Morphological instability at topological defects in a three-dimensional vertex model for spherical epithelia, Oliver M. Drozdowski and Ulrich S. Schwarz #Biophysics #SoftMatter go.aps.org/4bK4B1w

📢Paper alert📢 Now out in New Journal of Physics in final form: a minimal active gel model that demonstrates that gradients and steps in adhesiveness are sufficient to initiate and steer cell migration doi.org/10.1088/1367-2…

Paper alert: nature.com/articles/s4156… Nature Materials introduces the “Mean Back Relaxation” which quantifies non-equilibrium from simple passive particle trajectories. Amazing theory (M. Krüger, G.Knotz) and experiments @MunkerTill to obtain cell mechanics by simple observation🧐

The wonderful world of bizarre #microtubules, #actin dynamics and more. Our new review is out: #Cytoskeleton Organization in Formation and Motility of Apicomplexan #Parasites. Thanks to Ross Douglas and @R0bMoon for co-writing. go.shr.lc/3WzqlqO

Finally out EMBO Mol. Medicine: our study exploring a new way of experimental #vaccination for #malaria using attenuated #parasites and featuring antibodies, CD4 + CD8 T cells, interferon + interleukins. Soon we'll be immunologists; high time to start surfing: embopress.org/doi/full/10.10…

A general mechanism of left-right symmetry breaking is observed in epithelial spheres, highlighting the subtle interplay between geometry, topology, and collective dynamics in living #tissue. Read the paper: go.aps.org/3ysH3Ar

Looking for a summer read?🏖️🌞📄 You're in luck 😂. Our paper on optogenetic leader cells is out Nature Physics. We found a force-velocity relation for collective cell migration. Experiments by Leone Rossetti, theory by @ricardalert. IBEC rdcu.be/dQDmM

Cassian Afting, @ToWalther, Christina Schlagheck, Ulrich Schwarz (also @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social), Joachim Wittbrodt, Kerstin Göpfrich developed DNA microbeads for precise signal control in #organoids. Published in Nature Nanotechnology, this innovation advances tissue modeling & light-controlled signals. 🧬 doi.org/10.1038/s41565… #Nanotech

#Apicomplexans need specialized structures to invade host cells & replicate. Peter Back Gary Ward @ToxInLA &co show that alveolin protein IMC6 is crucial for maintaining cellular morphology, invasion & successful replication in #Toxoplasma #PLOSBiology plos.io/3BgjxaE

Excited to share my latest research in Nature Physics: nature.com/articles/s4156… 🎉🔬 Check out our open-source 3D traction force microscopy and how we detected forces in immune cells! Grateful to my amazing team and collaborators. #NaturePhysics #Science

Very happy to be awarded the Klaus Arnold publication prize at the German Biophysical Society 2024 meeting #DGfB #DGfB24! Many thanks to Ulrich Schwarz (also @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social) and our team at Physics of Parasitism Project 8, Falko Ziebert, Mirko Singer and Freddy Frischknecht! Paper: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

Now out in Nature Physics: great work by Christina Hueschen, Rob Phillips, Alex Dunn and coworkers on gliding motility of apicomplexa, combining imaging of surface flows with continuum mechanics modeling. Read the open access paper here nature.com/articles/s4156…

Hot off the press: In a collaboration between Stefan Karpitschka's group and several people from Living Matter Physics, we show how filament motility, reversals at illumination boundaries and filament interactions work together to create emergent structures. Leila Abbaspour Ramin Golestanian MPI-DS Göttingen

Analytical calculations and numerical sampling reveals the effects of spatially disordered growth on buckling instability of elastic rods, showing how biological systems could trigger or avoid buckling and thereby control a key driver of morphogenesis. 🔗 go.aps.org/4f6C2xr

O. M. Drozdowski, U. S. Schwarz, Cell bulging and extrusion in a three-dimensional bubbly vertex model for curved epithelial sheets. arXiv [physics.bio-ph] (2024). arxiv.org/abs/2411.07141

The 2025 calendar of the German Research Foundation (DFG) is out dfg.de/de/aktuelles/p… Congrats to Leon Lettermann, whose picture of malaria parasites was selected for November. Imaging data from Freddy Frischknecht, funding from DFG priority programme 2332 Physics of Parasitism.

Happy to share the latest work from Preeti Sahu, with Adriana Sánchez Danés on the biomechanics of cell fate choices during tumor initiation! We implement/test a 3D vertex model with proliferation and fate choices for multilayered tissues! 🧵below (1/n) bit.ly/3ZXxJzk

Made with #blender, very handy for shiny visualization of complex (e.g. 3D) data, here the trajectories of malaria sporozoites moving through a hydrogel! Great experiments by Mirko Singer at Freddy Frischknecht , we tracked the sporozoites and rendered the resulting trajectories!

A phase field model of a crawling cell captures cell motility patterns observed experimentally on confined substrate geometries. It describes how larger, softer epithelial cells hop more persistently while smaller, stiffer cells remain bistable. 🔗 go.aps.org/4gLVi3O