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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Jun 19

Congrats

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Jun 16

Dress like your data like @timonnk.bsky.social does!

Somebody doing a scientific présentation

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · May 5

Thanks to @agudocanalejo.bsky.social and @raovutukuri.bsky.social [amongst the first ones to observe large fluctuations in GUVs!] for today's News and Views about our recent paper on active vesicle deformations - and I agree with the conclusion, it's just a beginning..! doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Synthetic cells get into shape - Nature Physics

Shape changes in biological cells are driven by an active network of biopolymers. Now, similar deformations are observed in synthetic cell membranes.

www.nature.com

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Apr 18

Grande Gianni!

Gianni Jacucci @giannijacca.bsky.social · Apr 18

Check out my interview on TGR Leonardo—the Italian science news program—about the research that I'll be starting at the Università della Calabria (subtitles generated with AI). ☀️

🔬more about my research and the project:
www.giannijacucci.com

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Apr 18

The Schaeffer magnum opus is out. 🔥

Ghina BADIH @ghinabadih.bsky.social · Apr 18

And it’s FINALLY OUT 🎉
The new work from Schaeffer, Théry and colleagues provides revolutionary insights into the processes underlying #centrosome positioning in adherent cells.
Check out the article @jcb.org to unlock the full story behind these new results: hubs.la/Q03hQjdn0!
@drs88.bsky.social

Journal of Cell Biology @jcb.org · Apr 17

Unlike eggs & mitotic cells, in adherent interphasic cells the centrosome is NOT positioned by a balance of forces along #microtubules, but by cell shape organization around the #centrosome: rupress.org/jcb/article/...
@lblanchoin.bsky.social
@manuelthery.bsky.social
@gelinmatthieu.bsky.social

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Apr 14

As always with @lauraal.bsky.social , the pleasrue is all mine ☺️ - thanks @crpp-bordeaux.bsky.social for the nice hospitality

Laura Alvarez @lauraal.bsky.social · Apr 14

It was a pleasrue to have @asciortino.bsky.social with us last week at @crpp-bordeaux.bsky.social
Thanks for showing us the beauty of soft interface driven out-of-equilibrium :) - and the best explanation on nematic defects ever!

J.-C. B. @baretjc.bsky.social · Apr 11

Today we have a seminar by Alfredo Scortino from the CytoMorpholab, invited by @lauraal.bsky.social

Minimal cytoskeleton for Syn Cell !

@crpp-bordeaux.bsky.social

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Reposted by Alfredo Sciortino

Ulrich Schwarz @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social · Mar 31

Registration has started for the conference "Emerging Trends in the Physics of the Cell" in memoriam of Erich Sackmann at TU Munich from October 15-18 2025 www.cpa.tum.de/cpa/conferen...

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Mar 31

Interesting read. Some problems are just weirder than you'd say.

Clive Thompson @clivethompson.bsky.social · Mar 30

So, the DOGE kids intend to rewrite the social-security administration's COBOL code-base!

and they want to do it ...

... in *a few months*

I did a huge dive into COBOL a few years ago (www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazi...) ...

... so let me explain why DOGE is *way* over its skis here

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www.wealthsimple.com

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Reposted by Alfredo Sciortino

Clive Thompson @clivethompson.bsky.social · Mar 30

So, the DOGE kids intend to rewrite the social-security administration's COBOL code-base!

and they want to do it ...

... in *a few months*

I did a huge dive into COBOL a few years ago (www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazi...) ...

... so let me explain why DOGE is *way* over its skis here

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browse by category

www.wealthsimple.com

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Mar 25

And Petia* 😅

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Mar 25

I am very happy to share that my work on active deformations of lipid vesicles is finally out in Nature Physics. A nicer thread+movies coming soon, in the meantime:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thx to Andreas, Hammad, Dmitry, Gerhard @laynefrechette.bsky.social and everybody else who contributed!

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Reposted by Alfredo Sciortino

Isabella Graf @isabellagraf.bsky.social · Mar 24

We are organizing a conference for young researchers at the intersection between physics & biology: www.embl.org/about/info/c... @embl.org @events.embl.org @intcha.bsky.social
Please consider applying/registering -- the deadline is already in one week!

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Mar 11

81% of Elon Musk thinks Elon Musk is a genius.

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

Graaaziee

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

Thanks!!

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

You know the pain 🥰 gracias

Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

💘

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

So.. thanks for reading! I hope you liked it - and check out the preprint. Also thanks to @manuelthery.bsky.social and @lblanchoin.bsky.social , to Magali in particular, and to all coauthors (I think only @alexandra-colin.bsky.social is here..)! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

www.biorxiv.org

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

So yes: filaments transport in 3D allows to separate a contractile flux at the bottom of the well with an extensile flux pushing filaments back to the periphery through the network's 3D architecture.

Scheme of the transport process inside microwells.

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

If the DSS is through filament transport in 3D then severing those bundles in the middle of the well should stop it. So we performed laser ablation and *zap* the bundles are gone and the DSS contracts and dies out.

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

Well apparently yes! The network uses its 3D architecture to "suck" filaments at the center and "inject" them back at the periphery - again, we show this with tracking filaments in 3D. But it's barely visible in the data, so we developed a killer experiment ;-) go to the next block to see it..

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

Well, if it is not nucleation and it is not transport in 2D, we might as well take a look at the network architecture in 3D! Using confocal we observe this weird tent-like structure - is it possible that filaments are transported through it?

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

What we find is that transport on the wells surface is coherent with actomyosin sliding combined with some "gliding" due to motors sticking to the membrane. But the net flux is still contractile, so what is pushing filaments back to the periphery...???

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

It's not actin turnover, the classical answer: this DSS works in the absence of actin nucleators or in the presence of phalloidin, i.e. with stabilized filaments. No depolymerization is present. So it has to be transport of the filaments. We combine a bunch of techniques to observe it, like speckle.

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Alfredo Sciortino @asciortino.bsky.social · Feb 26

... and we got this: continuous actin contraction for hours and hours without collapse to the center. We also show how the flow and the actin architecture are organized in space in a regular way.
The question is... what is sustaining this dynamic state? What "compensates" for this contractile flow?

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