Gabi Bixel

@jboerckel @AmiLang_Science @PNASNews Congratulations Joel, amazing discovery!

Delighted to see our paper, led by @AmiLang_Science, out today in @PNASNews! This one was a true adventure, filled with surprises at every turn. “Erythroid precursors regulate local oxygen tension and repair outcomes in the bone marrow niche.”

@bikohcello Big congratulations and all my best wishes for your new and very exciting career step. Amazing achievement 🙌!

It’s official! First day was a blast!! medicine.yale.edu/stemcell/profi…

@KarinaYaniv @EMBO @julien_vermot @yaniv_lab Congratulations, amazing achievement!

Grateful for being elected to join the wonderful @EMBO community! The recent members‘ meeting has been a clear example of how diversity increases scientific excellence! Thank you to my dear nominator @julien_vermot and to the amazing @yaniv_lab for making this possible!

In 1992 Peter Ratcliffe received this rejection letter from Nature. His findings were not "a sufficient advance in our understanding". 27 years later he won the Nobel Prize for the same discovery. Don't lose faith in the things you believe in.

The suggestions for the ECTS 2026 Programme are open! Suggestions are welcomed for incorporation into the following sessions: Plenary Symposia, Clinical Concurrent Symposia, Basic Science Concurrent Symposia. buff.ly/4b7bzig

Dr. @ralfhadams and team show that a small subpopulation of #endothelial cells inside the intestinal villi of the embryonic mouse gives rise to arterial endothelium in the intestinal wall but also in the distant mesenteric vasculature. 🆕 go.nature.com/3VBd1m0

Finally out! So happy to share my postdoctoral work with @ralfhadams and colleagues! In this study, we uncover how arteries form in the embryonic gut and mesentery. nature.com/articles/s4146…

We are hiring!! PhD positions available in my group at @UK_Muenster to study the role of inhibitory receptors in the regulation of inflammation! @ukmuenster.de" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">jobs-sf.ukmuenster.de/job/UKM-PhD-St… Please share and apply!

BM niche and vasculature work isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes serious technical precision.

@rust_ruslan Thank you so much, Ruslan. I often wonder how we can improve the way we make research, publish, review and interact in science. Sadly, not everyone seems to like open discussion

Much earlier than expected, it is time for another short thread on a recent preprint at bioRxiv (Yang et al., doi.org/10.1101/2025.1…) by a group of authors led by Dr Anjali Kusumbe. Today, I want to cover some of the bioinformatics results presented in their preprint. As a reminder, based on the reanalysis of our scRNA-seq data from Koh et al. (PMID: 39537918), it is claimed in Fig. 1 and the accompanying text that lymphangiogenic markers are downregulated in aged skull samples. We now had the chance to closely examine the relevant data, which has uncovered a couple of major issues. 1/4

Identification of lymphatic vessels in skull periosteum but not bone marrow reveals skull channel heterogeneity rupress.org/jem/article/22… @JExpMed

We are delighted to share the review article regarding CSF draining lymphatics in health and disease: advances and controversies. nature.com/articles/s4416…

In a recent preprint at bioRxiv (Yang et al., doi.org/10.1101/2025.1…), a group of authors led by Dr Anjali Kusumbe challenges an article from my lab published in 2024 (Koh et al. 2024, PMID: 39537918). The new preprint refers to Extended Data Figures and Supplementary videos that are unfortunately not provided at bioRxiv. Nevertheless, the manuscript text and the 5 main figures plus a proposed model contain a couple of major issues that I will cover here. 1/

Apart from imaging, we provide an extensive set of flow cytometry data in a large (22 page) supplemental file accompanying the paper, which confirms the expansion of stromal, endothelial, total hematopoietic cells and various hematopoietic cell subsets during adulthood and aging but also in response to various challenges (such as pregnancy and stroke). 4/

Things get more interesting and controversial in Figure 3c and d. Yang et al. use tissue clearing and light sheet microscopy to show the presence of a “continuous, dense vascular network throughout the skull frontal, parietal and interparietal regions in young mice”. The CD31 immunostaining in Fig. 3a, however, shows predominantly the meningeal vasculature, easily identifiable by hallmarks such as the sagittal and transverse sinuses consisting of large diameter blood and lymphatic vessels. Periosteal vessels might be also labeled, but it is not obvious that any sinusoidal vessels of the bone marrow are stained in this sample. 9/

I want to conclude here and thank all of you who have read this thread till the end. As I have not been able to cover all issues in the preprint, I am considering another detailed thread once the Extended Data becomes public. I also hope that I have remained factual and sufficiently polite throughout my posts even though I perceive the language in the Yang et al. preprint as sometimes overly harsh and many claims unsubstantiated and wildly exaggerated. Final full disclosure: I am not only the last author of Koh et al. 2024 (PMID: 39537918) but also the former postdoctoral supervisor of the two last authors of the Yang et al. preprint. 17/17

🧩 "Lymphatic mysteries unzipped" Our N&V @NatureCVR on the beautiful study of @hansschoofs @makinenlab uncovering the mechanics behind the oak-leaf shape of lymphatic ECs!Fun to work together with Gwen Randolph! nature.com/articles/s4416… Original paper: nature.com/articles/d4158…

@HassanMGE Amazing image of regeneration bone @HassanMGE! What kind of bone do we see? Would be nice to visualize the regenerating bone matrix with SHG imaging.

#FluorescenceFriday High-res confocal imaging showing Osx⁺ osteoprogenitors and angiogenesis during bone healing. Coupled or uncoupled 🫶, Either way, they seem happy to help. #BoneHealing #Regeneration #imaging