How can we organize current theoretical approaches for developmental biology - from information to dynamical systems & GRNs - into a common framework? We propose to think along Marr's 3 levels: computational problem, algorithm, implementation Check out our review: arxiv.org/abs/2510.24536

Our fully-funded PhD program is open for applications! Join us to conduct cutting-edge research at top facilities with guidance from world-class faculty. Through our interdisciplinary training, you can tailor your PhD experience to match your interests and curiosity. Apply now: phd.ista.ac.at

Looking forward to this highly interactive meeting! Great cross-disciplinary speakers & opportunities for contributed talks, sign up !! 👇👇👇

📣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...

Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available go.nature.com/479Sni6

1/ 🎉Excited to share our new preprint @vignjeviclab.bsky.social @davidbrueckner.bsky.social : "Self-organization of tumor heterogeneity and plasticity" biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Tumor heterogeneity and plasticity drive metastasis and relapse. How is tumor patterning coordinated? A thread👇

So proud of the exciting story from my PhD student Jakub Sumbal on contractile fibroblasts shaping branching morphogenesis! Fantastic collaboration with the lab of Zuzana Koledova in Prague! @sumbalovakoledova.bsky.social It just came out online, check it out here: rdcu.be/eIIKD

How do cells navigate up gradients of adhesive proteins? 🤔 Termed "Haptotaxis", this effect is ubiquitous in cell migration, but it's mechanism was poorly understood We show that passive friction directs cells & explains complex trajectories on gradients 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our latest preprint! Into morphogenesis, Yap, ECM, signaling, vertex models, feedbacks/robustness? There is something here for everyone. We discovered a positive feedback loop that extends inner ear canals, and a built-in mechanism that shuts it down when morphogenesis is done. tinyurl.com/464wsjhd

Now out in final published form - with a new title "Mechanical control of cell fate decisions in the skin epidermis" and simulations/quantifications! See below for thread of how unbalanced tensions can bias fate choices in minimal 3D models of tissues! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧵1/14 Preprint thread! Can we predict a cell’s fate based on its dynamics? 🔮 Our new study unveils a framework for watching development unfold in real-time, revealing how a cell's shape and movement encode info about its future fate. 🔬📄 Preprint: tinyurl.com/4shf8v4x

Core achievement unlocked!! Congrats to Fabrizio amd all authors!!

Who knew that the perfect pasta sauce could lead to a Nobel Prize? Congrats to ISTA postdoc Fabrizio Olmeda and collaborators for winning the Ig Nobel Prize with their research on mastering Cacio e Pepe. Bravo! 🍝 🎉 Getting hungry? Here´s the recipe for delicious research: https://bit.ly/42vlpHm

We’re organizing a conference at @ijmonod.bsky.social in Paris, January 2026, in memory of M.P. Sheetz — pioneer in cell mechanics and mechanobiology, co-discoverer of kinesin, and founder of @mbisg.bsky.social. Join us to explore his legacy. mikeinmemoriam.sciencesconf.org

Super excited that our group will be supported by an ERC Starting Grant! In project "InfoFate" we will study how cells use information in dynamical, neighborhood & mechanical signals to make decisions. We'll have PhD and Postdoc positions available, please get in touch if interested!

We are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)

📣 Now out in @physreve.bsky.social‬ as editors' suggestion: our theory on the role of different myosin II isoforms during cell migration. For standard parameters, A and B segregate to the front and the back, respectively. Yet for other parameter values, also oscillations are possible.

Excited to share our new publication in Nature Physics about the mechanical memory of morphology in confined migrating cells by @kyohalie.bsky.social 🥳 Super fun collab with @davidbrueckner.bsky.social and @gcharras.bsky.social 👏🏻 Enjoy the reading www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Do you want to push the boundaries of science together with world-class supervisors and colleagues? The ISTA-Fellowship Program offers fully funded two-year postdoctoral fellowships for highly qualified candidates. Apply now to take your next career step at ISTA: https://bit.ly/4kfKBZx

Very happy to see it out, another fun collaboration with the Sixt group at @istaresearch.bsky.social ! See Mehmet's thread for a summary of how different immune cells can "surf" on each other's self-generated gradients to drive efficient co-migration!

🚨 New paper out in @pnas.org! 🚨 We show that self-generated gradients allow heterogeneous cell mixtures to co-migrate efficiently over long distances —while optimizing their physical interactions! (See below for 🧵) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧪

In case you've ever wondered, I talked with @amjeve.bsky.social about science, myself, and the future of #DevBio as part of the Pathway to Independence Fellowship @biologists.bsky.social 🧪 journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Our first #Hydra paper. @anaisbailles.bsky.social all the way, with crucial theory contributions from Carl Modes and @zechnerlab.bsky.social Hydra maintenance by Heino Andreas and HCR by Giulia Serafini. Teamwork. Many thanks to the generous Hydra research community.

A Summer reading recommendation: new primer in @dev-journal.bsky.social explains how dynamical systems theory unlocks the logic of developmental patterning Everything from bistable switches & oscillators to phase portraits & more with Python code to explore journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

If you want to discover Vienna, Austria in general (and @istaresearch.bsky.social groups in particular) now have 4-year fellowships for postdocs coming from a US institution (up to 500,000 EUR)! Contact me if interested!

bioRxiv bat signal going up. We have a big backlog of submissions. If any affiliates have time to do some screening, we (and all the authors) would be immensely grateful! 🙏

1/ 🚀 New tutorial alert! Ever wanted to use your microscope as a multi-angle light scattering device? Our new preprint is out: 📄 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM) arXiv: 2507.05058 (link in the last skeet!) 🧵 Thread ⬇️

One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint! Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Really honored and excited to be in this cohort! Tons of thanks to all group members and collaborators that have made this possible!!

ISTA profs Gaia Novarino and @ehannezo.bsky.social​ have been elected to @embo.org​ in recognition of their outstanding research contributions. Today, they join 67 other biological scientists from 24 countries in their new EMBO membership. Congratulations! #EMBOMembers2025 🔗 https://bit.ly/3ZV6ZiA

🧵Just out ! We reveal how 4 branched epithelia—mammary, lacrimal, salivary & prostate—use a conserved YAP–Notch–p63 circuit to self-organize during development & regeneration. Here’s the story👇 authors.elsevier.com/c/1lM285Sx5g... Work done in @frelab.bsky.social at ‪ ‪ @institutcurie.bsky.social

How to turn a layer of fibroblasts into a tulip 🌷? Check out our new pre-print on shape-programmable living surfaces. Led by @pauguillamat.bsky.social‬ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📢 PhD Candidate Alert @lina0213.bsky.social is *looking for a PhD position* in developmental biology, combining her expertise in: 🧪 Wet lab techniques 💻 Bioinformatics 🔬 Light microscopy

🚨 theory/math devbio preprint alert!!! 🚨 Led by my v. talented PhD student, Daniel Muzatko, we’ve found some rather general and intriguing constraints on reaction-diffusion systems that allow them to self-organize developmental patterns: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our latest "Dynamic Landscape Analysis of Cell Fate Decisions: Predictive Models of Neural Development From Single-Cell Data" A rigorous mathematical foundation for Waddington's landscape to study cell fate decision making Applied to ventral neural tube development www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited about the new work from Z. Dunajova & S. Tasciyan (with the Sixt lab @ISTA) - how the mechanical heterogeneity of the environment can be (by itself!) a driver of tumor cell dissemination! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Combination of in vitro exp, simulations and KPZ stat phys!👇🧵1/n

New paper out in @pnas.org We followed cells migrating along signalling gradients in 3D, and found they collectively behave as a living droplet - a self-propelling fluid that grows. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Second preprint from the lab in a week! This time led by Aurelien. Combining live imaging, quantitative image analysis and perturbations, he clarifies the mechanisms leading to primitive induction. 👇

New op-ed in @nature.com: The Trump administration's assault on freedoms and the rule of law is an existential threat to US science. We urge scientists to speak out in defense of freedoms, not just funding. With Andrea Liu @upenn.edu and Sidney Nagel of UChicago! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Have you ever wondered what happens when a sea star carries a backpack full of beads? You can now find out: « Tube feet dynamics drive adaptation in sean star locomotion » www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

📢 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... 🤩

Spring brings new beginnings.. Happy to start my new position @istaresearch.bsky.social as a post doc with @ehannezo.bsky.social. Looking forward to learn new things and study new problems in the realm of multicellular structures. Also: Vienna is beautiful.

In @naturephysics.bsky.social, researchers from @priscaliberali.bsky.social's lab and @ehannezo.bsky.social's group reveal how intestinal organoids form crypts, key to gut regeneration and stability. Their work could impact tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

Applications for our Master in Physics of Life @biozentrum.unibas.ch are open! Specifically designed for students with physics/math/engineering/compsci background, this is a great opportunity to step into the world of living systems from a physics perspective Please RT and share!

⭐️ Please Fwd. Are you in Paris on 16th May? See👇 poster of symposium on « Information processing in biological systems » @collegedefrance.bsky.social Fantastic line of speakers 🤩. It is free, w/o registration, and it will be exciting.m! Follows from my series of lectures at CdF last fall.

🚨 Paper Alert 🚨 Absolutely delighted to share our last paper on "spatial mechano-transcriptomics" @naturemethods👇!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

That is a great reason for a first post! With a few days of delay, I am proud to share that my postdoc work at the @heisenbergcplab.bsky.social has finally been published on @cp-cellreports.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... Now a small (or maybe not) thread about the work!

Fun group retreat in the Austrian alps with @priscaliberali.bsky.social! And perfect time to celebrate our new joint paper (from Shi-Lei Xue & Qiutan Yang) out on how mechanochemical bistability confers robustness to intestinal organoids! www.nature.com/articles/s41... - see 🧵! (1/n)

Stoked to present our latest, superbly led by Chris et al & @torres-sanchez.bsky.social We tackled a fundamental problem – how tissues are patterned during development – found that geometry-constrained ECM fractures pattern the myocardium in the vertebrate heart 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...