spotLights
About
Welcome to spotLights, the interview series that shines a spotlight on cutting-edge biological research and the brilliant minds behind it.
Join us as we delve into the world of preprints, exploring the journey from an initial idea to an exciting new discovery. While preLights highlights the discoveries described in recent preprints, spotLights takes you behind the scenes, where early-career researchers (ECRs) are driving innovation.
Our mission is simple: to add a human touch to scientific research. We highlight the early-career researchers behind the papers, sharing their triumphs, challenges and everything in between. From the thrill of discovery to perseverance in the face of setbacks, we uncover the real stories of scientific endeavour.
Each episode will focus on a specific theme, whether it’s the power of collaboration, the establishment of new model systems or navigating challenging work environments. Through candid conversations with ECRs, we provide insight into the joys and struggles of academic research.
Join us on spotLights and discover the untold stories of scientific discovery.
Latest episode(s)
In this episode, we talk to Dr Katelyn Cooper who is an Assistant Professor at the School of Life Sciences of Arizona State University, USA. Katelyn is the first author of a preprinted study (link below) that provides the first comprehensive analysis of the LGBTQ+ climate in the biological sciences. Here, we discuss the main findings of this important and timely work.
Link to preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.24.634486
Link to preLight: https://prelights.biologists.com/highlights/lgbtq-realities-in-the-biological-sciences/
Hosted by:
Ryan Harrison, PhD student, University of Warwick, UK
Stefan Wirth, Independent researcher, Berlin, Germany
Reinier Prosée, preLights Community Manager
In episode 15, recorded at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, UK, we talk to Gauri Gharpure, a PhD student at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, India. Gauri and colleagues studied how a hardworking pollinator—the hoverfly Eristalis tenax—copes with life at different elevations in the Himalayas and published their findings as a preprint which we discuss here.
Link to preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.14.628473
spotLight hosted by:
Jonathan Townson, Postdoc at University of Oslo, Norway
spotLight recorded and edited by:
Reinier Prosee, preLights Community Manager, The Company of Biologists
In episode 14, recorded at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, UK, we talk to Matteo Allegretti, a young group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK.
Matteo and his lab members aim to understand the molecular basis of how the nucleus is remodelled in shape during differentiation processes or due to environmental cues. Here, we discuss the preprints his lab recently posted (presented at the conference) on this topic.
Preprint 1: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.30.620797v2
Preprint 2: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.14.628473
spotLight hosted by:
Jonathan Townson, Postdoc at University of Oslo, Norway
spotLight recorded and edited by:
Reinier Prosee, preLights Community Manager, The Company of Biologists
In episode 13, recorded at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, UK, we talk to Giulia Paci, an EMBO postdoctoral fellow working in the Mao group at University College London, UK. Here, we discuss the preprint she recently posted on arXiv (link below), the challenges in getting this work to the preprint stage, and the benefits of preprinting work before peer-reviewed publication.
Link to arXiv preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.19203
spotLight hosted by:
Jonathan Townson, Postdoc at University of Oslo, Norway
spotLight recorded and edited by:
Reinier Prosee, preLights Community Manager, The Company of Biologists
In episode 12, recorded at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, UK, we talk to Daniel Booth, a group leader at the University of Nottingham, UK, and discuss the preprints his lab recently posted (presented at the conference) exploring the molecular mechanisms underpinning ‘normal’ and aberrant cell division.
Links to preprints:
Preprint 1 – https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.21.628209v1
Preprint 2 – https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.20.629576v1
Preprint 3 – https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.30.630786v1; now published in Journal of Cell Science = https://doi.org/10.1242/jcs.263553
spotLight hosted by:
Jonathan Townson, Postdoc at University of Oslo, Norway
spotLight recorded and edited by:
Reinier Prosee, preLights Community Manager, The Company of Biologists
In episode 11, recorded at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, UK, we talk to Daniel Gorelick, Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine and Editor-in Chief of Biology Open, as well Alejandra Clark, the Managing Editor of Biology Open. We discuss the Fast & Fair peer review experiment they recently rolled out and the preprint which describes the first results.
Link to preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.18.644032
Link to join the Fast & Fair peer review experiment: https://www.biologists.com/bio-fast-and-fair-peer-review/
spotLight hosted by:
Jonathan Townson, Postdoc at University of Oslo, Norway
spotLight recorded and edited by:
Reinier Prosee, preLights Community Manager, The Company of Biologists
In episode ten, recorded at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, UK, we talk to Helena Crellin, PhD student in the lab of Clare Buckley at the University of Cambridge, UK, and discuss the preprint she presented at the conference introducing a novel optogenetic technique in zebrafish.
Helena: “We were really excited by… [this] technical advance because it let us look at how forces are propagated through complex tissues during development.”
Link to preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.19.613826
spotLight hosted by:
Jonathan Townson, Postdoc at University of Oslo, Norway
spotLight recorded and edited by:
Reinier Prosee, preLights Community Manager, The Company of Biologists
In episode nine, recorded at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, UK, we talk to Dr Jennifer Richens and discuss the preprint she presented at the conference. Also, we discuss the main challenges in getting to the preprint stage and the benefits of preprinting work ahead of peer reviewed publication.
Link to preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.25.577201
Link to peer reviewed publication: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003099
spotLight hosted by:
Jonathan Townson, Postdoc at University of Oslo, Norway
spotLight recorded and edited by:
Reinier Prosee, preLights Community Manager, The Company of Biologists
In episode eight, recorded at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, UK, we talk to Dr Richard Sever and discuss the recent launch of openRxiv. Also, we talk about the importance of preprints for the biological community, in particular early-career researchers, and take a look at the future of preprints and peer review.
spotLight hosted by:
Jonathan Townson, Postdoc at University of Oslo, Norway
spotLight recorded and edited by:
Reinier Prosee, preLights Community Manager, The Company of Biologists
In the seventh episode, we talk to Dr Jan Broder Engler and discuss his recent preprint entitled “Tidyplots empowers life scientists with easy code-based data visualization”. Jan works as a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis in Germany where—besides developing strategies to protect neurons against neuroinflammation—he also develops software that helps scientists understand and communicate experimental findings, like Tidyplots.
Link to related preLights post.
spotLight hosted by:
Chee Kiang (Ethan) Ewe, Postdoc, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Felipe Del Valle Batalla, Postdoc, National Institutes of Health, USA
Shreya Pramanik, Postdoc, Oregon Health and Science University, USA
In the sixth episode, we talk to Dr Guy Teichman and discuss the preprint Guy and colleagues recently posted, entitled: “Perception of temperature even in the absence of actual change is sufficient to drive transgenerational epigenetic inheritance”. Guy recently completed his PhD working in the lab of Oded Rechavi at Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Link to preprint discussed in this episode
spotLight hosted by:
Reinier Prosée, preLights Community Manager
In the fifth episode, we talk to the creator of spotLights, Dr Chee Kiang (Ethan) Ewe, and discuss the preprint Ethan and colleagues recently posted, entitled: “Dynamic control of argonautes by a rapidly evolving immunological switch”. Ethan is a Postdoctoral Researcher working in the lab of Oded Rechavi at Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Link to preprint discussed in this episode
spotLight hosted by:
Reinier Prosée, preLights Community Manager
In this fourth episode, we talk to Dr Daniel Baird and Oskar Kaaber Thomsen about their recent preprint entitled “TAK1 operates at the primary cilium in non-canonical TGFB/BMP signaling to control heart development”. Daniel is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Sheffield, UK. Oskar is a PhD student at University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The preprint we cover in this episode has also been covered in a separate preLights post.
Link to related preLights post.
spotLight hosted by:
Matthew Davies, PhD Student, University of Muenster, Germany
Chee Kiang (Ethan) Ewe, Postdoc, Tel Aviv University, Israel
In this third episode, we talk to Dr Nafisa Jadavji and Dr Chris Smith about their recent preprint entitled “An updated and expanded characterization of the biological sciences academic job market”. Nafisa is an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, as well as a Research Professor at the University of Arizona, and Carleton University. Chris works as a Postdoctoral Affairs Program Administrator at Virginia Tech. The preprint we cover in this episode has also been covered in a separate preLights post (link below).
Link to related preLights post.
spotLight hosted by:
Jennifer Ann Black, Postdoc, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Chee Kiang (Ethan) Ewe, Postdoc, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Reinier Prosée, preLights Community Manager
In this second episode, we talk to Dr Bipasha Dey, Dr Girish Kale and Verena Kaul about their recent preprint entitled “Divergent evolutionary strategies preempt tissue collision in fly gastrulation”. Bipasha works as a postdoc at the RIKEN BDR in Kobe, Japan. Girish and Verena work as postdoc and PhD student respectively in the Lemke Lab at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. The preprint we cover in this episode goes hand in hand with the study led by Bruno Vellutini (as discussed in episode 1).
Link to related preLights post.
spotLight hosted by:
Matthew Davies, PhD Student, University of Muenster, Germany
Reinier Prosée, preLights Community Manager
In this first episode, we talk to Dr Bruno C. Vellutini. Bruno is a postdoctoral researcher working at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany. Among other things, we discuss his recent preprint entitled “Patterned embryonic invagination evolved in response to mechanical instability” which was also highlighted as part of a dedicated preLights post.
Link to related preLights post.
spotLight hosted by:
Chee Kiang (Ethan) Ewe, Postdoc, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Matthew Davies, PhD Student, University of Muenster, Germany
Reinier Prosée, preLights Community Manager