Thank you to all the friends, collaborators, lab members and mentors who made this happen!

Engineering macrophages for cancer immunotherapy: emerging insights and therapeutic potential - npj Biomedical Innovations npj Biomedical Innovations - Engineering macrophages for cancer immunotherapy: emerging insights and therapeutic potential

I’m pleased to share our lab’s first paper (a review), highlighting new insights into macrophages, their mechanobiology, and cancer therapeutic potential through both genetic and non-genetic approaches. @jacobsschool.bsky.social.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

🚨New preprint(1/2)! We show that RTK fusion oncoproteins broadly suppress EGFR signaling. How? Sequestration of adapters as the shared principle.

Led by superb PhD student Carol Gao.

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

Implications for drug tolerance/resistance, and includes one big surprise🫧.👇

Epithelial Mechanics Fan Club - FocalPlane Epithelial Mechanics Fan Club - News

Meet the Epithelial Mechanics Fan Club @epimechfc.bsky.social
Nimesh Chahare @onenimesa.bsky.social and Julia Eckert @juliaeckert.bsky.social introduce us to the Epithelial Mechanics Fan Club.
Learn how you can get involved with this community: focalplane.biologists.com/2025/12/04/e...

It’s time to talk about epithelial geometry and cancer. How can the architecture of an epithelium affect how tumors will grow and spread? In this thread, @jorgealmagro.bsky.social

Protein-based biomaterials have risen in popularity in recent years owing to their genetic encodability, sequence specificity, monodispersity, and ability to interface with biological systems in comparison with synthetic polymer-based materials. Though naturally derived and minimally engineered proteins have been at the forefront of these efforts, recent advances in computational protein design offer exciting opportunities for next-generation biomaterial development. In this work, we employ de novo protein design methodologies to generate a suite of self-assembling multimeric proteins, whose step-growth heteropolymerization into bulk hydrogels and condensates can be exogenously triggered through small-molecule addition. Our results highlight how changes in programmed multimer valency and their triggered assembly yield materials with varying structures and viscoelasticity. We anticipate that these approaches will prove useful in rapidly generating large libraries of stimuli-responsive biomaterials that are precisely tailored to specific applications in the biosciences and beyond.

Our latest collaborative paper with David Baker's lab is now live in Cell Biomaterials (@cp-cellbiomat.bsky.social, Cell Press)! Check out "Stimuli-triggered Formation of De Novo-designed Protein Biomaterials"!

🔓 : www.cell.com/cell-biomate...

Stimulus-responsive materials have enabled advanced applications in biosensing, tissue engineering and therapeutic delivery. Although controlled molecular topology has been demonstrated as an effective route toward creating materials that respond to prespecified input combinations, prior efforts suffer from a reliance on complicated and low-yielding multistep organic syntheses that dramatically limit their utility. Harnessing the power of recombinant expression, we integrate emerging chemical biology tools to create topologically specified protein cargos that can be site-specifically tethered to and conditionally released from biomaterials following user-programmable Boolean logic. Critically, construct topology is autonomously compiled during expression through spontaneous intramolecular ligations, enabling direct and scalable synthesis of advanced operators. Using this framework, we specify protein release from biomaterials following all 17 possible YES/OR/AND logic outputs from input combinations of three orthogonal protease actuators, multiplexed delivery of three distinct biomacromolecules from hydrogels, five-input-based conditional cargo liberation and logically defined protein localization on or within living mammalian cells.

Our new paper entitled “Boolean Logic-gated Protein Presentation through Autonomously Compiled Molecular Topology” is now live at Nature Chemical Biology (@natchembio.nature.com)! Check it out!

📜: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@uwnews.uw.edu feature write-up: www.washington.edu/news/2025/10...

Singh, A., Thale, S., Leibner, T., Lamparter, L., Ricker, A., Nüsse, H., Klingauf, J., Galic, M., Ohlberger, M., & Matis, M. (2024). Dynamic interplay of microtubule and actomyosin forces drive tissue extension. Nature communications, 15(1), 3198. #EpithelialMechanics
buff.ly/Nwi5TVv

Professor Jochen Guck, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL), He headed the division “Cell Physics” at MPL and the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM).

With deep sadness, we share that Prof. Jochen Guck, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light passed away on October 3. His visionary work bridged physics and medicine. We have lost a brilliant scientist and dear friend.

mpl.mpg.de/news/article...
@fau.de

📸 Stephan Spangenberg

Harris, A. R., Peter, L., Bellis, J., Baum, B., Kabla, A. J., & Charras, G. T. (2012). Characterizing the mechanics of cultured cell monolayers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, #EpithelialMechanics doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

My very dear Jochen Guck, has just passed away and yet I cannot believe it 🥹
Jochen is one of the most brilliant scientist I had ever met, a human being with unlimited qualities, brave and caring, positive (always) and full of ressources, helpful and with - always - the best advices.

Preventing hypocontractility-induced fibroblast expansion alleviates dilated cardiomyopathy Cardiomyocyte hypocontractility underlies inherited dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Yet, whether fibroblasts modify DCM phenotypes remains unclear despite their regulation of fibrosis, which strongly pr...

New in @ScienceMagazine, we report that dilated cardiomyopathy can be alleviated by preventing hypocontractility-induced fibroblast expansion! The story is a fun combination of advanced in vivo and biomaterial-based in vitro models. Check it out!

📜 : doi.org/10.1126/scie...

PhoCoil: A photodegradable and injectable single-component recombinant protein hydrogel for minimally invasive delivery and degradation PhoCoil is a genetically encoded hydrogel that enables noninvasive delivery and subsequent user-controlled photodegradation.

Our new manuscript entitled "PhoCoil: A Photodegradable and Injectable Single-component Recombinant Protein Hydrogel for Minimally Invasive Delivery and Degradation" is now live at @ScienceAdvances!

Check it out here (🔓): 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!

Stevens, A. J., Harris, A. R., Gerdts, J., Kim, K. H., Trentesaux, C., Ramirez, J. T., ... & Lim, W. A. (2023). Programming multicellular assembly with synthetic cell adhesion molecules. Nature, #EpithelialMechanics www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tsai, T. Y. C., Sikora, M., Xia, P., Colak-Champollion, T., Knaut, H., Heisenberg, C. P., & Megason, S. G. (2020). An adhesion code ensures robust pattern formation during tissue morphogenesis. Science, #EpithelialMechanics doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Nose, A., Nagafuchi, A., & Takeichi, M. (1988). Expressed recombinant cadherins mediate cell sorting in model systems. Cell, #EpithelialMechanics doi.org/10.1016/0092...

Steinberg, M. S. (1963). Reconstruction of tissues by dissociated cells: some morphogenetic tissue movements and the sorting out of embryonic cells may have a common explanation. Science, #EpithelialMechanics www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Class I histone deacetylases catalyze lysine lactylation Metabolism and post-translational modifications (PTMs) are intrinsically linked and the number of identified metabolites that can covalently modify proteins continues to increase. This metabolism/PTM ...

New paper online from our long-standing collaboration with @dremilygoldberg.bsky.social on lysine lactylation catalysed by HDACs! www.jbc.org/article/S002...

LIM Domain Proteins link molecular and global tension by recognizing strained actin in adhesions Mechanotransduction is fundamental to cell signaling and depends on force-sensitive adhesion proteins. How these proteins differentiate and integrate their responses to tension remains an open questio...

Congratulations to @stefanosala89.bsky.social , with help from @shreya-c.bsky.social al‬ on the optogenetic experiments, for the awesome story! Read the full preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... and thanks for listening!

Cell-cell contacts orchestrate tissue assembly and diverse cellular interactions.

🎯But what mediates their intricate patterns?🤔

Join me, @feyzanar.bsky.social, in exploring the interplay of adhesion and subcellular mechanics in contact patterning.

A TRPV4–dependent calcium signaling axis governs lamellipodial actin architecture to promote cell migration Cell migration is crucial for development and tissue homeostasis, while its dysregulation leads to severe pathologies. Cell migration is driven by the extension of actin–based lamellipodia protrusions...

I'm thrilled to finally share my PhD work on understanding how Ca2+ signals regulate the protruding front of the cell. It’s been an incredible journey working alongside all the collaborators.

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

A TRPV4–dependent calcium signaling axis governs lamellipodial actin architecture to promote cell migration Cell migration is crucial for development and tissue homeostasis, while its dysregulation leads to severe pathologies. Cell migration is driven by the extension of actin–based lamellipodia protrusions...

Excited to share our latest work on how Ca²⁺ regulates actin in cell protrusions—now available as a preprint on bioRxiv! 🎉 Huge congrats to Ernest Iu for leading the project, and a special thanks to our amazing collaborators!

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

I also am very thankful for generous funding during my postdoctoral training from @damonrunyon.org, @cdi-ucsf.bsky.social, and the Hartz family. I can’t wait to join the community at @pennmedicine.bsky.social and @penncancer.bsky.social and get started!

I am incredibly grateful for the support and mentorship that I have received over the years from the Lim Lab (@cdi-ucsf.bsky.social), Muir Lab, Greenberg Lab (@jhu.edu), and many collaborators.

Please reach out if you are interested in joining an interdisciplinary team that applies synthetic biology to study the role of cell adhesion in multicellular organization and tumor progression to advance cell therapies for cancer treatment and regenerative medicine.

The Stevens Lab will combine protein engineering, synthetic biology, and mechanobiology to investigate and program how cells form and maintain tissues.

Stevens Lab

I am excited to announce that in March, I will start my lab in the Department of Cancer Biology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine @pennmedicine.bsky.social @penncancer.bsky.social
stevens.bio

Synthetic organizer cells guide development via spatial and biochemical instructions Synthetic organizer cells, engineered to spatially self-assemble around stem cells, can be used to create specific morphogen gradients and systematically guide in vitro development.

The latest from Lim Lab at CDI out today in Cell! "Synthetic organizer cells guide development via spatial and biochemical instructions" led by star postdocs Toshi Yamada and Coralie Trentesaux

www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...