Group Leader – Molecular Systems Biology Unit Are you ready to lead groundbreaking research in Molecular Systems Biology? Join us at EMBL! We are seeking a motivated scientist to lead an independent research group, addressing original biological ...

Ready to lead pioneering research that bridges systems-level investigations of biological systems to molecular mechanism? The EMBL Molecular Systems Biology Unit in Heidelberg is hiring a Group Leader!

Group Leader - Genome Biology Unit Are you ready to lead groundbreaking research in Genome Biology? Join us at EMBL! We are seeking a motivated scientist to lead an independent research group addressing exciting and original biological...

To all post-docs: The Genome Biology dept ‪@embl.org
has an Independent faculty position. Fantastic place to set up your lab –great package: core funding, fantastic Ph.D. students, cutting edge core facilities & great colleagues. Closing date Sept 19th
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

I’ve been mystified for years why my line of research (which includes genetic engineering of plants) makes (German) people so much more upset than the AI work of my campus neighbors.

And why does eco-anxiety have a @wikipedia.org page, but not AI-anxiety?

Host-adapted enzymatic deconstruction of acetylated xylan enables mutualistic colonization of monocot roots Intracellular accommodation of mutualistic fungi in plant roots depends on selective remodeling of host cell walls while minimizing activation of plant immune responses. In this study, we identify a h...

Our latest article in bioRxiv. A very good and comprehensive paper by Mathias Brands, Vicente Ramirez, Laura Armbruster et al. on the deconstruction of acetylated xylan in symbiosis. If you would like to learn more, please talk to Mathias at #2025ISMPMI, poster P-239.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Using Brillouin microscopy, we measured changes in stiffness within the whole-cell of an intact organism.
We focused on the most important event in our life: gastrulation, which in Drosophila is really fast (~30'):

Thanks to everyone who contributed: Carlo for BM, Julio & Abhisha @ncstate.bsky.social for the physical model, @marialep.bsky.social for your feedback and Robert @prevedel-lab.bsky.social for your supervision and allowing me to work freely.

BTW: I am looking for GL positions! 👨‍🏫 😃

This is the second simulation, with contractility and stiffness increasing over time (the latter derived from what we learnt using Brillouin microscopy):

Finally, we developed a physical toy model of mesoderm folding to test if the dynamic, localised increase in stiffness facilitates folding the mesoderm? The answer is YES!. See the simulations ⤵️: first movie: ✅contractility ❌stiffness; second movie: ✅contractility ✅ stiffness.

We wanted to understand what makes the mesoderm transiently stiff during its folding & invagination. We did not see a correlation between actomyosin and the increase in stiffness. But surprise!: We depolymerised microtubules using Colcemid (right panel) and mesoderm cells remained in a softer state😱

How do microtubules make mesoderm cells -transiently- stiffer? Using live imaging & 3D-SIM, we found microtubules reorganise within the cell's sub-apical compartment, -where we measure the stiffening- by becoming increasingly aligned with each other during mesoderm folding:

On the contrary, the ectodermal cells located on the dorsal side of the embryo become softer! In sum, the embryo undergoes two diverging mechanical transitions: mesoderm: stiffening followed by softening; ectoderm: softening. See ⤵️ the softening of dorsal cells when they flatten and stretch:

Gastrulation starts when the mesoderm (bottom in ⬆️), folds and invaginates, and next, undergoes EMT. Here, we measured fast and biphasic mechanical dynamics: during mesoderm invagination, cells stiffen (Brillouin shift map -bottom panel-, transient yellow); during EMT, mesoderm cells soften.

Fantastic work by @gomezjm-devmech.bsky.social! See below the updated & published version of our paper on the mechanical dynamics of cells during Drosophila gastrulation - out in @natcomms.nature.com! Congrats to the whole team - wonderful collaboration with @marialep.bsky.social & Julio Belmonte 🥳🙌

🥁 New article 📢: #Mechanobiology of #development during #Drosophila #gastrulation using #Brillouin microscopy, now in @natcomms.nature.com : rdcu.be/ev6ZX
Collab. w/ @Prevedel_Lab @embl.org , Maria Leptin @marialep.bsky.social, @abhisha-thayambath.bsky.social, Julio Belmonte @ncstate.bsky.social

Visualising where different genes are switched on throughout a fly

📷 @jasperjanssens.bsky.social et al @steinaerts.bsky.social
@cbdresearch.bsky.social @frankschnorrer.bsky.social
@centuri-ls.bsky.social in @elife.bsky.social

➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025/5/14 with @DrJohnAnkers

SARCOMERES divide! Mechanism how muscles grow while contracting - daughter sarcomeres appear everywhere. Seen live, registered on our cover. Pioneered by @clementrodier.bsky.social @friedrich-group.bsky.social Ian Estabrook @ibdm.bsky.social $ by @hfspo.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

So proud to be among this group of extremely eminent and fun people!

ERC President Maria Leptin was awarded the De Sanctis Europa Award.🏅

Congratulations to the winners - all prominent European figures in the fields of art, humanities & science - including
@president.europarl.europa.eu, ECB president.ecb.europa.eu ,
H.M. Queen Mother of the Belgians Paola.

Very cool study showing how membrane lipids actively contribute to Siglec-6 binding — indicating that membrane lipid composition can modulate ligand recognition! #lipidtime

Morphodynamics of human early brain organoid development - Nature Human brain morphodynamics are explored using organoids.

Opus magnum of my former #PhD student @akanksha-jain.bsky.social. She brought the power of #lightsheet imaging to the #Treutlein lab. #Organoids #singlecells #bigdata #imageanalysis You have learned much #Akanksha. You are a #JEDI now. ❤️👏

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

ICYMI: Discover new insights on chromosome size sensing by kinetochores, mechanical resistance at tight junctions, force-exerting focal adhesions formed by T cells, and how nuclei serve as mechanical bumpers, in our new #Mechanobiology collection 👉 https://buff.ly/3EK0uaq

How do epithelia adapt to mechanical stresses? What roles do junctional complexes AJs & desmosomes play in this mechanotransduction?

Check out our new review article by @juliaeckert.bsky.social & Virgile Viasnoff, discussing these ideas! 👇

drosophila melanogaster

Hidden virus harboured by fruit flies may influence experimental accuracy.
buff.ly/TtHCYLQ

Spotlight: Kaushik and Ladher @earlab.bsky.social‬ discuss recent work from Nita et al. (rupress.org/jcb/article/...), describing how FGFR2 localization at primary #cilia affects FGFR signaling and highlighting the role of the cilium in a disease-related context. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Love this. Who needs sheets!?

I'm looking for a talented+motivated person to join my team at the #MechanobiologyInstitute @NUS for a #postdoc. If you're interested in investigating collective cell behavior during 3D tissue #morphogenesis with me, please apply here or PM for Qs. Please RT! careers.nus.edu.sg/job/Research...

#Job alert: #Postdoc position in the Iden lab within the new #DFG #SPP2493 consortium #HetCCI @hetcci.bsky.social ci.bsky.social‬. Please share, or apply if you want to dissect epithelial:non-epithelial cell-cell interactions: https://shorturl.at/W3M5z #CellCellCommunication #epithelia #cellbiology

This is a cumulative maximum intensity projection movie of the endoplasmic reticulum labeled with the membrane marker mEmerald-Sec61B.

Senators press NIH director on killed grants and proposal to slash agency’s funding Bhattacharya says NIH’s final budget will be “a collaboration”

Democrats on a key Senate spending committee today provided a less than warm welcome to the National Institutes of Health director, who was called in to testify about the agency’s 2026 budget proposal.

The Company of Biologists 100 logo to the left and QR code to the right. Portrait of Liz Robertson to the left, text to the right 100 extraordinary biologists Liz Robertson Having been a Development Editor since 2003, Liz Robertson is the longest-standing Editor of The Company of Biologists’ journals still in service. She has also been a prolific Development author since 1983. Liz’s lab at the University of Oxford, UK, studies signalling and gene expression in early mammalian development. #100biologists #biologists100

We are highlighting Liz Robertson, @dev-journal.bsky.social Editor and the longest-standing Editor of @biologists.bsky.social journals, as an extraordinary biologist this week.
#100biologists