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

Exciting News! 🥳 Our Epithelial Mechanics Fan Club website is now live! 🎉 👉 epithelialmechanics.github.io Discover our #EpithelialMechanics threads and get to know our amazing delegates behind them. Would you like to share your story? Please DM us!

Join the coolest club on the internet! #EpithelialMechanics

🎉🎉 We finally have a website! 🎉🎉 Did you miss a thread? Want to know who our delegates are? Do you want to join our big club? Check it out: epithelialmechanics.github.io Huge thanks to all thread-contributors and to you for following us!

📣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...

1/ 🐣⚒️ To study mechanics, we need to apply prescribed forces - how can we do that in living tissues? I am @eigenp.bsky.social and in this thread I'll highlight our new approach for applying tension on epithelial tissues in vivo!

Happy to share that my PhD has finally taken the shape of a paper! ✨ Huge thanks to all authors, especially @davidbrueckner.bsky.social & @ehannezo.bsky.social for leading the modeling and @raimonsunyer.bsky.social & @xaviertrepat.bsky.social for their invaluable supervision. 🧵👇

How do #stemcells integrate information to coordinate fate decisions? Delighted to finally see our work showing how growth factors regulate the mechano-osmotic state of the #nucleus and #chromatin to control #pluripotency exit out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... see 🧵 👇

Very excited to share this finding from my postdoctoral work that is now published in #ScienceAdvances. We show how the gut’s epithelium modifies enteric behaviors during nutritional adversity via distinct peptidergic signaling axes. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Thread ⬇️ (1/n)

1/ Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... ✂️ Wounding in the fly epidermis makes chromatin compact + detach from the lamina. ⏱️ Minutes later it re-expands & re-attaches. A reversible, nuclear “dewetting” cycle right at the wound edge.

👀🚨 Fantastic preprint from @andreuion.bsky.social There's a lot going on inside the nucleus. #EpithelialMechanics

We know tissue mechanics matter in healing, but what happens at the chromatin level? Our new preprint shows that chromatin briefly “de-wets” from the lamina, then re-wets to kick off repair. Mechanics→chromatin→contraction→healing. Led by amazing PhD students Guillermo Bengoetxea & Lenka Backová 🙌

If you are interested in cell compression in general (not only in epithelial systems) in how to control it in vitro, in the associated mechanotransduction mechanisms and on their consequences, you can check our latest review! bsky.app/profile/epim...

We believe that the combination of various in vitro tools, can complement in vivo observations. By doing so, Conti et al. showed that stem vs differentiated cancer cells present different mechano-phenotypes, suggesting a differential metastatic potential. bsky.app/profile/epim...

Ever wondered how to control stretch/compression in your epithelial system? Do you know why it’s important, which mechanotransduction mechanisms could be involved? I am @valeriaventurini.bsky.social and today I will guide you through this journey.

Incredible!!! 😍

It allows shaping the electric field, from single cells (first video) to sculpting whole tissues (movie below). This was several years of Yubin and Jeremy's lives; it's now changing what we know and do with electricity to control cell behaviors. It's so cool--please use it, we will help/share!

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

Tissues transition between solid & fluid states in development & disease; cytoplasm turns crowded or inert to literally 'solidify'. Any connections? Turns out nothing's known. @sameerthukral.bsky.social & @bipashadey29.bsky.social pulled this review off brilliantly with a conceptual synthesis.

How can we use cell shapes and geometry to study mechanics of tissues? I'm @juliaeckert.bsky.social, and with this thread, I would like to show you the secrets of cells and tissues. Let’s connect biology with a little bit of physics. Don't be scared and get inspired 😀. #EpithelialMechanics

📣 New preprint! We present SpinePy, a modular framework that enables automated 3D spatiotemporal quantification of #gastruloids & other multicellular in vitro systems. Spearheaded by @cryaaa.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de. Check out his thread 👇 & the paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🤔 Can migrating cells 'remember' their past trajectories? In collab w/ @sgabriele.bsky.social & @kyohalie.bsky.social, we address this question: Confined cells undergo geometry-sensitive morphology switches, and these switches depend on the past migration history! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

new out in Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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!

The last paper from my PhD is now online! 🥳 👉 pubs.aip.org/aip/rsi/arti... We have designed a new device based on the elastic micropillar array assay to measure the detachment forces between spread cells. @leidenphysics.bsky.social

Check out the preprint of my main work in the lab of @xaviertrepat.bsky.social @IBECBarcelona. Many thanks to all the people involved!

New preprint! 🚨 We uncover a slow adaptation to stretch that links star-bundling of keratin filaments with nuclear escape from its keratin cage. Led by @tomgolde.bsky.social‬ 🙌 @IBECBarcelona www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨wonderful thread by @benswedlund.bsky.social! Tissue engineering via self assembly 👀

Are different cell types like oil and water? Over a century ago, researchers found that dissociated sponges and embryonic tissues can self-assemble into functional structures. Join me, @benswedlund.bsky.social to explore the differential adhesion hypothesis & its applications in tissue engineering!

Collective cell motion has many forms, but rotation is the coolest of them all. I'm @onenimesa.bsky.social , and in this short🧵, I'll highlight some instances of global tissue rotation like this one from @BauschLab

🚨 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/... 🧪

Now published in @natcomms.nature.com! 🥳 👉 rdcu.be/eATn3 We developed image analysis tools to capture the nematic orientation field of 3D tissue surfaces. Tested on epithelial aggregates, zebrafish hearts, myoblasts on spheres & micro-vessels, we combined soft matter physics with exp. biology.

Synthetic materials accumulate damage with every mechanical challenge. Epithelial tissues are regularly loaded, yet healthy epithelia rarely rupture. Why? We are @epmech.bsky.social and @baldaufsci.bsky.social and in this thread we introduce you to cyclic loading. bsky.app/profile/epim...

Very happy that the first article from my postdoc work in the Tomancak lab is now published @PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... We studied the self-organization of actin in aggregates made from Hydra cells. Thread below (1/9)

Maybe it's time we rethink the idea that development is a cell centric process? In this beautiful review, María-del-Carmen and @stramerlab.bsky.social discussed how the ECM underlies and influences many morphogenesis processes from wing unfolding to mammary gland development. doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

Hi bsky! Do embryonic tissues have backup plans🔀? Gastruloids (model of body elongation) can build an axis through different cellular mechanisms when on adherent substrates instead of free floating. A case of developmental plasticity! w/ A. Delahaye & ‪@bensteventon.bsky.social‬ shorturl.at/v01DO

🎉 Happy International #EpithelialMechanics Day! 🎉

If you’ve been following this account closely, you might already know methods to probe mechanics in vitro, but what about in live embryos? I’m @amichaut.bsky.social, and I’m going to share a few great papers on this aspect of #EpithelialMechanics.

Check out this thread I wrote for @epimechfc.bsky.social ⬇️

Have you ever thought about inflating tissues? Or maybe quickly deflating those inflated tissues? New #EpithelialMechanics pre-print: doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧵 with pressure control, multiscale buckling, controlled wrinkling

On cell extrusion in the #intestine! After 80 years of observations, we finally took a deeper look thanks to 2D #organoids. We report: 3D #forces, #extrusion still only in the villus even without curvature, #lamellipodia generate 3D force.. and more. Have a look! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨 Second preprint of the week! We uncover the multiscale dynamics of active viscoelastic buckling in epithelia. We harness these mechanical instabilities for synthetic morphogenesis. Led by @onenimesa.bsky.social 🙌. Theory by Marino Arroyo etal. @ibecbarcelona.eu www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Have you ever thought about inflating tissues? Or maybe quickly deflating those inflated tissues? New #EpithelialMechanics pre-print: doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧵 with pressure control, multiscale buckling, controlled wrinkling

Very happy to share it’s online! If you read the preprint, updates include tracking cells and tissue flow, Histo4i timecourse (69 Abs) comparing spatial patterning emergence and a new WLS KO ipsc line establishing mechanosensing via YAP-WLS/WNT caudalizes organoids www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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...

I recently enjoyed an amazing EMBO workshop on computational modeling of multicellular systems in Barcelona. I learned various techniques & gained hands-on experience Thanks to @embo.org @jamesasharpe.bsky.social @torres-sanchez.bsky.social for this wonderful workshop! We did this 👇from scratch!

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

Epithelial morphogenesis is all about how epithelial tissues develop unique shapes and structures! I'm @nehaghosh.bsky.social and will share some research in this area.

Here's a tortoise embryo developing inside its egg. Check out our new article in @cp-iscience.bsky.social to learn how molecular and mechanical systems sculpt their intricate head scales 🐢🧪 www.cell.com/iscience/ful...