Hello epithelia enthusiasts!

I’m @inesfournon.bsky.social and I study epithelial mechanics in sea anemones 🪼

Did you know epithelial cell extrusion had never been described outside bilaterian animals before? Well… not anymore 👀

Read ⬇️🧵1/9

Epithelial barrier homeostasis Epithelia cover the body’s surface to form a barrier that segregates the internal body from the external environment. Tight junctions (TJs) seal the paracellular space and are crucial for the formatio...

Our new review on epithelial barrier homeostasis has been published in Trends in Cell Biology(www.cell.com/trends/cell-...)! Please use the following link for free access until May 1: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mlnq3QxxT...

Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating).

A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)

Tissue phase transitions in development: more than just mechanics Summary: Tissue material phase transitions are classically thought to regulate tissue deformability. This Review emphasises their unexpected roles in directly influencing growth and patterning signall...

Excited to share our new review in @dev-journal.bsky.social on tissue phase transitions during development!

@karengrace12.bsky.social @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social

🔗 doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Injury-induced electrochemical coupling triggers organ growth Organ repair and growth rely on coupling tissue-wide membrane depolarization with intracellular proliferative signaling.

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

Latest work from the lab by Aude Nommick et al., in which we propose a "size-scaling" model for microtubule force exertion that regulates centrosome centration vs decentration during embryo development!
@ijmonod.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Cytoplasmic crowding acts as a porous medium reducing macromolecule diffusion | PNAS Intracellular transport of macromolecules is crucial for the proper functioning of most cellular processes. Although intracellular crowding is know...

Happy to highlight our collaborative work from our @ijmonod.bsky.social team with @destriano.bsky.social, B. Goyeau and M. Chabanon.
Cytoplasmic crowding acts as a porous medium that hinders macromolecular diffusivity.
Plus: a clever way to measure cell volume.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

My PhD work showed that vimentin is not only a passive marker of EMT, but plays an active role in collective migration, controlling the mechanics of epithelial leader cells. I am grateful to my supervisors, Rene-Marc & Benoit Ladoux, as well as to all the co-authors.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our paper on tissue stress measurements is now out in Eur. Phys. J. E. rdcu.be/eX59E.
Great work from @luanger.bsky.social and @andreasschoenit.bsky.social and collaboration with P. Marcq @pmmh-lab.bsky.social
Code: github.com/pmarcq/BISM/ and Examples on github.com/ASmushyCell/...

Anger, L., Schoenit, A., Wodrascka, F., Rossé, C., Mège, R. M., Ladoux, B., & Marcq, P. (2025). Tissue stress measurements with Bayesian Inversion Stress Microscopy. arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.00550. arxiv.org/abs/2512.00550 #EpithelialMechanics

Mapping cell dynamics in human ex vivo hair follicles suggests pulling mechanism of hair growth - Nature Communications The authors use 3D live imaging on micro-dissected human hair follicle segments cultured ex vivo to follow cellular migration patterns with single cell resolution. They provide evidence suggesting an ...

So proud to share this beautiful work developed in collaboration with @lorealfrance.bsky.social
Using 3D imaging at an outstanding level of resolution, we have uncovered the intricate cellular dynamics of human hair follicles - and the movies are stunning!
More details here: tinyurl.com/4vrywf3z

Are you investigating cell tissues and interested in stress patterns? TFM + BISM reveals them! 👇

With @luanger.bsky.social and P. Marcq, we summarise the applicability across different exp. conditions regularly used in the @bladoux.bsky.social @rmmege.bsky.social lab.
Full pipeline on Lucas GitHub!

The latest story from my group. Working toward build regionally distinct skin and amnion piece by piece.

Thank you!

I would like to sincerely thank everyone involved from our group @ijmonod.bsky.social as well as A. Doostmohammadis. And of course not only related to this project @rmmege.bsky.social and @bladoux.bsky.social for their constant support and mentorship!

Photo credit: Mathieu Baumer

Truly honoured and grateful to have received alongside other young researchers the prize "Grandes avancées françaises en biologie" from the @academiesciences.bsky.social for our paper on mechanical cell competition together with @luanger.bsky.social and S. Monfared www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Exciting News! 🥳 Our Epithelial Mechanics Fan Club website is now live! 🎉
👉 epithelialmechanics.github.io

Discover our #EpithelialMechanics threads and get to know our amazing delegates behind them.
Would you like to share your story? Please DM us!

1/ 🎉Excited to share our new preprint @vignjeviclab.bsky.social @davidbrueckner.bsky.social :

"Self-organization of tumor heterogeneity and plasticity"
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tumor heterogeneity and plasticity drive metastasis and relapse. How is tumor patterning coordinated?

A thread👇

Happy to share the last version of our story @currentbiology.bsky.social on the role of interfacial tension in mechanical cell competition led by @leovalon.bsky.social and Alexis Matamoro Vidal
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Mechano-osmotic signals control chromatin state and fate transitions in pluripotent stem cells - Nature Cell Biology McCreery, Stubb et al. show that mechano-osmotic changes in the nucleus induce general transcriptional repression and prime chromatin for cell fate transitions by relieving repression of specific differentiation genes.

How do #stemcells integrate information to coordinate fate decisions? Delighted to finally see our work showing how growth factors regulate the mechano-osmotic state of the #nucleus and #chromatin to control #pluripotency exit out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... see 🧵 👇

Can pressure gradients persist over long timescales in animal cells? We induced intracellular pressure gradients and examined the resulting flows in single cells. We reveal surprisingly long lasting pressure gradients.

More here: elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

Now out in final published form - with a new title "Mechanical control of cell fate decisions in the skin epidermis" and simulations/quantifications! See below for thread of how unbalanced tensions can bias fate choices in minimal 3D models of tissues! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A ring of cells deforms into a triangular keyhole in just 15 minutes. Meet the hindgut, a model for boundary-driven morphogenesis!

Out now in @pnas.org at doi.org/10.1073/pnas... with @zhaoshh.bsky.social, Alex Jacinto, Eric Wieschaus, Stas Shvartsman, @lepuslapis.bsky.social (1/8)

How is developmental speed regulated ? 🪰

Happy to share my PhD story from Schweisguth Lab @devstempasteur.bsky.social. Here we show that cellular NAD+ availability and redox constrain developmental speed in the fly eye.

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

A big thanks to everyone involved!

We’re organizing a conference at @ijmonod.bsky.social in Paris, January 2026, in memory of M.P. Sheetz — pioneer in cell mechanics and mechanobiology, co-discoverer of kinesin, and founder of @mbisg.bsky.social. Join us to explore his legacy.

mikeinmemoriam.sciencesconf.org

Regulation of epithelial tissue homeostasis by active trans-epithelial transport Epithelia are intricate tissues whose function is intimately linked to mechanics. While mechanobiology has primarily focused on factors such as cell-generated contractility and mechanical properties o...

Happy to share our new study @ijmonod.bsky.social and @mpi-scienceoflight.bsky.social with C. Duclut and J. Prost. on forces generated by active fluid transport in epithelia and their role in tissue dynamics.
Congrats to Huiqiong Wu, G. Arkowitz and R. Chilupuri!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The complex microscopic dynamics of cells in high-density epithelial tissues Epithelial tissues line the surfaces of vital organs and are often densely packed in a disordered, mechanically arrested state, referred to as jammed or glassy state. While collective migration at low...

Very happy to share our new study from CAM team @ijmonod.bsky.social and @mpi-scienceoflight.bsky.social (MPZPM) on the unanticipated “hidden fluidity” in jammed epithelia. Congrats to Yuan Shen and great collaboration with Walter Kob.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Epithelial tension controls intestinal cell extrusion Cell extrusion is essential for homeostatic self-renewal of the intestinal epithelium. Extrusion is thought to be triggered by crowding-induced compression of cells at the intestinal villus tip. In th...

Out in @science.org! We found that the intestine doesn’t just push out cells when crowded. Instead, cells are in a mechanical tug-of-war, and weaker ones are extruded. A new view of how our gut keeps its balance and stays healthy.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Are different cell types like oil and water? Over a century ago, researchers found that dissociated sponges and embryonic tissues can self-assemble into functional structures. Join me, @benswedlund.bsky.social to explore the differential adhesion hypothesis & its applications in tissue engineering!

Excited for my thesis defence, join us for a discussion on the role of mechanical forces in building and maintaining epithelial tissues if you happen to be in Paris in September!