This week's #MicroscopyMonday is a side view of #zebrafish sensory organs, called neuromasts. These organs detect water flow based on the deflection of the protruding hair bundles (stereocilia). @daniomuench (@LabPiotrowski)

🚨 Last chance for early-bird registration! 🚨 Today, 9/28, is the final day to save on registration for the upcoming #SRCKC26, taking place 10/21–23 in #KansasCity. Join researchers from across the field to explore emerging concepts in #ribosome heterogeneity, specialized translation, quality control and more. Today is also the deadline to submit an abstract for consideration. Register and submit your abstract: bit.ly/43Vb9so

Thank you to Zhao Zhang (@DukeU) for joining us for a #StowersSeminarSeries talk, hosted by the @kkostova1 Lab!

One hallmark of Stowers Research Conferences? Tandem Talks. Mentors and mentees share the stage to present discoveries together, highlighting both groundbreaking science and the next generation of scientific leaders. Hear more from a previous attendee⬇️ Join us October 21–23 at #SRCKC26: bit.ly/43Vb9so

Happy first day of fall! 🍂 It won’t be long until the Institute is surrounded by these colors again.

When #AI couldn’t solve this protein structure, #evolution helped scientists show it how. Researchers in the Stern Lab combined fieldwork, experimental #biology, and AlphaFold2 to uncover a shared structural blueprint across thousands of rapidly evolving proteins used by aphids to manipulate plants. The findings reveal new insights into the evolutionary arms race between aphids and plants—and a new way to study rapidly evolving proteins that have been difficult to predict. 🌱 Read the #research: bit.ly/46E2XOx

#NPAW2026 is underway at the Institute! 🎉 Postdoc Social Chairs Kira Marshall, Abbigail McCune, and Jorge Moreno kicked off #NationalPostdocAppreciationWeek with a postdoc lunch and giveaway. And a closer look at this year’s mug reveals a special Stowers touch: Abbigail designed it to feature some of the many research organisms our postdocs work with across the Institute. 🪸🪱🪰🐟 Here’s to a week of celebrating our postdoctoral community!

What if growing into an adult meant rewriting your cells? 🪱🔬 New #research from scientists at the Stowers Institute and @Stanford reveals how the marine acorn worm transforms from a swimming larva into a seafloor-dwelling adult, not by replacing its cells, but by reprogramming many of the cells it already has. Using single-cell sequencing, researchers found that larval cells persist through metamorphosis while dramatically changing their molecular identities. The #discovery offers a new window into just how flexible cell identity can be, and could help #scientists better understand why that flexibility is much more limited in humans. Read more: bit.ly/4hF99Mp @Planaria1

Why do some memories last a lifetime while others fade? On #WorldAlzheimersDay, explore five facts about memory and the #brain, and how Stowers scientists are studying the fundamental #biology behind how memories form, persist, and are lost. 🧠 Five facts about memory and the brain: bit.ly/4y1JNhy

This #WorldAlzheimersDay, our stunning #MicroscopyMonday is an adult fly #brain, labeled in orange is the mushroom body, the memory center in flies, and the neurons on the sides are part of the medulla of the eye, essential for color vision. 🧠 (Si Lab)

Stowers President and Chief Scientific Officer @Planaria1, Ph.D., welcomes our scientific community to #CRC2626! 🧬🔬 From #research talks to poster presentations, this annual internal scientific meeting creates opportunities for scientists across career stages to share their work, learn from colleagues and make new connections.

Stowers researchers in the @JuliaZeitlinger Lab contributed biological expertise and feedback to help guide Atlas—advancing how scientists can explore the regulatory language of the genome. Learn more ⬇️

📣 Deadline extended! Abstract submissions for #SRCKC26 are now open through September 28. Join us in #KansasCity, October 21–23, for Ribosome Heterogeneity and Translational Control from Cells to Organisms—bringing together researchers exploring emerging questions in protein synthesis across biological scales. 💻Submit your abstract and join the conversation this fall! bit.ly/43Vb9so

Stowers Graduate School alum Augusto Ortega Granillo, Ph.D., reflects on his time at the Institute and the experiences that helped shape where his scientific career has taken him today. Check it out ⬇️

This beautiful #MicroscopyMonday shows how maternal regulation governs early embryonic development by coordinating gene expression in both time and space to direct proper embryonic growth. 🔬 @gopalkushawah (@BazziniLab)