poster prize, @shifaant.bsky.social and @giuliapaci.bsky.social, and chaired by Abigail Tucker. 4 June at 15:00 BST us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
