💡New Preprint! How does a cell control which way a membrane bends? ESCRT-III has the remarkable ability to reshape membranes and drive reverse-topology fission, yet a fundamental question has remained: what determines the direction of membrane remodeling? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Direction of ESCRT-III-dependent membrane bending emerges from bilayer asymmetry

In cells, ESCRT-III is unique in mediating fission of membrane necks from inside, a process called reverse-topology fission. Yet, in vitro, the complex primarily assembles outside membrane necks and m...

biorxiv.org

@mhakala.bsky.social shows that HRS forms bidimensional condensates onto endosomal membranes to flatten clathrin/ESCRT-0, an observation unexplained since the 2000s. Thx to Kukulski lab, @stefvass.bsky.social @colomlab.bsky.social @kaksonen.bsky.social @mishakudryashev.bsky.social rdcu.be/fihKk

Plenty of opportunities for talks, especially for early career! Don't hesitate to send an abstract!

Raphaël Clément@raphclement.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The division Physics and Life of the French Physical Society (SFP) organizes its fourth annual meeting in Lyon, July 9th & 10th! Join us and register here: phys-life-2026.sciencesconf.org Abstract submission deadline: May 30th

The division Physics and Life of the French Physical Society (SFP) organizes its fourth annual meeting in Lyon, July 9th & 10th! Join us and register here: phys-life-2026.sciencesconf.org Abstract submission deadline: May 30th

Very nice work from colleagues on the nematic organization of cellular tissues👇 Great to see such a clear focus on how parameter choices influence the analysis and the conclusions we draw, together with a detailed look at defect behavior across cell types!

Claire Dessalles@clairedessalles.bsky.social · 4mo ago

All you ever wanted to know about how to analyse the nematic nature of cellular tissues is right here 👀👇🏼! Bonus #1: we did it for many cell types and uncovered unexpected defect behavior 🐌 Bonus #2: for theoreticians looking for parameter values for your simulation🧑🏼‍💻 tinyurl.com/2s399yen

All you ever wanted to know about how to analyse the nematic nature of cellular tissues is right here 👀👇🏼! Bonus #1: we did it for many cell types and uncovered unexpected defect behavior 🐌 Bonus #2: for theoreticians looking for parameter values for your simulation🧑🏼‍💻 tinyurl.com/2s399yen

All you ever wanted to know about how to analyse the nematic nature of cellular tissues is right here 👀👇🏼! Bonus #1: we did it for many cell types and uncovered unexpected defect behavior 🐌 Bonus #2: for theoreticians looking for parameter values for your simulation🧑🏼‍💻 tinyurl.com/2s399yen

New preprint out: arxiv.org/pdf/2604.01057 Together with JF Joanny and Sudipta, we introduce a "new" kind of active phase separation inspired by experiments with motors and microtubules and based on transport of species along a polar "pump"! @manuelthery.bsky.social @lblanchoin.bsky.social

So proud of my amazing previous colleague at Yale, Sheng Chen and all the colleagues for this paper on topological control of spontaneous failure in active nematic solids! It's on @natmater.nature.com . www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Topological control of spontaneous failure in active nematic solids - Nature Materials

Topological defect quadrupoles orchestrate predictable failure patterns in active nematic solid networks.

nature.com

The @gdraqv.bsky.social "Approches Quantitatives du Vivant" is organizing its annual conference, "AQV Days 2026". 🗓️ From the 11th to 13th May 📍 At the @cnrs.fr centre of Aussois (Savoie) 👉 registration, and other practical information : 🔗 aqv-days-2026.sciencesconf.org/%60 #AQVDays2026

Saw a few papers recently in CNS injury using transgenic lines to target 'pericytes' in the CNS & broad markers that are not specific, also label fibroblasts - imprecise tools & language = assigning functions in fibrosis to pericytes when other cells like fibroblasts are primarily involved 1/4

a drawing of a stick figure next to a soap box

ALT: a drawing of a stick figure next to a soap box

media.tenor.com

Espadas, J., Souza, D. P., Hakala, M., García-Arcos, J. M., Tran, J., Kumar, A., Marcuello, C., Merino, A., ..., Toret, C. P., & Roux, A. (2025). Molecular basis for cellular compartmentalization by an ancient membrane fission mechanism. bioRxiv. #EpithelialMechanics buff.ly/OQv9qMw

Glad to see this project out! Huge effort of all and in particular Guillaume for the 3D segmentation of cells. 👏 If you are interested in how cells pack themselves in 3D, please check it out 👀 👇

Roux Lab, Geneva@rouxlab.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Guillaume Pernollet shows that epithelial cells adjust their shape to locally flatten, forming scutoids for any geometry, changing our view of cell packing. Thanks to all! @clairedessalles.bsky.social @juanmagararc.bsky.social @sciencesunige.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How does a ball of cells become an embryo? Genes matter—but physics (forces, geometry, topology) drives self-organization. Hervé Turlier's research vision on the physics of embryogenesis👇 shorturl.at/761x9 #Embryogenesis #Biophysics #Morphogenesis @college-de-france.fr @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social

Multiscale curvature!

Roux Lab, Geneva@rouxlab.bsky.social · 7mo ago

@marineluciano.bsky.social recreates intestinal Villi geometry by growing epithelial cells on wavy rolling substrates. Unexpected intrication of curvature effects is observed. Thanks to all! @caterinatomba.bsky.social @sgabriele.bsky.social @sciencesunige.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Analysis of 3D epithelial tissue packing reveals correlated patterns of cell height and skewing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.14.699560v1

Cells can sense the geometry of their environment, from tiny subcellular features to whole-tissue patterns. How can we engineer environments to systematically probe these responses? 🧵 I'm @lhinderling.bsky.social from @olivierpertz.bsky.social lab, let’s do a short tour on microfabrication!

If you or your trainees are just getting started with image analysis of cells & are #CellProfiler -curious, here is a fairly thorough walk-through demo I did recently. Loading files, extracting metadata (fun with Regex!), identifying objects, measuring, filtering, QC, exporting: youtu.be/fO5nJdhj_7I

Introduction to CellProfiler - by a biologist, for biologists!

YouTube video by CellMorphoJSero

youtu.be

Exciting new #Zebrafish research from the #WeinsteinLab, led by Jong Park! “Specialized gas-exchange endothelium of the zebrafish gill” — www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Amazing to see red blood cells moving through the gills! Don’t forget to check out the supplemental movies ;-)

New preprint! Do you like ocean waves? We found similar waves on bacterial colonies! We found that this collective behavior, known as rippling, is nothing but surface waves on an active nematic. @princeton.edu @mpipks.bsky.social @ub.edu @icreacommunity.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Super excited to start as an ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona! Really happy to join fantastic colleagues at @icreacommunity.bsky.social and @ub.edu. www.icrea.cat/community/ic...

📢Internships on cellular nematics! 🔬Come for the pretty images, stay for the cool physics: each project combines in vitro experiments with advanced microscopy and image analysis. 📧Feel free to DM or email me with any questions.

New paper from the @rouxlab.bsky.social on Nature Communications! We study how membrane tension is spatially organized in cells. Using the mechanosensitive probe Flipper-TR to visualize tension across the plasma membrane of adherent cells and to dissect the conditions needed for a gradient to happen

Tissue stress measurements — our latest preprint is out: arxiv.org/abs/2512.00550 (publication coming soon!) Fantastic work by the three musketeers — @luanger.bsky.social, @andreasschoenit.bsky.social and @fanny-wodrascka.bsky.social — in collaboration with P. Marcq!

Tissue stress measurements with Bayesian Inversion Stress Microscopy

Cells within biological tissue are constantly subjected to dynamic mechanical forces. Measuring the internal stress of tissues has proven crucial for our understanding of the role of mechanical forces...

arxiv.org

New preprint from the lab!!🎉 We show that Asgard archaea ESCRT-III proteins can trigger membrane fission and reveal its molecular mechanism, offering clues to how these cells may have built internal compartments. But do these organisms even have these compartments? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Molecular basis for cellular compartmentalization by an ancient membrane fission mechanism

The emergence of cell compartmentalization depends on membrane fission to create the endomembrane compartments. In eukaryotes, membrane fission is commonly executed by ESCRT-III, a protein complex con...

biorxiv.org

Vous faites des études de physique mais vous ne savez pas quel métier faire ? J'ai rédigé pour la Société française de physique @sfp-physique.bsky.social une description de nombreux métiers accessibles, à travers les témoignages de celles et ceux qui les exercent. www.metiersdelaphysique.fr

Hi, I’m David Brückner @davidbrueckner.bsky.social. I’ll take you through how cells in a tissue can use information distributed by biochemical gradients to make decisions, and how we can measure such positional information. buff.ly/RFxVeHh

Microfluidic pumping with active nematics! Self-organized and self-sustained. No external pumps. @pnas.org @ub.edu www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #ActiveMatter #Microfluidics #SoftMatter

Active nematic pumps | PNAS

Microfluidics involves the manipulation of flows at the microscale, typically requiring external power sources to generate pressure gradients. Alte...

pnas.org

Launching celldynamicslab.com, the homepage of our new group at EPFL working on cell fragmentation, membrane and cortex mechanics, FLIM imaging, and microfluidics tools. MSc/PhD or postdocs interested in quantitative cell biology are welcome to reach out. We're also hiring a lab manager in 2026!

Amazing story 😍 Just scan through it. Sophisticate, delicate and elegant 💥 Will read it in details again when time allows😋

Campàs Lab@campaslab.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Really excited to present the results of a fantastic collaboration with Jesse Veenvliet @jesseveenvliet.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social 🤩 We find a unique mechanism for body axis elongation in mammals, different from other vertebrate species ➡️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...