Now out in final published form - with a new title "Mechanical control of cell fate decisions in the skin epidermis" and simulations/quantifications! See below for thread of how unbalanced tensions can bias fate choices in minimal 3D models of tissues! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How do cells navigate up gradients of adhesive proteins? 🤔 Termed "Haptotaxis", this effect is ubiquitous in cell migration, but it's mechanism was poorly understood We show that passive friction directs cells & explains complex trajectories on gradients 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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

For this #FluorescenceFriday, a gorgeous image of an adult mouse kidney labeled with AQP2 and alpha SMA antibodies. AQP2 (green) marks the collecting duct and distal connecting segment while SMA marks the arterial tree. Courtesy of talented postdoc Sarah McLarnon.

Excited we can generate nephron cells for preclinical trials. We will continue to perfect the proximal tubule model and are going deep into understanding nephron injury programs and following up on druggable targets that could solve acute kidney injury and maladaptive repair.

Are you interested on how regenerating tissues transit between stages? Am sharing here our work showing that during #Xenopus tail regeneration, tissue stiffening activates a Piezo1-Yap1 mechanosensitive cascade to allow wounded epithelia to transit into regenerative states!

A ring of cells deforms into a triangular keyhole in just 15 minutes. Meet the hindgut, a model for boundary-driven morphogenesis! Out now in @pnas.org at doi.org/10.1073/pnas... with @zhaoshh.bsky.social, Alex Jacinto, Eric Wieschaus, Stas Shvartsman, @lepuslapis.bsky.social (1/8)

Now #published @pnas.org: "A model for boundary-driven tissue morphogenesis", a great #biophysics #devbio collaboration led by @danielalber.bsky.social @zhaoshh.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2505160122 @mpipks.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de @csbdresden.bsky.social @flatironinstitute.org

Peer pressure shapes the gut: latest publication in @pnas.org by @lepuslapis.bsky.social, @zhaoshh.bsky.social from @mpipks.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de @csbdresden.bsky.social with colleagues from @flatironinstitute.org and Princeton University. www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...

Paper alert!🧪 We derive a theory that underpins interface resistance with a physical foundation and look at how it changes droplet growth and recovery kinetics! Awesome collab with @bosste.bsky.social Tyler Harmon @hymanlab.bsky.social @m-pol.bsky.social and Frank Jülicher @mpipks.bsky.social 1/4

Exciting new paper by the group of Carsten Grashoff @sfb1348.bsky.social @uni-muenster.de shows conformational change in alpha-Catenin during maturation of #epithelial junctions www.uni-muenster.de/news/view.ph...

Choose Europe for Science needs also strong postdoc fellowship funding.

How can we use cell shapes and geometry to study mechanics of tissues? I'm @juliaeckert.bsky.social, and with this thread, I would like to show you the secrets of cells and tissues. Let’s connect biology with a little bit of physics. Don't be scared and get inspired 😀. #EpithelialMechanics

(11/14) Building on this we can identify features that correlate with the observed patterning classes. The 3D patterning maps thus provide framework to systematically investigate gastruloid patterning spaces!

(1/14) I’m happy and proud to introduce: SpinePy – a framework to detect the "spine" of gastruloids and measure biological and physical signals in a local dynamic 3D coordinate system. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

EpiSci - Hi there! Our review “Mechanotransduction in stem cells” is finally published. With @carstenschulte4.bsky.social we provided a comprehensive picture, that aims to cover the whole mechanotransductive pathway from the cell microenvironment to the nucleus. 1/3 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38729084/

Chandraniva Guha Ray, Markus Mukenhirn, Alf Honigmann, Pierre A. Haas: Control of lumen morphology by lateral and basal cell surfaces https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04316 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.04316 https://arxiv.org/html/2509.04316

Control of lumen morphology by lateral and basal cell surfaces https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.04316 Chandraniva Guha Ray, Markus Mukenhirn, Alf Honigmann, Pierre A. Haas.

Big congrats to first author Syuan-Ku Hsiao, and big thanks to our collaborators Alf Honigmann, Carsten Werner, and Markus Mukenhirn (@markusmukenhirn.bsky.social)! Read the full story here: advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #CellBiology #Organoids 4/

"My school saves thousands of pounds every year from those solar panels." The TUC directly takes on Reform, a party funded by the fossil fuel Industry. Posted on IG by tradesunioncongress

Check out this new paper on programmable cell culture matrix #DyNAtrix www.linkedin.com/posts/activi...

Yesterday me and my lab celebrated #20years @mpi-cbg.de. There is a lot to say about that but the pictures from the event tell it better. Thanks city of #Dresden for the nice fireworks. That was unexpected. 10 more years or so? #LoPaTs 💕

New preprint on MDCK cysts and lumen mechanics. #EpithelialMechanics Check out @lepuslapis.bsky.social fantastic Skythread: bsky.app/profile/lepu...

The model makes a couple of additional testable (and tested!) predictions. Our work thus shows how regulation of the mechanics of all cell surfaces conspires to control lumen morphology.

The model reproduces the experimental shape instability quantitatively, explaining the observed increase of lateral contractility as a cellular response countering the instability.

We develop a mean-field vertex model that shows how the interplay of pressure, adhesion, and cortex mechanics determines the observed (in)stability of apical surfaces.

We study this interplay using MDCK cysts (with tight junction perturbations). We quantify the mechanical differences between apical, basal, lateral cell surfaces experimentally.

Formation of lumina (yes, that's the only acceptable plural) is inextricably linked to establishment of apicobasal polarity, yet it is unknown how the resulting mechanical differences between apical, basal, lateral cell surfaces determine lumen shape together with cell-cell adhesion, lumen pressure.

New #preprint: "Control of lumen morphology by lateral and basal cell surfaces", a great #biophysics collaboration with Chandraniva Guha Ray, @markusmukenhirn.bsky.social, Alf Honigmann @biotec-tud.bsky.social @poldresden.bsky.social. arxiv.org/abs/2509.04316 @mpipks.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

The moral of the story is that building the #bridge between #evolution & #morphogenesis is hard. I still think it needs a concerted push, because, to paraphrase the classic: "Everything in biology, even the #CF, starts making sense in the light of evolution." I add, it is #stuff_that_matters (12/12)

We are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)

🥳 Congratulations to our postdoc, Dr. Anna Czarkwiani @aniaczark.bsky.social, on receiving the ERC Starting Grant @erc.europa.eu! With €2 million in funding, Anna will explore the biology of gravisensation and uncover insights into related disorders. 🧠 #CMCBnews @tudresden.bsky.social #ERCStG

❤️

Dresden researchers @paveltomancak.bsky.social @bruvellu.bsky.social, Carl Modes, @cuencam15.bsky.social ‬ & colleagues published in @nature.com that a tissue fold in fruit fly embryos buffers mechanical stresses & may have evolved in response to mechanical forces. www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...

If you love cytoskeleton and tissue morphogenesis, have a read!

Patrick's paper is finally out, a label-free method to measure the composition of multicomponent biomolecular condensates!

New #preprint: "Strata of Ecological Coexistence via Grassmannians" with Türkü Özlüm Çelik, Georgy Scholten, Kexin Wang, Giulio Zucal - a great, first collaboration with #mathematics @csbdresden.bsky.social @math-mpicbg.bsky.social: arxiv.org/abs/2509.00165 @mpi-cbg.de @mpipks.bsky.social

Are different cell types like oil and water? Over a century ago, researchers found that dissociated sponges and embryonic tissues can self-assemble into functional structures. Join me, @benswedlund.bsky.social to explore the differential adhesion hypothesis & its applications in tissue engineering!

🚨pre-print alert🚨 Excited to share the latest work on how cell specific secretion of chitin controls the shape of the fly corneal lens, an #aECM structure.

I am thrilled to share the main result of our work at @nordenlab.bsky.social with @liormoneta.bsky.social and @carldmodes.bsky.social . We bridged DevBiology + theoretical physics to understand how the eye becomes round #morphogenesis #devbio #biophysics #zebrafish www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Yes, it was carefully hidden in the New England Journal of Medicine. Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1... ) 1/2

Research team @nadlerlab.bsky.social, A. Honigmann @biotec-tud.bsky.social, B.Drobot @hzdr.bsky.social, M. Hof @heyrovskeho-ustav.bsky.social develops approach to visualize lipids in cells & uncovers the main transport mechanism for lipids within the cell. @nature.com www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...

🚀 Fresh science from the BIOTEC & @tudresden.bsky.social: A collaboration between Alf Honigmann's lab and @nadlerlab.bsky.social at @mpi-cbg.de opens a new chapter in #imaging of #lipids. 🔗 Read more ➡️ tud.link/xz4e1f #CMCBnews

Now published in @natcomms.nature.com! 🥳 👉 rdcu.be/eATn3 We developed image analysis tools to capture the nematic orientation field of 3D tissue surfaces. Tested on epithelial aggregates, zebrafish hearts, myoblasts on spheres & micro-vessels, we combined soft matter physics with exp. biology.

Supracellular control and coordination of tissue morphogenesis, through supracellular actomyosin assemblies, that is what my lab @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social @pdncambridge.bsky.social and I like to dig into at the moment! Fascinating and beautiful! journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

YO, what's up with all these almost-witchcraft techniques?? In this paper, they develop a way to freeze cells so quickly that it preserves Calcium waves midway!! WHAT??? HELLO??? So now you can do 3D reconstruction of calcium waves with just a normal confocal. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Lavender gone viral at #LISH25! @paveltomancak.bsky.social is even considering it as official color for the next @embo.org #LISH27ish at @mpi-cbg.de. Now we just need to convince @ereynaud.bsky.social Looking forward to getting the gang back together! @cuencam15.bsky.social @olafselchow.bsky.social

Our work "Aquarius helicase facilitates HIV-1 integration into R-loop enriched genomic regions" is out @natmicrobiol.nature.com, showing HIV-1 integration into R-loop genomic regions upon their resolution by cellular splicing helicase Aquarius (AQR) of the Intron Binding Complex (IBC)🧵.

#NewResearch R-loops formed by RNA hybridization to DNA template strand during transcription influence HIV-1 integration into the CD4+ T cell genome. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #MicroSky @ciid-heidelberg.bsky.social @marinalusic.bsky.social