Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
@torres-sanchez.bsky.social
📤 548
📥 458
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Physicist trying to understand the behaviour of living organisms. Group leader at EMBL Barcelona.
pinned post!
Imagine being an engineer asked to build a material that withstands 100% strain, 150 times per minute—for a lifetime. Now imagine having to build it while it’s already functioning. That’s exactly what the heart does.
add a skeleton here at some point
11 months ago
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Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
Brugues Lab
about 1 month ago
Excited to share Alison's
@alisonkickuth.bsky.social
paper from the lab out in
@nature.com
this week! We uncovered how a mechanical ratchet mechanism drives cytokinesis in early
#zebrafish
embryos. Read more in this thread 🧵 and at
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🤩
@poldresden.bsky.social
@mpi-cbg.de
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Pierre-François Lenne
about 1 month ago
Interested in the biophysics of organoids? We just published a review in Dev Cell—take a look!
dlvr.it/TPyTb8
#Organoids
#Biophysics
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Biophysics of organoids
In this review, Weichselberger, Moore et al. discuss how physics-based approaches illuminate organoid development and homeostasis by integrating mechanical, chemical, and informational processes. They...
http://dlvr.it/TPyTb8
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Marco MILAN LAB
about 1 month ago
elpais.com/ciencia/2026...
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El pastelero que patentó una molécula contra el cáncer que se ha vendido por 7.000 millones de euros
El biólogo Eduard Batlle, criado en la pastelería de sus padres, es uno de los seis inventores del petosemtamab, un revolucionario tratamiento experimental contra los tumores
https://elpais.com/ciencia/2026-01-04/el-pastelero-que-patento-una-molecula-contra-el-cancer-que-se-ha-vendido-por-7000-millones-de-euros.html
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Adam Rutherford
about 1 month ago
Empire. Oil. Guyana.
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Development
about 2 months ago
Transitions in development – an interview with Alejandro Torres-Sánchez We caught up with Alejandro
@torres-sanchez.bsky.social
from
@embl.org
Barcelona to talk about his path to becoming a group leader, ongoing collaborations and addressing gender imbalance in the lab.
doi.org/10.1242/dev....
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Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
Guillaume Charras
about 2 months ago
How does signalling control cortical tension? Using optogenetics and AFM, we show that myosin recruitment and cortical tension increase proportionally with RhoA signalling. More here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Super work by Pierre Bohec with Guillaume Salbreux and
@dianakhorom.bsky.social
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Agathe Chaigne
about 2 months ago
My lab is hiring a postdoc (ERC funded)! If you're interested, get in touch!
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youtu.be/JUCs_JEl5bY?...
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|Extrechinato y tu| Abrazado a la tristeza
YouTube video by XtremayDura
https://youtu.be/JUCs_JEl5bY?si=b2_MQGIFxkDOVPhI
about 2 months ago
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Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
EMBL
2 months ago
Researchers at EMBL Barcelona have launched LimbNET, a new online platform that integrates computer modeling, experimental data, and 2D live simulations for limb development.
www.embl.org/news/science...
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Maria Bernabeu
2 months ago
Come to Biomalpar xxii!!! We have an outstanding line up of speakers!!! It is a true honor to be an organizer of Biomalpar. It was the first conference I ever attended during my 2nd PhD year so it feels special. And don't miss the beautiful poster image from Hannah Fleckenstein!
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Wolfgang Huber
2 months ago
Join EMBL's Interdisciplinary Postdoc Programme! 3 years funding, self-designed interdisciplinary project co-led between EMBL PI and PI in one of EMBL's actual, prospect or associate member states. In particular: AI&Theory, use mathem. models, physics principles and AI
www.embl.org/about/info/p...
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EIPOD-LinC Fellowship Programme – Postdoctoral Programme
https://www.embl.org/about/info/postdoctoral-programme/eipod-linc-exploring-life-in-context/
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epithelial mechanics fan club
3 months ago
It’s time to talk about epithelial geometry and cancer. How can the architecture of an epithelium affect how tumors will grow and spread? In this thread,
@jorgealmagro.bsky.social
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Ulrich Schwarz
3 months ago
📢 Paper alert 📢 Chirality is known to be important for the movement of microorganisms and active matter. In our new paper out today in
@natphys.nature.com
, we show that chirality is used by malaria parasites to control their motion patterns:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Here comes a 🧵 ... (1/9)
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Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
3 months ago
1/ Cerebral malaria is a severe form of malaria that causes damage to the blood vessels in the brain. With a #HealthResearch grant,
@mariabernabeu.bsky.social
#HealthResearch
uses analytical techniques and human 3D models of blood vessels to ⬆️ our understanding and test new therapies.
https://tinyurl.com/2vtjnwn6
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epithelial mechanics fan club
3 months ago
Which features of tissue flows are most robust and how do they emerge from
#EpithelialMechanics
? I’m
@alex-plum.bsky.social
(
@mattiaserra.bsky.social
group) and I’ll be sharing some papers on characterizing and controlling avian gastrulation flows.
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Institute of Molecular Biotechnology
3 months ago
In our latest interview, Kristina Stapornwongkul, the newest group leader at IMBA, shares her journey to joining the institute, why she chose IMBA as the next step in her career, and her vision for her lab exploring how metabolism shapes embryonic development:
https://imba.science/49fCrxl
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Xavier Trepat
4 months ago
📣Announcing the 4th edition of the EMBL‑IBEC Conference on “Engineering Multicellular Systems”, taking place 11–13 March 2026 in Barcelona. Exploring organoids, mechanobiology, embryo models, organ-on-chip systems, multiomics and more. Abstracts open now!
events.ibecbarcelona.eu/embl-ibec-co...
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Maria Bernabeu
4 months ago
Pre-print alert 🚨 We answer a longstanding question in the field. Do immune cells cause cerebral malaria? The answer is YES!!!! And independently of P. falciparum accumulation in the brain.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
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Innate immune responses to Plasmodium falciparum disrupt the blood-brain barrier
Plasmodium falciparum accumulation at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a hallmark of cerebral malaria, a life-threatening complication. Conversely, the contribution of the immune response to vascular ...
https://www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2025.10.20.683440v1
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Zebrafish Rock!
4 months ago
Zebrafish embryo undergoing gastrulation. Credit to Dr. Gopi Shah at EMBL.
#ZebrafishZunday
🧪
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Maria Bernabeu
4 months ago
Just hot out of the press! Rory developed a 3D microvessel model that recapitulates physiological pericyte coverage. We found that Plasmodium falciparum egress products disrupt the barrier and halt ang-1 secretion. The activator AKB-9778 could rescue barrier disruption! Congratulations, Rory!
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Quanta Magazine
4 months ago
Biophysicists are realizing that there is an undervalued element at play in early development: Aside from genes, mechanical forces also steer the growth of embryos.
@annademming.bsky.social
reports:
www.quantamagazine.org/genes-have-h...
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Genes Have Harnessed Physics to Help Grow Living Things | Quanta Magazine
The same pulling force that causes “tears” in a glass of wine also shapes embryos. It’s another example of how genes exploit mechanical forces for growth and development.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/genes-have-harnessed-physics-to-help-grow-living-things-20251010/
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Markus Deserno
4 months ago
I am super excited to announce that we have a tenure-track faculty position in biophysics open in the Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon! 🧪 Interfolio link:
apply.interfolio.com/174360
PLEASE, share widely across the blue skies! Let me briefly explain what we're looking for: 1/10
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Jan Rombouts
5 months ago
Please allow me to introduce... our new preprint 🎉 Together with Michael Zhao, Anna Erzberger and Alexander Aulehla, we investigate pattern formation due to aggregation in confined systems. You can find it at
arxiv.org/abs/2509.08533
@michaelzhao.bsky.social
@erzbergerlab.bsky.social
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Maria Bernabeu
5 months ago
Have you ever wondered what happens with your microvessels after exposure to high temperature in fever? In this preprint former postdoc (ans soon to be PI) Viola Introini found that high temperatures cleaves glycocalyx , having severe consequences in malaria
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
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Febrile temperature enhances Plasmodium falciparum cytoadhesion by disrupting the endothelial glycocalyx
Fever, a universal host defense in infection and inflammation, paradoxically contributes to neurological complications in malaria. While febrile temperatures enhance the expression of parasite virulen...
https://www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2025.09.07.674757v1
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Mike Dorrity
5 months ago
Very excited to share - the ERC StG is a game-changer for us 🙏 We're going to learn the rules for timing control across cell types in the embryo and we think we can tune them too 🎛️ ⏳📈- reach out if you’d like to be involved !
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Jan Rombouts
5 months ago
The theory was part of my PhD work at KU Leuven with
@lendertgelens.bsky.social
, experimental work by colleagues in Leuven, the Yang lab (U Michigan) and Ferrell lab (Stanford). Find the paper here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Mechanistic origins of temperature scaling in the early embryonic cell cycle - Nature Communications
Researchers reveal mechanisms underlying non-Arrhenius temperature scaling of early embryonic cell cycle timing, using modeling, cross-species data, and reconstituted oscillations in frog egg extract.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62918-0
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Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
Nicoletta Petridou
6 months ago
We are searching for an enthusiastic scientist to join our team and establish annual killifish as a model system for early developmental biology and biophysics!
@embl.org
@embldbunit.bsky.social
Apply here:
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Hei..
. Please re-post 🙏
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epithelial mechanics fan club
6 months ago
Papafilippou, E., Baldauf, L., Charras, G., Kabla, A. J., & Bonfanti, A. (2025). Interplay of damage and repair in the control of epithelial tissue integrity in response to cyclic loading. Current opinion in cell biology, 94, 102511.
#EpithelialMechanicsReview
buff.ly/Qzj8OWl
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Maria Bernabeu
6 months ago
We are happy to show one ourt first exciting papers. We have developed a blood-brain barrier model to study the disruptive effects caused by the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. First, congratulations to the fearless
@liviapiatti.bsky.social
and
@alinabatzi.bsky.social
rdcu.be/ezBl7
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Plasmodium falciparum egress disrupts endothelial junctions and activates JAK-STAT signaling in a microvascular 3D blood-brain barrier model
Nature Communications - Here the authors show that Plasmodium falciparum egress products disrupt endothelial barrier and activate JAK-STAT and interferon type response in a 3D blood-brain barrier...
https://rdcu.be/ezBl7
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Rashmi Priya
6 months ago
Out now! Our very first
[email protected]
, an impressive feat by
@tobyandrews.bsky.social
where we show how a developing heart grows and scales up its morphological complexity to keep beating...an excellent summary below ⬇️
www.cell.com/developmenta...
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Claire Dessalles
7 months ago
Our study on endothelial mechanics made the news! 🤩 Super nice and clear article on our findings and their implications.
www.snexplores.org/article/how-...
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Here’s why your blood vessels don’t burst under pressure
Cells lining the blood vessels reorganize their inner structures to handle stressful boosts in pressure.
https://www.snexplores.org/article/how-blood-vessels-handle-pressure
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Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
Quanta Magazine
7 months ago
Between his code-breaking work during World War II and his death in 1954, Alan Turing proposed a mechanism for pattern formation that has been identified in the arrangement of bacteria, stripes on seashells and even the distribution of human settlements.
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Turing Patterns Turn Up in a Tiny Crystal | Quanta Magazine
The mechanism behind leopard spots and zebra stripes also appears to explain the patterned growth of a bismuth crystal, extending Alan Turing’s 1952 idea to the atomic scale.
https://quantamagazine.org/physicists-spot-turing-patterns-in-a-tiny-crystal-20210810
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Pau Guillamat
7 months ago
New preprint out! We show how cellular nematic order can be harnessed to program tissue-wide force fields and guide 3D shape transformations. The tissue morphogenesis logic, now engineered into living, programmable materials.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#ActiveMatter
#TissueEngineering
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University of Oxford
8 months ago
A study from
@compscioxford.bsky.social
finds Uber’s dynamic pricing leads to higher fares for riders, lower earnings for drivers, and more revenue for the company. Read more ⬇️
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New Oxford research reveals Uber’s algorithmic pricing leaves drivers
A new study from researchers in the University of Oxford’s Department of Computer Science has found that Uber’s use of dynamic pricing has led to higher fares for passengers and lower earnings for
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-06-23-new-oxford-research-reveals-uber-s-algorithmic-pricing-leaves-drivers-and-passengers
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BWJones
8 months ago
Almost all Nobel Prizes are awarded for work that is exploratory, or absolutely basic science with no obvious commercial or medical benefit. You cannot predict where advancements come from, so you have to invest in science and scientists. Targeted (corporate) science investment will never do this.
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Ⓙⓐⓥⓘⓔⓡ🇵🇸🍉 Ⓑⓤⓒⓔⓣⓐ🇺🇦🇪🇺
8 months ago
It has been a pretty intense and busy week (both for students and trainers) at the
@embo.org
@embl.org
@barcelonacollaboratorium.com
practical course 'Computational Modelling of Multicellular Systems' 🤓💻 Looking forward to future editions!
@epimechfc.bsky.social
@i2sysbio.es
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Jenna Elliott
8 months ago
🧵 🧪 1/ Hi! I’m excited to share our latest work, now on arXiv: Repulsive particle interactions at cellular interfaces enable selective information processing (
arxiv.org/abs/2506.14739
) Where we explore how the physical properties of living systems can help cells process spatial information.
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Nicoletta Petridou
8 months ago
Here our latest work on how morphogens trigger tissue phase transitions to tune their own length-scales and time-scales - An exciting collaboration with
@zhvas.bsky.social
@dianakhorom.bsky.social
Bernat Corominas-Murtra and heroic experiments by the incredible
@cami-autorino.bsky.social
@embl.org
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Diana Khoromskaia
8 months ago
Very happy to see our latest collab out on bioarxiv - check out this thread by
@cami-autorino.bsky.social
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Camilla Autorino
8 months ago
🔔 Proud to share the preprint of my PhD work in the Petridou group
@nicolettapetridou.bsky.social
@embl.org
✨ “A closed feedback between tissue phase transitions and morphogen gradients drives patterning dynamics” 🐟 🔁 📶 🔗
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#devbio
#biophysics
🧵⤵️
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Talya Dayton, PhD
10 months ago
Want to help shape a young & dynamic research group while using
#organoids
to ask how
#chromatin
dynamics,
#cell_state
, & the
#exposome
contribute to
#neuroendocrine
#cancer
? Apply for a postdoc position in our lab
@embl.org
Barcelona!
#cancer_models
.
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/d...
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Kristina Stapornwongkul
10 months ago
📢 Fresh off the press and featuring new exciting experiments! 🧪 We show how glycolytic activity instructs germ layer proportions through regulation of Nodal and Wnt signaling - happy to finally share this 😊
doi.org/10.1016/j.st...
B2B with
@jesseveenvliet.bsky.social
lab:
doi.org/10.1016/j.st...
🤩
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Alberto Elosegui-Artola
10 months ago
Thrilled to share our new review article! “The role of extracellular matrix viscoelasticity in development and disease” written together with Olivia Courbot is now published in npj Biological Physics and Mechanics.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
#ECM
#Mechanobiology
#DevelopmentalBiology
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The role of extracellular matrix viscoelasticity in development and disease - npj Biological Physics and Mechanics
npj Biological Physics and Mechanics - The role of extracellular matrix viscoelasticity in development and disease
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44341-025-00014-6
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Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
epithelial mechanics fan club
10 months ago
How do hydraulic forces impact critical processes such as tissue integrity, cell fate decisions, and embryo development? Hydraulics studies how fluids move and exert forces. Join me in exploring few articles on hydraulics in
#EpithelialMechanics
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Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
Laura Rustarazo-Calvo
11 months ago
🎉 Excited to share our new work: “Adhesion-driven tissue rigidification triggers epithelial cell polarity”, now on
@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social
! A huge thank you to
@nicolettapetridou.bsky.social
, Bernat,
@crisp-c.bsky.social
, Adrián, and everyone involved! 🙌 🧵⤵️
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Rashmi Priya
11 months ago
...and If this piqued your interest, we have fully-funded postdoc positions (4+2 years) available! Join the dynamic, collaborative community
@crick.ac.uk
with access to top-tier technology platforms and an outstanding postdoc training program.
crick.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...
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EMBL
11 months ago
Find out how video games helped scientists visualise limb development. Laura Aviñó-Esteban, PhD student at EMBL Barcelona and first author of a recently published study, explains how video games helped her solve the problem of fragmented limb dev. visualisation. 💻🧪
www.embl.org/news/science...
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Imagine being an engineer asked to build a material that withstands 100% strain, 150 times per minute—for a lifetime. Now imagine having to build it while it’s already functioning. That’s exactly what the heart does.
add a skeleton here at some point
11 months ago
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Alejandro Torres-Sánchez
about 1 year ago
Standards are kept
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Kristina Stapornwongkul
about 1 year ago
Hello Bluesky 🦋 I’m excited to speak at next week’s VGZT! Please join in case you want to know more about my work on the metabolic control of germ layer proportions
#devbio
#metabolism
#stemcellmodels
@vgzt2021.bsky.social
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