Jordan Shivers

📢 New software tutorial alert!

Gravelle et al introduce a suite of tutorials for new users of the LAMMPS simulation package, including molecular simulation basics, reactive force fields, GCMC and enhanced sampling #compchem

doi.org/10.33011/liv...

Another pre-print from our group see's the light of day! 🎉 This time we how the coarsening of droplets is affected by advection and reactions: arxiv.org/abs/2510.00827 @stefankoestler2025.bsky.social describes our surprising findings in the thread below ⤵️

🌱 Using ‘compelling’ methods, including #CryoET, researchers mapped spinach thylakoid membranes at single-molecule precision, revealing how photosynthetic complexes are organised and settling long-standing debates on chloroplast architecture.
buff.ly/j3TSIkn

SCHEPHERD--the bioelectric cell herding platform built for YOU. Single cells, monolayers, organoids--this herds them all + new tricks. Plz try it-- we will *give* you parts! Teaser here of a steering a single cell. GS Yubin Lin's lifeblood with J. Yodh on piano; Celeste R. and Paul K. Thread 1/N

A cell finding its way through the matrix, imaged with @joycemeiri.bsky.social on LLS.

Next week, we have Ulises Diaz from UCSF giving us a talk in the Physical Properties of the Cytoplasm online seminar series. For more info, visit cytophys.org. Join us.

(A) Illustration showing the different stages of polymer vesicle growth leading to the action of expulsion of amphiphiles. (B) Illustration showing the formation of new vesicles from the reorganization through self-reproduction of amphiphiles expelled into the bulk.

One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Self-reproduction as an autonomous process of growth and reorganization in fully abiotic, artificial and synthetic cells.” Explore the article here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

For more trending articles, visit ow.ly/Me2U50SkLRZ.

Martini on top of the world ! TS2CG as a Membrane Builder | Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

This is an airyscan confocal movie of mitochondria (white) moving around in a mouse astrocyte. Actin filaments are in orange and microtubules are in blue.

A really nice Research Briefing on Miranda's @mrndhntr.bsky.social paper. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1038/d415...

Nonlinear memory in cell-division dynamics across species | PNAS Regulation of cell growth and division is essential to achieve cell-size homeostasis. Recent advances in imaging technologies, such as “mother mach...

Nonlinear memory in cell-division dynamics across species

#PNAS by Shijie Zhang, Chenyi Fei, and Jörn Dunkel

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Criticality Enhances the Reinforcement of Disordered Networks by Rigid Inclusions Near a mechanical critical point, adding even a small amount of rigid material to soft fiber networks causes unexpectedly large stiffness increases, revealing new ways to design tunable, responsive ma...

Excited to share this paper from my PhD, now out in PRX! We explore a surprising consequence of mechanical criticality: adding inclusions to disordered elastic networks produces much stronger stiffening than classical composite theory predicts. journals.aps.org/prx/abstract...

Now published! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

The actin cortex acts as a mechanical memory of morphology in confined migrating cells - Nature Physics Cells often navigate through confined spaces. Now it is shown that cells retain a mechanical memory of previous confinement events, which makes them more efficient at migrating through narrow microenv...

🤔 Can migrating cells 'remember' their past trajectories?

In collab w/ @sgabriele.bsky.social & @kyohalie.bsky.social, we address this question:

Confined cells undergo geometry-sensitive morphology switches, and these switches depend on the past migration history!

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

Engineering filamentous myosins for optical control of contractility Understanding the behaviors of contractile actomyosin systems requires precise spatiotemporal control of filamentous myosin activity. Here, we develop a tool for optical control of contractility by ex...

wow.... opto-myosin mini-filaments that can switch speed or direction upon illumination!
cool new work from Zev Bryant and colleagues.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Now published in @natcomms.nature.com! 🥳

👉 rdcu.be/eATn3

We developed image analysis tools to capture the nematic orientation field of 3D tissue surfaces. Tested on epithelial aggregates, zebrafish hearts, myoblasts on spheres & micro-vessels, we combined soft matter physics with exp. biology.

Happy to share the latest from the lab, led by Daniel Alvarez, in collaboration with @lizconibear.bsky.social‬. In this AA-MD tour-de-force, we delve deep into the mechanism and energetics of lipid uptake by bridge-like lipid transfer proteins, and we learn a few interesting things along the way...

Very happy that the first article from my postdoc work in the Tomancak lab is now published @PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... We studied the self-organization of actin in aggregates made from Hydra cells. Thread below (1/9)

🚨 new paper alert 🚨

Here, we present a method for designing protein nanoparticles with two unique faces that can bring together distinct biological targets at controlled distances!

This project was led by Dr. Sanela Rankovic is out now in Nature Materials: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

first data from the new LLSM in PertzLab @olivierpertz.bsky.social! i always thought nuclei were spherical but they are pancakes???? so much more to see in 3d, but data volume produced is insane, we will have to rethink our analysis pipelines. tips welcome! here shown in @napari.org

Happy to share the latest work from the lab, led by @mudgal17.bsky.social‬, in collaboration with the Weis lab @ethzurich.bsky.social.
How do nuclear membranes fuse during NPC assembly? We answer this question in our latest work, where we identify a new mechanism for membrane fusion… (1/13)

This week @universitypress.cambridge.org has granted free access to all titles in the collection of Cambridge Elements in the Philosophy of Biology, edited by Grant Ramsey. There are many options to choose from! Happy reading! 📕👇 www.cambridge.org/core/publica... #philsci #HPbio #evosky #ISHPSSB2025

A new material constant of DNA is the major determinant of looping dynamics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.10.664086v1

A stylized image of the molecular model of a mitochondrial crista, with proteins and lipids shown

What better way to use my first proper post than to share my first big piece of post-doctoral work with @cg-martini.bsky.social!
Here, we used integrative modelling to build and simulate a mitochondrial cristae.
Find the paper here (rdcu.be/eujAC) or see below for a quick overview 👇

✍️ The @bladoux.bsky.social / @rmmege.bsky.social Lab published a new article
📖 @biophysj.bsky.social
📃 The enteric nervous system is 10 times stiffer than the brain
🔗 www.cell.com/biophysj/abs...

@cnrsbiologie.bsky.social @upcite.bsky.social

1/27 We have a new paper out! Turns out that snowflake yeast have been hiding a secret from us - they've evolved a (very!) crude circulatory system. Not with blood vessels or a heart, but through spontaneous fluid flows powered by their metabolism. 🧪🔬

www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Feedback between F-actin organization and active stress governs criticality and energy localization in the cell cytoskeleton - Nature Physics Self-organized criticality can occur in cellular systems, but its origins remain unclear. Now it is shown that cytoskeletal criticality is influenced by the F-actin architecture and myosin active stre...

This piece of work from my PhD is FRESHLY out of the oven in
@natureportfolio.nature.com
Nature Physics! It illustrates how architecture and active stress mutually regulate Criticality and exhibit Anderson Localization-like phenomenon. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Active transport enables protein condensation in cells The force generated by active transport modulates protein condensation.

Biomolecular condensates are critical for organizing cellular contents, but most studies focus on phase separation driven by salt, pH, or temperature.
But what if intracellular movement also matters?
Here, we explore motility-induced condensation in the cell.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Renormalized mechanics and stochastic thermodynamics of growing model protocells
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.24120
Jordan L. Shivers, Michael Nguyen, Aaron R. Dinner, Petia Vlahovska, Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan.

I am very happy to share that my work on active deformations of lipid vesicles is finally out in Nature Physics. A nicer thread+movies coming soon, in the meantime:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thx to Andreas, Hammad, Dmitry, Gerhard @laynefrechette.bsky.social and everybody else who contributed!