Lakshmi Balasubramaniam

Do sign up to this amazing opportunity to present your interdisciplinary work to a diverse audience all across the world ✍️

An active torque dipole across tissue layers drives avian left-right symmetry breaking Unlike in mice, frogs, and fish, left-right (L/R) body axis formation in avian embryos does not arise from the chiral beat of cilia. Instead, a counter-clockwise tissue rotation around Hensen′ node, t...

(1/10)
I am excited to finally share our work on avian left/right symmetry breaking with you. We reveal a tissue-scale active torque dipole generated at the Hensen’s node, thanks to crazy experiments by Julia @juliapfanzelter.bsky.social and some analysis by me.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Had a great time meeting other EMBO fellows and discussing the ups and downs being a postdoc. It was nice to walk away inspired from all the conversations and training sessions. Thanks @embo.org for bringing us all together

Join us online on Wednesday as part of Developments online webinar to hear about early development

Development presents... Wednesday 9 July 15:00 BST, chaired by Alex Eve. Talk 1: Lakshmi Balasubramaniam (Gurdon Institute) ‘Tissue spreading couples matrix remodelling during avian gastrulation’ Talk 2: André Dias (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) ‘Opposing Nodal and Wnt signalling activities govern the emergence of the mammalian body plan’ Talk 3: Nikhil Mishra (Institute of Science and Technology Austria) ‘Geometry-driven asymmetric cell divisions pattern cell cycles and zygotic genome activation in the zebrafish embryo’

Sign up to attend our next Development presents... webinar on early #embryogenesis, featuring talks from @lakshmib02.bsky.social‬, @dias-andre.bsky.social ‬and @nikhil-mishra.bsky.social.

📅Wed 9 July 15:00BST (UTC+1)

Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

#DevBio @dev-journal.bsky.social

🚨Our next seminar on, Mon 16/05 | 14:30 UK - Hybrid Seminar in collaboration with @cammorphoseries.bsky.social at @slcuplants.bsky.social we have Chii Jou Chan from @mbisg.bsky.social Come join us in person if you are in Cambridge🚨📝for the zoom link: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...

🚨Next week, Wed 30/04 | 16:00 UK - Online Seminar🚨

"Learning the emergent order of living matter from bacteria" by Prof Yilin Wu from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

To attend online please register to our 📧 for the zoom link: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...

📢 Exciting news!!
🌟We have a stellar line up of speakers this Easter Term. Join us for online and hybrid talks that you won't want to miss.
✉️Subscribe to attend our online sessions: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...
Don’t forget to follow us for more details and online links!

Thank you so much Benoit

We are excited to share our recent preprint on how tissue spreading guides extracellular matrix changes during early morphogenesis @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social

Happy to share our new publication in
@naturematerials.bsky.social
on mechanical cell competition! Great collaboration between our CAM team, Chavrier's and Doostmohammadi's. Special congrats
@luanger.bsky.social, @andreasschoenit.bsky.social, Siavash Monfared! 🎉
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

photo of Dr Lakshmi Balasubramaniam with talk details

We're looking forward to welcoming @lakshmib02.bsky.social to our next CDMB seminar on 20 March, talking about "Extraembryonic tissue as a tool to study collective migration and multilayered tissue formation".
#UEAScience

Congrats Pu. It looks really nice :)

What do star fish, snowflakes, and even cells have in common?

I am @juliaeckert.bsky.social and I would like to take you on a journey into the field of soft matter and give you a brief overview of experimental observations on symmetries in biological systems. #EpithelialMechanics

Thrilled to share our new preprint on detecting the nematic orientation field on surfaces of 3D multicellular systems!

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

Huge thanks to all authors: @tobyandrews.bsky.social,Joe Pollard, @rashmi-priya.bsky.social, @yap-lab.bsky.social &Richard Morris

Any 3D systems?👇

🚨Next week, Wed 29/01 | 16:00 UK - Online Seminar🚨
"Patterning, waves and synchronization in cilia arrays" by Dr. Guillermina Rochelle Ramirez-San-Juan. Please repost & to attend online please register to our 📧for the zoom link: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...
#cilia #livingmatter #biophysics

📢 Exciting news!!
🌟We have a stellar line up of speakers this Lent Term. Join us for online and hybrid talks that you won't want to miss.
✉️Subscribe to attend our online sessions: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...
Don’t forget to follow us for more details and online links!

✍️ L'équipe Ladoux/Mege a publié un nouvel article dans @naturephysics.bsky.social
📃"Dynamic forces shape the survival fate of eliminated cells"
🔗https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02716-5

Article relayé dans @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social ➡️ www.insb.cnrs.fr/fr/cnrsinfo/...

Dynamic forces shape the survival fate of eliminated cells - Nature Physics Tissues eliminate unwanted cells through cell extrusion, but the factors determining whether these extuded cells live or die are not fully understood. Now force transmission across adherens junctions ...

Published today! #Biophysics #Physics #Science

It turns out that the forces applied to cells as they are ejected from a tissue affects whether those cells 'live' or 'die'.

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

Happy to share our new publication in @naturephysics.bsky.social on life and death of eliminated cells! Great collaboration between our CAM team and Doostmohammadi's. Special congrats @lakshmib02.bsky.social and Siavash Monfared! 🎉
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Dynamic forces shape the survival fate of eliminated cells Nature Physics - Tissues eliminate unwanted cells through cell extrusion, but the factors determining whether these extuded cells live or die are not fully understood. Now force transmission across...

a better link to the published version: rdcu.be/d5AD6

Dynamic forces shape the survival fate of eliminated cells - Nature Physics Tissues eliminate unwanted cells through cell extrusion, but the factors determining whether these extuded cells live or die are not fully understood. Now force transmission across adherens junctions ...

E-cad depletion promotes live extrusion and a shift toward basal extrusion in 2D MDCK culture on collagen and cyst
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
most likely through higher resistance to apoptosis and change faster dissipation of compressive stress.

See another beautiful example of how these cells regulate forces at the interface of differential adhesion here bsky.app/profile/andr...

We also have some sequencing and proteomics datasets for MDCK WT and E-cad KO cells with cell death being differentially regulated. Through a combination of phase field modeling we show that mechanical forces are able to regulate death signals in a cell through neighbour cell interactions.

Some example where this is particularly relevant include cancers and development where cells undergo cell state transitions during EMT or MET where cadherins are known to be differentially regulated.

Phase field modeling showed this is due to strong matrix adhesions which impacts extrusion direction. In addition, we observed these basal extrusion events in breast cancer tissue and 3D MDCK cysts.This is particularly relevant for tissues where E-cadherin is differentially regulated.

Apoptotic extrusions were triggered by a sudden increase in local compression. Live extruded cells also continue blebbing for a while after extrusion potentially as a survival mechanism as beautifully described by teh Danuser group. Live extrusions also result in more basal extrusions E-cad KO

While working on previous paper we realized that in the absence of E-cad, more extrusions were caspase negative (aka live) in comparison to MDCK WT monolayers. These live extrusions were triggered by the presence of constant compression from neighbouring cells unlike apoptotic extrusions.

This was a long and fun collaboration with the Doostmohammadi group, specifically Siavash who did most of the tedious phase field modeling along with Sasha. All this was possible due to the continuous support of the entire group and specifically @bladoux.bsky.social and @rmmege.bsky.social

Starting the new year with the last chapter of my PhD finally published on how physical forces and neighbour interaction regulate extrusion in @bladoux.bsky.social @rmmege.bsky.social in collaboration with Doostmohammadi group. Details below:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02716-5