Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez
Biologist. PhD Student in Neuroscience at the University of Santiago de Compostela (NEURODEVO group).
Focusing on neurogenesis in the shark retina 🦈👁🧠
Views my own. He/him.
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezHappy to announce that our latest paper is now out! Have you ever wondered how neural tissues control their size? In this paper, we show that cell division orientation is critical in both the cortex and retina. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezCheck out the tour de force by @jalehtimaki.bsky.social in its final form: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... . An elegant combination of transcriptomics, F0 screens and high end imaging unravels the cues that guide cells (here retinal horizontal cells) in an increasingly crowded tissue. #proudPI
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezOur new paper: Entropy Sorting Feature Selection (ESFS) A computational framework for gene selection from single cell data that extracts biological signals in noisy data while avoiding artefacts from conventional dimensionality reduction A thread www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezAnd finally, we have It out! Do not miss It, If you are into early eye development, GRNs, and eye malformations. Thanks to Javier Macho and the rest of the authors for a terrific job.
- Single-cell multiomics identifies key nodes and cis-regulatory elements of the networks specifying the eye domains in zebrafish biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🧠✨ Older neurons get richer connections in the human brain! Our new paper is out in Nature Communications. We reveal a fundamental link between ᴅᴇᴠᴇʟᴏᴘᴍᴇɴᴛ ⛓️ ʙʀᴀɪɴ ꜱᴛʀᴜᴄᴛᴜʀᴇ & ꜰᴜɴᴄᴛɪᴏɴ in the human connectome 🧵👇
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezWe are thrilled that our study on the evolution of gene regulation in mammalian cerebellum development – led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social – is now out in @ScienceMagazine! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- How does gene regulation shape brain evolution? Our new preprint dives into this question in the context of mammalian cerebellum development! rb.gy/dbcxjz Led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezOur latest: A gene selection method for single-cell RNA-seq that identifies developmental & spatial patterns missed by other analysis pipelines ESFS: A Noise-Resilient Framework for Feature Selection and Marker Gene Discovery in Single-Cell Transcriptomics | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🧬Euro Evo Devo 2026🦖 University of Glasgow, 9–12 June 2026. Registration is now open! Deadline: Thursday, 5 March 2026 registrations.hg3conferences.co.uk/hg3/frontend... We are organising Symposium S08: “Integrative Perspectives on Craniofacial Evo-Devo”. We welcome contributed talk submissions!
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezExcited to finally share the final/final.doc version of our paper. It's been a journey, but very proud of the result. Well done to all involved, especially @elsieplace.bsky.social @kchinnaiya.bsky.social , @thomasdwkim.bsky.social, @sethblackshaw.bsky.social 👏👏 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezI am thrilled to share our collaborative work @amphispacelab.bsky.social on the evolution of FoxQ2 genes, now out in @commsbio.nature.com! 🧬🥳 Thank you so much to everyone involved! 🤩 And please feel free to reach out if you have any question or comment!
- How does a conserved transcription factor evolve? Phylogenetic and molecular analyses uncover three ancient FoxQ2 paralogs. @giacomogattoni.bsky.social @amphispacelab.bsky.social Learn more in this new Communications Biology article www.nature.com/articles/s42...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezNew paper presenting rather compelling evidence that the stem-vertebrate Haikouichthys had paired lateral and supranumerary medial eyes (!!!), and proposing that the medial eyes may have deep homology with the pineal and parapineal organs. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezInvestigate regeneration and repair using whole animals or organ/tissue systems at EMBO Workshop "The molecular and cellular basis of #regeneration and #TissueRepair" in #Krems, AT, 21–25 Sep 2026. Deadline: 20 May meetings.embo.org/event/26-tissue-repair #EMBORegeneration #EMBOevents 🧪
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🧠 Cortical Evolution 2026 📍 Bilbao, Spain | 🗓 June 15–17, 2026 Join us for an international meeting on the evolution, development & organization of the cerebral cortex. More information coming soon 👀 🔗 www.ventricular.org/corticalevolution26 #CorEvo26
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezFinally out! We studied the retinas of the longest-living vertebrate, the Greenland shark, and found that the retinas remain remarkably healthy in animals around 150 years old. What is the mechanism? It may be a highly efficient DNA repair system. Enjoy! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🌊 El proyecto SHOW-IT, en el que participa ARCUS ha sido seleccionado como uno de los 11 proyectos financiados a nivel mundial por la institución BNP Paribas Foundation dentro de su Climate & Biodiversity Initiative 2025, entre 168 propuestas de 21 países 🌍.
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezVery proud of this new paper from the lab! Work by the magnificent Andrea Adden and many brilliant collaborators illuminate how moth and butterfly brains have evolved in light of different ecologies. Freely available here: rdcu.be/eVR3B; @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezReally happy to join NeuroPSI at Paris Saclay to lead a research group funded by an ERC Consolidator grant #ERCCoG . We'll study the origins of the vertebrate brain using shark embryos. 🦈 🧠 Reach out if you are interested in joining the team 🤍
- 🙋♀️ We are welcoming Idoia Quintana Urzainqui to NeuroPSi as a junior Professor! In her new team, she will research the Mechanisms that shaped early vertebrate brains, thanks to funding from a 2025 ERC Consolidator grant. ➡️ Learn more here: neuropsi.cnrs.fr/en/idoia-qui...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezEver wanted to know how the visual system of a long distance migratory moth looks like? Then you'll find your answers in our new paper. Finally out, after about a decade of collecting data by a group af amazing co-authors. Find it here, open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🧬👁️ Our Science Advances paper is published! snATAC-seq analysis across lamprey to human retina uncovers deeply conserved cis-regulatory codes in all six retinal cell types — even with extensive enhancer turnover. Immensely grateful to my coauthors and collaborators. 🙏 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez#ERCCogG granted!!! Immensely grateful for this opportunity. Thanks @erc.europa.eu . Many news coming soon. New lab opening and will be posting positions. 🦈🧠🤍 Go sharkies!
- The results of the ERC Consolidator Grant call have been announced! 📣 349 researchers have been selected for funding. Congratulations to all! #ERCCogG! 👉 buff.ly/uu62uFV #FrontierResearch #EUfunded #HorizonEurope @scienceinnovation.ec.europa.eu
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezGreat to see this published: Fitting dynamical landscape models to single-cell data, creating interpretable maps of cell decision making & developmental logic Applied to neural tube patterning, we show how morphogen signals reshape landscapes and drive fate decisions www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezExtremely proud to share our publication on S-cone circuitry in the ground squirrel, newly available this week in PNAS. We've been staring at these reconstructions for a long time, and I'm excited for others to see the results. 1/n www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezFreshly out at @natcomms.nature.com ! Our @univie.ac.at @awi.de @viennabiocenter.bsky.social @ercgrantees.bsky.social research into neurogenic plasticity of adult worm brains, and similarities in stem cells supporting growth of camera-type eyes. www.nature.com/articles/s41... [1/7]
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezA 3D Amphioxus Brain Atlas Illuminates the Blueprint of the Ancestral Chordate Brain biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezDrawing together findings from several projects over many years, we make a case that neural cell types in the Clytia larva have two embryological origins: i-cells and ectodermal. bioRxiv 2025.11.17.688882; doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezNEW pub in @science.org 🥳 Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life? For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided. We provide new evidence suggesting that... 🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezAiming to perform iontophoresis of axonal tracers in live tissue. But all companies I checked have discontinued their equipments!🚨 What equipment do you use? Where can I get one? Second hand?? so many questions....
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezHow do four-eyed fish see above & underwater? 🌤️🌊 Our new preprint reveals how Anableps rewired its retina for dual vision- evolution at work 👁️👁️ Kudos to @perezlouise.bsky.social @josanesousa.bsky.social @keylapruett.bsky.social + team! 🔗 tinyurl.com/3a8r9xy5
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezFirst neurons didn’t appear overnight. We trace their roots to ancient secretory cells - showing how lifestyle & behavior shaped the evolution of first synapses.🧠🌊 #Evolution #Neuroscience Our latest in @natrevneuro.nature.com Link: rdcu.be/eMX3E @jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezThrilled 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...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity! We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have: (1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs) (2) better hand dexterity (3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵
- Evolutionary expansion of the corticospinal system is linked to dexterity in Peromyscus mice biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🎓 ¡Buenas noticias desde ARCUS! Nuestra estudiante de doctorado, Laura González Llera, ha participado recientemente como ponente en el Azores International Meeting on Spinal Cord Injury, celebrado los días 15 y 16 de octubre en Ponta Delgada, Azores (Portugal). 🌴🇵🇹
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezDid transposable elements shape brain evolution — and if so, which ones, and in which cell states and lineages? Led by @tyamadat.bsky.social, we explored this question in cerebellum development using sequence-based deep learning models! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezOur latest: combining single-cell RNA-seq from 16 species and HCR validation, we show that monoaminergic neurons share a conserved transcriptional identity across Bilateria. In contrast, we find no evidence for this program in non-bilaterian metazoans. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezStriking diversity in the size, density, and distribution of taste papillae across 11 elasmobranch species reveals how sharks, skates, and rays taste their way to better feeding strategies. Atkinson & Collin, whose study graces our new cover, explain more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14697580...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezHappy to share our new article with Júlia Freixes, Fatma Abdel-Rahman, Roberto Nebbia and @edesfilis.bsky.social on postnatal plasticity in olfactory areas of the juvenile swine, published in Brain, Structure and Function link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezWe are very pleased to announce our joint meeting with the German @gfeev.bsky.social and the Dutch Developmental Biology Societies, which will take place in Potsdam from the 10-13th of March 2026. Registration is now open! www.uni-potsdam.de/en/gfe-meeti...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezInterested in the mechanisms of neurogenesis, and how they might converge/differ across species, regions, and life epochs? Check this out, wonderful location and great science! Please RT neuro-unige.ch/news/csf-mee...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezCheck out this exciting study led by Anh-Tuan Trinh from our lab, where we investigated how thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish pallium receive, represent, and integrate sensory information: 🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🎉 New preprints from the lab! (1) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezOur latest manuscript is out, and this one tackles the problem of cellular aging in the retina, using comparative multiomic analysis of zebrafish, mouse, and humans. What led us to work on aging after studying development and regeneration? Explainer follows./1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez👁️The retina — strikingly conserved across vertebrates, but an oddity among bilaterians! So how did it evolve? With @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/n
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🤩 Join us for the next TIBBE seminar: Evolution of brain cell types. September 10, 2–3pm UTC This event brings together 2 outstanding evolutionary and developmental neuroscientists who will present their work, followed by an interactive discussion with the audience: www.crowdcast.io/c/evolution-...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezSuper excited to share our new paper, out today @pnas.org 'Teeth outside the jaw: Evolution and development of the toothed head clasper in chimaeras' @karlycohen.bsky.social 👻🦈 🦷 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezHappy to share the definitive version of our last paper about the role of TET enzymes and DNA demethylation in retinal development @clark-lab-retina.bsky.social journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezFirst day of the #senc 20th meeting in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. This morning it has been a great symposium of the neuroevodevo PRamón Network, paying tribute to Prof. Rudolf Nieuwenhuys. Congratulations to the organizers @loretamedinah.bsky.social and Nerea Moreno and to all speakers!
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezEver wondered how #sharks produce an unlimited supply of teeth? Our new preprint uncovers the genes within the dental stem cell niche driving lifelong tooth development. "Shark tooth regeneration: RNAseq reveals genes for unlimited dental renewal" 🦈🦷 bit.ly/47kkRHL
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-VázquezUsing single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, we mapped developmental trajectories and cell states of the shark telencephalon, revealing features once thought recent evolutionary additions. Turns out, sharks have been ahead of the game for hundreds of millions of years! shorturl.at/OyTFs
- Reposted by Nicolás Vidal-Vázquez🧠🦈Excited to present our latest work🧠🦈Interested in brain evolution? And shark embryos? Then read on… Our work sheds light on the deep origins of our brain’s most complex regions.
