WORK! I currently have 5 (!) open positions for postdocs/PhD students in our CDlab for projects: - Nanopore protein sequencing - Archaeal CDV cell division - Microfluidics for synthetic cells - Nuclear Pore Complex - Origami mimics of peroxisomes Please apply! ceesdekkerlab.nl/come-join-us/ RT=👍

do not think twice. Apply. 👇🏼

Interested in learning about #intelligent #active #matter? We have three open spots for presenting a poster at an international conference close to Munich. Please send an email to [email protected] before Friday noon (25.7) iam.physik.lmu.de

📣Book alert📣 Finally out with Cambridge University Press: the book by Udo Seifert on "Stochastic thermodynamics". It comprehensively covers many topics, from an introduction to statistical physics to many special subjects such as reaction networks and active particles. Highly recommended 👍👍👍

We present a theory explaining how the thymic medulla acquires its morphology. Our model shows that key interactions—thymocyte chemotaxis, selection, and signaling to epithelial cells—are sufficient to generate the observed spatial organization. | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

One of the best spots in Austria!

It was a fantastic visit in Heidelberg!

#LMUMunich expands its network of international collaborations with top-class universities.🤝🌐 The new partnership with #StellenboschUniversity offers LMU faculty and researchers excellent joint research opportunities and new scientific perspectives on the African continent. 🌍 Find out more here:

💧🌀 Active matter meets interface physics! We show how conserved active emulsions form traveling interfacial waves and self-propelling liquid gears, powered by non-reciprocal chemical interactions. 🎥 Gears & belts in motion👇 📄 arxiv.org/abs/2505.20028 #ActiveMatter #PhaseSeparation #PatternFormation

Just out in Nature Physics: Research Briefing (with Suckjoon Jun) on how Min protein oscillations in E. coli remain robust. The secret? A conformational switch that buffers change, and a fresh look at an old system through a physicist’s lens. 📘 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #patternformation

Research Briefing article with Erwin Frey (@physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social) is also out in Nature Physics. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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

My lecture “Nonequilibrium Field Theories and Stochastic Dynamics” is now on YouTube! Here a short film on my teaching philosophy. Watch lectures here: www.youtube.com/@PhysicsOfLi... #Physics #Biophysics #StochasticDynamics #NonequilibriumPhysics #SoftMatter #TheoreticalPhysics #ScienceEducation

Wanted to learn more on "Nonequlibrium Field Theories and Stochastic Dynamics". Now you can from the expert himself! @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social. Prof Erwin Frey's lecture series is now available! www.youtube.com/@physicsofli...

How do bacteria keep their internal patterns stable despite fluctuating protein concentrations? A team led by #LMU biophysicist Erwin Frey @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social & @junlab.bsky.social found that MinE proteins act as a buffer by switching between active and latent states.

New in Nature Physics! In a great collaboration with @junlab.bsky.social and my students Henrik Weyer & @lwuerthner.bsky.social, we show how Min proteins in E. coli self-organize into robust, efficient patterns ensuring accurate cell division across conditions. 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our paper on the E. coli Min system in vivo with @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social & Judy Kim (UCSD) has been published in Nature Physics today. Tight integration of experiment and theory, and physiology and biophysics. Incredible perseverance of our young students. rdcu.be/ekIpO

In an open letter of support to the President of @harvard.edu, Max Planck President Patrick Cramer @patrick-cramer.maxplanck.de has expressed his full support of the University in its stance against demands by the Trump administration to change its policies in order to retain federal funding.

Congratulations to Mehran Kardar of @MIT and Yoshiki Kuramoto of @kyotou_news on receiving the @IUPAP_physics Boltzmann Medal — the highest honor in #StatisticalPhysics 🏅 🔗 go.aps.org/4jCqbsR

Thrilled to be featured in The New York Times! @nytimes.com Fantastic piece by @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social on our discovery of the role of physical forces in evolution! With insightful comments from @wcratcliff.bsky.social!

Opportunity to work with Hannes Mutschler and Dieter Braun on the BubbleLife project The project aims to find the conditions on the young Earth that enabled molecules to form the precursors of organic life. For more info, we recently wrote an article on this project: syntheticcell.eu/erc-synergy-...

Excited to share our new paper. We show how membrane-mediated interactions stabilize protein patterns, halting coarsening. Check it out: journals.aps.org/pre/abstract...

RNA origami builds artificial cytoskeletons! A new paper in Nature Nanotech shows how folded RNA filaments can act as structural scaffolds—advancing bottom-up synthetic cells without proteins. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How does geometry shape chemical transport? Lobato-Dauzier et al. show that confinement controls how active flows enhance RD front propagation—beyond FKPP. link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/.... For a perspective on guiding cues in pattern formation see Burkart et al. in Nat Phys Rev doi.org/10.1038/s422...

Very much looking forward to the conference on "Emerging Trends in Physics of the Cell", dedicated to honoring the legacy of Erich Sackmann. 🌍 Center for Functional Protein Assemblies,TUM, Garching, Germany ⏰ Date: 15-18 October 2025 Preregistration now open! www.cpa.tum.de/cpa/conferen...

If you want to understand how cells function, you have to work out what proteins interact with — and where https://go.nature.com/4hYLaol

Looking for a reading snack? Our work is featured as a @NaturePhysics research briefing: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The European Union’s new research chief Ekaterina Zaharieva speaks to us about attracting disaffected US scientists and cutting grant bureaucracy https://go.nature.com/3FQQRaM

We have 3 openings for ambitious postdocs or PhD students in our #CDlab - for exciting single-molecule biophysics research on nuclear pores, peroxisomes, or archaeal divisomes. Check it out and apply: ceesdekkerlab.nl/come-join-us/ RT=nice!

I know it's crazy timing, nuts but Michigan Biophysics is hiring on the tenure track! App deadline is May 15. Join our interdisciplinary community. careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

Registration has started for the conference "Emerging Trends in the Physics of the Cell" in memoriam of Erich Sackmann at TU Munich from October 15-18 2025 www.cpa.tum.de/cpa/conferen...

Looking forward to an exciting conference starting tomorrow in the wonderful city of Paris 👉 activestatmech.sciencesconf.org

We may not have really squared the circle — but we came close! 😉 In our @NaturePhysics paper w/ @fakhrilab.bsky.social, light-triggered membrane excitability enables programmable shapes — a step toward engineering living matter. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #biophysics #syntheticcell #softmatter

Nice work from Guo Lab—shows how cell packing in growing lung alveolospheres transitions to hexagonal order, driven by nuclear size and tissue topology. Cool connection between geometry and biology. journals.aps.org/prx/abstract...

Liked this paper on active vesicle membranes. The synthetic system shows shape fluctuations with scaling akin to living cells—not just a visual resemblance, but statistical signatures too. Supports the idea that life-like dynamics can emerge from minimal ingredients. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Interesting new paper showing that flow patterns in collectively moving cells—from kidney cells to bacteria—exhibit conformal invariance, all fitting Schramm–Loewner evolution. A surprising level of universality across systems. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thank you to Prof. Erwin Frey for a wonderful, engaging visit to the Yale PEB and QBio institute! Special shout out to our wonderful PEB Physics PhD student hosts XJ Xu and Yu Fu!

Acoustic signaling enables collective perception and control in active matter systems https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.02940 Alexander Ziepke, Ivan Maryshev, Igor S. Aranson, Erwin Frey

Phase Separation on Deformable Membranes: interplay of mechanical coupling and dynamic surface geometry https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.16049 Antonia Winter, Yuhao Liu, Alexander Ziepke, George Dadunashvili, Erwin Frey

The German Physical Society #DPG just published a book on "Physics - insights and perspectives" (in German, title translated). It summarizes the current states of all fields of physics, including a section on "Physics and life". The PDF can now be downloaded here: physik-erkenntnisse-perspektiven.de

Had a fantastic day at Yale! It started with a colloquium on Emergence and Self-Organization in Biological Systems, followed by an interactive chalk talk on an open problem in non-equilibrium physics. I especially enjoyed the engaging discussions—it was a truly stimulating and inspiring experience!

Shaping cells with light 🔬: Scientists from #LMU and @mitofficial.bsky.social have developed a model explaining how optical stimuli induce cell shape changes via chemical and mechanical interactions, offering new perspectives for synthetic #biology. Take a deeper dive into it:

I am very happy to share that my work on active deformations of lipid vesicles is finally out in Nature Physics. A nicer thread+movies coming soon, in the meantime: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Thx to Andreas, Hammad, Dmitry, Gerhard @laynefrechette.bsky.social and everybody else who contributed!

We are organizing a conference for young researchers at the intersection between physics & biology: www.embl.org/about/info/c... @embl.org @events.embl.org @intcha.bsky.social Please consider applying/registering -- the deadline is already in one week!

Really cool conference! Abstract submission for IntCha25 deadline: March 31st, 2025

In collaboration with @fakhrilab.bsky.social we show how cell shape can be controlled with light 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📢 SAVE THE DATE: Sept 29 - Oct 1, 2025 and come to Berlin to the BIOMEMBRANE DAYS Excellent line of speakers and slots for contributed talks. Registration will open in Spring. biomembrane-days-2025.mpikg.mpg.de Organized by [email protected] Thomas Weikl and myself @mpici.bsky.social

Happy birthday to one of greatest #mathematicians of all time Emmy Noether (1882-1935), here with her eponymous theorem, the backbone of modern physics. 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬🧮🎢 #histsci Noether’s theorem links any symmetry of a system with a conservation law. In my portrait, I chose to depict a young Emmy in front 🧵

The Biological Physics Group UK is now on Bluesky! We are delighted to announce the winners of our various prizes for 2025 in our first few posts.

It has been a great week at the #DPGR25 Spring Meeting, filled with exciting presentations and posters. I am thrilled to congratulate our #BiologicalPhysics poster prize winners Severin Angerpointner @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social, Bob Fregin (Oliver Otto lab) and Dorian Marx @betzlab.bsky.social.