Our @natphys.nature.com paper is now out! We find that defect creation & annihilation in bacteria and cells collectives spontaneously break mirror symmetry—unpredicted by active nematic theory. #softmatter #chiral #ActiveMatter #TopologicalDefects #LivingMatter #CellPolarity rdcu.be/yWTRbT26p9qa

Happy to share our new preprint! We uncover how local force imbalances drive keratinocyte delamination and upward motion, while neighboring cells close the basal layer below. Amazing work from @andreasschoenit.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

When tension increases, the nucleus escapes. New paper out in @natphys.nature.com. Check out Tom's thread for a summary 👇

Tom Golde@tomgolde.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New paper in @natphys.nature.com! We uncovered a stress adapation mechanism where keratin intermediate filaments in stretched epithelia undergo a supracellular bundling transition that uncages the nucleus. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @ibecbarcelona.eu, @upc.edu @qmul.bsky.social

ICYMI: Our preprint list covering the latest research in bioimage analysis is now up on FocalPlane. Let us know if you have any recommendations! focalplane.biologists.com/2026/07/24/m...

Microscopy preprints: bioimage analysis - FocalPlane

Microscopy preprints: bioimage analysis - News

focalplane.biologists.com

Rhythmic beating of a transgenic zebrafish embryo’s heart. Credit to @helenevignes.bsky.social, @cvagenapantoula.bsky.social & @vermotlab.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Boundary geometry controls a topological defect transition that determines lumen nucleation in embryonic development - Nature Materials

The geometry of confining boundaries is shown to control three-dimensional topological defect configurations that precede formation of the central lumen in the developing mouse embryo, a key process i...

nature.com

New in @natmethods.nature.com: a new human stem cell model of EMT lets us watch cells transition in both 2D and 3D and shows human stem cells can undergo the transition differently depending on how they are grown. 🔗 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-026-03096-9

8 hours. That’s all fish need to heal wounds 🐟⏱️ Why are they so fast compared to humans? I break down the science of rapid regeneration in a microscopy story 🔬 Watch here: youtu.be/Mt9f61adaP0 #FluorescenceFriday #Microscopy

🚀 KiloHz two photon live imaging #MultiphotonMicroscopy @laboptbio.bsky.social Two-photon light-sheet live imaging at kilohertz frame rate using birefringence-based pulse splitting #LightSheetMicroscopy #Bioimaging #Photonics #Microscopy #Zebrafish Article is available here: doi.org/10.1364/OPTI...

The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)

We present a new mechanism for triggering the flocking transition in epithelia, involving extensile polar defects and domain walls. Very happy to share this work, done in great collaboration with the @luizaangheluta.bsky.social group. preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2605.23339

A day in the life of a growing hiPSC spheroid expressing endogenously mStayGold-tagged histone 3.3 for #FluorescenceFriday and the #Snouty aficionados. 28 hours (and >50,000 exposures) later and they are still going! Home-brewed volume projection.

Happy to share our new paper on collective cell dynamics. Great work from Yuan Shen @ijmonod.bsky.social ! Dynamic heterogeneity and hidden fluidity in dense epithelial tissues | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Dynamic heterogeneity and hidden fluidity in dense epithelial tissues

Densely packed epithelial tissues appear mechanically arrested at tissue scale, but their cells move in subtle, coordinated ways.

science.org

How can we learn tissue mechanics directly from cell patterns and images? In our new preprint, we introduce VertAX, a differentiable vertex-model framework in JAX for simulating epithelia, inferring parameters, and designing target tissue behaviors. shorturl.at/PUzT0 1/5

Searching for a new job? We’re hiring a Postdoctoral Fellow for an exciting new research project on Hidradenitis Suppurativa. Apply now and please pass this on to anyone who might be interested! www.finn.no/job/ad/44835...

Postdoctoral Fellowship on Tissue mechanics and inflammatory processes in human skin | FINN.no

Project titleNavigating the Tunnel: Keratinocyte Dynamics & Therapeutic Targeting of IL-17 in Hidradenitis Suppurativa Position summaryWe seek a motivated

finn.no

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

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...

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

New preprint! 🚨 We uncover a slow adaptation to stretch that links star-bundling of keratin filaments with nuclear escape from its keratin cage. Led by @tomgolde.bsky.social‬ 🙌 @IBECBarcelona www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Collective cell motion has many forms, but rotation is the coolest of them all. I'm @onenimesa.bsky.social , and in this short🧵, I'll highlight some instances of global tissue rotation like this one from @BauschLab

Lab’s latest: (mouse) mums grow their guts during pregnancy and lactation: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

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

FINALLY out in #Science Advances! 🎉 3 years of hard work, a fantastic team — and I’m proud to be first and co-corresponding author! It's about Plexin signaling driving collective cell migration & organ sculpting. Check out the videos 😀 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #DevBio #CellBio #Microscopy

What do we see when looking at cells under the microscope? 👉Some are bigger than others, some are elongated and align with the neighbors & others seem to move. Cool, right? But wouldn't it be cooler to quantify these observations? I'm @juliaeckert.bsky.social. Let's explore some analysis software!‬

Development of a transgenic zebrafish embryo. Credit to Dr. Mario Mendieta-Serrano. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

Happy #FluorescenceFriday!

The tip of the cantilever consists of a fluorescent bead that contacts the epiblast. Because we know the force necessary to bend the cantilever, we can perform mechanical assays by driving the bead across the embryo and measure in real time the force applied to the tissue.

🚨📣 New preprint alert! Excited to share my new postdoc work on direct force and mechanical properties measurements in live embryos! A great team effort with A. Chamolly (theory), under the supervision of F. Corson and @jeromegros.bsky.social 📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #devbio #mechanics

Direct measurements of active forces and material properties unveil the active mechanics of early embryogenesis

Despite progress in probing tissue mechanics, direct long-term measurements in live embryonic epithelia are lacking. This limits our understanding of amniote embryonic morphogenesis, which takes place...

biorxiv.org

Collective cell migration is fascinating! Some tissues behave like fluids (motile), others like solids (jammed). Check out some papers exploring this topic in this thread.

Trichoplax adhaerens is one of the simplest and most enigmatic animals on earth. Its body shows incredible fluidity, changing shape within minutes. In a recent visit by Andrea Pasini we had the chance to host and observe these amazing animals live. [movie accelerated 3x; animal 0.5 to 1 mm in size]