How do phototactic microorganisms navigate structured light fields? 🦠🔬 We show that their motion depends on both the light gradient and a memory of illumination. By exploiting this, we can guide and confine microalgae using tailored light patterns. @comedialkb.bsky.social arxiv.org/pdf/2601.07741

ECM as a cell-cycle brake. Led by Liyuan Sui (Dahmann lab), we show that the ECM gates Yorkie nuclear entry to halt proliferation at final size via G2 arrest in the Drosophila wing disc. Programmed ECM degradation later enables re-entry + proper adult wing size. Link 👇 #Mechanobiology #ECM

New paper out: AFM-tip fluctuations inside the actin cortex reveal that effective temperature can remain unchanged while time-irreversibility/entropy production drop (turnover inhibition). #CellMechanics #ActiveMatter #Nonequilibrium @poldresden.bsky.social @tudresden.bsky.social

🎉Exciting findings out today in Nature @nature.com from the PoL group of Jan Brugués @brugueslab.bsky.social! The authors describe a new mechanism driving cell division during early development in #zebrafish, fundamentally altering our view of the process. Read the press release: tud.link/2s3bxj

Apply for a PhD in Singapore at NUS! Deadline Jan 12. I'm recruiting: Here with Mechanobiology Institute: www.mbi.nus.edu.sg/education/gr... and Here with Biomedical Engineering dept: cde.nus.edu.sg/bme/

Interested in the biophysics of organoids? We just published a review in Dev Cell—take a look! dlvr.it/TPyTb8 #Organoids #Biophysics

Curious to read about the 'Physical Basis of Sarcomere Assembly'. Here are some thoughts from @friedrich-group.bsky.social and me - you might learn the difference between nematic and smectic order in biological assemblies pubs.aip.org/aip/bpr/arti...

🏋️Our review on how to build muscle is out in @biophysicalreviews.bsky.social: The Physical Basis of Sarcomere Assembly. We critically review past models and discuss a new mechanism that unifies past ideas, suggesting tension-driven self-organization. With @frankschnorrer.bsky.social & Kolley-Köchel

I was trying to get in the christmas vibe despite the overwhelming end of the year...but then I bumped into the videos of @acapellascience.bsky.social and I fill much more ready now... www.youtube.com/shorts/bGqDO...

🚨Job Opportunity for #Postdocs! We’re searching for a talented postdoctoral scientist to join our team, and explore meiotic spindle self-organization at the crossroads of biology and physics 🔬👩‍🔬 🔗 Curious? Apply now: tud.link/7fmgeg 🗓️ Deadline: January 14, 2026 Please share with your network!

Computersyste­me einfacher programmieren: 🧑‍💻 TUD-Prof. Jerónimo Castrillón-Mazo wird mit dem hochdotierten @erc.europa.eu Consolidator Grants gefördert. Sein Projekt COMETH soll neue Tools entwickeln, die die Programmierung von Computersystemen vereinfachen. ℹ️ tu-dresden.de/tu-dresden/n...

🎉 Huge congrats to Caroline & Yasmin, our brilliant 'Physics of Life' MSc students @cmcb-tud.bsky.social, who were honored on Friday by TUD @tudresden.bsky.social for ranking among the top graduates last year 🏆 Fantastic work! Learn more about the awardees here: tud.link/fb4g67

Congratulations to sky-less Yasmin Abdelghaffar (2nd from right), who received an Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus Award for her MSc studies as one of the top-4 graduates of the School of Science at @tudresden.bsky.social @cmcb-tud.bsky.social. Congratulations and keep up the great work!

Delighted to announce “Hydrodynamic Approaches to Active Matter: Successes and Future Challenges”, will now take place on 6–10 October 2025 at @mpipks.bsky.social, on the occasion of John Toner’s 71st birthday. We hope you will join us. www.pks.mpg.de/haam26

Have you submitted your abstract for #EESCollectivity? No? It's about time! This new event will discuss how collective behaviours arise from fundamental principles across biological systems, from cells to animal groups. 🦠🐾 👉 Join us and submit your abstract by 18 Nov: s.embl.org/ees26-01-bl

🎉 Exciting news! PoL PIs are involved in a new Research Training Group: “The Biological Making of Materials”. With interdisciplinary research at the forefront, this new wave of PhD students will decipher the mechanisms by which organisms produce functional materials and regulate their properties 🔬

Die @dfg.de richtet an der #TUDresden das Graduiertenkolleg „The Biological Making of Materials” ein. Über einen Zeitraum von fünf Jahren werden damit mehrere Millionen Euro für Forschung zu nachhaltigen Materialien zur Verfügung gestellt. ℹ️ tu-dresden.de/tu-dresden/n...

Exciting application of our programmable #CellCulture matrix #DyNAtrix. By creating a mechanically reconfigurable microenvironment, we can now invert & guide epithelial cell polarity in real time. #DNAnanotech 1/ 🧵

🎉Paper alert! How do #axolotls regrow their limbs to match their body size? A new publication by PoL @friedrich-group.bsky.social along with @tatianasg.bsky.social @crtd-tud.bsky.social shows that opposing morphogen gradients scaling with animal size are key. Curious? Read our news: tud.link/z6tj5y

Axolotl can regrow lost limbs, matching their body size. How? Our new theory-experiment paper in @pnas.org proposes how oppositely oriented morphogen gradients scaling with animal size promote proportional growth. Great collaboration with @tatianasg.bsky.social @cmcb-tud.bsky.social

Great meeting in Shenzhen by @asm.org and SIAT! Really appreciated the microbiology insights — amazing how central microbes are to so many of today’s challenges. @vscooper.micropopbio.org @rebeleinlab.bsky.social @helgebode.bsky.social @friedrich-group.bsky.social www.greeninger-chemistry.com/

Why do secondary #tumors go for #MET during the metastatic cascade? Our new study suggests that immune evasion—rather than faster proliferation—might give them the edge. 👉 cell.com/iscience/ful... #CancerResearch #TumorBiology #Immunology #Metastasis

How do individual proteins sculpt the epithelial basement membrane? Our new study uncovers their role in network structure, nematic alignment & fractal patterns. 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #CellBiology #ECM #BasementMembrane

Fabulous job call @tudresden.bsky.social @cmcb-tud.bsky.social @dcgenomecenter.bsky.social is looking for a new head. Post is for two years in the first instance, remunerated at group leader level with lots of opportunity to drive development and science www.verw.tu-dresden.de/StellAus/ste...

Sarcomeres are the contractile units of muscle 💪. During development, sarcomeres divide to add new sarcomeres - out now and on the cover. Great work by @clementrodier.bsky.social Ian Estabrook @frankschnorrer.bsky.social at @ibdm.bsky.social & @poldresden.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1126/scia...

🎉Paper alert! Congratulations to the Friedrich group at PoL @friedrich-group.bsky.social and collaborators for their new findings (+cover!) published in Science Advances. They reveal a novel mechanism for muscle growth via division of sarcomeres, throughout myofibrils Learn more: tud.link/35mkgk

Wonderful theory-experiment collaboration with @frankschnorrer.bsky.social on muscle growth: by detecting and analyzing thousands of sarcomeres, we discovered a mechanism of tension-driven sarcomere addition: a mother sarcomeres divide daughter sarcomeres - now out: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Outstanding success: 🎉 #TUDresden shines with 5 Clusters of Excellence. @dfg.de & @wissenschaftsrat.de announced that decision today. TUD has impressively proven its claim to be a top university for the 21st century. ℹ️ tu-dresden.de/tu-dresden/n...

The #ClustersOfExcellence have been selected: today, the Excellence Commission approved 70 projects for funding. 45 clusters will continue and 25 will be newly established. Funding starts on 1 Jan 2026 for 7 years, with €539 million per year. The full list: www.dfg.de/resource/blo... 1/3

Good news: there will be 3 scholarships available for Physics of Life MSc students starting in 2025! ✅ €300/month for 1 year ✅ No separate application—admitted students are automatically considered. Apply now ➡️ tud.link/vejrmx #Biophysics #PhysicsofLife #StudyinGermany #Masters #Biology

One week left to apply to the Physics of Life MSc this year! Students learn first-class research skills and can also avail of #scholarships to aid their studies. Learn more and apply: physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/career-educa... #internationalstudents #MSc #EnglishMSc #Physics #studyabroad

Delighted that our work on positional memory is now published. We asked how axolotl cells 'know' which part of the limb to regenerate after injury. www.nature.com/articles/s41... A joy to work with super team Sarah Plattner, Yuka Sugiura, Francisco Falcon and Elly Tanaka. 🧵1/14

Die #Exzellenzcluster stehen fest: Heute hat die Exzellenzkommission 70 Projekte zur Förderung ausgewählt. 45 Cluster werden fortgesetzt, 25 neu eingerichtet. Die Förderung beginnt ab 1. Jan. 2026 für 7 Jahre, die Fördersumme beträgt insg. 539 Mio. €/Jahr. Die Liste: www.dfg.de/resource/blo... 1/3

Fully-funded PhD position at @poldresden.bsky.social in Dresden, Germany, to theoretically study sarcomere self-assembly in muscle cells, in collaboration with the experimental group of Frank Schnorrer @frankschnorrer.bsky.social More information here: physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/friedrich

🚀 Looking for an #HFSP ally? We’ve got you covered with #AtomicForceMicroscopy, #CellCulture, #Mechanobiological #Modeling, & more! 🤝 Interested? Let’s connect! 📧 Details 👉 physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de #Collaboration

It’s the #filopodia, stupid! 🚀 We just released our new study uncovering how filopodia and hydrostatic #pressure contribute to the regulation of #membrane #tension. 👉 Check it out on bioRxiv: biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cellbiology #biophysics #actin #mechanobiology

A fantastic collaboration between PoL members @stefandiezlab.bsky.social and @friedrich-group.bsky.social published now in @naturephysics.bsky.social - well done to all involved! 🎉🤓 Check out the official CMCB press release below:

I'm looking for a talented+motivated person to join my team at the #MechanobiologyInstitute @NUS for a #postdoc. If you're interested in investigating collective cell behavior during 3D tissue #morphogenesis with me, please apply here or PM for Qs. Please RT! careers.nus.edu.sg/job/Research...

New preprint from the lab on #coral larval light responses, including ciliary arrests and body-wide contractions. Led by Emelie Brodrick, in collaboration with @micromotility.bsky.social#coral #biology #cilia @ERC_Research #hfsp https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.06.636794v1

Preprint: How do axolotl regrow lost limbs that match the size of the organism? A model of coupled morphogen dynamics & tissue growth suggests that some morphogen parameters should scale with animal size, but stay constant during regeneration, i.e. show static scaling www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fantastic work done by PoL PI @fischerfriedriclab.bsky.social with the Dahmann lab, published in Development @dev-journal.bsky.social earlier this month. Well done to all involved in this collaboration!

We invite you to submit your latest research to our special issue - Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease. This issue will be coordinated by two Guest Editors: Pleasantine Mill @cilialab.bsky.social and Lotte Pedersen @lottepedersen.bsky.social. journals.biologists.com/jcs/pages/ci...

It turns out that #EggChamber #elongation and rotation can be decoupled in #Drosophila egg chamber #morphogenesis - check out our recent collaborative work with the Dahmann lab. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/... . Congrats to Akanksha Bhatt and Valentin Ruffine 👏🥳

📣 Excited to receive the 💥 NSF CAREER 💥 Award. Our group is looking for PhD students and postdocs interested in the Nonlinear Dynamics and the Physics of Living Systems, with support from NSF, HFSP, and other sources. We’d appreciate your help in spreading the word! @ucsdphysci.bsky.social

4 places left! Workshop "Biophysics of Motile Cilia": Topics: #axoneme mechanics, #synchronization, #navigation, #ciliopathies, ... Meet us in Bad Honnef, Germany, 30.03.-02.04.2025 www.we-heraeus-stiftung.de/veranstaltun...

"Biophysics of Motile Cilia" Heraeus workshop: program online! Application deadline: 12.01.25. Topics: #axoneme #synchronization #navigation #ciliopathies ... Bad Honnef, Germany, 30.03.-02.04.2025 www.we-heraeus-stiftung.de/veranstaltungen/the-biophysics-of-motile-cilia-from-structure-to-function

Muscles growth by sarcomere divisions - how your muscles add new sarcomeres during developmental growth: they divide! Cool collaboration @friedrich-group.bsky.social @raunser-lab.bsky.social @Dirk Görlich @univ-amu.fr @cnrs.bsky.social sciencecast.org/casts/aspy9l... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How does a single cell know to become a heart, a brain, or a toe? 🤔 The answer lies in the world of morphogens! For episode 3 of our #PoLComic, we explore the importance of these fascinating molecules in our bodies during development. Read more here: physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/news-events/...

💡When light changes speed as it enters a new medium, it bends—bringing microscopic details in (or out) of focus. For our next #PoLComic episode, we explore refraction in microscopy🔬 See the full version at: physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/news-events/... #Comic by artist Jon Chad: www.jonchad.com

Why are all bubbles spheres, and what is surface tension? 🫧🔍 Learn the answers to these questions in episode 2 of our #PoLComic! Created by artist Jon Chad, our comics aim to explain complex #biophysics concepts for all ages. Read the full series: physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/news-events/...