paveltomancak.bsky.social
@paveltomancak.bsky.social
Pinned
We are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)
Reposted
📢 Paper alert 📢

Chirality is known to be important for the movement of microorganisms and active matter. In our new paper out today in @natphys.nature.com, we show that chirality is used by malaria parasites to control their motion patterns:

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Here comes a 🧵 ... (1/9)
November 24, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted
Motivational video for #MigrationMovieMonday. A persistent 4T1 breast cancer cell squeezing itself through a tight constriction despite undergoing repetitive nuclear envelope rupture. Credit: Kristen Nedza @weillinstitute.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Reposted
Revised refereed preprint:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Revision work lead by @longweibai.bsky.social

Our work reveals how the #microbiota helps buffer #malnutrition: L. plantarum sustains intestinal activity of the steroid hormone ecdysone, expanding the midgut and supporting systemic growth.
November 23, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Reposted
Dynamic cellular interfaces reloaded!🎉 Happy and excited to receive extended funding @sfb1348.bsky.social @uni-muenster.de @mpi-muenster.bsky.social and to push our collaborative science forward in the next 4 years! Big thanks @dfg.de, reviewers, and everyone else involved for the continued support!
November 21, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Reposted
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted
absolutely LOVE this preprint on tricking LLMs using poetry:
arxiv.org/abs/2511.15304
Like magic spells, you need to use the correct pentameter or the demon won't listen
Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large Language Models
We present evidence that adversarial poetry functions as a universal single-turn jailbreak technique for Large Language Models (LLMs). Across 25 frontier proprietary and open-weight models, curated po...
arxiv.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted
We just released a new major version of TrackMate (v8), the cell and organelle tracking plugin of Fiji.

It ships many new features, detailed below, but that are articulated around the following:
November 20, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted
Cellular structure self-organizes through an interplay between internal mechanisms and external cues. The single-celled suctorian P. collini builds a trap structure to capture large prey using microtubule feeding tentacles, creating feedback between cell morphology and prey availability.
November 18, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted
Check out our latest issue where we interview Cassandra Extavour, who studies the evolution of the genetic mechanisms employed during early animal embryogenesis to specify cell fate, development, and differentiation at Harvard University. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Q & A
Interview with Cassandra Extavour, who studies the evolution of the genetic mechanisms employed during early animal embryogenesis to specify cell fate, development, and differentiation at Harvard Univ...
www.cell.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted
November 20, 2025 at 10:13 AM
#stuffthatmatters Congratulations!
✨ A study in nature.com from our Faculty at @unikarlova.cuni.cz reveals Solarion arienae, a rare #protist forming a newly identified eukaryotic supersroup Disparia. A unique window into early #eukaryotic cell #evolution. 🌍🔬👏

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 19, 2025 at 5:52 PM
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We discovered a universal scaling law linking copy number and plasmid size, which can be used to predict the PCN of your favorite plasmid! 6/7
July 2, 2025 at 10:12 AM
The #sponge #ctenophore scientific oscillator swings again.
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳

Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?

For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.

We provide new evidence suggesting that...

🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 16, 2025 at 5:12 PM
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Just 4 days until the start of I2K and its 33 totally free image analysis tutorials and events! Please share with your "home networks", especially early career researchers - the videos will be amazing and high-impact no matter how many people attend live, BUT (1/x)
November 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
More bad news. RIP
The European Drosophila Society #flyEDS extends the condolences on the passing of Antonio García-Bellido, considered the founder of the Spanish school of #Drosophila genetics and an influential figure in developmental biology research worldwide. May he rest in peace.
November 11, 2025 at 8:33 PM
RIP Ham Smith. From what I read about him, he was one of a kind.
@jcv.bsky.social penned an obituary for Ham Smith in @nature.com. Since the early 90s, Ham has been a key figure at the Institute for his invaluable contributions and mentorship. "Ham was the best colleague that one could ever have in science and a great friend."

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Hamilton Smith obituary: molecular biologist who co-discovered precise molecular scissors for cutting DNA
Nobel laureate who helped to sequence the first bacterial and human genomes.
www.nature.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted
Beautiful beasts (2): Thanks Ian for allowing us to help a little to help you figuring out how B-cells help T-cells. What a spectacular cover coloured by #micronaut Martin Oeggerli.
November 11, 2025 at 7:00 PM
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Launching celldynamicslab.com, the homepage of our new group at EPFL working on cell fragmentation, membrane and cortex mechanics, FLIM imaging, and microfluidics tools. MSc/PhD or postdocs interested in quantitative cell biology are welcome to reach out. We're also hiring a lab manager in 2026!
Main - Cell Dynamics and Fragmentation Lab
The Cell Dynamics and Fragmentation lab at We study how single cells move and fragment in complex environments using microfluidics. We bring tools and concep...
celldynamicslab.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:10 PM
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments

Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 10, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Reposted
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments

Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 7, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Reposted
It's weird. A hundred years ago, only rich people owned cars while everyone else owned horses. Now only rich people own horses while everyone else owns cars.

How the stables have turned.
November 8, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted
Deadline for applied topology postdoc in Dresden closes in a week. Please share with early career researchers!
The new @mpi-cbg.de research group leader Daniela Egas Santander is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) in Applied Topology for Biology. Apply until November 16th here: careers.mpi-cbg.de/jobs/6002777...
November 9, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted
Happy to share our last paper in PNAS! Woo-hoo! 🥳
This article supports once more the hypothesis that sponges (and therefore animals) emerged about 100 million years before the Cambrian, and before we find any animal fossils.
www.pnas.org/doi/suppl/10...
Chemical characterization of C31 sterols from sponges and Neoproterozoic fossil sterane counterparts | PNAS
Putative metazoan body fossils from the Precambrian are curiously lacking morphological characteristics that link them unambiguously to extant anim...
www.pnas.org
November 9, 2025 at 9:20 AM