How are two embryos alike? As we collect spatio-temporal microscopy data, we want to quantify variability in the timing of key developmental events. Alignment of multiple recordings is a core engineering challenge here and we suggest a solution; read about it: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A day in the life of a Transgenic Quail lab Samara Ranie @samarar.bsky.social, PhD student in Melanie White's @melaniedwhite.bsky.social lab, reveals a day in the life of a transgenic quail lab. 🥚🔬 thenode.biologists.com/a-day-in-the...

New paper in Advanced Materials! We present DNA hydrogel microparticles for 3D tissue engineering, showing programmable material properties and cell-material interactions! Special thanks to Eleni Dalaka @gflaesch.bsky.social @kgoepfrich.bsky.social @xaviertrepat.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/adma...

Very excited to be sharing our new paper, just out in Nature Cell Biology! The big question we investigate: How do migrating cells put their front 🔴 and back 🔵 in the right place?

Our latest: Minimal essential requirements for neural tube self-organisation How does a single cell give rise to a tissue with the right cell types in the right proportions? We deconstruct and rebuild a self-organising tissue from first principles A thread🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We are excited to announce another new webinar series, this time on cell migration, hosted by @pjsaez.bsky.social & @valeriaventurini.bsky.social. In our 1st webinar, we’ll hear talks from @juanmagararc.bsky.social, @kyohalie.bsky.social & @djcohen.bsky.social. 🗓️11 June, 15:00 BST

How does a relatively simple tube become a complex brain? 🧠 One of the most dramatic transformations in development! We built a framework to map exactly what changes. 🧵 New preprint from my postdoc at @nerurkar.bsky.social lab: doi.org/10.64898/202...

Wound repair is more than simply closing a gap in the tissue. Mechanical injury rapidly reshapes signaling, nuclear organization, and cellular identity across the epithelium. I'm @johanajnabi.com, and here are studies that changed how I think about epithelial wound healing. bsky.app/profile/epim...

Hundreds of organelles. Disorder → order. No blueprint. The switch? Actin crosslinking. The moment the meshwork forms, Basal Body dynamics shift from diffusive to subdiffusive. Same transition. Same developmental window - Every time. New preprint from my postdoc. Full thread👇

How does a relatively simple tube become a complex brain? 🧠 One of the most dramatic transformations in development! We built a framework to map exactly what changes. 🧵 New preprint from my postdoc at @nerurkar.bsky.social lab: doi.org/10.64898/202...

Researchers across Columbia brought the heat to campus yesterday to demand Columbia work with us, not against us, in reaching a fair contract! So far, Columbia has resisted common-sense improvements such as living wages and job security. When we fight, we win!✊ #UnionStrong #NYResearchersStandUp

happy to share our new protocol paper on wildDISCO for whole-body immunolabeling, tissue clearing & 3D imaging of intact mice at cellular resolution using standard IgG antibodies, for mapping of neuronal, vascular, lymphatic and immune systems across the entire body. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Localized actin cortex perturbation generates cell-scale membrane tension gradients www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our thread is now up at @epimechfc.bsky.social 💗 Take a look if you are interested in how a living tissue knows how to sculpt itself!

#DBfeature Elongation of the nascent avian foregut requires coordination of intrinsic and extrinsic cell behaviors By Olivia Powell, Emily Garcia, Vanshika Sriram, Yi Qu, Nandan L. Nerurkar tinyurl.com/52pecyc5

How do epithelial cells integrate mechanical and biochemical signals to control their behavior? I am @ronjahoutekamer.bsky.social, and in this thread, I’ll show you how force transduction connects to biochemical signaling, and how it activates ERK by inducing biochemical ligand shedding.

My postdoc work with @pcusachs.bsky.social is finally out! We find that fibrillar adhesions play an important role regulating the timescales of nuclear mechanotransduction. You can read all about it here : www.nature.com/articles/s41563-026-02590-x Huge thanks to everyone involved!!

I’m thrilled that my PhD project has finally come together as a publication!

🚨 How do mechanical forces shape a developing organ? Our new #ScienceAdvances @science.org study, led by the amazing @cvagenapantoula.bsky.social, reveals a Piezo1-driven hydraulic mechanism, where mechanical cues control cell volume to guide cardiac formation ❤️🐟 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

All you ever wanted to know about how to analyse the nematic nature of cellular tissues is right here 👀👇🏼! Bonus #1: we did it for many cell types and uncovered unexpected defect behavior 🐌 Bonus #2: for theoreticians looking for parameter values for your simulation🧑🏼‍💻 tinyurl.com/2s399yen

1/ 🔬🧑‍💻 Tired of going back and forth between GUIs and code for your 3D image analysis needs? Would you like to keep your focus in one place (notebook), without sacrificing interactivity? Here’s a tool that can help!

Our latest work on shape-programmable tissues is out in @science.org. By positioning topological defects in cellular nematics, we encode frustrated 2D force fields that relax into predictable 3D shapes. Collaboration with Marino Arroyo’s lab, led by @pauguillamat.bsky.social at @ibecbarcelona.eu.

Just published in @science.org 🚀 By controlling how cells align, we show that living nematic tissues can be programmed to generate forces and fold into predictable 3D shapes. A new platform for tissue engineering and the design of smart active materials! 🫆 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How does an orbiting spherical tissue suddenly break symmetry and sprout invasive strands? We can predict this behavior from the initial morphology! Hi, I’m @jiwon-kim.bsky.social from @ianywonglab.bsky.social.

Happy #fluorescencefriday (and start of vacation!) to all those who are celebrating Lifeact-labeled epidermal stem cells closing a wound after in vivo adult zebrafish skin injury

We tracked a zebrafish tail tip for 30h of light-sheet imaging. It didn’t exist at t=0. LiLiTTool: CoTracker3 + object detection → real-time microscope steering. 3D, multi-ROI, open source. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #bioimaging #lightsheet thanks @jytinevez.bsky.social

Han, Y. L., Pegoraro, A. F., Li, H., Li, K., Yuan, Y., Xu, G., Gu, Z., Sun, J., Hao, Y., Gupta, S. K., ..., Fredberg, J. J., & Guo, M. (2020). Cell swelling, softening and invasion in a three-dimensional breast cancer model. Nature physics, 16(1), 101–108. #EpithelialMechanics buff.ly/eIv9nUX

Thread 17: Initial Embryonic Brain Structures. For the first time, this thread is NOT taken from my notes on the Neural unit in my biology advisor’s 2024 graduate dev bio class, but is largely drawn from the Bianchi “Developmental Neurobiology” textbook. (1/n)

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...

Excited to share our new publication on the mechanics of cranial neural tube closure. A really enjoyable and fruitful collaboration bridging Developmental Biology and biophysical modelling. Take a look here! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Many thanks to @juliaeckert.bsky.social and @onenimesa.bsky.social for all the behind the scenes work you do for running the page! 🙏

finally out @vaibhavmahajan.bsky.social! advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I am excited to share my new paper in @plosbiology.org . Here we show the role of chitin, a polysaccharide, in controlling the shape of the fly corneal lens. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Hello epithelia enthusiasts! I’m @inesfournon.bsky.social and I study epithelial mechanics in sea anemones 🪼 Did you know epithelial cell extrusion had never been described outside bilaterian animals before? Well… not anymore 👀 Read ⬇️🧵1/9

First paper as first & corresponding author, out in PLOS Computational Biology! 🎉 napariTFM brings traction force & monolayer stress microscopy into napari, accessible via GUI; open-source, validated and no coding required. 😉 Check it out 👇

Santos-Oliván, D., Chan, C. J., Torres-Sánchez, A., & Priya, R. (2026). Break to build: fracture as a unifying morphogenetic strategy. Development, 153(16), dev205136. #EpithelialMechanicsReview doi.org/10.1242/dev....

How do tissues maintain their integrity? Let's discuss epithelial fractures! High tissue tension can cause cells to break their contacts, leading to rupture!

Very grateful to everyone who made this work possible. I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with such an amazing team. Special thanks to: Jakob El Kholtei, KJ Jenie, @mcolomerr.bsky.social, and of course our wonderful collaborator Bogdan Bintu and my mentor @schierlab.bsky.social

Check out my contribution to the wonderful threads posted by @epimechfc.bsky.social !! In this one I talk about #3DTFM! 👇

We had covered the history of traction force microscopy (TFM) earlier: bsky.app/profile/epim... But what about applying TFM into more physiologically relevant systems, such as those in 3D? I am @barrasa-fano.bsky.social and I'll be your guide through this thread on #3DTractionForceMicroscopy.

Tissue mechanics and synth morphogenesis folks, bump on this: Would you or someone in your lab be up for a video of a protocol you use getting recorded? The tips and tricks, the hard-to-explain-without-seeing-it-done? In the name of standardization and reproducibility in the field: get in touch! 🫀

Beautiful thread😍 about Flipper from @juanmagararc.bsky.social #EpithelialMechanics

Hello epithelial mechanics fans!! I’m Juanma @juanmagararc.bsky.social 👋 I work on cell mechanics (see celldynamicslab.com) and use Flipper-TR FLIM to probe membrane biophysics in cells. Join me on this tour about Flipper: what it measures, strengths, advice, cool case studies, and cute drawings!

Epithelial Mechanics Fan Club @epimechfc.bsky.social is top-fin #scicomm, in case you haven't heard of it! Follow them for more like this thread posted by Knaut Lab member and #zebrafish lateral line guru, @weiyiqian.bsky.social 🐟

PhD job alert! 🚨Interested in epithelial mechanics and bacterial infection? Do you have a computational background? Don’t miss this opportunity! Details in thread 🧵👇 #AcademicJobs #PhDPosition #Biomechanics Please RT 🔬💻 @epimechfc.bsky.social @unizar.es @i3a.unizar.es @esbiomech.bsky.social

How can structures at the vertex of 3 cells have effects at the tissue level? Join me, @laura-rustarazo.bsky.social, to explore how tricellular junctions (TCJs) act as local tension sensors and regulators of global tissue organization. 🧵⤵️ doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Lobbying in Albany with @uaw.org and @cpw-uaw4100.bsky.social for the Empire Biomedical Research Institute. Learn more: @fundnyscience.bsky.social.

How does a uniform zygote reliably break symmetry? How do initially identical cells diverge in cell-cycle timing and transcriptional state? In our new paper in Nature Physics, we show that embryo geometry itself is sufficient to pattern early development. www.nature.com/articles/s41...