@preLights

A preprint highlights service run by the biological community and supported by The Company of Biologists

Cambridge, England
Joined December 2017
🚨 Call for preLighters!🚨 Help us highlight the most exciting biological preprints. Share your insights, build your profile, and be part of a supportive community! 🌍 Interested? Apply today & help shape the future of science publishing! 📢 More info: prelights.biologists.com/new…
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Watch the story of foregut folding unfold 👀 @LiRuoheng36210 highlights work identifying and quantitatively describing the stereotypical sequence of foregut involution. #preprint @Kretzschmar_J et al. #McDoleLab #preLight + response from the authors ⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/hig…
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I’m super excited to share that our new preprint is now live on bioRxiv! We uncovered another unexpected role for kainate receptors (KARs; grik genes), this time in coordinating embryonic blood development. biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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Very excited to share the first preprint from our group! How do active synapses meet their rapidly changing metabolic needs? We find that neuronal activity engages eIF4G2-dependent local translation of mitochondrial proteins and uORF-encoded micropeptides in dendrites. This translational program remodels nearby mitochondria, which in turn sustain calcium signaling, revealing a reciprocal connection between local translation and mitochondrial function. biorxiv.org/content/10.64898… The micropeptides opened an especially exciting new direction for our lab, with more work coming soon so stay tuned! Very proud of Madison Jones for her fantastic work and perseverance through some truly challenging experiments, grateful to Natalie Noble for jump-starting the project in its early stages, and, as always, delighted to work with Robert Darnell! #proximitylabeling #RNA #localtranslation #mitochondria
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How does a place cell know when to rewrite itself? Check out our new preprint on spike-history gating of BTSP and closed-loop rewriting of CA1 representations. Congrats Anno! @ac_kurth biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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Check out our latest preprint, led by Ph.D. student @Jordansscience. Jordan has created a state of the art deep learning method that we call EcoLocator for joint prediction of climate-of-origin and location from genetic variation data. biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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Paying peer reviewers: it's not Science Fiction As a postdoc involved in the Fast & Fair peer review project @BiologyOpen, @JontyTownson reflects on what paid peer review could mean for the future of research publishing #NPAW2026 #PeerReviewWeek #preLight prelights.biologists.com/hig…
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preLights retweeted
Meet our Preprint Editors We are pleased to welcome Anchel de Jaime-Soguero @Anchel_91 to our first group of Preprint Editors to our editorial team, responsible for handling our 'In preprints' articles. journals.biologists.com/dev/…
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We know a bit about how 3D chromatin interactions are formed, but what do we know about how they are disrupted? We asked this question in our latest preprint: doi.org/10.64898/2026.09.15.…, focusing on the massive loss of promoter interactions during neuronal differentiation.
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Cell–cell interactions are key to all biological processes, but there hasn't been a good way to perform inter-cellular screens for genetic regulators of these interactions in vivo. We developed match-seq (multiplexed associative tagging of cell interaction histories) - using engineered virus-like particles to transfer barcoded mRNAs from 'sender' to neighboring 'receiver' cells, so you can reconstruct cellular interactions with sequencing alone, no imaging required. We coupled match-seq with CRISPR + scRNA-seq in cancer, revealing cancer-immune interaction neighborhoods at scale, and new cancer genes that can be targeted for tumor rejection via immune cell interactions. Led by the brilliant @peterdu_ with Bassik lab! biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
CRISPR screens are great at telling you what a gene is doing inside your cells. But what if you're interested in what's happening to its neighbors? Today, I'm excited to share match-seq, a new method that deciphers cell-cell interactions using barcoded RNA transfer. 1/9
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Reading recommendation #PeerReviewWeek Chee Kiang (Ethan) Ewe highlights a study that looks at 115,000+ PLOS papers to explore who chooses open peer review and whether openness relates to article quality. #preprint Adrian Barnett & Matt Spick #preLight⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/hig…
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Miniscope Zero, the first fully wireless Miniscope, is on @biorxivpreprint! Wireless power + data enable neural recordings in enclosed mazes, 3D environments & from two animals at once! @BroschMarcel @MiniscopeTeam Paper: doi.org/10.64898/2026.09.05.… Wiki: miniscope.org/wiki/Miniscope…
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Don’t miss the second webinar in our new series on cell migration, featuring talks from @Ankita_13Jha, Raphaël Clément and @KatrinaVelle. 🗓️Thursday 17 September at 15:00 BST (UTC+1) focalplane.biologists.com/20…
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SPOT(-TER) the difference: spatial proteomics painted by (TMT-channel) numbers Felix Kraus @Lange_Lab highlights recent work from the @ZhangLab_JHU which represents a promising implementation of spatial #proteomics #preprint #preLight + author response⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/hig…
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We are pleased to welcome Dan Shanahan as our new Chief Executive Officer. Dan has a strong background in Open Access publishing and non-profit organisations and is passionate about driving innovation in the industry. Read more about Dan at biologists.com/stories/welco…
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In her latest preList, @TsangIngrid @Dev_journal brings together a selection of #preprints discussed at the Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting 2026, themed ‘Biomedicine, Biomechanics, and the Biosphere’ Did we miss any? 👀Do let us know! #preList⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/pre…
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Hand in hand - E-cadherin with E-cadherin 🤝 Supported by @girish_kale_phd, Chiara Hüttner highlights work showing that the number of E-cadherin connections influences morphogenetic tissue movements. #preprint by Lerchbaumer et al. @UlliTepass #preLight: prelights.biologists.com/hig…
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preLights retweeted
Our latest preprint, from @eerinberr is live: Cytoskeletal disassembly by optogenetic control of RhoA signaling termination. biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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