Society For Developmental Biology Research Articles

Joseph G. Gall (1928-2024): Cell biologist, naturalist, and mentor extraordinaire.

Joseph Grafton Gall (1928-2024), a founder of modern cell biology, made foundational discoveries on eukaryotic chromosomes and RNA biogenesis. His major contributions include the development of in situ hybridization (later called FISH), demonstration of one DNA double helix/chromosome, isolation of the first eukaryote gene, localization of satellite DNA to centromeric heterochromatin, determination of the first telomeric DNA sequence, and elucidating the structure and functions of Cajal bodies. He was an expert microscopist, a scholar of science history, and an avid naturalist. These attributes, together with his ready embrace of new technologies, contributed to his remarkable success. He was also an early and strong supporter of women in science. His contributions to science and mentoring were recognized by numerous awards including the American Society for Cell Biology's E.B. Wilson Medal, the Society for Developmental Biology's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Albert Lasker Special Achievement Award in Medical Research, and the AAAS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement.

An interview with Jean-Paul Vincent.

Jean-Paul (JP) Vincent is Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, London. His lab is interested in understanding how cells communicate to form organs during development. In 2024, he was awarded the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB) Waddington medal, which honours outstanding research performance and services to the developmental biology community. This interview was conducted at the 2024 BSDB and Genetics Society Joint Spring Meeting in Warwick, UK, where JP was presented with the medal.

An interview with Marysia Placzek.

Marysia Placzek is Professor of Developmental Neurobiology at the University of Sheffield, UK, where her lab studies the development of the hypothalamus. In 2023, she was awarded the British Society for Developmental Biology's (BSDB) Waddington Medal, which recognises outstanding individuals who have made major contributions to UK developmental biology. Marysia gave her award lecture at the European Developmental Biology Congress (EDBC), a hybrid meeting with hubs in Oxford, Paris and Barcelona. We met in Oxford after her talk to learn more about her research, her love of teaching and her thoughts on the future of the field.

An interview with Aimee Jaramillo-Lambert.

Aimee Jaramillo-Lambert is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware. Aimee was awarded the Society for Developmental Biology 2023 Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award in recognition of her outstanding research in developmental biology during the early stages of her independent career. We caught up with Aimee over a video call to talk about her research into sexual reproduction in Caenorhabditis elegans, the importance of mentorship, and what drives her work in diversity, equity and inclusion.

An interview with Hernan Garcia.

Hernan Garcia is a Principal Investigator and Associate Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development and Physics at the University of California, Berkley (USA). His research aims to understand, predict and control developmental programs. In 2022, Hernan was awarded the Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator award by the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) recognizing his outstanding research in developmental biology. We spoke to Hernan to learn more about his education, career path and approach to running a lab.

Forgotten Clones: The Birth of Cloning and the Biological Revolution. By NathanCrowe. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. 2021. pp. 336. $60 (Hardcover).

Forgotten Clones: The Birth of Cloning and the Biological Revolution. By NathanCrowe. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. 2021. pp. 336. $60 (Hardcover).

An interview with Christopher Wright.

Christopher Wright is Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and the director of the Program in Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University. His lab works on pancreas organogenesis and how it relates to disease, using techniques spanning from single-cell technology through to high-resolution imaging. Chris was awarded the 2022 Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) Victor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize and we talked about what winning this award means to him, as well as discussing his career and his hopes for the future of developmental biology.

Developmental Biology: from genes to functional organism - news from the 3rd Meeting of the Visegrád Group Society for Developmental Biology.

The third meeting of the Visegrád Group Society for Developmental Biology (V4SDB) was held on September 8th-10th, 2023 in Warsaw, Poland. It was a continuation of previous meetings, the first organized in the Czech Republic in 2018 and the second in Hungary in 2021. Similarly to the previous meetings, the organizers created a friendly platform for networking and science sharing. The conference gathered an excellent group of 160 researchers working on various animal models, who during lecture and poster sessions discussed a broad range of subjects, including early embryonic development, organogenesis, genetic and epigenetic control of developmental processes, stem cells and regeneration, cellular dynamics and migration in developmental biology, and in vitro models in development and disease. Additionally, two satellite events were organized: the Young Developmental Biologists' Forum, which gave young researchers an opportunity to share and promote their work and to participate in hands-on courses, and an outreach initiative "Developmental Biology for Everyone", which presented different aspects of developmental biology to a broad audience.

An interview with Valerie Wilson.

Valerie Wilson is Professor of Early Embryo Development and a group leader at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Val's lab works on the development of the vertebrate head-to-tail axis, focusing on the differentiation potential of axial progenitors. In 2022, she was awarded the British Society for Developmental Biology's (BSDB) Waddington Medal, which recognises outstanding individuals who have made major contributions to UK developmental biology. After her award lecture, we spoke to Val about her career and heard her thoughts on the past, present and future of the field.

An interview with Eugenia del Pino.

Eugenia del Pino was a Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) in Quito, Ecuador, where her research focussed on understanding the unique development of marsupial frogs. During her career, Eugenia was elected to the US National Academy of Science in 2006 and was awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO prize for women in science (2000), The Latin American Society for Developmental Biology prize (2019) and the Eugenio Espejo National Prize from the Government of Ecuador in 2012. This year, Eugenia was awarded the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) Lifetime Achievement award. We talked to Eugenia about the impact of receiving this award, her work at PUCE and the importance of mentorship in her career.

Increasing Diversity in Developmental Biology.

The demographic profile of the scientific and biomedical workforce in the United States does not reflect the population at large (https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf21321/data-tables; www.census.gov), raising concerns that there will be too few trained researchers in the future, the scope of research interests will not be broad enough, gaps in equity and social justice will continue to increase, and the safeguards to the integrity of the scientific enterprise could be jeopardized. To diversify the pool of scientists, the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) developed the Choose Development! Program—a two-summer immersion for undergraduate students belonging to underrepresented (UR) populations in STEM to join the research laboratory of an established SDB member. This research-intensive experience was augmented by a multi-tier mentoring plan for each student, society-wide recognition, professional development activities and networking at national meetings. The strengths of the Choose Development! Program were leveraged to expand inclusion and outreach at the Society’s leadership level, the Board of Directors (BOD), which then led to significant changes that impacted the SDB community. The cumulative outcomes of the Choose Development! Program provides evidence that community-based, long-term advocacy, and mentoring of young UR scientists is successful in retaining UR students in scientific career paths and making a scientific society more inclusive.

An interview with Jamie Davies

Jamie Davies is Professor of Experimental Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh. Spanning the fields of developmental biology, tissue engineering and synthetic biology, his research aims to understand the mechanisms by which cells organise themselves into tissues, focussing on the kidney. In addition to his research, Jamie is involved in science communication and public engagement, having written several books for specialist and non-specialist readers, and having given numerous public lectures and broadcasts. In April 2021, Jamie was awarded the inaugural Wolpert Medal from the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB), which is presented to outstanding developmental biologists who have made a significant contribution to teaching and communicating developmental biology in the UK. We spoke to Jamie to ask him about his cross-disciplinary research interests, his thoughts on public engagement and his advice for young researchers.

Lewis Wolpert (1929–2021)

Lewis Wolpert (1929–2021)

Lewis Wolpert (1929-2021).

Lewis Wolpert was a brilliant and inspiring scientist who made hugely significant contributions which underpin and influence our understanding of developmental biology today. He spent his career interested in how the fertilised egg can give rise to the whole embryo (and ultimately the adult) with one head, two arms, two legs, all its organs and importantly how cells become different from each other and how they 'know' what to become. His ideas revolutionised the way developmental biology was perceived and also reinvigorated, in particular, the key question of how pattern formation in embryonic development is achieved. He published over 200 scientific articles and received many accolades over his career for his work and services to science in the UK. These included a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) from the Queen, being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was also a recipient of the Waddington Medal from the British Society for Developmental Biology and was awarded The Royal Society's top honour, the Royal Medal in 2018. Lewis was also a gifted teacher and communicator, including being the author of a textbook on developmental biology used around the world to train the next generation of developmental biologists. This contribution was recognised in 2003, by the award of the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Award from the Society of Developmental Biology in the USA. Lewis always enjoyed giving talks and lectures, having an infectious and persuasive enthusiasm coupled with a sharp sense of humour. He also published articles in popular science journals (aimed at the public) such as New Scientist, Scientific American and The Scientist. Lewis also wrote several popular science books. He was a passionate advocate for the public understanding of science and was the Chair of The Royal Society/Royal Institution/British Association for the Advancement of Science Committee for Public Understanding of Science (1994-1998). For this contribution he was awarded The Royal Society Michael Faraday Medal for "excellence in communicating science to UK audiences". He presented the prestigious Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 1986 entitled 'Frankenstein's Quest: development of life'. These lectures, six in total, are presented by leading scientists and aimed at the general public and broadcast on national television. On a personal level, Lewis influenced all who came into contact with him, shaped his students and postdocs careers and instilled in them, and the community as whole, a life-long love of developmental biology.

Kathryn Anderson (1952-2020).

“Genetics doesn’t exist in isolation, but without genetics, you don’t know where your reality is,” said Kathryn Anderson after she was awarded the 2016 Edwin G. Conklin medal by the Society for Developmental Biology (Maartens, 2016). Kathryn was a fearless geneticist who made seminal contributions to Drosophila embryogenesis, immunology, and mammalian development. Kathryn was the founding chair of the Developmental Biology Program at the Sloan Kettering Institute, which has become renowned for its groundbreaking research.

Virtual meeting, real and sound science: report of the 17th Meeting of the Spanish Society for Developmental Biology (SEBD-2020).

The Spanish Society for Developmental Biology (SEBD) organized its 17th meeting in November 2020 (herein referred to as SEBD2020). This meeting, originally programmed to take place in the city of Bilbao, was forced onto an online format due to the SARS-CoV2, COVID-19 pandemic. Although, we missed the live personal interactions and missed out on the Bilbao social scene, we were able to meet online to present our work and discuss our latest results. An overview of the activities that took place around the meeting, the different scientific sessions and the speakers involved are presented here. The pros and cons of virtual meetings are discussed.

An interview with Claude Desplan

Claude Desplan is Silver Professor in the Department of Biology and Director of the Center for Developmental Genetics at New York University. A biochemist by training, Claude began working on Drosophila embryogenesis in the 1980s, and his work now focuses on how neural diversity is established during the development of the Drosophila visual system. In 2020, Claude was awarded the Society for Developmental Biology's Edwin G. Conklin Medal, which recognises both his outstanding contribution to developmental biology research and his excellence in mentorship. We recently met with Claude (via Zoom) to find out more about his career and his research.

An interview with Celina Juliano.

Celina Juliano is an Assistant Professor at UC Davis, where she uses Hydra as a model system to understand development and regeneration. She is co-founder of the Cnidarian Model Systems Meeting (Cnidofest) biennial conference and the OpenHydra Hydra resource platform. This year, she was awarded the Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator award for outstanding developmental biology research during the early stages of her independent career by the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB). Following the virtual SDB 2020 meeting, we met with Celina over Zoom to hear more about her life and career.

Developmental Biology in Chile: historical perspectives and future challenges.

Developmental Biology is a growing discipline in Chile. It started in the 1950s when Luis Izquierdo challenged the traditional descriptive perspective of embryology and comparative anatomy to explore the mechanisms underlying the origin of form. After this initial drive, Claudio Barros, beginning in the late 1960s and Juan Fernández, in the late 1970s, contributed with unique and complementary facets to the early growth of the discipline. In the 1980s, the community of developmental biologists created its first forms of association together with the reproduction biology community, and in 1993 the first international course of developmental biology was organised. During the 1990s and 2000s, a group of young investigators arrived in Chile after postdocs in Europe and the US to build the first research centres of developmental biology, fostering the discipline to an unprecedented level. In the 2010s, as these centres consolidated, a stream of young developmental biologists established new labs at several institutions, expanding the community size and broadening its scope. The recent organisation of developmental biology meetings fostered the sense of community and nurtured the need of formal organisation, setting the bases for the foundation of the Chilean Society for Developmental Biology. Today, the community of developmental biologists is a mix of young and experienced investigators working in a variety of geographical locations, institutions, topics and model organisms. These characteristics are a strength of an active community that is pushing the discipline to the next level, aiming to make it a relevant actor in national and international settings.

A display of Developmental Biology in Ibero-America.

This issue of the International Journal of Developmental Biology is dedicated to Ibero-America, and includes research articles from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay. It also describes the history of developmental biology in several Ibero-American countries. Moreover, the volume contains interviews with scientists living in the region and abroad. Other articles highlight The Latin American Society for Developmental Biology (LASDB), and the International Courses. The main purpose of this volume is to stimulate interest and reseach in developmental biology in Ibero-America.