Paul 🇵🇭 [@poljiology]:  I am a postdoc and have recently completed my PhD 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.

We are both interested in developmental biology, and are likely to highlight preprints that tackle the physical principles underlying embryogenesis and tissue morphogenesis, and the engineering tools that can be used to study them. On this same platform, we also curate the preList on Gastruloids.

As of mid-2020, and given bioRxiv’s limited success in disrupting established neocolonial patterns of knowledge dissemination (Abdill et al; 2020), we have decided to deliberately prioritise preprints from lesser-“known” research groups and from historically marginalised scientific communities. Our decision is 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?”).