It was fun writing a perspective about recent work from Fridtjof Brauns, Nikolas Claussen & Boris Shraiman on how tissues can flow without fluidizing: Dynamic control of interfacial tension drives convergent extension, combining instruction & self-organization www.condmatjclub.org/jccm_july_20...

Our CEO, Claire Moulton, is retiring this week. We will miss Claire’s leadership – her enthusiasm and innovative approach have supported the Company through many major projects – but we wish her all the best for her well-deserved retirement. www.biologists.com/stories/a-bi...

A big thank you to Claire Moulton

We are saying goodbye to Dr O. Claire Moulton this week, who is retiring from her role as CEO of The Company of Biologists. We’d like to take this opportunity to look back at Claire’s career and her i...

biologists.com

Just approved an order for standard lab consumables. Prices have nearly doubled since starting the lab. Meanwhile, the bar for publishing keeps rising, requiring ever more costly experiments, while grant budgets barely changed. Hard to see how this is a sustainable trajectory for academic research.

Double preprint! 👇 Check out our latest studies on timing, heterogeneity and collective behaviour (with a fun tiny bonus on evolution!) 1. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 2. arxiv.org/abs/2605.13234

Cellular timing heterogeneity regulates phase transitions in living matter

Rigidity transitions govern tissue organization in ways reminiscent of inert materials. Yet, living tissues are composed of active units with autonomous timing mechanisms, raising the question whether...

biorxiv.org

Lena Schindler@lena-schindler.bsky.social · last mo.

I am thrilled to share my PhD work with @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social @embl.org: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... A fun collaboration with Bernat Corominas-Murtra, Adrián Aguirre-Tamaral, @bart-smeets.bsky.social , Jef Vanghel and Tom Belpaire! Read the story in the comments below ⤵️

We are thrilled to announce our new preprint from the wonderful @sorayavillaseca.bsky.social Ever wondered how cells squeeze through tiny spaces in embryos? Neural crest cells use Dynein to transport their nucleus along microtubules. Check out the preprint!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It was a pleasure to host @glgalea.bsky.social for a seminar today @dcu-lsi.bsky.social. Gabe gave a very enganging talk linking neural tube closure with stochastic asymmetries in embryo geometry and developmental robustness. Thank you all for joining!

We are pleased to welcome 8 new fellows to our Pathway to Independence programme. Welcome Maëlle Bellec, @iamzico.bsky.social, @evhealy.bsky.social, @josepmercadal.bsky.social, @nikhil-mishra.bsky.social, Jessica Perochon, Yamini Ravichandran & Margherita Zamboni. Read more⤵️ tinyurl.com/4bk4wrk7

I'm so pleased to see this work on neural crest development out in Nature today! This was a truly fantastic collaboration with @gleesonlab.bsky.social, Keng loi (Harry) Vong and @xiaoxuyang.bsky.social. Huge thanks to everyone involved 👏 🧪🐣 #devbio www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share our new publication on the mechanics of cranial neural tube closure. A really enjoyable and fruitful collaboration bridging Developmental Biology and biophysical modelling. Take a look here! 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

We‘re looking for a motivated Master student to join our team! Do you want to optogenetically control metabolic activity to see how metabolism affects patterning and morphogenesis? 💡🧫🧬🔬 Then please apply! #optogenetics #metabolism #devbio #hESCs Please RT. Thank you!🙏

Institute of Molecular Biotechnology@imbavienna.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Apply to the Master’s project position at IMBA: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/imba/career-education/open-positions/pos2607-masters-project #research #jobs #europe #biology

New paper alert!🤩Super proud that our story led by superstar postdocs @liujinghui.bsky.social and @nerlielisa.bsky.social is finally out! We found how electrical signals are key for promoting organ regenerative growth!!! A thread 🧵https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aec0687

Injury-induced electrochemical coupling triggers organ growth

Organ repair and growth rely on coupling tissue-wide membrane depolarization with intracellular proliferative signaling.

science.org

Job alert! 📣 I’m looking for a research assistant to join my new team @idrm.ox.ac.uk Were using #zebrafish to understand gene-environment interactions that shape the heart 🫀generate natural diversity 🐸🐭 and contribute to congenital defects ❤️‍🩹 Full info below, and please share! 🫶🏻 bit.ly/467TO0M

It was our pleasure to have @emaniou.bsky.social at @universitypress.cambridge.org talking about her recent ongoing work as a group leader in @dublincityuni.bsky.social.

Looking forward to this meeting. Early bird registration encouraged!!

SEBD@sebioldev.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Early bird registration deadline of our joint meeting in Potsdam between March 10-13, 2026 - “Joint international meeting of the German @gfeev.bsky.social, Dutch (DSDB), and #SEBD for #DevBio “Development & Regeneration” is approaching fast. Please apply before the 15th of January!

There's still time to apply to be a 2026 @dev-journal.bsky.social Pathway to Independence fellow For those about to apply for their first independent academic position, the programme offers - mentoring - leadership training - profile rising - networking journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pi...

Super cool work spearheaded by the amazing @agrigas.bsky.social! Excited for this collaboration with @manningresearch.bsky.social and for everything still to come! 🎉 Also thank you to @emaniou.bsky.social and @glgalea.bsky.social for your help!

Alex Grigas@agrigas.bsky.social · 8mo ago

How do sparse mesenchymal cells, with unique stellate arms spanning large gaps between cells, maintain their network while still flowing during development? In our new preprint we describe the avian PSM as a fluid under tension and develop new theory to explain it: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How do sparse mesenchymal cells, with unique stellate arms spanning large gaps between cells, maintain their network while still flowing during development? In our new preprint we describe the avian PSM as a fluid under tension and develop new theory to explain it: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Sparse mesenchymal cell networks as a fluid under tension

Sparse mesenchymal cellular networks are ubiquitous across animals, shaping both embryonic and adult structures through dynamic interactions with epithelia. Yet, the physical principles underlying the...

biorxiv.org

#DBfeature 🐣 Fate mapping approaches and scRNA-seq uncover how the avascular mesenchyme is critical to the normal outgrowth and patterning of digits By C Batho-Samblas, J Smith, L Keavey, N Clancy, L McTeir, and MG Davey tinyurl.com/2t6dau56 #SpecialIssue in #Avian Model Systems

Please consider applying, @dev-journal.bsky.social provides: - Profile raising - Mentor sessions - Leadership training and a growing network of supportive peers.

Development@dev-journal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Apply for our Pathway to Independence (PI) programme, supporting postdocs in #devbio and #stemcell research during the transition to their first group leader position: www.biologists.com/grants/devel... Application deadline: 2 February 2026.

Applications are open for @dev-journal.bsky.social 2026 Pathway to Independence (PI) programme, supporting postdocs applying for group leader positions: Mentoring Profile raising Leadership training Network building Spread the word... www.biologists.com/grants/devel...

Development's Pathway to Independence Programme

Our grants support and encourage the sharing of knowledge throughout the community by facilitating international collaboration, event attendance and the organisation of scientific meetings, conference...

biologists.com

Our review on microfluidic strategies for engineering organoid culture systems is out now www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Microfluidic Platforms for Organ-on-a-Chip Models: Creating dynamic microenvironments for organoid and multi-organ systems

Organoids have revolutionized in vitro modeling of human development and disease, yet their full potential remains constrained by the limited spatial …

sciencedirect.com

🎉🎉 We finally have a website! 🎉🎉 Did you miss a thread? Want to know who our delegates are? Do you want to join our big club? Check it out: epithelialmechanics.github.io Huge thanks to all thread-contributors and to you for following us!

Epithelial Mechanics Fan Club

epithelialmechanics.github.io

"Killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births" This is the daily horror being inflicted on Palestinians through this war, and arguably long before it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says

The panel finds that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out against Palestinians during the war.

bbc.co.uk

📣Our project, “Mechanometabolic Control of Vertebrate Limb Elongation,” has been funded by Wellcome! Over the next 8 years, we’ll collaborate with @manningresearch.bsky.social and Nathalie Agar’s group to understand the mechanics of ECM-rich mesenchymal tissues! Funded positions available!🎉

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.

Thrilled to share the first story from my postdoc! 🎉 A wonderful experiment + simulations collaboration. In the Drosophila wing, we find that 3D cell shapes affect signalling range and fine-tune developmental patterning www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Thread below ⬇️

🐣Chick embryo (Gallus gallus domesticus): a window into vertebrate development. From heart and limb formation to neural crest migration and axis patterning, this model has been cracking the developmental code for over a century. Image by Vincent Pasque #ModelMonday #DevBio

Apply now for the prestigious and independent #BiozentrumPhDFellowships. Great science. Unique rotation-based selection of research group and other incentives. The summer call is open until October 12, 2025. bit.ly/4caiqqX @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch #fellowship #PhD#Switzerland

Biozentrum PhD Fellowships

Share your passion for life sciences. If you are talented and highly motivated, want to broaden your horizons and are interested in a wide range of research topics, apply for one of the sought after B...

bit.ly

Hi bsky! Do embryonic tissues have backup plans🔀? Gastruloids (model of body elongation) can build an axis through different cellular mechanisms when on adherent substrates instead of free floating. A case of developmental plasticity! w/ A. Delahaye & ‪@bensteventon.bsky.social‬ shorturl.at/v01DO

PhD position available in our team @dublincityuni.bsky.social from September. Please share/ contact me for informal enquiries.