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/...
My personal high point of #APSSummit2026
New publication alert! We use theory and experiment to demonstrate that glassy adhesion dynamics can predict anomalous migration on viscoelastic substrates. Grateful to have worked with Vivek Sharma, Ze Gong, Ovijit Chaudhuri, and Vivek B Shenoy 🙏 !
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congrats!!
💡 Have you ever wondered how #circulating #tumor cells squeeze through narrow #capillaries during hashtag#metastasis ?
💥 We did, check out our latest publication just out #NatureMaterials: rdcu.be/eZHxJ
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...
I wrote an op-ed on the world-class STEM research ecosystem in the United States, and how this ecosystem is now under attack on multiple fronts by the current administration: newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-an-awar...
Best paper title?: “How to make a new nose for someone when it is off entirely and the dog has eaten it”—c.1460 von Pfalzpaint.
I talk noses: @npr.org Shortwave (Regina Barber) tinyurl.com/23dvwzmv
Video of my nightclub version @oddsalon.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/4snnacs3
#storiesmatter
(my art)
Saraswathibhatla lab is open for business!!
Have you ever thought about inflating tissues?
Or maybe quickly deflating those inflated tissues?
New #EpithelialMechanics pre-print: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
🧵 with pressure control, multiscale buckling, controlled wrinkling
Thank you for highlighting our preprint, Sharvari!! @prelights.bsky.social
Preprint alert! Excited to share this manuscript from my PhD which aims to answer an age-old question. Does size matter? For fat cells, or adipocytes, the answer seems to be yes. We found that larger adipocytes promote aggressive behavior in breast cancer cells. 1/5 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
REPOSTING this here just to officially leave "the other place"
Our work on the role of endogenous electric fields in guiding collective cell migration during #morphogenesis is out @naturematerials.bsky.social
nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you!
Understanding the physics of our foods can inform the design of future foods - plant-based or otherwise! Check out the article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Thank you, Jake!
Someone awesome in my circle shared some terrific news with me today but was hesitant to do so because of all that is going on in the science world.
It may appear insensitive that you are celebrating when other colleagues are struggling but I entreat you to celebrate & share good news. 1/
Thank you, Jacky! Nice meeting you recently at the GRC.
Thank you!!
I want to thank all the co-authors (particularly Md Foysal Rabbi from Taeyoon Kim's lab), collaborators, and funding sources for all the help! Here is the link to the paper (11/11): biorxiv.org/content/10.1....
Finally, using an organotypic model mimicking DCIS, we demonstrate that the basement membrane acts as a mechanical insulator, preventing swirling cells from aligning collagen. Thus, after breaching the BM, swirling of BC cells radially aligns collagen (10/11)
Using traction deformation microscopy and fiber model simulations, we confirmed our hypothesis of shear-induced radial contractile stresses in collagen-rich ECMs (9/11)
Based on this, we hypothesized that shear stresses from the swirling motion of cancer cells at the tumor-matrix interface result in radially contractile stresses due to negative normal stress, and such radial stresses, in turn, align col1 radially to facilitate invasion (8/11)
Interestingly, fibrous networks exhibit the property of negative normal stress, where shear forces generate significant contractile forces perpendicular to the shear direction. This was described by Paul Janmey in 2006 and is similar to shear-normal coupling (7/11)
To our surprise, cells migrated tangentially to the tumor-matrix interface in a swirling-like motion. This raised the question: How does the swirling, or tangential, motion of cancer cells at tumor-stroma interface align collagen radially? (6/11)
Prior to the collective invasion, cells radially aligned collagen at the tumor-matrix interface in a TACS-3-like manner, which enabled their collective invasion (5/11)
Consistent with our reasoning, increasing mechanical plasticity of collagen-rich ECMs facilitated invasion, with increasing stiffness potentiating a transition from single cell to collective invasion (4/11)
We reasoned that mechanical plasticity of collagen-rich ECMs will enable cells to remodel collagen and enable their collective invasion. For this, we characterized the mechanics of human tissues and developed collagen-rich biomaterials that mimicked them (3/11)
The radial alignment of collagen fibers (TACS-3) at the tumor-matrix interface is a pathological signature of breast cancer. This was first described by Prof. Paolo Provenzano in late Keely's lab in 2006. However, it is unclear how cancer cells can radially align collagen fibers (2/11)
Despite the current uncertainty of being a scientist, I am excited to share our manuscript demonstrating an interesting mechanism of how swirling motion of breast cancer cells align collagen fibers radially at the tumor-stroma interface to enable their invasion (1/11) @thechaudhurilab.bsky.social
