Asst. Professor in @compbiopitt. Our lab is interested in cell fate decisions in embryos, noisy signaling and optogenetics.
Joined September 2021
- Tweets 225
- Following 377
- Followers 499
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Pinned Tweet
18 Apr 2024
We’re very excited to share the first preprint from my lab along with @h4rrymcnamara, @BillZJia, @AdamEzraCohen, and Alex Schier. We describe a set of methods for exerting spatial control over Nodal signaling in zebrafish development.
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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18 Nov 2025
Very excited to be a small part of this awesome paper! Congrats @jishnu1729 and @poholeklab!
15 Nov 2025
Excited to present SpaceTravLR, a new framework to uncover functional spatial microniches across contexts. We learn how individual & combinatorial genetic changes rewire regulation & cell-intrinsic cell-extrinsic signaling across space in tissues. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… (1/2)
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Nathan Lord retweeted
6 Aug 2025
Our paper is now out in final form at Nature Genetics! For those who missed the preprint, we used large-scale Perturb-seq targeting transcription factors to push primary fibroblasts into diverse transcriptional states, including those observed in cell atlas studies.
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7 May 2025
We're very excited to have the final version of our paper up in @Dev_journal. We describe a new system for spatial control of Nodal signaling in live embryos. Thanks to Development for a helpful and constructive review process!
Please reach out if you'd like to try our tools!
2 May 2025
Optogenetic control of Nodal signaling patterns
Read this Techniques & Resources Article by Harold McNamara, Alex schier, Adam Cohen, Nathan Lord and colleagues:
journals.biologists.com/dev/…
🎥Direct visualization of photopatterning of live zebrafish embryos
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7 May 2025
Also: check out the awesome accompanying paper from @GetYourChorion that uses our tools to pick apart how Nodal signaling dynamics inform morphogenesis!
journals.biologists.com/dev/…
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Nathan Lord retweeted
17 Jan 2025
I wrote a 'Behind the Paper' blog post for @the_Node narrating the origin story of our recent @NatureCellBio paper on recording signals during gastruloid symmetry breaking. have a read if you're curious!
thenode.biologists.com/behin…
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Nathan Lord retweeted
7 Jan 2025
Read below for the latest from Emily Ho in my lab on in vivo receptor tyrosine kinase biosensors. This has been a *dream* project, seeing endogenous RTK activity in live embryos for the first time. Surprise: they don't always match those of downstream signaling pathways!
7 Jan 2025
Have you ever wanted to *see* receptor activity in embryos? If so, our new preprint is for you! In it, we showcase a new live-cell biosensor for visualizing receptor tyrosine kinase activity in living embryos – pYtags!
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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My team at Deepmind (protein design) is hiring an experimentalist with enzyme expertise. Please RT and/or apply! I'm happy to answer any questions as well. boards.greenhouse.io/deepmin…
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31 Oct 2024
Get in on the ground floor! Working with @h4rrymcnamara was a highlight of my scientific career. He is brilliant, creative, and a joy to work with. His lab is going to do awesome things. Definitely seek him out if you're looking to get into developmental biology for PhD/postdoc.
18 Oct 2024
a personal update: in January, I'm moving to Yale to join @MCDB_Yale and to open my lab in the @WuTsaiYale Institute!
We will investigate multicellular self-organization using synbio tools to read and write developmental signals in stem cell models.
syndevbio.org/
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Nathan Lord retweeted
16 Oct 2024
Our paper “Dynamics of morphogen source formation in a growing tissue”
with first authors R. Ho and K. Kishi is published in @PLOSCompBiol 🎉
We show that the floor plate of the vertebrate neural tube forms in two phases: rapid specification followed by growth.
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Nathan Lord retweeted
12 Oct 2024
What if you could find out the history of signaling activity in each cell with a single round of imaging? Wouldn't that be incredible? Well, we thought so too. And that's what we set out to achieve with INSCRIBE in our new preprint. Let’s dive in! 🚀🔬
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Nathan Lord retweeted
3 Oct 2024
Working on this paper with @h4rrymcnamara was just an absolute pleasure, one of the highlights of PI life so far.
Even better: he'll be starting his own laboratory in just a few months at Yale - so stay tuned for more exciting work from the McNamara group!
2 Oct 2024
Our study decoding gastruloid symmetry breaking is now live @NatureCellBio!
rdcu.be/dVMLG
Thank you to the NCB edititorial team and to our reviewers for a constructive review process which helped improve our study. A thread on updates (1/n):
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Nathan Lord retweeted
23 Jul 2024
Check out our latest preprint on FGF/ERK signaling in 2D gastruloids:
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Nathan Lord retweeted
11 Jul 2024
Thank you @BWFUND for supporting our work decoding stem cell self-organization! Thrilled to join this community of investigators at the interface of the biological and physical sciences. This award will provide a huge lift to my next phase (more news on that soon! 😺)
Announcing the 2024 Career Award at the Scientific Interface recipients buff.ly/3zyLYjp #bwfcasi
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Nathan Lord retweeted
2 Jul 2024
So excited to announce our new method for multiplexed RNA imaging in bacterial cells: bacterial-MERFISH! A huge congratulations to the team of @AriSarfatis, Yuanyou Wang, and Nana Twumasi-Ankrah! Check out the following thread or our bioRxiv (biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…) 1/12
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Nathan Lord retweeted
12 Jun 2024
Our latest: a new optogenetic system for precise spatiotemporal control of gene expression
We use it to dissect the dynamics of Shh gradient formation & patterning
A thread 🧵
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Nathan Lord retweeted
31 May 2024
It's new-preprint-from-the-lab day! (In my opinion the most fun authentic day to celebrate a new publication.) Check it out:
"Large-scale control over collective cell migration using light-controlled epidermal growth factor receptors"
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Nathan Lord retweeted
23 May 2024
Join us for the 2024 Optogenetics Technologies conference in Boston! Outstanding lineup including: @AdamEzraCohen, @KhammashLab, @MoeglichLab @toettch @ProfJohnARogers @DunlopLab @coledeforest , Haifeng Ye many more.
🗓️Sept. 10-12
Abstracts due 6/7!
aiche.org/sbe/conferences/op…
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Nathan Lord retweeted
20 May 2024
1/ Our work on unified principles for Topographic Deep Artificial Neural Networks is finally out in Neuron! 7 years in the making. tinyurl.com/2dtkh9fc
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Nathan Lord retweeted
I am incredibly excited and honored to be running for the Secretary position for the Society of Developmental Biology! If you are a member, I would appreciate your support and your vote. I'd love the opportunity to serve our community in this way. Thanks!! Plz RT!
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