Why can't we explain enhancer action despite 2 decades of chromosome conformation technologies? 😬 Our new study spearheaded by Leonid Mirny's group points to a flaw in our assumptions, and to a solution from physical principles By @timothyfoldes.bsky.social 💻& @karissalhansen.bsky.social 🧪 🧵👇

The kind of paper that makes you love this job. Amazing and very complete study! Galvanin, a direct electric-field sensor during cell migration www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cell-cell collisions are stochastic. Can we understand their randomness in terms of the finite number of proteins that establish cell polarity, e.g. a Rho GTPase? New preprint from Mariia in the group suggests - maybe!

Our new paper is out! Using 19F NMR, we show that Hfq rewires the conformational dynamics of a model sRNA in a site-specific manner. Uridines at the rim undergo faster exchange (~100 μs) than those in the proximal pore (~300 μs). Congrats Elise! 🎉🎉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Want to simulate large nonconfluent tissues? Try the finite Voronoi model! 1) @wwang721.bsky.social and I show past implementations need a correction to avoid issues, and 2) we provide a new fast code that we'd like people to try! Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2604.15481 code: github.com/wwang721/pyafv

Wei Wang, Brian A. Camley: Divergence of detachment forces in the finite Voronoi model https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.15481 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.15481 https://arxiv.org/html/2604.15481

Want to simulate large nonconfluent tissues? Try the finite Voronoi model! 1) @wwang721.bsky.social and I show past implementations need a correction to avoid issues, and 2) we provide a new fast code that we'd like people to try! Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2604.15481 code: github.com/wwang721/pyafv

New paper out in @physreve.bsky.social (Editors’ Suggestion) with @diffusiveblob.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1103/z3zg...

Becoming a parent is much more detrimental to women’s academic careers than it is to men’s Read the full story: go.nature.com/4v4rxmQ

The Biophysics department at Johns Hopkins is hiring off-cycle *at all levels*! Take a look: biophysics.jhu.edu/2026/03/27/f... - we will start looking April 13. This is a great department to work in, in the middle of an expansion - please let me know if you have questions.

Since #durotaxis was described >25 years ago, most studies report cells migrating from soft → stiff New work from my team at @ub.edu (in collaboration with D. Odde's lab) suggests we may have been missing the point all along... 🔥 Check out our new preprint here 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

An active material that's trying to contract can be guided by changing its friction with the environment. We predict some interesting examples, including patterns that can drive circular or linear motion of clumps of material. Work with Miller Fellow Cody Schimming: arxiv.org/abs/2603.03232

We are #Hiring! Our lab is looking for a LabTech/Lab Manager! Take a look to our research here! physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/team/pol-gro... Drop a line if you are interested to know more details! #labtech #labtechnician #biology #labtechnicians #labmanager #labwork #Xenopus #zebrafish #devbiol

Seconded. If anything, it has never been a better time to be a biophysicist, a complex system physicists, etc…. And it is a bit sad that much of it now happens *outside* of physics departments (for good and bad reasons…)

BPS is seeking the next Editor-in-Chief of the Society’s flagship publication, Biophysical Journal

Are you a junior scientist working in theoretical biophysics? @zamakany.bsky.social and I are organizing another workshop this fall here at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social. Travel and the workshop expenses are all covered! tinyurl.com/yc66fawc

Check out this story! Atlantic writer Alexandra Petri visited my lab and played with some fruit flies and human organoids as she wrote about experiencing things that were affected by government cuts. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Thrilled that the lab's first @hhmijanelia.bsky.social project is up on bioRxiv! Story behind the story to follow. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

She let me know that they recently received guidance that, ONLY for the January EI deadline (1/27/2026) and the February ESI deadline (2/3/2026), PIs can submit MIRAs even if their previous application (R35, R01, R15, R21, and R37) is still considered under review.

The path to this paper has so many stories. Today I want to tell one about the value of saying so when you don't have the answer - and of the importance of community.

This fishing email *almost* got me….its that time of year when semester is almost over and weird stuff happens and tired profs are almost the perfect targets here

We’re hiring! The Department of Physics @sfuphysics.bsky.social at Simon Fraser U (in beautiful and vibrant Vancouver) seeks applications for an Assistant or Associate Professor in Experimental Biophysics, encompassing all scales of life from molecules to ecosystems. @sfuscience.bsky.social

We are opening a FACULTY POSITION (tenure track, permanent) in the University of Cambridge at the interface of control and biology, interpreted broadly. Theorists and wet lab quantitative biologists with backgrounds in control, EE, applied math, ... apply by Jan 28! www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...

Recognizing bad mentors: "One problem student is a concern. Two problem students is a trend. Three problem students is an established pattern." But this is also why evaluating mentorship is hard. Faculty are tenured with small-n student count - and sometimes the victims won't show up in that count

Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Is your paper article #1 in a volume in Nature Communications? Then in some records you may be getting all the citations for all the other articles - because exported citations can default to "starting page" (always 1) instead of "article number"

We’re hiring! 🚨 Assistant Professor (TT) in Theoretical or Computational Biological Physics @univmiami.bsky.social 😀 Come build the future of interdisciplinary biophysics with us! Apply by Dec 15 → tinyurl.com/5n9bk836 #Biophysics #PhysicsJobs #AcademicJobs #UMiami

"Why do you like membrane bending simulations so much?"

Ten years ago, I saw a paper with some data that has bothered me ever since: B cells in a 0-100 ng/mL gradient of CCL19 are attracted to CCL19, but B cells in 0-500 ng/mL are repelled (see movie, ignoring the big clusters for now!). Why? Here's our model! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Using endocytosis to switch between chemoattraction and chemorepulsion https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.28.685129v1

Ten years ago, I saw a paper with some data that has bothered me ever since: B cells in a 0-100 ng/mL gradient of CCL19 are attracted to CCL19, but B cells in 0-500 ng/mL are repelled (see movie, ignoring the big clusters for now!). Why? Here's our model! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

I am teaching Intro to Math Bio (ugrad math about junior level) next semester and I wanted to ask around: 1. If you have taught a similar class, which book have you used and what did you like/dislike about it? (I have the one used previously from another prof and I have a few of my own and

I have seen several offers (ours and others) to candidates at the Assistant level whose primary postdoc work was in preprint stage. These papers took ~2 years in review process. However, these were all trainees of _very_ well-known scientists.

This has now lodged into my head, preemptive apologies to the next few awesome associate professors who are celebrated for being mid

I feel like I can't be the only one who heard "John Martinis Nobel" and went, "Sure, that makes sense" - only to find that it's not for his recent work with superconducting qubits but his 1985 work as a grad student.

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

Sarah Veatch to Receive 2026 Agnes Pockels Award in Lipids and Membrane Biophysics buff.ly/AdSMhCT

Jie Xiao to Receive 2026 Carolyn Cohen Innovation Award www.biophysics.org/news-room/ji...

For the 2026 APS March Meeting, please consider submitting your abstract to our new focus session on Cellular Sensing and Signaling (04.01.29), which aims to bridge theory and experiments to understand how cells sense and respond to environmental signals.

SCHEPHERD--the bioelectric cell herding platform built for YOU. Single cells, monolayers, organoids--this herds them all + new tricks. Plz try it-- we will *give* you parts! Teaser here of a steering a single cell. GS Yubin Lin's lifeblood with J. Yodh on piano; Celeste R. and Paul K. Thread 1/N

I keep reading that it was important to the guy, but feels to me that 100000 Pascal wagers is really only about 1 bar bet

Being a professor is so weird. You are constantly having to act like you know things.

Vishnu Srinivasan, Wei Wang, Brian A. Camley: Perfect adaptation in eukaryotic gradient sensing using cooperative allosteric binding https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00219 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.00219 https://arxiv.org/html/2509.00219

Fun membrane biophysics problem: how long will it take for continental diffusion to mix the continents? (Or for line tension to make their boundaries circular?)

1/n New preprint: how eukaryotic cells could potentially adjust to new environments with perfect adaptation of their receptors (but why they probably might not). doi.org/10.48550/arX...

1/n New preprint: how eukaryotic cells could potentially adjust to new environments with perfect adaptation of their receptors (but why they probably might not). doi.org/10.48550/arX...

Not quite sure why @aip-publishing.bsky.social has scummy advertising that pretends to be a download link. This isn't ideal for a scientific society. (Brought to you by Chrome no longer supporting adblockers!)

Automated optogenetic control of hundreds of cells in parallel. Each cell is individually steered, collectively acting as a "tissue printer". Preprint & code out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Seeking science journalists: @quantamagazine.bsky.social is hiring a physics editor! A rare opportunity to join this great team and lead coverage of this foundational vertical. Please reach out with any questions and share widely simonsfoundation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/simons...

Remebering Paul Kulesa (1962–2025) We honor Dr. Paul Kulesa, whose pioneering work on neural crest cell development has profoundly impacted neuroscience and pediatric cancer research. His loss has deeply impacted the Developmental Biology community and everyone he graced with his presence in life.