Edouard Hannezo

Contractile fibroblasts form a transient niche for the branching mammary epithelium Nature Communications - Fibroblasts represent a heterogenous cell population but how their differences reflect their plasticity and origin is not fully understood. Here, the authors map the origin...

So proud of the exciting story from my PhD student Jakub Sumbal on contractile fibroblasts shaping branching morphogenesis!
Fantastic collaboration with the lab of Zuzana Koledova in Prague!
@sumbalovakoledova.bsky.social

It just came out online, check it out here:
rdcu.be/eIIKD

How do cells navigate up gradients of adhesive proteins?
🤔

Termed "Haptotaxis", this effect is ubiquitous in cell migration, but it's mechanism was poorly understood

We show that passive friction directs cells & explains complex trajectories on gradients

👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our latest preprint! Into morphogenesis, Yap, ECM, signaling, vertex models, feedbacks/robustness? There is something here for everyone. We discovered a positive feedback loop that extends inner ear canals, and a built-in mechanism that shuts it down when morphogenesis is done. tinyurl.com/464wsjhd

Now out in final published form - with a new title "Mechanical control of cell fate decisions in the skin epidermis" and simulations/quantifications! See below for thread of how unbalanced tensions can bias fate choices in minimal 3D models of tissues! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧵1/14 Preprint thread! Can we predict a cell’s fate based on its dynamics? 🔮 Our new study unveils a framework for watching development unfold in real-time, revealing how a cell's shape and movement encode info about its future fate. 🔬📄 Preprint: tinyurl.com/4shf8v4x

Core achievement unlocked!! Congrats to Fabrizio amd all authors!!

Who knew that the perfect pasta sauce could lead to a Nobel Prize? Congrats to ISTA postdoc Fabrizio Olmeda and collaborators for winning the Ig Nobel Prize with their research on mastering Cacio e Pepe. Bravo! 🍝 🎉

Getting hungry? Here´s the recipe for delicious research: https://bit.ly/42vlpHm

We’re organizing a conference at @ijmonod.bsky.social in Paris, January 2026, in memory of M.P. Sheetz — pioneer in cell mechanics and mechanobiology, co-discoverer of kinesin, and founder of @mbisg.bsky.social. Join us to explore his legacy.

mikeinmemoriam.sciencesconf.org

Super excited that our group will be supported by an ERC Starting Grant!

In project "InfoFate" we will study how cells use information in dynamical, neighborhood & mechanical signals to make decisions.

We'll have PhD and Postdoc positions available, please get in touch if interested!

We are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)

📣 Now out in @physreve.bsky.social‬ as editors' suggestion: our theory on the role of different myosin II isoforms during cell migration. For standard parameters, A and B segregate to the front and the back, respectively. Yet for other parameter values, also oscillations are possible.

Very cool to see it out congratulations!!

The actin cortex acts as a mechanical memory of morphology in confined migrating cells - Nature Physics Cells often navigate through confined spaces. Now it is shown that cells retain a mechanical memory of previous confinement events, which makes them more efficient at migrating through narrow microenv...

Excited to share our new publication in Nature Physics about the mechanical memory of morphology in confined migrating cells by @kyohalie.bsky.social 🥳

Super fun collab with @davidbrueckner.bsky.social and @gcharras.bsky.social 👏🏻

Enjoy the reading www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Do you want to push the boundaries of science together with world-class supervisors and colleagues?

The ISTA-Fellowship Program offers fully funded two-year postdoctoral fellowships for highly qualified candidates.

Apply now to take your next career step at ISTA: https://bit.ly/4kfKBZx

Very happy to see it out, another fun collaboration with the Sixt group at @istaresearch.bsky.social ! See Mehmet's thread for a summary of how different immune cells can "surf" on each other's self-generated gradients to drive efficient co-migration!

🚨 New paper out in @pnas.org! 🚨

We show that self-generated gradients allow heterogeneous cell mixtures to co-migrate efficiently over long distances —while optimizing their physical interactions!

(See below for 🧵)

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧪

#EMBOBiophysicalRepair

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Joaquín Navajas Acedo Joaquín Navajas Acedo is a Postdoc in the lab of Dr Alexander Schier in Biozentrum at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He is interested in how the nervous system evolves and develops at the singl...

In case you've ever wondered, I talked with @amjeve.bsky.social about science, myself, and the future of #DevBio as part of the Pathway to Independence Fellowship @biologists.bsky.social 🧪 journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Our first #Hydra paper. @anaisbailles.bsky.social all the way, with crucial theory contributions from Carl Modes and @zechnerlab.bsky.social Hydra maintenance by Heino Andreas and HCR by Giulia Serafini. Teamwork. Many thanks to the generous Hydra research community.

From genes to patterns: five key dynamical systems concepts to decode developmental regulatory mechanisms Summary: Dynamical systems theory provides a powerful quantitative and intuitive framework to understand developmental processes. This Primer brings key concepts of this framework to the ever-growing ...

A Summer reading recommendation: new primer in @dev-journal.bsky.social explains how dynamical systems theory unlocks the logic of developmental patterning

Everything from bistable switches & oscillators to phase portraits & more with Python code to explore

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

If you want to discover Vienna, Austria in general (and @istaresearch.bsky.social groups in particular) now have 4-year fellowships for postdocs coming from a US institution (up to 500,000 EUR)! Contact me if interested!

bioRxiv bat signal going up. We have a big backlog of submissions. If any affiliates have time to do some screening, we (and all the authors) would be immensely grateful! 🙏

1/ 🚀 New tutorial alert!
Ever wanted to use your microscope as a multi-angle light scattering device? Our new preprint is out:
📄 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM)
arXiv: 2507.05058 (link in the last skeet!)
🧵 Thread ⬇️

Evolutionary repurposing of a DNA segregation machinery into a cytoskeletal system controlling cyanobacterial cell shape Bacteria, despite their diversity, use conserved cytoskeletal systems for their intracellular organization. In unicellular bacteria, the ParMRC DNA partitioning apparatus is well known for forming act...

One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint!

Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thanks a lot !!:)

Thanks a lot adrien!!

Really honored and excited to be in this cohort! Tons of thanks to all group members and collaborators that have made this possible!!

📸 Gaia Novarino © Peter Rigaud | ISTA 📸 Edouard Hannezo © Anna Stöcher | ISTA

ISTA profs Gaia Novarino and @ehannezo.bsky.social​ have been elected to @embo.org​ in recognition of their outstanding research contributions. Today, they join 67 other biological scientists from 24 countries in their new EMBO membership. Congratulations!
#EMBOMembers2025

🔗 https://bit.ly/3ZV6ZiA

🧵Just out !
We reveal how 4 branched epithelia—mammary, lacrimal, salivary & prostate—use a conserved YAP–Notch–p63 circuit to self-organize during development & regeneration.
Here’s the story👇
authors.elsevier.com/c/1lM285Sx5g...
Work done in @frelab.bsky.social at ‪
‪ @institutcurie.bsky.social

How to turn a layer of fibroblasts into a tulip 🌷?

Check out our new pre-print on shape-programmable living surfaces.

Led by @pauguillamat.bsky.social‬

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