Nikita Frolov 🇺🇦

Latest work from the lab by Aude Nommick et al., in which we propose a "size-scaling" model for microtubule force exertion that regulates centrosome centration vs decentration during embryo development!
@ijmonod.bsky.social

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

Cytoplasmic crowding acts as a porous medium reducing macromolecule diffusion | PNAS Intracellular transport of macromolecules is crucial for the proper functioning of most cellular processes. Although intracellular crowding is know...

Happy to highlight our collaborative work from our @ijmonod.bsky.social team with @destriano.bsky.social, B. Goyeau and M. Chabanon.
Cytoplasmic crowding acts as a porous medium that hinders macromolecular diffusivity.
Plus: a clever way to measure cell volume.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our review on Marr's levels in embryonic development is now out in @prxlife.bsky.social !

journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...

#LivingArchitectures
We put cells and cytoskeleton filaments on the architecture of the musée d'Orsay.
www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/agenda/ev...
Scientists of the #CytoMorphoLab adapted their protocols to illustrate the questions that keep them awake at night.
-> Two shows on the 24th and 25th of January.

Come join us in beautiful Roscoff for this Conference Jacques Monod on Developmental regulation: from molecular to ecological niches
May 18-22, 2026 Roscoff, France
Abstract deadline: January 31, 2026
Apply here: cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en

Also, depending on the design one should choose a correct type of ANOVA (e.g. two-factor, mixed-design or repeated measures)

Insightful talk with many amazing pictures of microtubule-motor patterning by Manuel Théry @manuelthery.bsky.social at the Paris Cytoskeleton Day 2025

Finally out in #PRXLife: our theory on the effect of temperature on the completion time of large networks. Using graph theory, one can show that the Arrhenius plot is quadratic, in excellent agreement with experimental data from fly development. Read the open access paper here: go.aps.org/48brig2

Preprint 🚨! B cells form localized patterns in the immune synapse when mature, allowing improved affinity discrimination. How? We suggest a new mechanism using dynamic active forces and feedback! Read more @ arxiv.org/abs/2510.18771. Great colab with Shenshen Wang, Tom Chou and Tony Wong (UCLA).

[8/8] Curious to learn more? Check the link in the first post for the whole story ☝️
Lastly, huge kudos to Julian Voits and @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social, who independently reached similar conclusions: arxiv.org/html/2403.17... (soon in PRX Life).

[7/8] Our model, a step toward a deeper mechanistic understanding of how biological processes scale with temperature, offers an alternative perspective that embraces the underlying complexity of biochemical regulation.

[6/8] Our scaling equation – a quadratic-exponential function with single-exponential deviations at extremes – fits 100+ temperature-response curves across traits and taxa, offering a sound estimate of mean activation energy.

[5/8] At temperature extremes, timing deviates from the quadratic-exponential law. It becomes dominated by the slowest rate-limiting step, where forward transitions turn slower than backward ones – effectively trapping the process in a loop.

[4/8] Interestingly, this quadratic-exponential behavior holds within a range around the reference temperature, where forward transitions dominate and averaging applies.

[3/8] The completion time of such multi-step processes, i.e., reaching step n from step 1, was found to follow a quadratic-exponential function of inverse temperature. This scaling, seen in experiments, naturally emerges from averaging over many independent intermediate steps.

[2/8] Our model is relatively straightforward: a cascade of n (reversible) Markov jump processes, each transition rate following Arrhenius-like temperature scaling, with forward transitions favored near a reference temperature.

[1/8] Biological processes are governed by complex biochemical networks – far beyond single reactions – and often form multi-step transition cascades. Together with Simen Jacobs, Federico Vazquez, and @lendertgelens.bsky.social, we show that modeling these as Markov chains has striking consequences.

🚨 Late preprint alert!
Why do biological process rates scale nonlinearly with temperature, deviating from the straight line on an Arrhenius plot? The key may lie in their inherent complexity!

More in thread and here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Last year at EMBL, Prof. McIntosh gave a historical overview of the discovery of dynamical instability, and it was one of the most insightful and fun lectures I've ever listened to. Really excited to read this piece from him.

Final version of our paper on ciliary metachronal waves out now in Science Advances! doi.org/10.1126/scia...

This is the main thesis work of my PhD student Rebecca Poon, who caught many #platnereis larvae and tirelessly ablated them with a laser. THREAD

Structure and Function of the Cytoskeleton The cytoskeleton, a dynamic and intricate network of protein filaments, is found within the cytoplasm of all cells, from bacteria and archaea to complex eukaryotes. This essential cellular component …

Learn all things #cytoskeleton #research in an interdisciplinary environment at EMBO Workshop "Structure and Function of the Cytoskeleton" in Paris, FR, 7–10 April 2026.

Deadline: 20 December 2025

https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-cytoskeleton
#EMBOCytoskeletalFunction #EMBOevents #conference 🧪

Join us next Tuesday (30/09) for talks by @gautamdey.bsky.social @embl.org & Andreas Heim @uni-konstanz.de & Simonetta Piatti @crbm-montpellier.bsky.social

Congratulations, Jan! Happy to see it out; it’ll be a nice read this weekend :)

Please allow me to introduce... our new preprint 🎉 Together with Michael Zhao, Anna Erzberger and Alexander Aulehla, we investigate pattern formation due to aggregation in confined systems.

You can find it at arxiv.org/abs/2509.08533

@michaelzhao.bsky.social @erzbergerlab.bsky.social

On Thursday, Sept 25, we host Lendert Gelens (KU Leuven) for a seminar: "Beyond Arrhenius: How temperature scales biological time". He will show how biological timing changes across temperatures.
barcelonacollaboratorium.com
#seminar #KULeuven #EMBL #BCNCollaboratorium

In this Viewpoint, Adam Zweifach explains how to calculate how many cells to analyze per sample to achieve reasonable statistical power in #microscopy experiments. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

📕 In #Reproducibility and Best Practices in Cell Biology: rupress.org/jcb/collecti...

Complex behaviour is not limited to animals! Here we map the entire spectrum of waveforms dynamics on a quadriflagellate single cell with 4x 70um (!) #cilia, to a low dimensional behavioural manifold with surprising structure! #protistsonsky

All revealed in our new preprint doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Can a single cell learn? Even without a brain, some microbes show simple forms of cognition. Can this basal cognition be engineered? Check our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social on the minimal synthetic circuits & their cognitive limits. @drmichaellevin.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tiny Tubes Reveal Clues to the Evolution of Complex Life | Quanta Magazine Scientists have identified tubulin structures in primitive Asgard archea that may have been the precursor of our own cellular skeletons.

New research shows that the cytoskeleton of human cells have a lot more in common with our ancient ancestors than we might think.

Are you ready for a symposium dedicated to microtubule dynamics, function, and structure? 🙌

#EESMicrotubules will bring together researchers who share an interest in microtubule biology and its relevance to health and disease 🩺

💻 s.embl.org/ees26-09-bl
✒️ Submit your abstract by 11 March