Excited to share my first preprint from my PhD work in the Bement lab 🥳 💝 We discovered a previously unrecognized function of the RhoGAP RGA-3/4: RGA-3/4 directly and cooperatively binds to F-actin and reorganizes it by crosslinking actin filaments www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Molecular and cellular characterization of the interaction between the Rho GAP RGA-3/4 and F-actin

During cytokinesis in amphibian and echinoderm embryos, propagating waves of Rho activity and F-actin assembly - cortical excitability - are amplified and focused at the equatorial cortex by the mitot...

biorxiv.org

Zyxin and LPP differ in their sensing of strained actin filaments at tricellular junctions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752733v1

🧵 What if one reason fertility declines with age isn’t just genetic-but mechanical? Thrilled to share our new paper in @NatureCellBio : Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females… here’s what we found 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/11

Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females - Nature Cell Biology

Cavanaugh et al. show that embryos from aged mice have increased contractility and tissue viscosity on embryonic day 4.5, which leads to poor spreading and attachment. Similar age-associated mechanica...

nature.com

And finally—a bit of personal news: 🔬 I’m on the faculty job market this year! I’m looking for tenure-track opportunities where I can build a lab at the intersection of developmental biology, mechanobiology, reproductive biology & aging.

Kate Cavanaugh@katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🧵 What if one reason fertility declines with age isn’t just genetic-but mechanical? Thrilled to share our new paper in @NatureCellBio : Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females… here’s what we found 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/11

PAK4: A vanguard of epithelial vertex remodeling. Raghavan Thiagarajan @raghavan-thiaga.bsky.social and Jakub Sedzinski @kuba-sedzinski.bsky.social @ucph.bsky.social discuss new work by @babliadhikary.bsky.social et al. (rupress.org/jcb/article/...) in Spotlight: rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Thanks @raghavan-thiaga.bsky.social and @kuba-sedzinski.bsky.social for writing the beautiful spotlight article on our PAK4 study.

Journal of Cell Biology@jcb.org · 2mo ago

Spotlight: @babliadhikary.bsky.social et al. (rupress.org/jcb/article/...) describe the role of PAK4 in vertex remodeling, thereby maintaining epithelial integrity and barrier function. @raghavan-thiaga.bsky.social and @kuba-sedzinski.bsky.social discuss the study: rupress.org/jcb/article/...

In @jcb.org, @babliadhikary.bsky.social et al. show that PAK4 drives dynamic vertex remodeling in cells and embryos through spatiotemporal regulation of #myosin II. Inhibition of PAK4 disrupts tissue packing and compromises junctional continuity and barrier function. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Thrilled to share my first publication from my PhD is now out in Journal of Cell Biology!!!! 😇 💖 Have you ever wondered how multicellular vertices are maintained and remodeled in an epithelia? 💭 Here, we investigate the role of junctional kinase PAK4 in vertex maintenance and remodeling!

Journal of Cell Biology@jcb.org · 3mo ago

@babliadhikary.bsky.social, Higashi et al. show that PAK4 drives dynamic vertex remodeling in cells and embryos through spatiotemporal regulation of #myosin II. Inhibition of PAK4 disrupts tissue packing and compromises junctional continuity and barrier function. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

We made the cover 🤩 !! Check out this incredible painting by @kahsage.bsky.social !!

Had an amazing week @GRC signalling by adhesion receptors.!!! Great science and great people!!! Feeling rejuvenated and excited to keep doing science 🤓 P.s flight is delayed, but taking the time to decompress and catch up on some non-scientific reading 📚

I'm hiring! I have 2 open positions: 🔬 Postdoc 🧪 Research associate We study how animal multicellularity evolved by exploring the molecular logic of cell adhesion using cell biology, 'omics, and tool-building in non-model organisms. Come join us! Details and application links 👇 Please repost

Check our new paper with @glgalea.bsky.social on the mechanics of hindbrain neuropore morphogenesis www.cell.com/current-biol...

Mechanosensitive feedback organizes cell shape and motion during hindbrain neuropore morphogenesis

Pérez-Verdugo et al. show that hindbrain neuropore closure is driven by surface ectoderm actomyosin purse-string tension and active migration. These forces create reproducible patterns of cell elongat...

cell.com

Gabriel Galea@glgalea.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Delighted with this new paper. Key findings I'm most interested in following up: - Mechanical cues impact cell shape long after the cue ends, - Surface ectoderm (SE) cells have cryptic lamellipodia which may enable collective crawling, - SE becomes progressively jammed www.cell.com/current-biol...

📣 Paper alert! The Landino Lab's first peer-reveiwed research article is officially online! We are happy this work found a home in MBoC. Congratulations to Greg, and thank you to the many people who helped get us here! Check it out here: www.molbiolcell.org/doi/abs/10.1...

It was my pleasure to host @ahnaskop.bsky.social for our departmental seminar tomorrow at 12 pm in BSB1060. If you are in Ann Arbor and want to know more about mid body remanants, please join us tomorrow! It's going to be a great seminar! #mcdb #midbody #celldivison #umich @umich.edu

Postdoc position available!!! We are looking for a creative postdoc to develop independent research directions in tissue morphogenesis using embryos, stem cell/organoid systems, and quantitative imaging and/or biophysics. Here are the details: livejohnshopkins-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/person...

#Keratin 15 promotes a progenitor cell state in basal #keratinocytes of skin #epidermis. say Catherine J. Redmond, Pierre A. Coulombe and colleagues @umich.edu: rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Cytoskeleton #StemCells

Interested in cell adhesion, evolution of multicellularity, or developing tools for emerging marine models? My lab at UM is hiring a postdoc, and the application is now open: 🔗 tinyurl.com/28jvu4aa If you know anyone looking for a postdoc, please pass this along!

Post Doctoral Associate - Biology

Current Employees: If you are a current Staff, Faculty or Temporary employee at the University of Miami, please click here to log in to Workday to use the internal application process. To learn how to...

tinyurl.com

Nat Clarke@natclarke.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 My lab is hiring at all levels! Interested in animal origins & evolutionary cell biology? I'm recruiting a postdoc, PhD students & a research assistant to study the molecular evolution of cell adhesion using marine invertebrates + comparative genomics. 🔗: clarkelab.com/join/ Please repost!

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!

Hey @ascbiology.bsky.social peeps! My Tactile Mitosis talk is at 4pm tomorrow —which is one of many amazing talks on the power of art in science and education. Hope you all can make it! #sciart

Curious about what’s new in cilia/ciliated cells? Come find out at mini-symposium: Cilia Biogenesis, Structure & Function at #CellBio2025 @ASCBiology! Organised by Karl Lechtrek, Caroline Ott, Martin Engelke & @caylajewett.bsky.social — marking 25 years of cilia-in-disease discovery.

Attending #Cellbio2025? I am presenting two posters, stop by if you are interested in epithelial dynamics. Looking forward to all the amazing conversations and feedback!!

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Course - Cell & Developmental Biology of Xenopus: Gene Discovery & Disease, April 7 - 21, 2026. Application Deadline: January 16, 2026 xenbase.org/xenbase/doNe... #science #devbio #xenopus #frogs

Ever wondered how adult organs preserve epithelial barrier integrity while continuously exposed to mechanical stress? We tackled this question in our new preprint – led by our brilliant PhD student Vishnu Krishnakumar! (1/11) 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Robust pan-junctional reinforcement preserves the gut epithelial barrier under mechanical stress

Epithelia are specialized tissue barriers that safeguard the organism's internal milieu from the hostile external environment, a function critically dependent on intercellular junctions. In the colon,...

biorxiv.org

🚨 My lab is hiring at all levels! Interested in animal origins & evolutionary cell biology? I'm recruiting a postdoc, PhD students & a research assistant to study the molecular evolution of cell adhesion using marine invertebrates + comparative genomics. 🔗: clarkelab.com/join/ Please repost!

PAK4 dynamics at actively remodeling vertices 🌟 ⚡👀 Check out our recent preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

PAK4 promotes vertex remodeling to maintain epithelial integrity and barrier function

Cell-cell junctions are essential for epithelial integrity and barrier function, but the mechanisms regulating their remodeling remain unclear. Here, we investigated the role of the junctional kinase ...

biorxiv.org

Babli Adhikary@babliadhikary.bsky.social · last yr.

Our study sheds new light on how p21-activated kinase 4; PAK4 is recruited to epithelial junctions by Afadin, drives dynamic vertex remodeling in both cells and embryos.

Are you interested in how multicellular vertices resolve in epithelia? Checkout our recent bioRxiv preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (Scroll down to see some cool videos)

PAK4 promotes vertex remodeling to maintain epithelial integrity and barrier function

Cell-cell junctions are essential for epithelial integrity and barrier function, but the mechanisms regulating their remodeling remain unclear. Here, we investigated the role of the junctional kinase ...

biorxiv.org

PAK4 promotes vertex remodeling to maintain epithelial integrity and barrier function https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.02.680170v1

Great meeting as always! #ToledoCellulArt

Garcia-Mata Lab@rhopower.bsky.social · last yr.

Toledo CellulART 2025 was a success!! Inspiring talks, incredible art, old friends, new friends and beautiful weather! Thanks to @promegacorporation.bsky.social @ibidicells.bsky.social @proteintech.bsky.social , Cytoskeleton and @biologists.bsky.social !

Beautiful work!! 👏 Amazing study showing the importance of mechanical context for crucial biological processes. Also great to see research on pregnancy and women health!!

Kate Cavanaugh@katecavanaugh.bsky.social · last yr.

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 🧵...

📢 Pre-print alert 📢 We are excited to share the lab's first research article! We used our artificial cortex system to investigate how membrane composition regulates self-organized cortical dyanamics. Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Membrane composition-dependent patterning of Rho and F-actin in an artificial cell cortex

Cortical excitability, a phenomenon in which the cell cortex is dynamically patterned with waves of F-actin assembly, has been described in a variety of animal model systems, including embryos of mamm...

biorxiv.org