MultiplEye Lab

MultiplEye Lab

@multipleye-lab.bsky.social

Unravelling the function and evolution of many-eyed visual systems. Led by @laurensr.bsky.social and based @bristolbiosci.bsky.social, previously @MfNBerlin.bsky.social.

279 followers153 following42 posts

Just over two weeks left to apply! Come and join us @bristolbiosci.bsky.social for a 2.5-year trilobite extravaganza! If you're interested in 3D models, functional morphology, and visual ecology, get in touch with us via @laurensr.bsky.social with any questions and for more details on the project!

MultiplEye Lab@multipleye-lab.bsky.social

Work with us! Join the team in Bristol studying the functional morphology of trilobite eyes 👀 ✍️ 30 months, @hfspo.bsky.social-funded, start by early 2027 🫵 looking for someone interested in developing new methods to analyse eyes in 3D and simulate vision 📆 Deadline 27. Aug ☎️ @laurensr.bsky.social

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Two weeks left to apply for our postdoc position on vision in trilobites! Come and explore the exciting world of reconstructing vision in the fossil record, using some of the most iconic extinct animals to grace our oceans! Please reach out + RT! (*Deadline in fact 23.59 BST on the 26th August!*)

Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social

📢 JOB ALERT! 📢 I am recruiting a 30-month postdoc to work on modelling the vision of trilobites @hfspo.bsky.social ! If you like 3D data, fossils, and functional morphology, this is the one for you! 📆Deadline 27. Aug Pls contact me with any Qs and share widely! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

Work with us! Join the team in Bristol studying the functional morphology of trilobite eyes 👀 ✍️ 30 months, @hfspo.bsky.social-funded, start by early 2027 🫵 looking for someone interested in developing new methods to analyse eyes in 3D and simulate vision 📆 Deadline 27. Aug ☎️ @laurensr.bsky.social

Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social

📢 JOB ALERT! 📢 I am recruiting a 30-month postdoc to work on modelling the vision of trilobites @hfspo.bsky.social ! If you like 3D data, fossils, and functional morphology, this is the one for you! 📆Deadline 27. Aug Pls contact me with any Qs and share widely! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

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Get excited :) PhyloSpec is coming! A shared standard + modelling language for phylogenetic models. Write a model once, run it across engines like BEAST X, BEAST 2.8 & RevBayes. Easy and reproducible. Built by @tochsner.bsky.social & collaborators (ETH Zürich, Auckland, LMU). phylospec.com

phylospec.comPhyloSpecA standardized way to describe phylogenetic model components, common assumptions, and best practices in the field of phylogenetics.

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Having my photograph on the cover of Current Biology is definitely a bucket list item ticked off ✅🙏 all thanks to @atal-pande.bsky.social @multipleye-lab.bsky.social and their super cool study that I was lucky enough to make a small contribution to

Current Biology@currentbiology.bsky.social

Arachnophobes, avert your eyes! NEW issue just dropped🕷️👇 www.cell.com/current-biol... As usual, casting a wide net, across all of biology!🧬 🕸️

Keep your (schizochroal) eyes peeled for an opportunity to work with us! We'll soon be recruiting a 30-month postdoc to work on the functional morphology of trilobite eyes, using X-ray imaging 💥and developing optical models to reconstruct how they may have seen the ancient oceans... 🌊 Coming soon!

Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social

📢 Heads-up: I'm currently finalising the job description for a 30-month postdoc modelling visual abilities in these very gorgeous and very dead creatures! If you're interested, please get in touch - anticipated start is late 2026/early 2027 and the project combines great colleagues in UK + S Korea!

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The formatted paper is now out in MBE - describing OPTICS software to predict color sensitivy based on opsin sequence alone: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

academic.oup.comValidate User
Todd Oakley@ostratodd.bsky.social

🧵 New paper! We’re excited to release OPTICS: software that immediately predicts color sensitivity from any opsin protein sequence. In other words: give OPTICS any opsin sequence, and it predicts the wavelength of light the pigment is most sensitive to 🌈👁️ academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

The group's *first* PhD student @atal-pande.bsky.social has published his *first* chapter - time to celebrate spiders and their forward-facing eyes everywhere 🥹 Congratulations Atal, other stellar group members @lucillejmrose.bsky.social and @samjakeengland.bsky.social, and all our co-authors 💛

Atal Pande@atal-pande.bsky.social

Really excited to share that my first PhD chapter is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! 🕷️👀 We show that visually hunting spiders have repeatedly evolved forward-facing eyes, highlighting the remarkable evolutionary flexibility of their modular visual system. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

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I am hiring a postdoc for scRNA-seq research in Lund, Sweden on the visual systems of non-model inverts as part of an ERC project on the evolution and ecology of advanced color and polarization vision. Apply here or share the link with someone who may be interested! 🧪 lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

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Added to this, the principal eyes are controlled by a separate developmental pathway to the secondary eyes, potentially decoupling loss across these two parallel visual systems. When one pair of secondary eyes is lost, the others quickly follow, possibly due to their shared developmental origins.

As ever, we have just as many questions as when we started, but this is a really exciting first step to understanding how eye loss occurs in animals that have multiple eye pairs and types of eyes to lose! Well done to Antonio and Andres for their mind-blowing efforts, and stay tuned for the paper...

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So why do spiders lose their eyes? Eye loss is usually associated with living in very dark environments like caves, and we did find a strong correlation between cave living and the loss of all four eye pairs. But most species missing selected eye pairs live above ground!

It seems that transitioning to dim or low-light environments (e.g. leaf litter) is linked to partial eye loss - and this might give us a clue as to why the principal eyes are typically lost first. These are the only eyes that lack a reflective tapetum, meaning it likely performs worse in low light!

They surveyed eye number across ALL described spiders (yes, literally all), and report >7500 species that have lost one or more eye pairs. BUT not all eyes are lost equally - the vast majority of affected species lack the principal eyes, which are often associated with higher resolution vision...

The principal eyes have been lost many times over >200 Ma, with a distinct peak in losses in the Triassic and Jurassic 🦕 Our analysis strongly suggests that the principal eyes were also _regained_ multiple times! In contrast, secondary eye losses are much more recent...

If you'd be interested in a postdoc with us using CT scans of trilobite eyes to model their visual abilities, watch this space...!

Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social

So excited to have received an #HFSPResearchGrant to study trilobite eyes with Luke Parry @oxuniearthsci.bsky.social and Gil Ju Lee (Pusan National University)!🥳 I'll be recruiting a postdoc @bristolbiosci.bsky.social - if 3D data, optical modelling, and fossils tickle your interest, stay tuned!

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Congratulations @rochellemeah.bsky.social @ecologyofvision.bsky.social (and all our wonderful coauthors!) on her first PhD publication in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🤩 Light pollution suppresses natural peaks in activity AND natural celestial polarization patterns at key times in arthropods 🕷️🦋✨

Rochelle Meah@rochellemeah.bsky.social

Multiple anthropogenic stressors can negatively impact species but can a single stressor also have multiple, concurrent impacts? Here we show that light pollution creates several simultaneous impacts to the nocturnal movement ecology of a moth and a spider: tinyurl.com/5eku5bff (1/5)

Join us for your PhD! Apply by 15th Dec ⏰ to come to @bristolbiosci.bsky.social and study spider eyes, development and visual ecology under light pollution! Open to all nationalities, funded incl. stipend, set in a beautiful city, and with amazing collaborators ✨ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

findaphd.comFunded PhD - The impacts of light pollution on plasticity and evolution in spider visual systems at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.comPhD Project - Funded PhD - The impacts of light pollution on plasticity and evolution in spider visual systems at University of Bristol, listed on FindAPhD.com
Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social

Just TWO DAYS until the application deadline for our funded PhD disentangling the impacts of light pollution on spider eyes and visual ecology! 👀🕷️🌃 The project will combine development, morphology, behaviour, and genetics, and can be shaped by the student👩🏽‍🔬 Interested? Apply! Questions? Message me!

MultiplEye Lab reposted

Just TWO DAYS until the application deadline for our funded PhD disentangling the impacts of light pollution on spider eyes and visual ecology! 👀🕷️🌃 The project will combine development, morphology, behaviour, and genetics, and can be shaped by the student👩🏽‍🔬 Interested? Apply! Questions? Message me!

Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social

Exciting times ahead - I'm beyond delighted to be joining @bristolbiosci.bsky.social in 2026! 🎉🕷️🎉🐌🎉 I'm also looking for a PhD student to join @multipleye-lab.bsky.social in our new home! Come and study the effects of light pollution on the evolution and development of spider eyes with us 🌃🕷️👀 👇

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The Royal Society's Newton International Fellowship scheme opens to applications Jan 15 with a March 11 deadline. It provides £280K (salary and research expenses) over 2 years to outstanding ECRs from outside the UK. Why not come and work with me (or anyone else) @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social?

royalsociety.orgNewton International Fellowships | Royal SocietyThis fellowship is for non-UK scientists who are at an early stage of their research career and wish to conduct research in the UK.

Come and work with us in our new home @bristolbiosci.bsky.social ! This fully funded PhD opportunity is open to anyone interested in spiders/eyes/light pollution/evolution/development! 🕷️👀 ⏰Deadline 15th December, online info event TODAY @2pm! Link in the PhD advert👉 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

findaphd.comFunded PhD - The impacts of light pollution on plasticity and evolution in spider visual systems at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.comPhD Project - Funded PhD - The impacts of light pollution on plasticity and evolution in spider visual systems at University of Bristol, listed on FindAPhD.com
Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social

And last - but definitely not least! - for anyone interested in spider vision / light pollution / eye development / evolutionary morphology, come and work with us @multipleye-lab.bsky.social ! This funded PhD is open globally, incl. fees+stipend! ⏰Apply by 15 Dec! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

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🚨 Uh-oh!!! A suuuper hot #PhD opportunity just dropped! My friend and collaborator Massimo De Agrò is looking for someone to explore jumping spider vision and neurophysiology! #psychophysics #jumpingspiders #greatPI - apply!!!! (Deadline December 17th) 🚨

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Do you work (/want to work) with caterpillars? Or sensory systems? Or BOTH?! Well good golly do we have the paper for you! We explain the senses that caterpillars have, what they use them for, and how anthropogenic sensory pollution might be messing it all up 🐛 doi.org/10.1007/s003...

doi.orgThe sensory ecology of caterpillars - Journal of Comparative Physiology ACaterpillars (larval Lepidoptera) are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily significant taxa on Earth. As both feeders and food, they shape the dynamics of enumerate ecosystems on land. Key ...

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Reposting for the Monday morning scrollers! Funded PhD opportunity with me @multipleye-lab.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social - spiders, their eyes, and their babies under long- and short-term light pollution!

Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social

Exciting times ahead - I'm beyond delighted to be joining @bristolbiosci.bsky.social in 2026! 🎉🕷️🎉🐌🎉 I'm also looking for a PhD student to join @multipleye-lab.bsky.social in our new home! Come and study the effects of light pollution on the evolution and development of spider eyes with us 🌃🕷️👀 👇

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We are looking for a PhD student to study the effects of light pollution on the evolution and development of spider eyes 🌃🕷️👀 🌍Open to students worldwide 📆Start Sept 2026 👩🏽‍💻Online info event 24th Nov 💶Fees and stipend incl. ⏰Deadline December 15th Spread the word! 🗣️ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

findaphd.comFunded PhD - The impacts of light pollution on plasticity and evolution in spider visual systems at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.comPhD Project - Funded PhD - The impacts of light pollution on plasticity and evolution in spider visual systems at University of Bristol, listed on FindAPhD.com

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🚨 PhD alert! IMPRS brain & behavior in Bonn just opened their calls for applications. Great PhD funding opportunities. Check it out! PS- I just joined their faculty, meaning you could do a rotation in my lab or even a PhD with me on spider sleep 🙃 Apply! 🚨

IMPRS for Brain and Behavior@imprsbb.bsky.social

📢Apply now! Join our IMPRS for Brain&Behavior to pursue a #PhD in #neuroethology. Learn how brain circuits are linked to interesting animal behaviors! 📅 Deadline: October 31, 2025 🔗 imprs-brain-behavior.mpg.de #neuroscience #Neuroskyence #neurojobs #sciencejobs #PhDsky #PhDOffers #FundedPhD

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Our findings on bees' photoreceptors are now officially published in Biology Letters of the Royal Society Publishing!! Thanks again for a productive collaboration @jjfosterlab.bsky.social and @gregoeur.bsky.social !! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

George Kolyfetis@gkolyfetis.bsky.social

I'm really happy to share the first preprint of my PhD work in @jjfosterlab.bsky.social! During a fruitful collaboration with @gregoeur.bsky.social, we uncovered a surprising feature of bees' eyes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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New work from our neighbours @jjfosterlab.bsky.social lab with lead ‪@gkolyfetis.bsky.social‬ - check out their findings on the coupling of #photoreceptors in different #bee species 🐝👇👇

George Kolyfetis@gkolyfetis.bsky.social

Our findings on bees' photoreceptors are now officially published in Biology Letters of the Royal Society Publishing!! Thanks again for a productive collaboration @jjfosterlab.bsky.social and @gregoeur.bsky.social !! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

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MultiplEye Lab reposted