Vertebral skeletal diversity in mammals is remarkable. How do the differences between vertebral size and shape develop and evolve? See how we tackled this question in our paper published in @natcomms.nature.com today!

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

New preprint from the lab! We discovered a transient fluidization in the basal region of human forebrains by tracking microdroplets in cerebral organoids.This “basal fluidization”, absent in gorilla and mouse, may contribute to greater surface expansion in human forebrains 1/ doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧠 Join us @uzh-ch.bsky.social ! We are a new lab looking for PhDs, Postdocs & Master’s students interested in studying how human neural systems emerge & go awry using brain organoids, light-sheet imaging & genomics. 🚀 Deadline for LSZGS 1st Nov! www.lifescience-graduateschool.uzh.ch/en.html.

First, check out my recent bioRxiv preprint w/ @oweinerlab.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We find contractility shifts the proportion of implantation-competent embryos from young and aged females. Keep reading this for more info!

Our latest preprint! Into morphogenesis, Yap, ECM, signaling, vertex models, feedbacks/robustness? There is something here for everyone. We discovered a positive feedback loop that extends inner ear canals, and a built-in mechanism that shuts it down when morphogenesis is done. tinyurl.com/464wsjhd

🚨 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/... 🧪

(1/10) I am excited to finally share our work on avian left/right symmetry breaking with you. We reveal a tissue-scale active torque dipole generated at the Hensen’s node, thanks to crazy experiments by Julia @juliapfanzelter.bsky.social and some analysis by me. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

This postdoc position is still open! Apply if you want to come work with us on asymmetric cell divisions in spiralian embryos! postdocs.stanford.edu/prospective/...

🚨 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...

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...

📣 Symposium 2050 at the University of Zurich Join us for this event exploring emerging directions in life sciences, presented by a diverse group of leading experts. Free and open to all! More info/register: ema.uzh.ch/RTTHF

That is a great reason for a first post! With a few days of delay, I am proud to share that my postdoc work at the @heisenbergcplab.bsky.social has finally been published on @cp-cellreports.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... Now a small (or maybe not) thread about the work!

Stoked to present our latest, superbly led by Chris et al & @torres-sanchez.bsky.social We tackled a fundamental problem – how tissues are patterned during development – found that geometry-constrained ECM fractures pattern the myocardium in the vertebrate heart 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...