🚀 Are you planning to secure funding to start your own research group? (e.g. ERC, Emmy Noether, etc).
👨🔬Physics of Life can host you, and offers numerous benefits!
We are launching a new Program to host and support third-party funded junior groups.
Check out the details here: tud.link/xayd8s
A huge thanks also to all collaborators, including Daan Vorseelen, @sterrevanwierst.bsky.social, Jack Merrin, Alice Battistella, and Jochen Guck.
Thanks also to our team members Jianfei Jiang, Armina Mortazavi, Bingzhi Wang, Artur Kuznetcov, and Rüya Aslan for contributing to the findings!
This was a fantastic collaborative research effort across 3 labs: @sabass-lab.bsky.social , Javier Periz, @meissnerlab.bsky.social , & our lab, combining mechanics, cell biology, modelling, immunology, and parasitology.
@bmc-lmu.bsky.social @lmu.de
And a huge credit to the first author, Mauricio!
Conceptually, our findings suggest a shift in how we think about migration constraints in 3D microenvironments.
It’s not always the nucleus that limits migration. Cells can dynamically organize a hierarchy of mechanical bottlenecks and mechanoadapt depending on their cargo size.
4/6
We discovered a size-dependent mechanoadaptive program
- size-dependent myosin-II contractility
- size-dependent positioning of the parasite
- size-dependent bleb-based motility
Together, these changes reprogram intracellular forces and cellular architecture to move oversized cargo.
3/6
Biophysically, we discover that the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, a human pathogen, forms assemblies that become larger and stiffer than the host nucleus.
This should hinder migration.
Yet paradoxically, we identify that infected cells carrying bulky parasitic cargoes still move efficiently.
2/6
How does a cell move when it carries cargo larger than its own organelles?
Excited to share our findings: cells can mechanoadapt their force architecture to move oversized cargo
Watch the bulky parasite (red) within an immune cell squeezing through a tiny pore
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/6
Just back from the annual meeting of the @dfg.de priority program #SPP2332 on "Physics of Parasitism", this time at the Robert Koch Institute at Berlin. So many great talks and discussions! Already looking forward to next year's meeting at Hamburg👍
Excited to share our latest #review on how the mechanobiology of the nucleus impacts immune cell function, including #NETosis, #migration, and #differentiation.
doi.org/10.1080/1949...
This was a fantastic collaborative effort with @hawa-racine.bsky.social, along with Sarah & Janina from our lab!
We thank all team members, collaborators, and funding partners for a productive year 2025!
In 2026, we look forward to new exciting findings
on the mechanobiology of cells and their organelles
at the interface of cell biology, biophysics,
material science, and immunology.
All the best for 2026!
Dynamic cellular interfaces reloaded!🎉 Happy and excited to receive extended funding @sfb1348.bsky.social @uni-muenster.de @mpi-muenster.bsky.social and to push our collaborative science forward in the next 4 years! Big thanks @dfg.de, reviewers, and everyone else involved for the continued support!
Thanks to @katemiro.bsky.social , Megan King, Verena Ruprecht & @lammerdinglab.bsky.social for organising the very first meeting on the “Mechanobiology of the Nucleus” #MBNSRC @faseborg.bsky.social and for the invitation to present our discoveries. The conference was fantastic!
Register for the Dynamic Cell VI conference, Reading, UK, April 2026! This conference focusses on all aspects of cell dynamics, co-organised by @bscb-official.bsky.social and @biochemsoc.bsky.social with @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social and the Chinese Society for Cell Biology.
bit.ly/Dynamic-Cell-VI
Learn all things #cytoskeleton #research in an interdisciplinary environment at EMBO Workshop "Structure and Function of the Cytoskeleton" in Paris, FR, 7–10 April 2026.
Deadline: 20 December 2025
https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-cytoskeleton
#EMBOCytoskeletalFunction #EMBOevents #conference 🧪
Want to apply for an EMBO Postdoctoral #Fellowship? 🧪
Here are tips from the EMBO Fellowship Committee:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7c...
#LifeSciences #grant #funding
Thank you for the fantastic organisation of the conference and for assembling this excellent scientific program with numerous great poster sessions. I am already looking forward to the next CellMech conference in two years!
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 🧵 👇
Announcing a new @embo.org Workshop on "Intracellular mechanics and organelle mechanobiology" that we are organizing with Michael Krieg and Verena Ruprecht at @icfo.eu (Barcelona) on 16-20 February, 2026. Please, repost and spread the word! 🙏 #EMBOmechanobio
meetings.embo.org/event/26-org...
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...
Congrats to @errricpeterman.bsky.social on leading our latest paper now published in @jcellsci.bsky.social ! Eric found multiple roles for microtubules in tissue-resident macrophage homeostasis and function -- including in helping macrophages navigate around epithelial obstacles during wound repair👇
SCHEPHERD--the bioelectric cell herding platform built for YOU. Single cells, monolayers, organoids--this herds them all + new tricks. Plz try it-- we will *give* you parts! Teaser here of a steering a single cell. GS Yubin Lin's lifeblood with J. Yodh on piano; Celeste R. and Paul K. Thread 1/N
Fast & Fair peer review A new initiative offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days of submission Biology Open logo to the left Fast & Fair peer review
To expand the Fast & Fair peer review experiment to more subject areas, we are inviting our community members to join the Biology Open peer reviewer pool. Your participation and commitment are key to the success of this initiative. Apply at bit.ly/428Cszt
#fastandfairpeerreview
Final call to register and submit abstracts for the @faseborg.bsky.social conference on the Mechanobiology of the Cell Nucleus (#MBNSRC) to be considered for platform presentations. The conference takes place in Melbourne, FL, Oct. 26-30, 2025. See more info at: events.faseb.org/event/Mechan...
How can cells self-organize rapidly into complex patterns during development?
Let’s explore a powerful and underappreciated mechanism: Directed Cell Migration (DCM).
Preprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1101/2025...
👇Thread 🧵(1/11)
Our Faraday Discovery Fellowships Accelerated International Route is now open for applications, providing a fast-track option for attracting mid-career researchers looking to relocate to the UK from overseas, providing up to £4m over a five-year period.
#RSGrants
🚨 New EMBO Practical Course!
Ultrastructure Expansion Microscopy: From Cells to Tissue 🔬
📅 20–24 Apr 2026 | 📍 EMBL Heidelberg
Co-organised with @banterlegroup.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social
💡 Register your interest to get notified when registration opens:
🔗 www.embl.org/about/info/c...
1 month to abstract deadline for the first cell biology of the nucleus meeting at @embl.org in many years - organised by the stellar @luskinglab.bsky.social @sarawickstrom.bsky.social Tom Quail & Simone Koehler
Tons of open slots, invited and selected speakers all get 20 mins ❤️
#EESNucleus
📢Call for speakers
We are looking for ECRs to speak in our mini-symposium run together with the popular membrane trafficking webinar series organised by @franbottanelli.bsky.social @felixmendu.bsky.social & @ishier.bsky.social.
focalplane.biologists.com/2025/07/14/f...
Apply by 24 August
🚨 There is a new W2 Professorship for Tumor Immunology (permanent position) available in our department. 🎓 🧫 🧪 🔬
ℹ️ Check out the details here: www.uni-bonn.de/en/universit...
⏰ Apply now! Application deadline is August 26, 2025.
📢 Please share!
@unibonn.bsky.social @immunosens.bsky.social
More than 100 EMBO Postdoctoral Fellows from 30+ countries got together for this year's EMBO Fellows’ Meeting.
Read about the fellows' experience and the enriching programme: www.embo.org/features/sha...
#EMBOFellows #LifeSciences #Networking
