Collective migration is not just about leaders at the front, but about coordination across the group. Always exciting to see these dynamics visualized. Many thanks to @jcb.org for featuring our work 🐸🔬🌹

Of the many impressive acrobatic qualities of cats, perhaps their most spectacular is their ability to right themselves midair so they always seem to land on their feet. The trick lies in a hyperflexible region of their backbone known as the thoracic spine, a new study finds. https://scim.ag/4rlHodw

a temporary addition to the campus architecture..

What music should we play to our cells? This was the start of an amazing journey from @ivaskalab.bsky.social at @turkubioscience.bsky.social with Jasmin Kaivola and collaborators @sarawickstrom.bsky.social and others to explore larynx cancer mechanosensitivity! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Snowy night @brownengineering.bsky.social

Today at Cell: A new #HallmarksofCancer review by Doug Hanahan: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... This review marks 25 years since the original seminal Cell review by Hanahan & Robert Weinberg and its impactful follow up in 2011. @cp-cell.bsky.social @cellpress.bsky.social

and the Brown news release on our Nature Physics paper: www.brown.edu/news/2026-01...

Published online today in Nature Physics - we show how multicellular spheroids round up and orbit, driving a deterministic transition to 3D matrix invasion at predictable locations. Amazing work from @jiwon-kim.bsky.social, @htjeong.bsky.social and collaborators www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cell viscosity influences haematogenous dissemination and metastatic extravasation of tumour cells go.nature.com/4jZ8OUu

In @jcb.org, Diaz & @mayorlab.bsky.social show that epithelial & mesenchymal cells navigate chemical cues via fundamentally different force-generating mechanisms, offering new insight into how diverse cell types achieve collective movement during development and disease. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

This octopus-camouflage inspired polymer can change colour and texture

Our paper describing the development of ShapeSpaceExplorer is now out: journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... The software and documentation is available here: github.com/cmcb-warwick... Explainer thread below.

I'm very happy to share my first article as a corresponding author published in @natmethods.nature.com !! 😍 Some groups (like us) have developed complex 3DTFM methods in the last 15 years. BUT its usage in studies that help better understand disease or development has been almost non-existent.

Belated post on lab alum Susan Leggett Ph.D. '18, featured by Matter as an emerging investigator in materials under 35. @brownengineering.bsky.social www.cell.com/matter/fullt...

I like this movie, but a friend of mine likes to complain about the obvious stitching artifacts. I'll try harder next time, Michael. Vimentin (orange) and ER (blue) in an overnight acquisition.

New paper alert! We report that #zebrafish endodermal cells use contact inhibition of locomotion as a dispersal and spacing mechanism. It’s a neat example of large-scale patterns emerging from local interactions using a simple set of rules. Summary in the thread below 1/9 doi.org/10.1016/j.is...

Beautiful visualization of cancer cell metastatic colonization depicted by Brown's undergrad-led SciToons program @weldeiry.bsky.social #LegorretaCancerCenter www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8P-...

In their Tools and Resources article, Nina Grishchenko, Michael Olson and colleagues present Toogle-Untoogle, a cell segmentation tool with an interactive user verification interface. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

The domestic cat may be a far more recent arrival to Europe than previously thought, a new Science study. finds. The results offer new insight into one of humanity’s most enigmatic animal companions and identify North Africa as the cradle of the modern housecat. Learn more: https://scim.ag/44kov1S

Still posting cytoskeleton videos, it seems. Actin this time. Sample: Lifeact-eGFP in HeLa cells. Modality: Airyscan confocal Timestamp is mm:ss and the scale bar is 5 µm.

The law of the jungle. Interactions of cells in a collective lead to global rotation. In 80% of the case HUVEC cells turn clockwise. How many cells does it take for this to happen?

I guess it never gets old...bc we love #CellMigration ATP has many roles: energy currency, hydrotrope, and *danger signal* Immune cells are faster after ATP exposure, F-actin (cyan) goes to the rear for nitro boost! www.science.org/doi/full/10.... @focalplane.bsky.social #fluorescencefriday 🧪🔬

Flashback #FluorescenceFriday to some of the first light-sheet imaging we were doing. Video shows the collecting duct system of the developing kidney labeled with a pan-cytokeratin antibody. Courtesy of former talented technician Deanna Hardesty.

What a crazy cool paper! First author @pierreucla.bsky.social with a large crew knocked it out of the park. (GIF below from @the.3i.social LLS) Quantifying cell traction forces at the single-fiber scale in 3D: An approach based on deformable photopolymerized fiber arrays www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Comment by Prof @icouzin.bsky.social that explores how collective intelligence emerges from local interactions in animal groups, and how these principles inform the design of swarm robotic systems. @natureportfolio.nature.com @natcomms.nature.com #robotics www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Honored to present last week at the Korea-US Collaborative Research Fund Investigator Meeting (kufhls.org) Delighted to share our consortium's vision for bioengineering tumor models, alongside many stimulating talks by Korean and U.S. researchers on biotechnology

Postdoc Jiwon Kim from the @ianywonglab.bsky.social was named one of 30 female Rising Stars in MechE, and invited to a workshop to develop career skills, connect with a cohort of peers, and engage with mentors in anticipation of future careers in academia. engineering.brown.edu/news/2025-10...

Wong lab members are off to the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) 2025 Meeting in San Diego! Looking forward to presenting our latest work #BMES2025, @brownengineering.bsky.social @jiwon-kim.bsky.social @htjeong.bsky.social

New Online! The advent of confocal laser scanning microscopy in biological research

I’m not sure as a community we **truely** acknowledged how powerful the #CellMigrationSeminarSeries series was at keeping us connected at such an uncertain time. Thank-you @ankita13jha.bsky.social @adamshellard.bsky.social @drjenmitchell.bsky.social & @simplythebex.bsky.social

University of Wisconsin-Madison feature on Dhananjay Bhaskar PhD '21: engineering.wisc.edu/news/focus-o...

I use a video of #Maru in my talks on confined migration- @retof.bsky.social sent it to me ‘this cat looks like your cells’. 😂 I always have yo explain who #Maru is!

New perspective in @jcb.org by @maikbischoff.bsky.social & @mayorlab.bsky.social about how mesenchymal cells use contact-dependent rules to generate swarm-like behaviors, patterns & organ forms. rupress.org/jcb/article/... #CellBio #CellMigration #Morphogenesis #Development #Science

📕 Our Intermediate Filaments collection explores recent advances in intermediate filament research, focusing on lamins, keratins and vimentin. Explore new and recent JCB studies to accompany this week's European Intermediate Filament Meeting 👉 rupress.org/jcb/collecti... #Euro-IF

In squash, the nick shot is nearly impossible to return—the ball hits the corner and doesn’t bounce. 🎾 In a new Science Sessions episode, Roberto Zenit explains the physics behind it and its surprising link to safety gear. Listen: www.pnas.org/post/podcast...

Expression of vimentin intermediate filaments in epithelial cells promotes cell migration and cell matrix interaction in 3D https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.18.677142v1

A full-scale renovation of Prince Lab, transforming it into a dynamic and central campus hub for project-based learning, cutting-edge research and engineering innovation, will be launched by Brown University, with a generous gift from the Lassonde Family Foundation. www.brown.edu/news/2025-09...

Happy Postdoc Appreciation Week to all of our postdocs! #PostdocAppreciationWeek

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.

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition or EMT is an integral part of development in animals. In this beautifully illustrated review from the lab of Magali Suzanne, they describe and compare and contrast the cellular mechanism of EMT across the different model organisms. doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

New findings in Science suggest that rodents owe much of their evolutionary success to their thumb-nail (the first digit, D1), an adaptation that gave them dexterous hands for cracking seeds and nuts. Learn more in this week's issue: https://scim.ag/46caVho

Our September issue is here! rupress.org/jcb/issue/22... Airyscan super-resolution immunofluorescence image of HeLa cells stained for two types of intermediate filaments: vimentin (magenta) & keratin-8 (cyan). From Pasolli, @joycemeiri.bsky.social, Akhmanova et al. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Automated optogenetic control of hundreds of cells in parallel. Each cell is individually steered, collectively acting as a "tissue printer". Preprint & code out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cells are particularly good at solving mazes, according to a 2020 Science study that demonstrates how they are able to navigate long and complicated routes through the body using self-generated chemoattractant gradients. Learn more: https://scim.ag/45HBSZM #ScienceMagArchives

This is an airyscan confocal movie of mitochondria (white) moving around in a mouse astrocyte. Actin filaments are in orange and microtubules are in blue.

We all need mentors, and the further we go in our careers, the more mentors we need. Whether it’s dealing with increasingly complex career situations, considering a career transition, or coping with a career ending, mentors can be an essential source of wisdom and support.

Remebering Paul Kulesa (1962–2025) We honor Dr. Paul Kulesa, whose pioneering work on neural crest cell development has profoundly impacted neuroscience and pediatric cancer research. His loss has deeply impacted the Developmental Biology community and everyone he graced with his presence in life.

Circulating tumor cells: Blood-based detection, molecular biology, and clinical applications