Ignasi Casanellas

Webster, S., Brynn, R., & Poole, K. (2025). Evaluating the roles of ion channels in cellular force sensing. Journal of cell science, 138(15), jcs264038. #EpithelialMechanicsReview
doi.org/10.1242/jcs....

Permeability-driven pressure and cell proliferation control lumen morphogenesis in pancreatic organoids - Nature Cell Biology Using pancreatic organoids, Lee et al. show that the balance between epithelial tissue permeability-driven lumenal pressure and cell proliferation affects ductal morphogenesis.

☕Using #pancreatic #organoids, Lee et al. show that the balance between epithelial tissue permeability-driven lumenal pressure and cell proliferation affects ductal morphogenesis.
bit.ly/4qozmjG

Early-bird deadline to join @jcellsci.bsky.social at their meeting on Imaging Cell Dynamics in Spain in May is Friday 16 January. Apply to attend at:
biologists.com/meetings/jcs...
#JCSimaging

We wrote two reviews on cell migration, published today in Nature Methods.

They provides practical guidelines how to select a cell-migration assay and how to analyze cell-migration data

Review 1: nature.com/articles/s41...

Review 2: nature.com/articles/s41...

Janelia is hiring! "Invent new imaging methods, molecular tools, or protein chemistry approaches"

www.janelia.org/content/lead...

The bot doesn't know what Watson & Crick mean by "suggests", because the entire concept of formulating a hypothesis and doing any sort of thinking is not something a LLM can relate to.

Intercellular propagation of ERK activation and ZO-1 localization to podosomes during collective cell migration.

Translocation of ZO-1 from the apical side of the cells to the adhesive ring of podosomes.

Cell-cell junction proteins like ZO-1 not only play a critical role in the mechanical interaction between cells, but also participate in the biochemical signalling to coordinate the cell sheet. Check out this review on collective cell migration here to learn more: doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

📣Announcing the 4th edition of the EMBL‑IBEC Conference on “Engineering Multicellular Systems”, taking place 11–13 March 2026 in Barcelona. Exploring organoids, mechanobiology, embryo models, organ-on-chip systems, multiomics and more. Abstracts open now!
events.ibecbarcelona.eu/embl-ibec-co...

During these uncertain times, I’m very happy to see that my institution, @scripps.edu has an open tenure-track Assistant Professor position. Any field in Chemistry or Biology is welcome. I’d especially love to see fellow neuroscientists apply. Please repost!

apply.interfolio.com/174756

Neural Crest Migration Orchestrated by Molecular and Mechanical Signals The neural crest is a highly migratory multipotent cell population traveling large distances in the vertebrate embryo. Neural crest cells migrate collectively in subpopulations, ranging in size from s...

A new review from the @mayorlab.bsky.social on the chemical and physical cues regulating neural crest cells migration is out. Check it out!
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Fish keratocytes isolated from a fish scale crawling around. Technique: DIC microscopy. #CellBiology.
Another #NikonSmallWorldReject

Rainbow shading of a confocal micrograph of a developing mouse neural tube. The protein actin is stained and colored in rainbow to indicate depth in the section.

Happy #FluorescenceFriday! This is a maximum intensity projection of depth shaded actin (🌈) in a section from an E9.5 🐭 neural tube (NT). 🔬 by postdoc @christinaadaly.bsky.social 👩‍🔬 🧪 Image shows the floor plate and lumen of the developing NT.

#SciArt #DevBio #DevNeuro

We're now recruiting early career group leaders at the Crick to lead ambitious research programmes and explore bold scientific questions.

Hear our Director, Edith Heard, explain why the Crick is a unique place for curiosity-driven research.

Apply now ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Perhaps one way to evaluate the quality of a research article is to assess its teachability.

Is the article clear about its identifying assumptions?

Does it lay out the results clearly?

Does it engage with its limitations transparently?

The integrin odyssey – a journey full of fundamental discoveries Summary: This Perspective highlights the key discoveries in integrin research that laid the foundation for a successful field.

The integrin odyssey – a journey full of fundamental discoveries url: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Great to start the day while reading this #integrin odyssey.

Cell Migration Seminars Cell Migration Seminars every Tuesday at 16:00 BST.

If anyone ever wants to brush up on a lot of cell migration concepts don't forget we have several wonderful scientists who have given talks previously in cell migration seminars. I find it so comforting to go look at old videos, maybe someone else who will do as well!!
youtube.com/@cellmigrati...

PIEZO channels link mechanical forces to uterine contractions in parturition Mechanical forces are extensively involved in pregnancy and parturition, but their precise roles and mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we identify mechanically activated ion channels PIEZO1 a...

New preprint alert! The uterus expands ~500-fold in pregnancy, yet we know little about how pressures are sensed. Led by @yunxiao-dr.bsky.social, we show PIEZOs are required for contractions and birth in mice, with dual roles of PIEZO1 in muscle and PIEZO2 in neurons
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How can we use cell shapes and geometry to study mechanics of tissues?

I'm @juliaeckert.bsky.social, and with this thread, I would like to show you the secrets of cells and tissues. Let’s connect biology with a little bit of physics. Don't be scared and get inspired 😀. #EpithelialMechanics

We are excited to announce our new #partnership with the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) in Singapore! 🇸🇬

This collaboration will combine MBI’s expertise on molecular, cell, and tissue mechanobiology with our research on spatiotemporal organization of living matter to understand how organisms form 🔬

A fascinating paper! I think in hindsight, us scientists are all expecting this to happen when we knockout something. But to actually characterise its effects and see it happening in real time is still eye opening. Watch out for Transcriptional Adaptation!

AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.

Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it

I did enjoy S1 but found the first episode of S2 pretty underwhelming. I stopped it about two thirds through and am thinking of just tapping out. Does it get better soon (or do we just have different tastes)?

Kids need freedom. Dangerous roads make it hard to grant it. Bigger cars, distracted drivers and worried parents mean fewer kids are roaming freely.

The number of children injured or killed by cars while walking or riding a bike has fallen steadily since the 1970s, but CDC researcher note that this decline is not because streets are safer, but because fewer kids are out and about in the first place.

My team has updated our free database of POSTDOC fellowships.

This database contains 286 entries. For each entry, we provide a link, short description, deadline, amount, and eligibility criteria.

Download this updated and expanded database here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

Mechanotransduction in the nucleus

Multiple TFs transmit mechanical forces into transcriptional regulation.

Nuclear shape, size, and chromatin abnormalities are common features of many diseases.

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...

Brain Surfaces of 70 primate species

1
To predict the behaviour of a primate, would you rather base your guess on a closely related species or one with a similar brain shape? We looked at brains & behaviours of 70 species, you’ll be surprised!

🧵Thread on our new preprint with @r3rt0.bsky.social , doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Interested in nuclear #mechanobiology? Join us for the first ever FASEB Science Research Conference on the Mechanobiology of the Nucleus #MBNSRC.
Find more information and register at: events.faseb.org/event/Mechan...
Submit abstracts by August 31, 2025. Please share and see you in October!

A human-specific enhancer fine-tunes radial glia potency and corticogenesis - Nature HARE5, a human accelerated region enhancer, modulates cortical development by influencing neural progenitor cell behaviour, leading to an enlarged neocortex with increased functional independence betw...

Thrilled to share our latest study out in @natureportfolio.nature.com led by the fantastically talented Jing Liu. Our study provides insight into a long standing question in biology: What molecular features make us uniquely human and how do these function? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Collective cell migration is fascinating!
Some tissues behave like fluids (motile), others like solids (jammed).

Check out some papers exploring this topic in this thread.