Levental Lab

What's up Bluesky....here's some live-cell imaging taken in my lab

Very excited to share the latest work from our lab in @insight.jci.org, highlighting a role for the #septin #cytoskeleton in protecting against "leaky gut", by recruiting non-muscle myosin II and stabilizing the tight junction.

Credit to @dominikrobak.bsky.social for the stunning cover image!

New septin paper by our next door lab neighbors @ebrahim-lab.bsky.social, and on the cover of JCI Insight no less.

Septin 9 reinforces intestinal epithelial junctions, preventing leaky gut and inflammation.

Check it out!

Happy to share our new paper, just published in @cellpress.bsky.social. We show that our zap&freeze approach can be used in human brain tissues to study synaptic membrane dynamics! Our brain is ultrafast after all! nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

a leaf slug or leaf sheep, it’s a small aquatic slug species that harbors chloroplast from its diet of algae within its own cells so that it can photosynthesize

here you go, enjoy this leaf sheep of good luck and success

That’s a good deal! Do you also offer similar services for boring, incremental scientific publications?

Three galaxies visible from space with the Milky Way and many stars.

not one, not two, but THREE galaxies from space!! what a beautiful sight 🌌

📸: don pettit

Two more pre-prints from the group 🎉 Riccardo explored how cells could control surface condensates by regulating bulk exchange (arxiv.org/abs/2511.03619). Filipe studied the impact of non-local interactions onto phase separation (arxiv.org/abs/2511.05214). Some more details in the thread:

The Land of the Vikings... Norway 🇳🇴 🎥dreamtravelvoyages I IG #Travel #Nature #saturdaymorning

Not that anyone asked, but the country with the World's lowest life expectancy (Chad) has a higher life expectancy than the country with the highest life expectancy 120 yrs ago (Sweden).

Think Science and especially Medicine has somehow failed you? Think again.

#ScienceMatters

What a beautiful evening sky over Dresden…after a bone chilling ride through the Heide 🥶

Opinion | I’m a Marine Biologist. This Is How I Talk to Whales.

My team and I have been able to discern that sperm whales have their own alphabet and that this alphabet seems to be pillared by their own version of vowels. I’ve learned that humans are far from the only species intelligent and complex enough to develop a form of language and culture.

Sharing this important article... for no reason whatsoever.

"We must also continue to deepen and refine our understanding of fundamental biological processes because these details frequently hold the keys to major advances in applied research."

elifesciences.org/articles/102...

Scientific journals: we don’t want you using generative AI because it makes shit up.

Same journal: here is an AI summary or evaluation of this paper. This might be more useful than the actual abstract or paper that the authors freaking wrote

Same journal: AI cover art which makes no sense? Oooh!

archeologists recently discovered that stonehenge was actually a series of stone arches outside a neolithic era McDonalds

Still posting cytoskeleton videos, it seems. Actin this time.

Sample: Lifeact-eGFP in HeLa cells.
Modality: Airyscan confocal

Timestamp is mm:ss and the scale bar is 5 µm.

I’m sorry about the Reds (not really tho) and I thought you made up tiddlywinks, but then I looked it up… and now I’m obsessed!! Squidgers, squoping, and I think there was something about a Bludger in there… nothing more British has ever existed.

Leia calling Chewbacca a "walking carpet" seems pretty racist but I guess we're not ready to have that conversation

The law of the jungle.
Interactions of cells in a collective lead to global rotation.
In 80% of the case HUVEC cells turn clockwise.
How many cells does it take for this to happen?

Heat pumps are the most efficiency heating technology ever invented.

That's because they harvest, compress and transport pre-existing heat from the air, the ground or the water.

Compared to a gas boiler heat pumps deliver ~4x more heat for each unit of energy inout.

This is a very good analogy.

Yes!! It’s Tyler after all. You got Eagle eyes😜

11-13 I'M GLAD I GIVE THAT IMPRESSION.. UNFORTUNATELY, ON THE INSIDE I'M A RAGING TURMOIL! SCHULZ

Morning

Amazon’s Robotaxi Unit Launches In San Francisco Without Steering Wheels—Or Fees Zoox isn’t yet charging for rides in its electric vehicles, which don’t have steering wheels, mirrors or pedals. But cofounder Jesse Levinson thinks regulatory approval is close.

Zoox isn’t yet charging for rides in its electric vehicles, which don’t have steering wheels, mirrors or pedals. But cofounder Jesse Levinson thinks regulatory approval is close.

Not sure why @lpachter.bsky.social did not post this here. But it is brilliant. Single cell genomics finally makes it to the clinic.

When the PI gets invited to a department social

A #Skydiver Appears to Fall from the #Sun in a Stunning Image

A #Skydiver Appears to Fall from the #Sun in a Stunning Image

#photography #Icarus Credit: Andrew McCarthy

Link for more: www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/11/andr...

I mean, "Opinions" is right there in the title! If you cant be "opinionated" there, where can you?!?

Are you a postdoc stuck in the US?! Is your research stalled or are you in any way affected by the whims of that unfettered madman? Interested in MD simulations of large biomolecules?!

Consider joining me at the University of Freiburg!

uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f...