*New preprint alert* uncovering a mechanical pacemaker that synchronizes nephron formation with branching of the kidney's epithelial tubule tree. Read below to learn about this twisty journey lead by Sam Grindel and Sachin Davis in the lab. [Movie by Nils Lindstrom] www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

if you are attending #CellBio2025 please check out the posters from our lab @hugheslabpenn.bsky.social. The lab will have a great showing this year featuring my talented colleagues @lsprahl.bsky.social @danielalber.bsky.social and many others!

See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...

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...

🧵1/14 Preprint thread! Can we predict a cell’s fate based on its dynamics? 🔮 Our new study unveils a framework for watching development unfold in real-time, revealing how a cell's shape and movement encode info about its future fate. 🔬📄 Preprint: tinyurl.com/4shf8v4x

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...

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

📣 New preprint: Mechanochemical feedback, tissue geometry & rigid-body dynamics initiate rotational migration in Drosophila via spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. A mechanism generalizable to closed epithelia. @sreejithsanthosh.bsky.social biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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 in Phys. Rev. Lett. as an Editors' Suggestion: "Mechanics of poking a cyst" - the first paper from the PhD work of @zhaoshh.bsky.social. journals.aps.org/prl/abstract... @mpipks.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de @csbdresden.bsky.social

How many cells do you need to establish PCP? The magic number is 3! Beautiful work by Lena Basta in Danelle Devenport's lab. Happy to have contributed. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How do cells migrate without substrate, e.g. in embryogenesis, when extra-cellular matrix has not yet formed? Check out our paper in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social on zebrafish lateral mesendoderm migration, led by @stetavano.bsky.social @heisenbergcplab.bsky.social! www.cell.com/cell-reports...

I am delighted to share with you my first postdoc paper, which has now been published in @currentbiology.bsky.social! www.cell.com/current-biol... Thanks to everyone who contributed: A. Chamolly, @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social, F. Corson and @jeromegros.bsky.

New #preprint: "Euler buckling on curved surfaces" arxiv.org/abs/2503.04303 @zhaoshh.bsky.social and I ask the question that Euler left open: How does an elastic line buckle within a (general) curved surface? @mpipks.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de @csbdresden.bsky.social

New #preprint: "A model for boundary-driven tissue morphogenesis" arxiv.org/abs/2503.03688. A great collaboration with @danielalber.bsky.social @zhaoshh.bsky.social, Alexandre Jacinto, Eric Wieschaus, Stas Shvartsman. @flatironinstitute.org @mpipks.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de @csbdresden.bsky.social

Developmental systems have regions that deform actively or passively from their active neighbors. We use a ring of tissue as a model to investigate this boundary-driven morphogenesis in its biological context, learning something about gastrulation and possibly blastopore geometries in the process!

A duo of preprints on the dynamics of the first cell fate decision in mouse by Madeleine Chalifoux (first grad student in the lab!) and Maria Avdeeva (Flatiron). We use quantitative live imaging of key cell fate determinants to follow the segregation of inner cell mass and trophectoderm lineages.