News

February 2025

Part-time working can be beneficial for individual academics, and also for academia as a whole. In addition to improving work-life balance and well-being, the benefits of part-time working include increased motivation, reduced burnout, and workplaces that are more diverse and inclusive. Here,  six researchers who have experience of working part-time discuss what individuals, employers and funders can do to promote and support part-time working in academia.

English S#, Santos ME#, Buckley C, Hammond CL, Lloyd-Fox S, Ockendon-Powell, NF (2025) To be, or not to be, part-time in academia. eLife 14, e106336

November 2024

Irene joined the lab for her MPhil!!! Irene is part of the very prestigious MPhil on Developmental Biology and is funded by la Caixa Foundation "postgraduate fellowship abroad" . She will be using population genomics and QTL analyses of inter-specific hybrid crosses to look at the genomic and developmental bases of craniofacial variation within and between species of cichlid fishes. 

October 2024

In this study, we investigated the contribution of neural crest to cichlid species diversification, focusing on their extremely diverse colouration and craniofacial skeletons. We uncovered remarkable divergence in the genetic and developmental programs governing differentiation of neural crest to pigment and cartilage cells, among others. This includes a novel function for sox10a gene in cartilage development that appears to be cichlid-specific and might have played important roles in morphological diversification of this clade, laying foundation for exciting future studies in this system. 

Marconi A*, Vernaz G*, Karunaratna A, Ngochera MJ, Durbin R, Santos ME (2024) Genetic and developmental divergence in the neural crest programme between cichlid fish species. Molecular Biology and Evolution 

October 2024

Suhaib joined the lab for his PhD!!! He was awarded the very prestigious  Hershel Smith Studentship and will be doing some super exciting work on the evolution and development of egg-spot patterning in cichlid fishes. 

July 2024

Tereza joined the lab for two months of fun!!! She was awarded a J. Arthur Ramsay Trust studentship by the Department of Zoology. Tereza will be working on the genetic and hormonal basis of craniofacial diversity in cichlids. Lots of geometric morphometrics and QTL mapping on the way! 

July 2024

The lab celebrated their second annual lab retreat in Morston, Norfolk. There were lots of productive discussions about science and the lab's future directions. Plenty of seal sightings, good food, and the weather almost held up (#GreatBritishSummer). 

June 2024

Terveisiä Suomesta! EuroEvoDevo2024 took place in Helsinki, Finland, including the fish satellite meeting co-organised by Emília. The lab was represented by Aaron, Aleks, Connie, Emília, and Patrícia, with posters and talks. Special mention to Aleks for winning the award for best talk by an early career researcher at the fish satellite. Congratulations! 

March 2024

Vertebrate pigmentation patterns are highly diverse, yet we have a limited understanding of how evolutionary changes to genetic, cellular, and developmental mechanisms generate variation. Here, we examine the formation of a sexually-selected male ornament exhibiting inter- and intraspecific variation, the egg-spot pattern. We uncovered cellular behaviours underlying pattern formation and the presence of developmental plasticity in trait initialization.

Clark B*, Hickey A*, Marconi A, Fischer B, Elkin J, Mateus R, Santos ME (2023) Developmental plasticity and variability in the formation of egg-spots, a pigmentation ornament in the cichlid Astatotilapia calliptera. Evolution & Development, e12475.