preLights

🚨 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/news/join-the-…

Do you have a vision for a Workshop but don’t have the time to arrange the logistics or raise the funding? Submit your idea to us in our annual call for topics. We'll provide all necessary support for successful applications. Find out more at biologists.com/workshops/prop…

#CircularEconomy plays a big role in creating a robust and #sustainable future that minimises waste and maximising resources. Which circular economy practices would you implement in your academic event?

New spotLights Short! This episode features #preLighter Anubhav Prakash (@appy_anubhav), who shares some thoughts on his #preprint about junctional heterogeneity & epithelial morphospace. #DevBio Big story, covered in under 2 minutes 👇 youtube.com/shorts/GjyRQHY…

Paid 12-month internship: Communications Officer. We have an exciting opportunity for someone looking to take their first step into a science communication or publishing role. Based Cambridge, UK (& wfh) See the full role description for further details at biologists.com/wp-content/upl…

Mirror mirror on the wall, what is the fairest funding call? Read Jonathan Townson's insightful post discussing two #preprints (@kristine_willis & team) that use data & social science to analyse how significant biological discoveries are made #preLight: prelights.biologists.com/highlights/tre…

Our #preprint list is now up on FocalPlane. Start your week feeling inspired by the latest research using microscopy to answer questions in biology. Let us know if you have any recommendations for us to add. focalplane.biologists.com/2026/03/09/mic…

MERFISH 2.0, an ultra-sensitive single-cell spatial transcriptomics imaging chemistry across diverse tissue types Lizhi He et al. doi.org/10.64898/2026.…

Curious about what’s new in the field of stem-cell-based embryo models? Our new #preList, put together by @TsangIngrid, highlights #preprints featured at the recent @KeystoneSymp on Stem Cell Models in Embryology #KSEmbryology26 Check out the list ⬇️👀 prelights.biologists.com/prelists/keyst…

The soft and flowing will prevail: fly extraembryonic tissue actively softens to keep the embryo from tearing itself apart. 🪰 Another insightful post by Ruoheng Li on work from Yu-Chiun Wang (@yuchiunwang) & team #preprint #DevBio #preLight ⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/highlights/cel…

I think this paper will become a game-changer for studying the microbiome. Matthew Schmitt and I found that a simple neural network, when trained on paired sequencing and functional data, can infer functional group structure directly from data. Preprint -> biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

Excited to share our new manuscript from the Yoshimatsu and MacDonald labs. biorxiv.org/content/10.648…. We found that my favourite glial cells can regulate local retinoic acid signalling to specialise cone photoreceptors for high acuity vision.

Highlighting preprint stories from within the preLights community📽️ Teodora narrates her preprint showing that functional decline in the ageing retinal epithelium results from a change in the tissue's mechanical balance due to natural cell loss! #Short⬇️ youtube.com/shorts/CWYRXZ-…

We are inviting experienced researchers to apply to become Preprint Editors, a new type of editorial role responsible for handling our 'In preprints' articles and forging links with preprint literature. #prepints Learn more and apply before 30 March 2026: journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/prep…

Changing training data alone can improve deep learning prediction of spatial transcriptomics gene expression from histology images by 38% (without any changes to model architecture). We've updated our preprint showing this with expanded results: biorxiv.org/content/10.110… 🧵👇 1/4

I found this preprint interesting. The authors engineered NPCs with dual trans-synaptic tracers that differentiate into active neurons and integrate into host circuits in vitro and in vivo after spinal cord injury. biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

See our newest manuscript dissecting emergent functions in a multispecies biofilm (metabolite cross-feeding, siderophore induction and cross-species utilization) that translate to plant growth promotion Great work by @JiyuXie_ and @XinliSun biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

How to make a 4-cell square ascidian embryo? Cytoplasmic pulling rotates centrosomes, cortical forces lock the plane. #DevBio Corentin Mollier & Shivani Dharmadhikari highlight a #preprint from Silvia Caballero-Mancebo & team @RDumollard #preLight ⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/highlights/coo…

Excited to share our latest work on bioRxiv! 🌿 We discovered that Ca2+ oscillation occurs in Arabidopsis zygote. Interestingly, instead of F-actin, this Ca2+ wave promotes the turnover of microtubule band to regulate cell elongation. doi.org/10.64898/2026.…

Leaf pavement cells look deceptively simple, yet their shapes encode developmental history & environmental response. @SRobertGroup show that a MYB transcription factor contributes to fine-tuning this process in aspen. #preprint #preLight by Jeny Jose⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/highlights/a-d…

Drosophila folks! We just shared a new protocol for surgical preparation enabling long-term imaging in adult flies. It’s low-cost, simple, and highly repeatable. For demonstration, we also show 10-day voltage imaging and 1-week population calcium imaging. biorxiv.org/content/10.648…