We have postdoc openings for data-driven modeling and information flows in living systems, with a focus on embryonic development. mattiaserra.com
Requirements: PhD in Physics, Applied Math, or similar; prior exposure to biological data preferred.
Please share with potential candidates. Thank you!
Maybe I should tweet here too. Out yesterday is my first ever experimental paper, on a novel model organism...
arxiv.org/abs/2604.00453
Really excited that this major work from my PhD is finally published in @plosbiology.org ! In it, we were trying to tackle a fundamental question in evolution - how do genetic mutations map onto evolutionary fitness? (1/n)
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Congrats!! really cool work
Check out our newest paper from the great @jbotello.bsky.social . Such an awesome discovery that the ribosome population undergoes molecular aging!!!!
Excited to hear all the interesting talks at our cellular signaling session next week in Denver (2 full sessions)! Thank you to everyone who submitted abstracts!
Excited to share our latest preprint on pattern formation in chemotactic active matter 🌊
arxiv.org/abs/2603.02595
Led by Hongbo Zhao and jointly with Sujit Datta and Andrej Košmrlj. We combined an arsenal of analytical and numerical tools to study these amazing patterns due to MIPS and chemotaxis 🌀
New preprint! We show how mesoscopic nonequilibrium fluctuations in active gels emerge from the breaking of detailed balance at the molecular scale. Warning: Long technical paper ahead! Enjoy! @mpipks.bsky.social @ub.edu @ubics.bsky.social @icreacommunity.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2601.20483
Last call for postdoctoral applications to join my group at University of Toronto. Feel free to reach out if you want to learn more about the position.
Postdoctoral Job Opportunity! I am hiring a postdoc to join my group next fall. Many possible research directions in theoretical biophysics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. See the posting linked below for details — apply by Jan 15th for full consideration.
My amazing collaborator David Hathcock is starting a statistical biophysics research group at University of Toronto. Check out his website for exciting PhD and postdoc openings!
Excited to share a new preprint! With @jiexiaolab.bsky.social, we investigated the impact of topological domain formation on the coupling between neighboring genes and the resulting transcription processes.
As the march meeting abstract deadline approaches, please check out our session! Please RT/forward
This session is co-organized with @davidhathcock.bsky.social. The session will also feature invited talks from Victor Sourjik (Max Planck Institute) and Pieter Rein ten Wolde (AMOLF). Look forward to seeing you there!
For the 2026 APS March Meeting, please consider submitting your abstract to our new focus session on Cellular Sensing and Signaling (04.01.29), which aims to bridge theory and experiments to understand how cells sense and respond to environmental signals.
📸 Image of the month: August!
This month we are excited to feature “𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐢𝐝 𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐬” by Yu et al.
Learn more about their exciting research here: qiweiyuu.github.io
🔗 (paper): doi.org/10.1039/D5SM...
(1/4)
Congrats Mattia!!
Now out in Physical Review Letters: work led by Andrew Pyo showing that the accumulation of beneficial mutations can be greatly accelerated by a mutation rate that decreases with increasing relative fitness.
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
Nature research paper: Mapping and engineering RNA-driven architecture of the multiphase nucleolus
https://go.nature.com/44Tib11
Combining sequencing and imaging, @brangwynnelab.bsky.social maps the spatiotemporal dynamics of rRNA processing, demonstrating how rRNA serves as both a scaffold and a substrate for the nucleolus—a multiphase, liquid-like structure. 🧪 🧬
Apply now to be a CPBF Fellow in 2026! puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...
Check out our paper in eLife to see details of the model and more amazing experiments by Alex!
elifesciences.org/articles/104...
The paper provides comprehensive evidence in support of this mechanism, but here is one of my favs: as a consequence, ectopic polysome accumulations, caused by redirecting gene expression away from the chromosome and toward plasmids, are sufficient to drive aberrant nucleoid dynamics
Not only does our model capture the dynamics of polysome and nucleoid during segregation (kymograph below), but it also explains a linear relation between segregation time and growth rate, with a single (!) fitting parameter (figure below).
With a minimal theoretical model, we show that the segregation dynamics can be explained by considering two ingredients: steric repulsion between polysome and nucleoid, and nonequilibrium production and degradation dynamics of polysomes.
Our recent work (elifesciences.org/articles/104...) combines theory and experiments (by Alex Papagiannakis and Christine Jacobs-Wagner) to understand how chromosome segregation is coupled to growth in E coli. We demonstrate that the nonequilibrium dynamics of polysomes may play a key role.
Living systems operate nonequilibrium processes across many scales in space and time. Is there a model-free way to bridge the descriptions at different levels of coarse-graining? Here we find that preserving the evidence of time-reversal symmetry breaking works remarkably well!
Biology consumes energy at the microscale to power functions across all scales: From proteins and cells to entire populations of animals.
Led by @qiweiyu.bsky.social and @mleighton.bsky.social, we study how coarse-graining can help to bridge this gap 👇🧵
arxiv.org/abs/2506.01909
