Ricard Alert Zenón

Escolta en nou capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil!
Quàntica, ordinadors i espanta sogres!!! 🎉🥳

🤔 Can tissue patterning & tumor heterogeneity emerge in a self-organized way?

We show that self-organized mechanical stress & density gradients pattern tumors in vitro & in vivo, and this behavior is quantitatively predicted by a mechano-chemical active fluid model!

Check out Carlos' thread ⬇️

Awesome work! :)

1/ 🎉Excited to share our new preprint @vignjeviclab.bsky.social @davidbrueckner.bsky.social :

"Self-organization of tumor heterogeneity and plasticity"
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tumor heterogeneity and plasticity drive metastasis and relapse. How is tumor patterning coordinated?

A thread👇

🛰️ Sabies que fas servir la teoria de la relativitat cada cop que treus el GPS?

Mira el 4t capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil per veure com li peta el cap a la @soctastaolletes.bsky.social 🤯

Amb un ajut @fcri.bsky.social

open.spotify.com/episode/4lza...

Theory and data analysis work done by postdoc MJ Franco-Oñate in my group.

Active wetting of epithelial tissues - Nature Physics An analogy with wetting has proven apt for describing how groups of cells spread on a substrate. But cells are active: they polarize, generate forces and adhere to their surroundings. Experiments now find agreement with an active update to the theory.

This collaboration led by @katecavanaugh.bsky.social from @oweinerlab.bsky.social was particularly inspiring for me: The ideas of active wetting that we developed some years ago actually helped us understand a key biological process. We could not have hoped for more!

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

New job, new preprint! We found that embryo implantation can be understood as active wetting! Embryos from older mothers have trouble implanting because they are too contractile and viscous. Check out the wonderful thread (and movies!) by @katecavanaugh.bsky.social.

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

Excited to be back in Barcelona @ub.edu to start a new chapter!

Warm goodbye to Dresden's @mpipks.bsky.social, my scientific home for the past 4 years. It's been amazing to start my group here! Thanks to the Max Planck Society, group members and everyone at the institute! Looking forward to the new chapter in Barcelona @ub.edu

Tipsy bats and perfect pasta: Ig Nobels celebrate ‘improbable’ research The annual awards are a celebration of weird but thought-provoking science.

IG Nobel Prize in #Physics 2025 to @mpipks.bsky.social researchers for elucidating the phase behaviour of cacio e pepe sauce. The work highlights how physics can also be applied to solve daily-life problems!

nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03045-0

Truly happy to see that our Italian colleagues @mpipks.bsky.social won the IgNobel Prize for figuring out that the Cacio e Pepe sauce can easily phase separate and become clumpy! Very well deserved! Congrats to the team! 😀

This project was motivated by our recent work on frictiotaxis with @mayorlab.bsky.social:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The new simulations show that the mechanism that we proposed still operates in a more complete model with that accounts for cell shape and for intercellular hydrodynamics.

Check our new preprint on active surface simulations of amoeboid migration! We show how this mode of migration can be mechanically guided by gradients in friction, viscosity, pressure, or confinement, and even by nearby cells. Work led by Hanna Gertack and Sebastian Aland.

arxiv.org/abs/2509.11801

YouTube video by La Dimoni de Maxwell L'àtom com balla!

🤔Què tenen en comú l’Ou com balla i un àtom?
🎙️El Lluís Torner, fundador de l’ICFO ens ho explica!
👉 Escolta el 2n capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil!

Amb el suport d’un Ajut FCRI 2025 @fcri.bsky.social
@soctastaolletes.bsky.social

youtube.com/shorts/Al5mY...

Very honored to receive this prize from the Spanish Physical Society! Thanks a lot to all my collaborators, who make this possible!

Bacteria are surrounded by water! New work @natphys.nature.com by @ricardalert.bsky.social @mpipks.bsky.social & collaborators @ Princeton University shows that water capillary forces organise bacterial colonies into gas, nematic streams, and droplet states.

nature.com/articles/s41567-025-02965-y

Congrats, David! Super! :)

Our paper about active crystals is now out @softmatter.rsc.org! During the revisions, we added a section about triangular lattices, on which the turn-towards or turn-away interactions can be frustrated. Check it out, and see the post below!

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

bsky.app/profile/rica...

YouTube video by La Dimoni de Maxwell Gelat de vidre

Has intentat ma fer un gelat casolà i no ha sortit tan cremós com esperaves? T'han quedat uns cristalls que et trinxen les dents? 🍦☀️
A la @soctastaolletes.bsky.social i a mi ens ha passat, però tenim la solució...
youtube.com/shorts/hAXjP...

Water menisci are a key player in bacterial colonies. Capillary forces are strong and relevant at the bacterial scale! If you know of other roles of water capillary forces in collective cell dynamics, please let me know!

n these streams, bacteria are densely packed but can still freely move past one another. Capillary forces allow bacteria to pack densely without cell-cell adhesion, avoiding jamming.

Capillary forces organize gliding bacteria into different phases. In the movie, menisci are initially wide but weak, and bacteria form a gas. When water is made less available, capillary forces become strong and organize the colony into nematic streams. Watch until the end!

Capillary attraction also makes bacteria arrange side by side after dividing.

When their menisci touch, bacterial cells experience capillary attraction. Check out the video! This attractive interaction promotes bacterial aggregation.

Matt and Josh developed an apparatus to control water availability, which directly impacts the pressure, and hence the width of the menisci.

On hydrated environments, like soil, textiles, and hydrogels, bacteria are surrounded by a meniscus of water. We fit the meniscus profile with a model based on surface tension and the osmotic pressure of extracting water from the substrate.

Capillary interactions drive the self-organization of bacterial colonies - Nature Physics Bacteria tend to live in thin layers of water on surfaces. Now the capillary forces in these layers are shown to help organize the bacteria into dense packs.

Dreaming of a swimming pool? Bacteria are surrounded by water! Water capillary forces organize bacterial colonies into gas, nematic streams, or droplet states. New paper @natphys.nature.com led by Matt Black and Chenyi Fei, with Ned Wingreen and Josh Shaevitz!

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

A Catalunya teníem, a part dels científics, un gran professional de la curiositat: el Tomàtic! 🍅 Què se n'ha fet d'un personatge així a l'era del ChatGPT?

Curiositat científica: Quant duraria la vida a la terra si en desconnectéssim el camp magnètic?