Understanding how complex, multi-scale biological systems operate in a constantly changing environment is a challenging scientific problem Join us in November for the Multi-scale Biological Adaptation to Environmental Variability workshop! www.nitmb.org/multiscale-b...

It was a pleasure to speak in the work-in-progress seminar. Thanks a lot for the invitation, and to everyone who came and gave feedback.

NSF-Simons NITMB@nitmb.bsky.social · last wk.

This week's Work-in-Progress meeting features @lwuerthner.bsky.social, NITMB Visitor and Research Scientist at @embl.org Heidelberg! Work-in-Progress meetings are a venue for members of the NITMB community to discuss planned or in-progress work

Excited to share that I'll be at the NITMB @nitmb.bsky.social and the University of Chicago as a Visiting Scholar from July to September. I'm looking forward to discussing science with the Chicago community. If you're in the area and would like to meet for a coffee chat, feel free to reach out!

How can one dynamically change the stiffness of a material? Nature knows how to do this, but would be a synthetic solution? Read our answer published in J Mech Phys Solids doi.org/10.1016/j.jm...

Here the published version of our work on uncoupling different types of tissue phase transitions during development! Find out more on how contact surface tension-driven rigidity transitions trigger tricellular junction formation and initiate epithelial organization! @natphys.nature.com

Laura Rustarazo-Calvo@laura-rustarazo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

⚡ Our paper is now out in @natphys.nature.com ! This version now includes a detailed molecular characterisation of the optogenetic perturbations, new insights on the relevance of tricellular junctions for tissue morphology, and beautiful light-sheet timelapses. 🔬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Fever - friend or foe? Happy to announce our International Marsilius Academy Feel the Heat – Science and Histories of Fever 📅 20–25 September 2026 | Marsilius Kolleg, Heidelberg ⏰ Application deadline: 14 June 2026 👉 More information and application: lnkd.in/eEmXDYgZ

Glad to see this out in its final form! www.nature.com/articles/s41... What changed since the preprint? Wonderful experiments disentangling the effect of receptor binding vs tissue porosity on Nodal diffusion, plus one of the smoothest review experiences! Thanks @natcellbio.nature.com & reviewers 🙏

Tissue rigidity phase transition shapes morphogen gradients - Nature Cell Biology

Autorino et al. report a feedback loop between Nodal signalling and tissue phase transitions in zebrafish embryos. Nodal alters adhesion, triggering tissue rigidification and reduced porosity, which l...

nature.com

Nicoletta Petridou@nicolettapetridou.bsky.social · last yr.

Here our latest work on how morphogens trigger tissue phase transitions to tune their own length-scales and time-scales - An exciting collaboration with @zhvas.bsky.social @dianakhorom.bsky.social Bernat Corominas-Murtra and heroic experiments by the incredible @cami-autorino.bsky.social @embl.org

EMBL graduated its biggest class ever at the end of April, celebrating with 60 fellows who submitted or defended their theses over the past 12 months. Representing 22 different countries, EMBL graduates continued to show a diversity in science as well as background. Congratulations graduates!

Welcome, Tony Hyman! EMBL welcomes its new Director General, Tony Hyman, as he takes up the mandate of leading EMBL's six sites. www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

Great start at #EESBioOsc 👏

EMBL Events@events.embl.org · 4mo ago

#EESBioOsc has officially begun First talks of the day by Audrey Mat, Theo Geisel and François Schweisguth about biological rhythms, human synchronization and dynamics in the drosophila eye 🧬

Our paper on inferring Wnt signals just got published with PRR! doi.org/10.1103/f7qj...
 We use ideas from efficient coding to infer the best possible set of Wnt signals for cells to respond to: these signals are discrete, and do not need to be fine-tuned. (1/n)

We have extended the abstract deadline by a week! Looking forward to seeing you many of you here!

EMBL Events@events.embl.org · 5mo ago

You now have until 10 March to submit your abstract for #EESMechanobiology: https://s.embl.org/ees26-06-bl The meeting will focus particularly on early-career researchers, inspiring and fostering collaborations to expand our knowledge of mechanobiology across kingdoms. 🌳🧬 Dates: 9 – 12 June 2026

Job offer: PhD-level biostatistician with ML&omics experience to work on prediction models for CAR T cell therapy, in an exciting clinical trial - spatial omics - data science consortium (LOOP/INTeRCePT3.0 centered in Zurich; this position in Heidelberg) embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/EMBL/j...

In a really fun collaboration with Max Wilson’s lab at UCSB, we’ve developed a simple model that can capture the non-monotonic expression of Wnt target genes with respect to frequency in periodic (optogenetic) Wnt pulses: elifesciences.org/articles/107.... Great work Sam, Olivier, Naomi and Ryan :)

Anti-resonance in developmental signaling regulates cell fate decisions

Human cells decode dynamics Wnt signals using an anti-resonant filter that suppresses intermediate-frequency inputs and is capable of redirecting developmental fate outcomes, including germ-layer spec...

elifesciences.org

Our paper titled "Geometry of disordered porous environments regulates cell migration" has been published and highlighted as Editor's Suggestion in Phys. Rev. E. doi.org/10.1103/hvtd...

✨ At this week's DB seminar, Magdalena Schindler @lena-schindler.bsky.social, a postdoc in the Petridou group @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social @embl.org, presented her work on how cell cycle synchrony affects tissue-level mechanical transitions at the onset of morphogenesis in zebrafish embryos 🐟 🔬

The first paper from my group just got published: doi.org/10.1103/cx3r... Local clustering of transcription factors at binding sites can be beneficial for information transfer -- a relief for taking infomax ideas seriously :) And it helps the binding sites achieve a sweet spot in the IB plane.

Weak Transcription Factor Clustering at Binding Sites can Facilitate Information Transfer from Molecular Signals

By analyzing bicoid regulation in the fruit fly embryo, this study shows that weak clustering of transcription factors can enable maximal transfer of information from molecular signals to downstream g...

doi.org

#HappyNewYear ! Let's start 2026 with a @cellcommlab.bsky.social paper How many branches is OK during #CellMigration? It depends on the #cell: for ex. immune cells are just fine. In collab. w. #NirGov @hfspo.bsky.social Full www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @focalplane.bsky.social @science.org 🧪🔬

Join us for #MECO51 (51st Middle European Cooperation in Statistical Physics), 18–22 May 2026 in Pont-à-Mousson, France (Abbaye des Prémontrés). Invited & contributed talks, posters & best-poster prize. meco51.sciencesconf.org

🧪⚛️ “Turing foams” in the Min system—now seen in experiment. Non-equilibrium protein currents create foam-like interfaces obeying Plateau laws and even splitting like tiny dividing cells. Stunning video from Petra Schwille’s lab; the whole story is here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Here the correct link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Protein pattern morphology and dynamics emerging from effective interfacial tension - Nature Physics

Protein patterns enable cellular processes. A general theory now identifies a non-equilibrium mechanism that generates an effective interfacial tension, shaping the geometry and intrinsic length scale...

nature.com

Liquid gears and conveyor belts: We show how the interplay between phase-separation and chemotactic interactions gives rise to persistent capillary waves that drive the formation of active “gears” and “conveyor belts”. link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/...

🧪⚛️ Surface tension—driven by non-equilibrium currents not forces—in pattern formation leads to the same type of interface laws as in liquid foams: Plateau laws, von Neumann evolution; and a new emergent phenomenon: domain splitting akin to cell division. nature.com/articles/s4156…

🧪 Geometry beats chemistry: we show that self-assembly can be controlled by tuning large-scale geometric parameters rather than molecular binding energies. PNAS: doi.org/10.1073/pnas... Video summary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FS3... #SelfAssembly #Biophysics #PhysicsOfLife

Anthony A. Hyman will become EMBL’s next Director General. He joins EMBL from @mpi-cbg.de in Dresden. He is also Professor of Molecular Biology @tudresden.bsky.social, and was a group leader at EMBL Heidelberg from 1993 to 1999. www.embl.org/news/people-...

📢 Paper alert 📢 Chirality is known to be important for the movement of microorganisms and active matter. In our new paper out today in @natphys.nature.com, we show that chirality is used by malaria parasites to control their motion patterns: doi.org/10.1038/s415... Here comes a 🧵 ... (1/9)

One more week to apply for this exciting symposium on collective behaviour 👇👇👇

EMBL Events@events.embl.org · 9mo ago

Abstract deadline extension alert! 🚨 You now have until 25 November to submit your abstract and be one of 22 selected short talk speakers for #EESCollectivity ➡️ s.embl.org/ees26-01-bl Explore how collective behaviours arise from fundamental principles across biological systems. 🦠🐒🧬

Only a few days left for abstract submission at the brand new EMBO|EMBL Symposium Collectivity in living systems: emergence, function and evolution. We have stellar speakers in cell, animal collectives & beyond @priscaliberali.bsky.social @icouzin.bsky.social @ricardsole.bsky.social Join us!

✨ Back from summer break with 2 great DB seminars @embl.org! Andrew Hogan (van Gestel group) on protist predation defences & Simon Knoblich (Aulehla group) on calcium waves in Medaka gastrulation. Exciting research happening in the DB unit 🔥 #DevelopmentalBiology

If you are interested in theory at the intersection of physics and biology, this is your chance! Andriy is a very nice and creative scientist, I can highly recommend joining his group.

Andriy Goychuk@andriygoychuk.bsky.social · 11mo ago

(1/3) I am setting up shop and will be hiring #PostDocs & #PhD students to join my independent theory group at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (@helmholtzhzi.bsky.social‬) and the Lower Saxony Center for AI and Causal Methods in Medicine.