Elena Scarpa & The Squeezable Cells Lab

Torque-based immune cell chemotaxis in complex environments Directed migration in chemical gradients is crucial to the immune response, yet how immune cells navigate complex tissues remains incompletely understood. Using in vitro migration assays and theoretic...

Hot from the #preprint

Leukocyte + #CellMigration + physics = cool

Microtubules enable torque-based steering during dendritic cell migration.

Actomyosin contractility is required for noise-modulation strategy used by neutrophils.

Full @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Now (finally) #published @natcomms.nature.com: "A multi-tiered mechanical mechanism shapes the early neural plate" @mpipks.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

A great collaboration of experiment and theory to explain the tissue flows shaping the #zebrafish neural plate!

doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61303-1

Very excited to share our latest preprint! We looked at loss and gain of function, innervation, reinnervation, and in vivo axonal transport in a FUS-ALS mouse model!

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

@uclqsion.bsky.social @beccasimkin.bsky.social @andrewtosolini.bsky.social @frattalab.bsky.social

👋 Are you looking for a postdoc position? Do you think microtubules are fascinating? Then we might have the job for you! 2-year funded postdoc to join our lab!
👉 deadline 20/06
👇 check it out

www.godinholab.com

This Friday, UK Cell Motility Club symposium in Cambridge, UK: exciting PhD student and Postdoc speaker line up! A few last minute spots available. Organised by @squeezycellslab.bsky.social and @matthias-krause.bsky.social
cytoskeleton.wixsite.com/londoncellmo...

May I add this is the result of a big effort from the wonderful @hannamariahakkinen.bsky.social

Thank you so much Ankita!!

No plans for this Friday?
Come join us at the UK Cell Motility Club, last chance to register cytoskeleton.wixsite.com/londoncellmo...

Experimental embryology postdoc available in my lab at the @biology.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk working on the evolution of vertebral counts. Reach out if you’re passionate about EvoDevo, enjoy lab work and microscopy and are into or could get into cichlid fishes. Deadline on the 16th June. Please share!

Very excited to share the first preprint from the lab:
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
We investigated neural crest migration all the way from head to tail of the Zebrafish embryo and we found their nuclei suffer dramatic deformations.
Want to know of they cope with feeling squeezed? 🐟🐠🐟

Want to know how cells cope with being squeezed ? check out the preprint 🐠🐟🐠

Cell biology: how cells protect their centrosome against mechanical forces When motile immune cells move through tissue, they are exposed to strong forces. Researchers at LMU have discovered how these cells protect a sensitive organelle, the centrosome, from being destroyed.

#CellBiology: “The centrosome is exposed to mechanical forces and can even break when cells move through narrow or complex environments,” says Renkawitz. #LMU researchers led by Jörg Renkawitz have discovered how these cells protect a sensitive organelle, the centrosome, from being destroyed.