How can cells self-organize rapidly into complex patterns during development? Let’s explore a powerful and underappreciated mechanism: Directed Cell Migration (DCM). Preprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1101/2025... 👇Thread 🧵(1/11)

Such an honor to be featured by @focalplane.bsky.social , especially on my favorite day of the week: #FluorescenceFriday! 🔬 Below for reference, a picture of the full hydei testis with the musculature stained (depth-coded) taken together with @saraheclark.bsky.social #cellbio #devbio #microscopy

Happy #FluorescenceFriday !!! Pt 2: fungal hyphae challenged with various oxidative stressors; nucleic acids - yellow, ROS - magenta feat. bubbles induced by H2O2 from earlier imaging experiments when I had no idea what I was doing :)

Stimulating immune cells in vitro is a common experimental lab model. We profiled 150K blood immune cells treated with 11 different stimuli to compare the effects. The data are freely available for researchers. See the preprint for our findings and to access the data 🧪 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

FINALLY out in #Science Advances! 🎉 3 years of hard work, a fantastic team — and I’m proud to be first and co-corresponding author! It's about Plexin signaling driving collective cell migration & organ sculpting. Check out the videos 😀 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #DevBio #CellBio #Microscopy

3D printed microscopy we could perhaps try in the lab onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#GLSL #Shaders

HIGH-RESOLUTION IN VIVO BRAIN IMAGING OF DROSOPHILA 🪰 New Preprint by Tassara et al.! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #FluorescenceMonday #SnoutClub 1/6

A perfectly round liver organoid stained for mitochondria (yellowish/green), e-cadherin in blue and nuclei in pink for #MicroscopyMonday

Excited to share our latest paper in PLOS Comp Bio, describing how accurate, multi-species segmentation models for bacteria can be created quickly and easily using image-to-image translation. 🧪⚛️ #biophysics #imageanalysis #microscopy #AI dx.doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Bonus: ran a quick color variation test — because it's always worth playing with presentation. Color isn’t just style — it shapes what you see. #MicroscopyCommunity #ScientificVisualization #Biophysics

#Microtubule-driven cell shape changes and #actomyosin flow synergize to position the #centrosome, say Alexandre Schaeffer, Manuel Théry (@manuelthery.bsky.social ) and colleagues: rupress.org/jcb/article/... @lblanchoin.bsky.social @gelinmatthieu.bsky.social #Biophysics #Cytoskeleton

My #FlyWeek contribution: The Variety of Testis Shapes in Pomace Fly Species Aren't they beatiful?🌈🪰🔬 An old-school sci-poster meets modern confocal imaging! #Drosophila testis diversity fascinated even Curt Stern (yes, the human genetics textbook guy!) back in the 1930s. #microscopy #insects

indeed, i begin my grad lecture on RNAi/miRNAs by discussing petunias. and mentioning while none of our students will do a plant phd (no faculty), they can learn A LOT by occasionally reading plant literature (think epigenetics, small RNAs, developmental biology, etc etc). also, consider the worm!

What governs where DNA replication begins in human cells? Here, we show that origins of replication in human DNA are epigenetically specified and that crucially, this epigenetic mark is required for both DNA replication and cell proliferation! @narjournal.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

If you're curious about how cells make decisions in complex environments, and how mathematical models can capture such behaviour, our preprint is now live! Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We found that cells use emergent collective memory—arising from simple chemical reactions—to outperform physical limits of detecting chemical gradients. Curious how? 1/n 8 min talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7XH... bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #biophysics #cellbiology

U2OS labeled with OMP25-GFP, an outer membrane marker for mitochondria. Left shows a zoom-in on the dimmer cell. Imaged by OPM (oblique plane microscope). #Microscopy

For #FluorescenceFriday, tau (blue) and long loops of neurofilament proteins are shown in a primary hippocampal neuron 🔬 #Neuroscience #Microscopy

It's #FluorescenceFriday! Here goes one image showing pathological Tau🟢 spreading in the monkey hippocampus. Neurons in 🟢 are dying, and healthy neurons in 🟣. Pathology spreads in a prion-like manner in this novel monkey model of Alzheimer we developed. How do we know that?

Could inhaling Xenon be used someday to prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease? An intriguing experimental model study shows its effect on modulating brain microglia and reducing inflammation www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cool story on an IL-33-ILC2-myeloid cell circuit that promotes tertiary lymphoid structure development in tumors #ImmunoSky 🧪⚕️ "our findings highlight IL-33 as a candidate inflammatory TLS initiator, and ILC2s as a candidate inducer, of such a pathway."

Self-regulating insulin, very cool! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ranft, J., Basan, M., ..., Prost, J., & Jülicher, F. (2010). Fluidization of tissues by cell division and apoptosis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(49), 20863–20868. #EpithelialMechanics https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1011086107

this is so cool!!!!

"Ants solving a geometric problem and it's amazing." This is a great example of 'emergent phenomenon': - None of the ants understand the problem they're solving. - None of them can see the whole shape. - A series of small decisions or rules add up to something with a new layer of complexity.

Dynamic duo at the cell's edge: Caveolae and the actin cytoskeleton work together to sense and respond to mechanical stress. Caveolae buffer tension, while actin provides structure and force. Ultimate biomechanics team. #CellBiology #Mechanotransduction

Happy holidays from the Hughes lab ✨ #fluorescencefriday

Oh wow! E.coli expressing biosilica from sponges.

🔬My first try on #FluorescenceFriday Nice detail of a tissue-cleared kidney from neonatal mice. -GFP is expressed in podocytes and pericytes. -CD31 antibody highlights the branched blood vessels and glomeruli in red

Between 800,000 and 900,000 years ago, the population of human ancestors crashed, a 2023 Science study finds. The results suggest there were only ~1280 breeding individuals during the transition between the early and middle Pleistocene. https://scim.ag/401GZSU #ScienceMagArchives

MagLOV! MagLOV is a fluorescent protein you can "turn off" with a handheld magnet, engineered by @mariaingaramo.bsky.social. We think/hope we can use it to turn arbitrary proteins (including drugs!) on and off in opaque creatures (including humans!). bsky.app/profile/addg...

I’m proud to join more than 30 colleagues today in sharing our analysis of potential risks from “mirror life”. We summarize our findings in a @science.org article, and in greater detail in a 300pg technical report: Article: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Report: purl.stanford.edu/cv716pj4036

Highlighting our recent paper on how we think doublecortin (green) contributes to growth cone biomechanics in developing neurons for #FluorescenceFriday www.cell.com/current-biol...

It's #FluorescenceFriday and this will always be one of my favorite photos I took from the hippocampus, a small, complex part of the brain that plays a key role in learning and memory. This region is involved in all my projects, plays a key role in Alzheimer and also can be affected by #NeuroCovid.

@itaiyanai.bsky.social I completely agree! However, I've noticed people sometimes misinterpret the advice to avoid rigid hypotheses and assume they don't need to have questions while generating or analyzing data

Like a river. Blood vessels. #fluorescencefriday

Late addition for #fluorescencefriday Cultured neurons (red/yellow) interacting with glia (green). Imaged by the talented undergraduate researcher Grace Haroun.

As promised, here a fast acquisition of a migrating cell videoed under a microscopy, look those membrane dynamics @ the leading edge ! Bonus: nuclear deformation once the cell rear snaps. (Fluo nucleus, for the #fluorescencefriday) @focalplane.bsky.social @cellcommlab.bsky.social #CellMigration 🧪🔬