Rita Mateus

Super exciting to be part of of this Research Training Group to train the next generation of material biologists :) We are already actively recruiting PhD students! Join our joint project with @jamessaenz.bsky.social !!!

Paul Nurse describing the main job of a PI

(From ‘The Thinking Game’, 2024)

If you’re applying to your dream lab for an internship/PhD/postdoc, always send a second email 1-2 weeks after the first one if you don’t hear back.

I promise we will be grateful rather than annoyed. My email inbox is a disaster and I’m quite junior - and very few of us have secretarial support

When you arrive to the lab and have flowers waiting for you, you know you have the best lab team ever!!!☺ so grateful!!! #big40 #bestTeam

Last week it was a week of much needed celebration 🍾🥳 how best to do it than a pizza party with shark piñatas!! #somuchfun #proudPI #papersparty

Big congratulations to Vinita Kini, our most recent MSc graduate!!! What a great job, I'm a #proudPI

We will be taking phD students this round!! Apply to our @mpi-cbg.de phD programme and #growwithus

The Secret to a Smooth Pasta Sauce Wins Ig Nobel Prize Italian researchers studied how the ingredients of the traditional Roman dish cacio e pepe emulsify into a creamy sauce, winning the 2025 Physics Ig Nobel Prize.

Truly chuffed for our fearless food physicists @mpipks.bsky.social + collabs from AT @istaresearch.bsky.social, IT & ES who won this year’s Ig Nobel - the #NobelPrize of hearts❤️for cracking the science of perfect pasta !🍝Kudos to all for intrepidly consuming lots of cheese in the name of science!😋

We have a fully funded 3y postdoc position open!!!! Come join us @mpi-cbg.de and @poldresden.bsky.social to understand the role of Membranes in Controlling Biogenic Crystallization :) this is part of our #HFSP funded project with @noemijimenezrojo.bsky.social and @vmonje.bsky.social! Applications👇

Thank you 😀

Thanks PAvel!!! 😊

Thanks Andre!!! 😊

#devbio #crystals #SizeandShape #zebrafish :)

Of course, this could not be possible without incredible support from @mpi-cbg.de and @poldresden.bsky.social, and their great facilities! 😊

The Role of Purine Interactions in Biogenic Crystal Shape Determination Widespread through phyla, purine crystals are intracellular inclusions serving a myriad of organismal functions. In zebrafish, iridophores concentrate purines in membrane-bound organelles, the iridoso...

In case you’re curious, we do have quite a few new experiments, compared to our preprint, here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mechanistically, our work shows that purine diversity and availability inside the zebrafish iridosome is key to form anisotropic crystal lattices, explaining the zebrafish distinct functional crystal shapes.

Macroscopically, b-axis anisotropy is controlled by the ratio of guanine-to-hypoxanthine in the iridosome, without affecting the other axes. At the atomic level, the extent of the anisotropy depends entirely on the type, number, and strength of the hydrogen bonds within the crystal lattice.

Then, by performing comparative genetic analyses in vivo (new mutants and transgenics!) and reproducing such conditions in silico (Monte Carlo simulations!), we found that the zebrafish crystals’ in-plane hydrogen bond molecular structure is the main determinant for the observed crystal anisotropy.

Using confocal live imaging of reflection, cryoFIB-SEM, and novel morphometric analysis pipelines, we show that intracellular crystal growth favors the b-axis, producing their characteristic anisotropic shape.

In brief, this is a story about subcellular size and shape! Many organisms self-organize crystals, for functions like vision, pigmentation, and metabolite storage. In zebrafish, iridophores concentrate guanine (yes, think DNA!) and other purines in membrane-bound organelles, the iridosomes.

Purine Molecular Interactions Determine Anisotropic Shape of Zebrafish Biogenic Crystals Many organisms self-organize crystals for vision, pigmentation, or storage. In zebrafish, iridophores produce anisotropic crystals in iridosomes. Using imaging and genetic tools, crystal growth is sh...

The first paper of our lab is finally out, and I feel very proud and grateful to our wonderful team! @Jannik Rothkegel, @Sylvia Kaufmann, @Michaela Wilsch-Braueninger, @Catarina Lopes <3
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Screenshot of Essay from Martin Schwartz on 'Why would anyone want to be a scientist'. An anniversary article from The Company of Biologists published in Journal of Cell Science. The first few lines are: It is difficult to fathom why anyone intelligent enough to be a scientist would actually choose to be one. Doing good science requires the utmost exertion of body, mind and spirit, yet is consistently filled with failure and rejection. But, strange even to myself, I not only don't question the unfavorable risk-to-reward ratio but consider myself astonishingly lucky to be a scientist. There are three fundamental pleasures that have sustained me through 50 years of this madness.

Why would anyone want to be a scientist?

Check out our new Essay from Martin Schwartz: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

It was a great pleasure to write this with Lucas Ribas, the first phD student from our lab :) more to come soon!

Start-Shape-Stop: Cell communication mechanisms controlling organ size Accurate growth control is critical for the achievement of proportional organs during animal development and repair processes. Either extra or deficie…

Hot off the press!!! Proudly presenting our lab's new review on how do cells communicate to control organ size :) We focus specially on dynamic connections that operate at different timescales to regulate organ growth and morphogenesis. #devbio #SizeandShape www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cartoon showing a woman looking in to a microscope saying "Whoaah!!!" The caption states "The best part of Science is knowing, for a moment, something that nobody else in the world knows"

A reminder in these hard times. #sciencestrong

MPI-CBG participates in Dresden 5K running event Nine teams ran REWE Team Challenge Dresden&nbsp;2025

Thirty-six institute staff members in nine tems participated in the REWE Team Challenge Dresden on Wednesday evening, May 28. Congratulations to all participants! 🎉 www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...

So much fun and Fishful Thinking while running 5km 😊🏃‍♀️ #ReweTeamChallenge2025 @mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social

We're thrilled to announce that our Excellence Cluster Physics of Life (PoL) has been renewed for a second funding phase (2026-2032) by @dfg.de ! Thanks to everyone who made this possible! 🎉👏

We'll continue our cutting-edge research towards understanding what brings matter to life!
#biophysics #dfg