Pintu Patra

Tissue-like multicellular development triggered by mechanical compression in archaea The advent of clonal multicellularity is a critical evolutionary milestone, seen often in eukaryotes, rarely in bacteria, and only once in archaea. We show that uniaxial compression induces clonal mul...

Pretty much everything is fucked, but here is some beautiful and exciting science from @archaeon-alex.bsky.social and colleagues.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This paper is a part of Special issue dedicated to Watt W. Webb - Point spread functions.
And our third paper on the quantitative understanding of RBC cytoskeleton remodeling by the malaria parasite, coming from a collaboration between @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social and Michael Lanzer at Heidelberg.

Our analysis reveals that the average separation between KAHRP and ankyrin junctions increases from 40 nm to 120 nm during the 48-hour malaria infection cycle—shedding light on how the parasite reorganizes the RBC cytoskeleton! #MalariaResearch

We apply our method to malaria-infected red blood cells (RBCs) imaged via STED microscopy. The RBC cytoskeleton, a quasi-hexagonal network of spectrin-actin junctions, is remodeled by the parasite using the knob-associated histidine-rich protein (KAHRP).

We examine how image size, signal density, separation distance, and signal size affect PCC profiles. This leads to new insights into molecular organization that were previously hidden in PCC profiles computed from images.

We derive a theoretical expression for the pair cross-correlation (PCC) function using 2D Gaussian distributions as effective point-spread functions for single molecules. Our analytical approach, combined with synthetic image data, reveals key factors influencing PCC profiles.

Check our new paper: "Pair cross-correlation analysis for assessing protein co-localization." Here we provide a quantitative understanding of the image pair cross-correlation method used to analyze spatial co-localization from super-resolution images.
t.co/oXBkoo4YI3

Pre-announcing the 10th Biennial European CellMech conference organized in Leuven 🇧🇪 from September 30th to October 3rd, 2025.
cellmech2025.org
Save the date !

Swarm intelligence - Collective motions from biology to robotic This cross-journal Collection between Nature Communications, Communications Engineering, Communications Physics, and Scientific Reports brings together the ...

What can we learn from swarm behavior and implement it to perform diverse tasks in various environments?
@natureportfolio.bsky.social
calls for papers on Swarm Intelligence #Swarm #intelligence #Collective #Collections at Nature Communications.
www.nature.com/collections/...

Collective buoyancy-driven dynamics in swarming enzymatic nanomotors - Nature Communications Enzymatic nanomotors exhibit collective behaviour in fuel-rich environments, forming swarms with enhanced propulsion and coverage. This study investigates the factors affecting swarm movement, reveali...

This study investigates the factors affecting #swarm movement, revealing that solutal buoyancy drives their motion, with potential #biomedical applications like targeted drug delivery #Swarms #collectivebehaviour #nanomotors
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cell shape affects bacterial colony growth under physical confinement - Nature Communications Lab experiments using liquid cultures or agar plates fail to capture the effects of physical confinement on bacteria. Here, Sreepadmanabh et al. use three-dimensional matrices to show that growth unde...

Cell shape affects bacterial colony growth under physical confinement:

Cocci -> compact spherical colonies
Rods -> elongated colonies with increased access to nutrients

#bacteria #MicroSky 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Large-scale collective motion of epithelial cells not as a fluid, but as a polar elastic solid.
Our new study posted on Biorxiv:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out our new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social by amazing grad students @ezlevy.bsky.social and @isabellaleite.bsky.social “A tug-of-war between germ cell motility and intercellular bridges controls germline cyst formation in mice”
authors.elsevier.com/a/1k7fg3QW8S...

Bluesky is emerging as the new platform for science - Mike Young Academy Scientific Twitter is about to find its true successor. And it is not X. This, our latest release, shows that the Bluesky network of scientists is growing — and growing.

Bluesky is emerging as the new platform for science

mikeyoungacademy.dk/bluesky-is-e...

What a treat to be interviewed on NPR about our lab’s newest paper! We share our findings on how bottom-up signaling from muscles during exercise helps motor neurons grow 💪🏽 #myoblue

Links to interview + paper:

www.npr.org/2024/11/14/n...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Like ‘old Twitter’: The scientific community finds a new home on Bluesky After recent changes to Elon Musk’s X, a gradual migration turns into a stampede

Good morning everyone ☀️🌅, and a warm welcome to the new folks on #Bluesky 🦋

👉 Like ‘old Twitter’: The #scientificcommunity 🧪finds a new home 💙 on #Bluesky!

#STEM #Research #Education #Science #WomenInSTEM #Safeplace

www.science.org/content/arti...

Title : Collective responses of flocking sheep (Ovis aries) to a herding dog (border collie)

Authors: Vivek Jadhav, Roberto Pasqua, Christophe Zanon, Matthieu Roy, Gilles Tredan, Richard Bon, Vishwesha Guttal & Guy Theraulaz

Journal: Communications Biology

Topological transition in filamentous cyanobacteria: from motion to structure - Communications Physics Active matter systems can spontaneously form structure. Using concepts of nonequilibrium statistical physics and experiments, this work demonstrates the existence of a topological transition in filame...

New interesting paper:

Topological transition in filamentous cyanobacteria: from motion to structure
Authors : Jan Cammann, Mixon K. Faluweki, Nayara Dambacher, Lucas Goehring &
Marco G. Mazza
Journal: Communications Physics

www.nature.com/articles/s42...

🚨 Tomorrow, Friday 22/11 15:30 CET, Berenike Maier from University of Cologne will discuss

"How bacteria control self-attraction"

at the Population Dynamics Virtual Seminars (15:30 CEST)

Register to get the zoom link
sites.google.com/view/popdyn/

HOME | Living Matter Lab

Interested in active matter/biophysics? Our lab tzerhan.com is looking for motivated PhD students to join our nonreciprocal robotics active matter/chiral jamming/morphogenesis projects. Apply by Dec 18: physics.ucsd.edu/students/gra...

Artificial boundaries - Nature Physics The 2024 Nobel prize for Physics was awarded for foundational contributions to the development of artificial neural networks. The award reflects a shift in how we understand boundaries between scienti...

Interesting read highlighting importance of interdisciplinary research:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Collective responses of flocking sheep (Ovis aries) to a herding dog (border collie) - Communications Biology Experimental analysis and computational modeling of collective responses of flocking sheep to a herding dog reveal how directional information spreads in escaping animal groups.

New interesting paper:
www.nature.com/articles/s42...