Alejandro Torres-Sánchez

Papafilippou, E., Baldauf, L., Charras, G., Kabla, A. J., & Bonfanti, A. (2025). Interplay of damage and repair in the control of epithelial tissue integrity in response to cyclic loading. Current opinion in cell biology, 94, 102511. #EpithelialMechanicsReview
buff.ly/Qzj8OWl

Plasmodium falciparum egress disrupts endothelial junctions and activates JAK-STAT signaling in a microvascular 3D blood-brain barrier model Nature Communications - Here the authors show that Plasmodium falciparum egress products disrupt endothelial barrier and activate JAK-STAT and interferon type response in a 3D blood-brain barrier...

We are happy to show one ourt first exciting papers. We have developed a blood-brain barrier model to study the disruptive effects caused by the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.

First, congratulations to the fearless @liviapiatti.bsky.social and @alinabatzi.bsky.social

rdcu.be/ezBl7

Out now! Our very first paper@crick.ac.uk, an impressive feat by @tobyandrews.bsky.social where we show how a developing heart grows and scales up its morphological complexity to keep beating...an excellent summary below ⬇️
www.cell.com/developmenta...

Here’s why your blood vessels don’t burst under pressure Cells lining the blood vessels reorganize their inner structures to handle stressful boosts in pressure.

Our study on endothelial mechanics made the news! 🤩

Super nice and clear article on our findings and their implications.
www.snexplores.org/article/how-...

Turing Patterns Turn Up in a Tiny Crystal | Quanta Magazine The mechanism behind leopard spots and zebra stripes also appears to explain the patterned growth of a bismuth crystal, extending Alan Turing’s 1952 idea to the atomic scale.

Between his code-breaking work during World War II and his death in 1954, Alan Turing proposed a mechanism for pattern formation that has been identified in the arrangement of bacteria, stripes on seashells and even the distribution of human settlements.

Congrats @pauguillamat.bsky.social!

New preprint out! We show how cellular nematic order can be harnessed to program tissue-wide force fields and guide 3D shape transformations.

The tissue morphogenesis logic, now engineered into living, programmable materials.

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

#ActiveMatter #TissueEngineering

New Oxford research reveals Uber’s algorithmic pricing leaves drivers A new study from researchers in the University of Oxford’s Department of Computer Science has found that Uber’s use of dynamic pricing has led to higher fares for passengers and lower earnings for

A study from @compscioxford.bsky.social finds Uber’s dynamic pricing leads to higher fares for riders, lower earnings for drivers, and more revenue for the company.

Read more ⬇️

Almost all Nobel Prizes are awarded for work that is exploratory, or absolutely basic science with no obvious commercial or medical benefit.

You cannot predict where advancements come from, so you have to invest in science and scientists.

Targeted (corporate) science investment will never do this.

It has been a pretty intense and busy week (both for students and trainers) at the @embo.org @embl.org @barcelonacollaboratorium.com practical course 'Computational Modelling of Multicellular Systems' 🤓💻

Looking forward to future editions!
@epimechfc.bsky.social @i2sysbio.es

Sketch of membrane-enclosed compartment with particles on its surface, which interact with an adjacent structure

🧵 🧪 1/ Hi! I’m excited to share our latest work, now on arXiv:

Repulsive particle interactions at cellular interfaces enable selective information processing (arxiv.org/abs/2506.14739)

Where we explore how the physical properties of living systems can help cells process spatial information.

Here our latest work on how morphogens trigger tissue phase transitions to tune their own length-scales and time-scales - An exciting collaboration with @zhvas.bsky.social @dianakhorom.bsky.social Bernat Corominas-Murtra and heroic experiments by the incredible @cami-autorino.bsky.social @embl.org

Very happy to see our latest collab out on bioarxiv - check out this thread by @cami-autorino.bsky.social

🔔 Proud to share the preprint of my PhD work in the Petridou group @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social @embl.org ✨

“A closed feedback between tissue phase transitions and morphogen gradients drives patterning dynamics” 🐟 🔁 📶

🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#devbio #biophysics

🧵⤵️

Want to help shape a young & dynamic research group while using #organoids to ask how #chromatin dynamics, #cell_state, & the #exposome contribute to #neuroendocrine #cancer? Apply for a postdoc position in our lab @embl.org Barcelona! #cancer_models.
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/d...

📢 Fresh off the press and featuring new exciting experiments! 🧪
We show how glycolytic activity instructs germ layer proportions through regulation of Nodal and Wnt signaling - happy to finally share this 😊
doi.org/10.1016/j.st...

B2B with @jesseveenvliet.bsky.social lab: doi.org/10.1016/j.st... 🤩

The role of extracellular matrix viscoelasticity in development and disease - npj Biological Physics and Mechanics npj Biological Physics and Mechanics - The role of extracellular matrix viscoelasticity in development and disease

Thrilled to share our new review article!
“The role of extracellular matrix viscoelasticity in development and disease” written together with Olivia Courbot is now published in npj Biological Physics and Mechanics. www.nature.com/articles/s44...
#ECM #Mechanobiology #DevelopmentalBiology

How do hydraulic forces impact critical processes such as tissue integrity, cell fate decisions, and embryo development?

Hydraulics studies how fluids move and exert forces.

Join me in exploring few articles on hydraulics in #EpithelialMechanics

🎉 Excited to share our new work: “Adhesion-driven tissue rigidification triggers epithelial cell polarity”, now on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social !

A huge thank you to @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social, Bernat, @crisp-c.bsky.social, Adrián, and everyone involved! 🙌

🧵⤵️

...and If this piqued your interest, we have fully-funded postdoc positions (4+2 years) available! Join the dynamic, collaborative community @crick.ac.uk with access to top-tier technology platforms and an outstanding postdoc training program.
crick.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...

Find out how video games helped scientists visualise limb development.

Laura Aviñó-Esteban, PhD student at EMBL Barcelona and first author of a recently published study, explains how video games helped her solve the problem of fragmented limb dev. visualisation. 💻🧪

www.embl.org/news/science...

Function doesn’t just follow form—it shapes it.

This study, led by Chris from @rashmi-priya.bsky.social's lab, is also the first work from our lab at @embl.org, with beautiful simulations by @dsantosolivan.bsky.social.

Check it out 👇

More than just enduring this mechanical stress, what we’ve found is that its own beating—its rhythmic stretching and contracting—actively instructs its own morphogenesis: cyclic strain drives mechanical fractures in the ECM that pattern heart morphogenesis.

Imagine being an engineer asked to build a material that withstands 100% strain, 150 times per minute—for a lifetime. Now imagine having to build it while it’s already functioning. That’s exactly what the heart does.

Comic meme

Standards are kept

Congrats to both of you!

Hello Bluesky 🦋
I’m excited to speak at next week’s VGZT! Please join in case you want to know more about my work on the metabolic control of germ layer proportions #devbio #metabolism #stemcellmodels @vgzt2021.bsky.social

‘Cue-less’ symmetry breaking in gastruloids

Read this Research Highlight showcasing work from Kerim Anlaş, Nicola Gritti, Vikas Trivedi @viktri08.bsky.social and colleagues:
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

🎥Onset of T expression in gastruloids

European Molecular Biology Laboratory With 29 member states, laboratories at six locations across Europe and thousands of scientists and engineers working together, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory is a powerhouse of biological e...

EMBL is Europe’s life sciences laboratory. 🧬🧪

At our sites in Barcelona,​​ Grenoble, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Hinxton, and Rome, we seek to understand life in context, from molecules to ecosystems. 🔬🌍

Follow us for our latest news and updates about research, training, services and more. www.embl.org

Congrats Maria!!!! For many more posts like this!