Paul 🇵🇭 [@poljiology]:  I am a postdoc in Alexander Aulehla’s lab at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany 🇩🇪. At EMBL, I use microfluidics-based entrainment to study the nature and mechanism of synchronization of signalling oscillations during embryonic development. Before starting my research at EMBL, I studied and taught biochemistry at the University of the Philippines Manila, and I was a research assistant in Dr. Chih-Yen King’s lab at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan.

Stefano 🇮🇹🇪🇺: I am a PhD student in Matthias Lütolf’s lab at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland 🇨🇭. I am interested in early mammalian embryonic development, and I use self-organising in vitro models to investigate endoderm development and how embryonic mechanics play into cell fate specification and morphogenesis. I graduated in Genetics at the University of Cambridge (UK), and did my Master’s in Alfonso Martinez-Arias’ lab, focusing on the developmental consequences of Wnt and Notch interaction.

On this same platform, we also curate the preList on Gastruloids.

Preprint selection statement:

As of mid-2020 we have decided to deliberately prioritise preprints from lesser-“known” research groups and from historically marginalised scientific communities. This decision comes as a direct response to bioRxiv’s limited success in disrupting established neocolonial patterns of knowledge dissemination (Abdill et al; 2020), and the increasingly documented evidence that the full availability of diverse science favoured by preprints  fails to proportionally translate into publication (Abdill et al; 2020), consideration (Amano et al; 2021), or media reporting (Davidson and Greene 2021) when faced with the instutionalised biases of  Western academic spaces. PreLights does not inherently challenge such patterns either. Our decision is mainly grounded on calls for knowledge equity, and reflections on positionality and representation in scientific publishing (as per the Knowledge Equity Lab: “asking whose knowledge, voices, stories, and experiences are being represented; whose knowledge do we consider valid and important, whose knowledge are we learning from?”).