Anne Straube

Are you a budding science writer? ✍️

Then enter our science writing competition! Entries can be fiction or non-fiction. For more info and how to enter visit our website:
bscb.org/competitions...

Deadline 31st March

We encourage you to travel by train if at all possible. Please apply for sustainable travel bursaries when you submit your abstract. We will also consider waiving registration fees for presenters who can demonstrate a need. All info here: tinyurl.com/mechanochemi...

The abstract deadline for our Motors and Filaments Meeting is approaching fast - 1st March. We have plenty slots for 15/10min talks and 3min flash talks to allocate. Thanks to generous support from @embo.org and @biologists.bsky.social, we can offer sustainable travel bursaries and a free livestream

Imaging spotlight: ShapeSpaceExplorer - FocalPlane Imaging spotlight: ShapeSpaceExplorer - News

In our latest ‘Imaging spotlight’ we learn about ShapeSpaceExplorer, a tool for measuring cell shape of migrating cells, developed by Samuel Jefferyes, Anne Straube @annestraube.bsky.social and colleagues.
focalplane.biologists.com/2026/02/05/i...

Need any more reasons to come to Warwick campus? How about "The Good and The Bad" roaming campus near the spectacular sport centre facilities sometimes even under a wonderful blue sky...

Mechanochemistry of molecular motors and cytoskeletal filaments - a meeting at the university of warwick, 8-9 May 2026

Early bird registration including on campus conference accommodation for our #motors and #filaments meeting will close 29th January 2026. You can still register after that, but need to find your own accommodation. Grateful to @embo.org
and @biologists.bsky.social for sponsoring this event!

I think the main advantages are that diffusion map embedding uses non-linear reduction and preserves primarily the local structure, while classic dimension reduction methods such as PCA and multidimensional scaling assume linearity of the original data space.

As far as I can see, CellPLATO uses feature-based shape analysis, which won't capture all possibly relevant characteristics, so integrating our landmark-free shape similarity measure into the larger cellPLATO framework might be useful. Also scope to analyse trajectories both in shape and real space.

Help me spread the word about an opening for the Furino Chair in Bioengineering in the Department of Bioengineering at McGill University. We seek candidates focused on developing biotherapeutic approaches to cancer, including but not limited to mRNA vaccines, CAR-T, and immunotherapy. (1/3)

Shape changes are movement in shape space. We trained a Hidden Markov Model with sequences of cell shapes that depolarise and repolarise during directional changes and show that shape information alone can reliably predict cell migration behaviour.

Once the shape map is done, the user can explore this shape space and visualise average shapes from any region of interest, partition shape space to analyse shape distributions from different experimental conditions or measure the speed of shape changes between two regions of shape space.

To compare our Best Alignment Metric with Fourier Descriptors we asked both to find the 5 closest shapes in a large dataset of RPE cell shapes. BAM selects reliably shapes with the same typical characteristics such as central tail on D-shaped cell in line 5, gentle left bend of cell in line 8 etc.

We construct a map of shape space by determining the difference between two shapes using a new, rapid, and landmark-free shape difference measure. Pairwise distances from all shapes in the dataset are then used to position each shape in a low-dimensional map of shape space.

Our paper describing the development of ShapeSpaceExplorer is now out: journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... The software and documentation is available here: github.com/cmcb-warwick... Explainer thread below.

We set registration rates as low as possible (just £30) and offer sustainable travel bursaries for those who come to the meeting by train. What's more, accessing the livestream is completely free. So, sign up now. tinyurl.com/mechanochemistry

Mechanochemistry of Molecular Motors and Filaments. 8-9 May 2026 at University of Warwick.

Calling all #MotorsInQuarantine fans: Please join us for 1.5 days of science on motors and the cytoskeleton as we celebrate the career of Rob Cross. More info and sign-up here: tinyurl.com/mechanochemi... #kinesin #dynein #myosin #microtubules #actin #cytoskeleton

Make a long weekend of it, combine with the UK Microtubule meeting in Edinburgh on 11th May 2026 (biology.ed.ac.uk/microtubule) and see some of the best bits of the UK on the way. Both meetings will offer oral presentation opportunities and sustainable travel bursaries.

Get out your calendars! The motors are out of quarantine and we plan to assemble in person on 8th May 2026 at University of Warwick Campus for a fun day on motors and the filaments they walk along. Livestream is planned too. More details on registration, travel bursaries etc. will be revealed soon.

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 🧪

This has been a very long time coming, but we have finally released our cell shape and shape dynamics visualisation and analysis tool. Preprint is out, Github is public, datasets are on Zenodo, all linked from bioRxiv. Any trouble using it, let me know.

Don't forget that applications for the Lister Prize remain open until midnight on Monday 29 September! lister-institute.org.uk/applications...

🚨 Only 3 weeks left to register! 🚨

Don’t miss the 3rd DivIDE Conference in Barcelona (22–25 September 2025).
Connect with leading researchers, join lively discussions, and explore new ideas - all in a beautiful Mediterranean setting.

👉 More information and registration: www.divide-conference.com

Thanks for having me and meeting all the single molecule and neurobiology folks at Sheffield. Thanks to the sm@sh student committee who organise those seminars super professionally

A day to fangirl: Ron Vale visiting CMCB at Warwick University today. Cool to share stories on dynein and kinesin collaboration in bidirectional transport and hear about his efforts in sharing the beauty of biology and process of science

Congratulations to Dr Jess Bithell who heroically facilitated most of the motors in quarantine sessions in parallel to her PhD studies. Vivas are also always a demonstration of Straube lab member creativity and skill in designing cakes and cards. Can you guess what Jess worked on?

Looking forward to the Physics within the Cell workshop on 16th June. Join if you want to discuss molecular motors and intracellular transport with me. More info here: iop.eventsair.com/pwtc2025/

Great to be back in Edinburgh for the UK microtubule meeting. Thanks to Julie Welburn who has been keeping it going for 10 years. Excellent science, the annual hike and a ceilidh to look forward to.

Glorious weather at British orienteering championships in the Lake District this weekend. Deleted X app, hoping that it will be blue skies forever now...

Great to see our story on dynein & kinesin co-dependence published www.nature.com/articles/s41..., and absolutely chuffed that it's made the front cover (thanks NSMB!). A brilliant News & Views too by Steven Markus www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Collab between @carter-lab.bsky.social & Straube lab🔬

Late to the party, I know, but finally making the move to where the sky is bluer and the grass is greener.