Jinrong Hu

The molecular basis of force selectivity by PIEZO2 Nature - PIEZO2 is intrinsically more rigid than PIEZO1, and disparate mechanical stimuli paradoxically evoke opposite conformational and gating responses in each channel.

New paper from the lab led by @ericmulhall.bsky.social addresses how PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 are tuned to different types mechanical forces. From nanometer-scale super-resolution microscopy to in vivo experiments, links single-molecule observations to physiological function.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share our study "Estropausal gut microbiota transplant improves measures of ovarian function in adult mice" ♀️🐁💩 led by Dr. #MinhooKim, published online today at @nataging.nature.com, where we describe surprising findings on the gut/ovary axis. 🧪🖥️🧬. A 🧵1/11 www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Interface-Resolved Proteomics of Cell-Cell Membranes Reveals Early Spatial Polarity in a Vertebrate Embryo https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.10.698819v1

🎉Proud to present our latest paper, out now in Nature Communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

RNA Binding Proteins (RBPs) are often full of intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), but what these regions do during RNA recognition is often unclear. 1/10
#RNA #IDR #RBP

Role of Myo19 distribution of mitochondria in mouse Meiosis II oocytes

Chromatin- and actin-mediated mitochondrial streaming leads to patterning of mitochondrial distribution in oocytes

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Cells come in many shapes and sizes, with diverse physiological functions. But how do #organelles and their interaction networks remodel during #differentiation of stem cells into different cell types? Here’s what we discovered about neuronal differentiation: 1/13

DNA-protein cross-links promote cGAS-STING–driven premature aging and embryonic lethality DNA-protein cross-links (DPCs) are highly toxic DNA lesions that block replication and transcription, but their impact on organismal physiology is unclear. We identified a role for the metalloprotease...

Out now in @science.org
DNA-protein cross-links promote cGAS-STING–driven premature aging and embryonic lethality | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Formation & function of #MembranelessOrganelles! #CryoET structures of #proteasome storage granules inside cells!
Read our paper @cp-cell.bsky.social!

❕Publication: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
❕Press Release: www.biochem.mpg.de/en/pressroom

@uoftmedicine.bsky.social
@erc.europa.eu #UPSmeetMet

Two new papers from the lab published in The EMBO Journal!

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
By Kai Walstein, @louisa-hill.bsky.social and others – On role of M18BP1 in CENP-A loading

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
By Arianna Esposito Verza and others – On mechanism of activation of PLK1

Delighted to share our latest preprint "Filopodia-mediated trans-endocytosis"

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Work driven by many people including Hanna, Marcela, Sujan, Marie-Catherine, Anna and Monika. Fantastic collaboration with Johanna Englund, Emilia Peuhu, and Eija Jokitalo

What determines the sharpness of cell fate boundaries in gradient-based patterning?

We quantified #transition #zone #widths (TZW) across seven progenitor domain boundaries spanning the entire dorsal-ventral axis of the developing #mouse #neural #tube.

Preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202...

🧵 1/6

Mechanometabolism😏

Out now in @natchembio.nature.com: Xylosyltransferase engineering to manipulate proteoglycans in mammalian cells 🎉 www.nature.com/articles/s41... check out the press release below! #glycotime

Long-range chemical signalling in vivo is regulated by mechanical signals - Nature Materials Tissue stiffness mediated by Piezo1 is shown to regulate the expression of diffusive guidance cues in the developing Xenopus laevis brain, revealing a crosstalk between mechanical signals and long-ran...

Paper alert: Our study led by @evapillai.bsky.social and @sudimukherjee.bsky.social showing that mechanical properties of the #brain actively shape the molecular landscape during development and #axonpathfinding is finally out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... @pdncambridge.bsky.social @fau.de @MPZPM

Long-range chemical signalling in vivo is regulated by mechanical signals - Nature Materials Tissue stiffness mediated by Piezo1 is shown to regulate the expression of diffusive guidance cues in the developing Xenopus laevis brain, revealing a crosstalk between mechanical signals and long-ran...

Long-range chemical signalling in vivo is regulated by mechanical signals

go.nature.com/49QSbFT

As Fran was nice enough to highlight this, I thought I'd put up a brief thread. 3 in 10 proteins that our cells make are either embedded in membranes (ion channels, adhesion molecules, etc.) or secreted (insulin, antibodies). They move through the secretory pathway.
1/

"Spinal cord regeneration deploys cell-type specific developmental and non-developmental strategies to restore neuron diversity" from the Andrea Wills lab

Now reading:

"From this atlas, we found that the neuron composition of the developing and regenerating spinal cord differ. So do the strategies employed, which favor waves of cell-type specific neuron morphogenesis, proliferation, .." #devbio 🧪

And they found some frog Rohon-Beard neurons!

Feel the vibe😆

Excited to share Alison's @alisonkickuth.bsky.social paper from the lab out in @nature.com this week! We uncovered how a mechanical ratchet mechanism drives cytokinesis in early #zebrafish embryos. Read more in this thread 🧵 and at www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩
@poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

Throwing this out there for those doing westerns on mouse embryo lysates: ALWAYS do a secondary only blot. No matter how "clean" your primary is, your secondary can (and will) cause problems - and Murphy's law ensures the crossreactivity will be the same size as your protein of interest 1/3 🧪 🤬

A genetically encoded device for transcriptome storage in mammalian cells Understanding how cells make decisions over time requires the ability to link past molecular states to future phenotypic outcomes. We present TimeVault, a genetically encoded system that records and s...

🧬🔬@science.org A genetically encoded device for #transcriptome storage in mammalian cells | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @broadinstitute.org

I like the in vitro assay, but still can't figure out why VASP inhibits Arp2/3's actin nucleation/polymerization, why in cells it is the opposite?🤔

Beyond the Trend: Creating the Next Frontier in Cell Biology - ASCB As we enter a new year together as the ASCB community, it is hard not to feel the weight of the moment. These are challenging times for science. Funding is uncertain, priorities are shifting, and pres...

Scientific trends come and go—but the future of cell biology is built by those willing to look beyond them.

Read ASCB President Rong Li’s reflection on creating the next frontier in cell biology:
www.ascb.org/society-news...

Nucleosome stability safeguards cell identity, stress resilience and healthy aging https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.17.676776v1

A human epiblast model reveals dynamic TGFβ-mediated control of epithelial identity during mammalian epiblast development Nature Cell Biology - The authors optimize an in vitro human epiblast model, which they utilize to show that early TGFβ family inhibition prevents epithelial identity, whereas it is...

🚨 New paper out!
A human epiblast model reveals how dynamic TGF‑β signalling controls epithelial identity in early mammalian development
Here is the full paper: rdcu.be/eSWEs
🧵 A twittorial:
THREAD

I've heard about ppl claiming nuclear actin facilitates DNA damage repair, now this work proposes nuclear actin filaments 'hook' telomerase to telomere for its length maintenance, though how actin hooks telomerase is still unclear🤔
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Something funny learnt: some transcripts have certain sequences (ZIP code) which can be recognized by RNA binding proteins and then transported to daughter cells (yeast here), old proteins will only stay in the mother cells😆
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper out!
We show how mechanosensitive adherens junction proteins link actomyosin contractility to actin assembly using in vitro reconstitution.
Huge congrats to Aurélie Favarin, Rayan Said, & all authors!
In Science Advances: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#actin #myosin #mechanobiology

A SWI/SNF-specific Ig-like domain, SWIFT, is a transcription factor binding platform Mammalian SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes modulate DNA accessibility and gene expression; however, their genomic targeting mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here, we identify SWIFT (SW...

🧬 @science.org A SWI/SNF-specific Ig-like domain, SWIFT, is a transcription factor binding platform | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @ckadoch.bsky.social @danafarber.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social @broadinstitute.org @hhmi-science.bsky.social 🔬 #chromatin #transcription #cancer 🧫

Extracellular matrix proteolysis maintains synapse plasticity during brain development - Nature Neuroscience This study demonstrates that the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the developing brain stabilizes recently born synapses. The authors identify a microglial metalloprotease that digests the ECM to increas...

Extracellular matrix proteolysis maintains synapse plasticity during brain development.
Seems Hyaluronan turnover would be required for plasticity

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