ZechLab

Save the date!
We have an exciting conference coming up next year for the UK Mechanobiology community!

Restoring the tumour mechanophenotype of vocal fold cancer reverts its malignant properties - Nature Materials Vocal fold cancer tumours lose some of their malignant traits when mechanically stimulated by physiological stretch or vibrations, mimicking the opening and closing of vocal folds and phonation.

What music should we play to our cells? This was the start of an amazing journey from @ivaskalab.bsky.social at @turkubioscience.bsky.social with Jasmin Kaivola and collaborators @sarawickstrom.bsky.social and others to explore larynx cancer mechanosensitivity!

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

CELL MIGRATION LAB We study cell migration in health and disease

🚨 We are hiring TWO postdocs to join the Cell Migration Lab (cellmig.org) 🇫🇮 as part of the new Centre of Excellence in Immune–Endothelial Interfaces (IMMENs).
Join us to decode immune regulation & develop next-gen imaging tools! 🧪🔬
Details in thread 🧵👇
#ScienceSky #Postdoc #AcademicJobs Please RT🫶

Really excited to share this work from @zech-lab.bsky.social - brilliant work by all, with the bulk of it by @milancollins.bsky.social ! Enjoy!

Great work led by @milancollins.bsky.social and guided by @drlornayoung.bsky.social

We’re excited to share our latest preprint! We identify SKT, a mechanosensitive adhesion protein that recruits mTORC2 to cell–matrix adhesions, linking metabolic demand to matrix stiffness. Disrupting this axis strongly inhibits PDAC tumor growth. shorturl.at/V0tpK

MRC funding update An update on MRC funding during UKRI’s transition, what’s changing, and the next steps for paused opportunities and reopening timelines.

What a waste of my (and many others) time applying last Sept!

"we unfortunately expect to make a reduced number of awards to applications currently being assessed by our four research boards and developmental pathway funding scheme."

www.ukri.org/blog/mrc-fun...

I am very excited to share this preprint which has been my main postdoc project! We identified leupaxin as a negative regulator of durotaxis via paxillin-FAK inhibition in MDA-MB-231 brain and bone tropic metastatic variants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@mathildemathieu.bsky.social @ivaskalab.bsky.social New discovery from us! Leupaxin, a paxillin family member typically expressed in immune cells, negatively regulates durotaxis and mechanoresponsiveness in metastatic breast cancer cell variants and in cells cultured on soft ECM lnkd.in/diEk8DSR

UK’s £8bn research fund faces “hard decisions” as it pauses new grants UKRI boss Ian Chapman said it had been told by the government to

Helpful update into UKRI and research council funding changes from Zoe Kleinman @zsk.bsky.social

But please more focus on 2 things...

1) Immediate effects (eg funding decisions expected in March)

2) Likely disproportionate effects on early career scientists

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Cell-matrix mechanosensing and cellular metabolic demand are linked through SKT and mTORC2 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.03.702586v1

🔬UK researchers: Access cutting-edge bioimaging tech + expert support with our User Access Fund!

💷 £5k for imaging
💷 £2k for image analysis

Choose from 6 top UK facilities, contact them, then apply!

rms.org.uk/user-access-fund

⏰ Next deadline: 31 March
✅ Decision in 4 weeks

Pls share!

Laboratory Engineer (Senior), in Advanced Imaging, 1.5.2026-31.12.2028

🚨 Job Alert! 🚨

We have an opening at our Microscopy Core Facility in Turku 🇫🇮.
If you love imaging 🔬 and helping scientists succeed, we want you! 👇

abo.rekrytointi.com/paikat/index...

#Microscopy #ScienceJobs #CoreFacility #Imaging
@turkubioscience.bsky.social

Laminin N-terminus α31 regulates corneal epithelial cell adhesion and migration through modifying the organization and proteolytic processing of laminin 332 Laminin N-terminus α31 (LaNt α31) is a netrin-like protein generated by alternative splicing of the laminin α3 gene. While previously shown to regulate vascular permeability in vivo, its role in epith...

New publication from the Hamill Lab!

Laminin N-terminus α31 regulates corneal epithelial cell adhesion and migration through modifying the organization and proteolytic processing of laminin 332

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

If you are interested in basement membranes, this is for you...

I am very proud of this piece as it embodies what I really want my lab to do. Developing and using advanced (image) analysis methods to study complex biological phenomena.
This paper contains a lot of methodology, but even more biology. It is foundational for the work we are currently doing.

We are thrilled to share our new pre-print on the molecular anatomy of nuclear proteasome in human sperm cells! #In-cellcryo-ET + #SPA + #LM! @piotrkolata.bsky.social @a-dsantos.bsky.social, @tomdendooven.bsky.social!! doi.org/10.64898/202...

Mechanotransduction by nuclear envelope tension Mechanotransduction mediated by the tension in lipid membranes is a well-established paradigm. This has been studied largely in the context of the plasma membrane, but recent work shows that it app...

This review was a fun collaboration with
Pere Roca-Cusachs - just published in a journal! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Come on, do it. You know you want to. ⬇️

And that’s a wrap for the @cbias.bsky.social napari workshop as well. Two days of learning, working collaboratively and finished off with a presentation from each of five project groups detailing the progress they made. Organised by Rocco D’Antuono, @giuliapaci.bsky.social and yours truly

The Actin regulator Mena promotes Wnt signalosome endocytosis and Wnt signalling Wnt signaling controls embryonic development and tissue maintenance. Endocytosis of Wnt-receptors is required for signalling, yet uptake mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we identify the acti...

Exciting new findings: Wnt-receptor endocytosis is required for canonical Wnt activation, yet uptake mechanisms has been controversial. We resolve this by showing that Wnt3a triggers rapid Clathrin- and Fast Endophilin-Mediated LRP6 endocytosis at low concentrations sufficient for Wnt activation.

Early bird registration: Save £100 - 21 January 2026! Dynamic Cell VI conference, Reading, UK, April 2026! Co-organised by
@bscb-official.bsky.social

and
@biochemsoc.bsky.social

with
@royalmicrosoc.bsky.social

and the Chinese Society for Cell Biology.
Register now:
bit.ly/Dynamic-Cell-VI

An exciting project to understand cellular ageing in health and disease.
Deadline for applications is 4th Dec.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Pls see also our group websites:

TobiasZech: tzech6.wixsite.com/zechlab
• Chris Toseland: www.toseland-
lab.com

An exciting project to understand cellular ageing in health and disease. Deadline for applications is 4th Dec. Pis don't hesitate to contact us if interested. https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/mrc-dimen- doctoral-training-partnership-stopping-premature-ageing: investigating-the-role-of-actomyosin-mediated-nuclear- force-feedback-in-cell-homeostasis/?p189509 Please also see our websites for research interests: Tobias Zech: https://tzech6.wixsite.com/zechlab • Chris Toseland: https://www.toseland- lab.com

Are you interested in studying in the UK for your Masters?

Please join our program director for the MSc Cancer Biology and Therapy at the University of Liverpool for an on-line event.

19th November at 5pm (GMT).

To sign up please use the link below:

lnkd.in/efsXw-ke

The first to be shared is this one: lnkd.in/euACxRhz

With Marisa Merino, co-supervisers Prof. Hilary Ashe & Prof. Harish Poptani.:

Interested in How Organisms Cope with Growth in Challenging Environments? Open to international applicants.

#DevBio #Microscopy #CellBio #PhDPositions #Genetics

MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Stopping premature ageing: Investigating the role of actomyosin mediated nuclear force feedback in cell homeostasis at University of Liverpool on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Stopping premature ageing: Investigating the role of actomyosin mediated nuclear force feedback in cell homeostasis at University of Liverpool, l...

A PhD position is available in the lab of @zech-lab.bsky.social co-supervised @christoseland.bsky.social

An exciting project to understand cellular ageing in health and disease www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

#CellBio #SuperResolutionMicroscopy
#MolecularBio #AgeingResearch #PhDOpportunity

(C) Recruitment of the WT PIKfyve-CCR-Kina to Rab5 endosomes and changes in biosensor localization at these membranes is shown by the fluorescence intensity ratios of the constructs at Rab5 endosomes over the whole cell. Data shown is the grand mean ± SEM of 3 experiments. A total of 35 cells were analyzed. Confocal images over time are shown to the right. (D) As in C, but now utilizing the catalytically dead K1876E/V1883I mutant of the FKBP-PIKfyve-CCR-Kina as a negative control.

Independent validation of the SnxA biosensor as a sensitive reporter of PI(3,5)P₂ dynamics by Gerald R Hammond and team: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

(BBSRC NWD) A novel redox mechanosignalling nexus in the synapse that is misregulated in neurodegeneration at University of Liverpool on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - (BBSRC NWD) A novel redox mechanosignalling nexus in the synapse that is misregulated in neurodegeneration at University of Liverpool, listed on FindAPhD.com

🧠 Fully funded 4-year PhD studentship 🧠 Please repost

BBSRC NWD project with @parikki.bsky.social and @iamabyron.bsky.social

Come join us to look at how mechanical and oxidative stress signalling pathways converge on the synaptic scaffold protein talin.

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

The project is now live on FindaPhD and open for applications. Deadline December 4th

The mechanical response of vinculin Vinculin buffers force via dynamic domain unfolding/refolding under physiological load and lacks a stable head-tail lock.

Vinculin is a simple adapter protein right? Wrong!

That’s been the prevailing view for the 46 years since it was discovered.

Here we provide a new paradigm and show that vinculin is a complex mechanosensor itself, containing 6 binary switch domains.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...