Fletcher Lab

The NTDscope is a portable brightfield, darkfield, and fluorescence microscope used for diagnosing neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). This video shows S. mansoni miracidia. Check out our most recent publication: journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

Check out our latest preprint: LUCas! A direct light control of Cas13 trans-cleavage activity. Congrats to all the authors: Carlos (@carlosfng.bsky.social), Deepak (@deepakkrish.bsky.social), Andres, and Aymeric.

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

My choice last week in @science.org
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Caitlin E. Cornell, Aymeric Chorlay, Deepak Krishnamurthy, Nicholas R. Martin, Lucia Baldauf & Daniel A. Fletcher

Thank you @manishbutte.bsky.social! We are also very curious if T cell trogocytosis is governed by a similar mechanism.

Overcoming steric inhibition of antibody-dependent phagocytosis with tall adhesions Macrophages recognize and phagocytose opsonized target cells, including those coated with IgG antibodies. This process relies on binding of IgG to Fcγ receptors (FcγR) expressed on the macrophage surf...

Preprint out now! Cell surfaces are crowded with tall proteins that block immune recognition.

We discovered tall binding proteins create “stepping stones” that help short receptors engage, even in dense crowds. A new design principle for #immunotherapy.

In memory of Phillip L. Geissler

Target cell cortical tension regulates macrophage trogocytosis - Nature Cell Biology Cornell et al. show that target cells with low cortical tension induce macrophages to preferentially trogocytose, or engulf in small fragments, whereas target cells with high cortical tension tend tow...

☕Cornell et al. show that target cells with low cortical tension induce #macrophages to preferentially trogocytose, or engulf in small fragments, whereas target cells with high #CorticalTension tend towards #phagocytosis.
bit.ly/3L7xFIO

Target cell cortical tension regulates macrophage trogocytosis - Nature Cell Biology Cornell et al. show that target cells with low cortical tension induce macrophages to preferentially trogocytose, or engulf in small fragments, whereas target cells with high cortical tension tend tow...

How does a macrophage decide to eat or simply nibble? Check out our latest paper! You can also read this nice review. Congrats Caitlin for leading this amazing work!

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

Macrophages can engulf targets whole (phagocytosis) or nibble them in small fragments (trogocytosis), a decision controlled by cortical tension (hi favors former, low latter)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@natcellbio.nature.com @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social

If you are going to #ASCB2025, check out some great talks and posters from our lab members

Happy Thanksgiving! Gratitude today for everyone pushing the frontiers of science in their different roles.

SurFlex microscopy: Measuring flexibility of surface-tethered biomolecules | PNAS The flexibility of tethered molecules, such as those bound to biological membranes, is an important property that can influence molecular height, m...

Check out our latest published manuscript: SurFlex microscopy, a new technique to measure molecular flexibility. Congrats to Aymeric, @sid592.bsky.social, @blenackmon.bsky.social, and Andres! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Congratulations Dan for being elected to the National Academy of Medicine!

bit.ly/4o0pDj5

Our team is developing portable digital microscopes that harness AI to automatically detect parasitic infections.

This shows great potential to help public health programs expand access to affordable disease screening in low-resource settings.

Link: tinyurl.com/4bazch67

YouTube video by Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network 2025 Physics of Life Symposium: Siddhansh Agarwal

Check out Siddhansh (@sid592.bsky.social) presentation at the 4th Physics of Life Symposium hosted by the #CZBiohubSF. youtu.be/b7G5wyE6iyo?...

Happy Postdoc Appreciation Week to all of our postdocs! #PostdocAppreciationWeek

Congratulations Kira for passing your qualifying exam!

Multi-contrast machine learning improves schistosomiasis diagnostic performance Author summary Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease that impacts hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Patients with Schistosoma haematobium shed parasite eggs in their urine, which can...

Take a look at our newest published article in PLOS NTD: doi.org/10.1371/jour... #schistosomiasis #ML #diagnostics

Cell surface crowding is a tunable energetic barrier to cell-cell fusion Nature Communications - Cell-cell fusion is fundamental to physiological processes such as muscle formation and viral infection. Here, the authors show that the proteins embedded on the plasma...

Check out our most recent published paper in @natcomms.nature.com about the effects of cell surface crowding in cell-cell fusion: rdcu.be/ezCOF

YouTube video by Schmidt Science Fellows 2025 Interdisciplinary Science Summit Showcase Talk: Deepak Krishnamurthy

Check out this talk by one of our amazing postdocs, Deepak! youtu.be/ErE3f5iyPio

Had fun at the MBL Physiology Course in Woods Hole!
Chunzi, Elizabeth & Kira led creative rotations:
• Trogocytosis is a mi(gh)t-y way to transfer
• Sync(ytium) or Swim: Which fusogen will reign supreme?
• Mucin Impossible: Eat up or get lost

Welcome to our new BioE Ph.D. students, Smiti and Michael Anne! @smitim.bsky.social

Congratulations Caitlin!!

Come to the Annual Fletcher Lab Artshow on Friday May 9th, 2025! We host this event yearly as an opportunity for folks to display their artwork, come together with wine and cheese, and admire artwork!

Come explore and be amazed on April 12 and 13 at the @exploratorium.bsky.social. This event is based upon work supported by the Center for Cellular Construction. #microscopy #Magnified

Congratulations to both Jared and Andres for passing their qualifying exams

Thanks to our collaborators: @gatesfoundation.bsky.social, @isaacbogoch.bsky.social, Spotlab, GH Labs, ISM, CERMEL, UHN, among others.

The NTDscope is a portable brightfield, darkfield, and fluorescence microscope used for the diagnosis of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Check out our latest preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

🌟Say hello to Dan Fletcher @fletcherlabucb.bsky.social, a bioengineer renowned for developing novel experimental approaches and microscopy tools with far-reaching impacts on our understanding of infectious diseases, immunology, and cancer biology. 1/

preLights in cell biology (February 2025) This article includes recent preLights posts that discuss preprints in the field of cell biology.Target cell tension regulates macrophage trogocytosis by Caitlin E. Cornell et al.Read the preLight.Vis...

preLights in cell biology (Feb 2025)

This article lists the recent @prelights.bsky.social posts that discuss #preprints in #cellbio. Featured #preLight by @fadelvalle.bsky.social covering work on macrophage trogocytosis from @fletcherlabucb.bsky.social.

journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Some lab members and friends attended the #StandupforScience protest.