OK, but how does this compare to a traveling wave of light, where cells have to respond to a macroscopic cue traveling across the tissue? Amazingly, we get migration in this case too but with some key differences.

New Toettchlab paper alert! Harrison Oatman just published his beautiful work combining software design for "smart" microscopy+optogenetics and some really beautiful work understanding EGFR-driven collective cell migration. www.cell.com/cell-systems...

Per Sant Jordi, us deixem una rosa feta de ciència 🌹🔬 Controlant la posició dels defectes topològics en nemàtics cel·lulars, s'han programat camps de forces 2D frustrats que es relaxen en formes 3D predictibles.

Our latest work on shape-programmable tissues is out in @science.org. By positioning topological defects in cellular nematics, we encode frustrated 2D force fields that relax into predictable 3D shapes. Collaboration with Marino Arroyo’s lab, led by @pauguillamat.bsky.social at @ibecbarcelona.eu.

Just published in @science.org 🚀 By controlling how cells align, we show that living nematic tissues can be programmed to generate forces and fold into predictable 3D shapes. A new platform for tissue engineering and the design of smart active materials! 🫆 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Pau Guillamat@pauguillamat.bsky.social · last yr.

New preprint out! We show how cellular nematic order can be harnessed to program tissue-wide force fields and guide 3D shape transformations. The tissue morphogenesis logic, now engineered into living, programmable materials. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #ActiveMatter #TissueEngineering

Since #durotaxis was described >25 years ago, most studies report cells migrating from soft → stiff New work from my team at @ub.edu (in collaboration with D. Odde's lab) suggests we may have been missing the point all along... 🔥 Check out our new preprint here 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

From active chaos to crystallinity! We show that chaotic active turbulence in active nematics can self-organize into a spatiotemporal crystal: a lattice of density, orientation, and vorticity that breaks both spatial and temporal symmetry. arxiv.org/abs/2603.12079 #ActiveMatter

How do epithelial cells organize uniform polar orientation during long-range collective migration? I'm @emmalaang.bsky.social , and my research focus on collective cell behaviors. In this thread, I will take you through the concept of topology-guided polar ordering of collective cell migration

Development builds... But it also breaks! Planarians split to reproduce. Hydra tears open a mouth. Embryos fracture to make cavities. Failure? No. Fracture is essential to development. Our new review on fracture physics and its uses in development: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Break to build: fracture as a unifying morphogenetic strategy

Summary: This Review presents mechanical fracture as a unifying morphogenetic strategy and describes how developmental systems actively exploit mechanical fracture to drive morphogenesis, reproduction...

journals.biologists.com

Rashmi Priya@rashmi-priya.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Our latest with @torres-sanchez.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/dev/article-... Breaking isn’t always a bad thing! Think of birth, seed release... We highlight how living tissue not only tolerates fractures but actively fracture to grow, shape, reproduce, or adapt – across species and scales.

Really excited to share our new paper in @nature.com! We uncovered how a physical instability of the cytoplasm coupled with the cell cycle drives cytoplasmic partitioning in early embryos #zebrafish #drosophila. Read more in this🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩 @poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

#LivingArchitectures We put cells and cytoskeleton filaments on the architecture of the musée d'Orsay. www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/agenda/ev... Scientists of the #CytoMorphoLab adapted their protocols to illustrate the questions that keep them awake at night. -> Two shows on the 24th and 25th of January.

Our review article is now available in Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics: “Full-Integer Topological Defects in Polar Active Matter.” @luizaangheluta.bsky.social @emmalaang.bsky.social doi.org/10.1146/annu...

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

#ResearchIN2UB | Highlighted from #MaterialIN2UB Development of self-powered microfluidic systems for Lab-on-a-chip devices published at @pnas.org led by Prof. @jignes.bsky.social #RecercaUB #QuimicaUB #ActiveMatter #Microfluidics #SoftMatter #labonachip www.ub.edu/in2ub/develo...

Development of self-powered microfluidic systems for Lab-on-a-chip devices - IN²UB

Lab-on-a-chip systems enable the simultaneous analysis of multiple chemical samples and the execution of intricate in situ microfabrication within a single integrated platform, where fluids are driven...

ub.edu

Just out! Our work on active transport in epithelial tissues. Congrats to Huiqiong Wu, Greg Arkowitz and Ranjith Chilupuri in collaboration with C. Duclut and J. Prost! PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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

“Cellular Olympics” our catalog of freeky ultra fast cellular superhero’s is freely available “Ann Rev of microbiology” www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... This is a compilation of world’s fastest single cell organisms - enjoy this buffet of rare delightful protists with mind bending speeds. 🧪

Truly chuffed for our fearless food physicists @mpipks.bsky.social + collabs from AT @istaresearch.bsky.social, IT & ES who won this year’s Ig Nobel - the #NobelPrize of hearts❤️for cracking the science of perfect pasta !🍝Kudos to all for intrepidly consuming lots of cheese in the name of science!😋

The Secret to a Smooth Pasta Sauce Wins Ig Nobel Prize

Italian researchers studied how the ingredients of the traditional Roman dish cacio e pepe emulsify into a creamy sauce, winning the 2025 Physics Ig Nobel Prize.

the-scientist.com

Mechanosensation and fast reorientation of ciliary structures: Marvin's work on the surprising locomotion capabilities of Trichoplax, an animal without neurons! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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.

Very happy that the first article from my postdoc work in the Tomancak lab is now published @PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... We studied the self-organization of actin in aggregates made from Hydra cells. Thread below (1/9)

Dreaming of a swimming pool? Bacteria are surrounded by water! Water capillary forces organize bacterial colonies into gas, nematic streams, or droplet states. New paper @natphys.nature.com led by Matt Black and Chenyi Fei, with Ned Wingreen and Josh Shaevitz! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Capillary interactions drive the self-organization of bacterial colonies - Nature Physics

Bacteria tend to live in thin layers of water on surfaces. Now the capillary forces in these layers are shown to help organize the bacteria into dense packs.

nature.com

🔬#IBEC researchers create the world’s simplest artificial cell that can navigate using chemistry with just a membrane, an enzyme and a pore. A breakthrough on how life moves🧬 🧪 @science.org #ScienceAdvances 🤝 @ub.edu @liverpooluni.bsky.social 👉 Read the news: https://f.mtr.cool/tzjomevovt

Our study on endothelial mechanics made the news! 🤩 Super nice and clear article on our findings and their implications. www.snexplores.org/article/how-...

Here’s why your blood vessels don’t burst under pressure

Cells lining the blood vessels reorganize their inner structures to handle stressful boosts in pressure.

snexplores.org

On cell extrusion in the #intestine! After 80 years of observations, we finally took a deeper look thanks to 2D #organoids. We report: 3D #forces, #extrusion still only in the villus even without curvature, #lamellipodia generate 3D force.. and more. Have a look! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨 Second preprint of the week! We uncover the multiscale dynamics of active viscoelastic buckling in epithelia. We harness these mechanical instabilities for synthetic morphogenesis. Led by @onenimesa.bsky.social 🙌. Theory by Marino Arroyo etal. @ibecbarcelona.eu www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How to turn a layer of fibroblasts into a tulip 🌷? Check out our new pre-print on shape-programmable living surfaces. Led by @pauguillamat.bsky.social‬ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New preprint out! We show how cellular nematic order can be harnessed to program tissue-wide force fields and guide 3D shape transformations. The tissue morphogenesis logic, now engineered into living, programmable materials. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #ActiveMatter #TissueEngineering

📢Excited to share our new paper in Nature Physics @naturephysics.bsky.social: Cooperative hydrodynamics accompany multicellular-like colonial organization in the unicellular Stentor! How do single-celled organisms benefit from teamwork? Let’s dive in! #Multicellularity nature.com/articles/s41...?