Just published: chemotactic sperm cells become phototactic 💡- by loading photo-activatable second messengers. This allows to "reverse-engineer" chemotactic signaling dynamics and expose cells to signals they would never see in the wild. Honoured to be part of this collaboration with the Kaupp lab.

Extracellular matrix restrains cell-cycle progression by nuclear exclusion of Yorkie in Drosophila Sui et al. reveal a role for extracellular matrix in restraining cell-cycle progression in late-larval-stage Drosophila wing discs through inhibiting nuclear accumulation of Yorkie.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

ECM as a cell-cycle brake.
Led by Liyuan Sui (Dahmann lab), we show that the ECM gates Yorkie nuclear entry to halt proliferation at final size via G2 arrest in the Drosophila wing disc. Programmed ECM degradation later enables re-entry + proper adult wing size. Link 👇
#Mechanobiology #ECM

We may need a fourth law of thermodynamics for living systems The laws of thermodynamics don't accurately account for the complex processes in living cells – do we need a new one to accurately measure the ways living systems are out of equilibrium?

The New Scientist published a commentary article: www.newscientist.com/article/2505...

Time Irreversibility, Entropy Production, and Effective Temperature Are Independently Regulated in the Actin Cortex of Living Cells Atomic force microscope observations of dividing human cells suggest that effective temperature alone cannot reliably gauge how far a living system is from equilibrium.

link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/...

New paper out: AFM-tip fluctuations inside the actin cortex reveal that effective temperature can remain unchanged while time-irreversibility/entropy production drop (turnover inhibition). #CellMechanics #ActiveMatter #Nonequilibrium
@poldresden.bsky.social @tudresden.bsky.social

New paper out: AFM-tip fluctuations inside the actin cortex reveal that effective temperature can remain unchanged while time-irreversibility/entropy production drop (turnover inhibition). #CellMechanics #ActiveMatter #Nonequilibrium
@poldresden.bsky.social @tudresden.bsky.social

The sarcomere is the elementary contractile unit of muscle, driving all volunatry motion and heart beat in animals. How these “cytoskeletal crystals” self-assembly is only partly understood.

🏋️Our review on how to build muscle is out in
@biophysicalreviews.bsky.social: The Physical Basis of Sarcomere Assembly. We critically review past models and discuss a new mechanism that unifies past ideas, suggesting tension-driven self-organization. With
@frankschnorrer.bsky.social & Kolley-Köchel

Schematic of limb regeneration in axolotl, with growth controlled by two oppositely oriented morphogen gradients (SHH, FGF8).

Axolotl can regrow lost limbs, matching their body size. How? Our new theory-experiment paper in @pnas.org proposes how oppositely oriented morphogen gradients scaling with animal size promote proportional growth. Great collaboration with @tatianasg.bsky.social @cmcb-tud.bsky.social

Episode 6: The Role of Mechanical Forces in Health and Disease feat. Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich Join Prof. Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich from the Cluster of Excellence 'Physics of Life' at the Technical University Dresden, Germany, as she speaks about the role of mechanical forces in health and di...

Find the link here www.bruker.com/en/landingpa...

Interested in #mechanobiology? I joined Bruker’s Conversations on AFM to discuss how mechanical forces shape #cells and #tissues, what #AFM can reveal, and why mechanics matters for health and disease. @poldresden.bsky.social @tudresden.bsky.social

Mesenchymal-epithelial transition reduces proliferation but increases immune evasion in tumor spheroids The mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) whether full or partial, has been implicated in secondary tumor growth during metastasis. Here, we explore…

You wanna know more about what Gina discovered with respect to MET? Find the full story here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Congrats to our latest graduate Gina Dimari 🤩🥳💐@fischerfriedriclab.bsky.social @poldresden.bsky.social freshly graduated @tudresden.bsky.social faculty of Biology. Thanks to everyone involved in the project recently published @cp-iscience.bsky.social

How do individual proteins sculpt the epithelial basement membrane?
Our new study uncovers their role in network structure, nematic alignment & fractal patterns.
🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#CellBiology #ECM #BasementMembrane

Mesenchymal-epithelial transition reduces proliferation but increases immune evasion in tumor spheroids Microenvironment; Biological process; Cancer

Why do secondary #tumors go for #MET during the metastatic cascade? Our new study suggests that immune evasion—rather than faster proliferation—might give them the edge.
👉 cell.com/iscience/ful...
#CancerResearch #TumorBiology #Immunology #Metastasis

Here is the link
physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/career-educa...

🎉 Calling all #Physics undergrads!
We're offering 3 scholarships for the tuition-free, English-taught MSc "Physics of Life" @TUDresden, starting Oct 2025.
💶 €300/month for 12 months
Apply now!
#Scholarships #Masters2025 #PhysicsOfLife #StudyInGermany #TUDresden

Check it out if you are interested in #mechanobiology #membranetension #cytoskeleton #FlipperTR

#Biophysics #PhysicsStudent #Physics #Biology #Mechanobiology

Super proud of superstar postdocs @nerlielisa.bsky.social and @liujinghui.bsky.social for our lab's most recent preprint! We uncover how wound-induced electrical currents are generated and transmitted in tissues, triggering proliferation, essential for organ #regeneration #bioelectricity #QBio 👇

📢 Preprint alert 📢

(1/6) Our work on 3D force inference for intestinal organoids is now on bioRxiv:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Stunning collaboration between @omdrozdowski.bsky.social and @kimboonekamp.bsky.social from the lab of @michaelboutros.bsky.social and with Ulrike Engel. A short🧵...

👉 physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/career-educa...

🎉 Exciting news for incoming students!
We're awarding 3 scholarships for the Physics of Life MSc program starting October 2025.
💶 €300/month for one year
🎓 Funded by the Friends & Supporters of TU Dresden (GFF)
#Scholarships #Masters2025 #PhysicsOfLife #TUDresden #StudyFunding

🚀 Looking for a Master’s at the interface of physics and biology?
Join the Physics of Life MSc program in Dresden!
🔬 Cutting-edge research
🌍 Affordable living
🎯 Excellent career prospects—in science and beyond.

Surprised by how long it’s taking PNAS to process our manuscript. Anyone else having trouble recently?
#AcademicTwitter #Publishing

It’s the #filopodia, stupid! 🚀
We just released our new study uncovering how filopodia and hydrostatic #pressure contribute to the regulation of #membrane #tension.
👉 Check it out on bioRxiv: biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#cellbiology #biophysics #actin #mechanobiology

🚀 Looking for an #HFSP ally? We’ve got you covered with #AtomicForceMicroscopy, #CellCulture, #Mechanobiological #Modeling, & more! 🤝 Interested? Let’s connect! 📧 Details 👉 physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de #Collaboration

It turns out that #EggChamber #elongation and rotation can be decoupled in #Drosophila egg chamber #morphogenesis - check out our recent collaborative work with the Dahmann lab. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/... . Congrats to Akanksha Bhatt and Valentin Ruffine 👏🥳