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Debraj Ghose

@debrajghose.bsky.social

840 followers 3.7K following 17 posts

I study how lymphocytes self-organize into multicellular structures. Also interested in how cells sense and respond to chemical gradients. Currently: Wyss Institute at Harvard. Previously: Comp Bio at Duke. debrajghose.com

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · May 5

We found that cells use emergent collective memory—arising from simple chemical reactions—to outperform physical limits of detecting chemical gradients. Curious how? 1/n

8 min talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7XH...

bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#biophysics #cellbiology

Local collective memory from ratiometric signaling outperforms cellular gradient sensing limits

YouTube video by Debraj Shubham Ghose

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Dagmar Iber & CoBi @iberd.bsky.social · Jul 30

How can cells self-organize rapidly into complex patterns during development?

Let’s explore a powerful and underappreciated mechanism: Directed Cell Migration (DCM).

Preprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1101/2025...

👇Thread 🧵(1/11)

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · Jul 19

Beautiful!!

Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Maik Bischoff @maikbischoff.bsky.social · Jul 18

Such an honor to be featured by @focalplane.bsky.social , especially on my favorite day of the week: #FluorescenceFriday! 🔬

Below for reference, a picture of the full hydei testis with the musculature stained (depth-coded) taken together with @saraheclark.bsky.social

#cellbio #devbio #microscopy

The full testis of Drosophila hydei with muscles stained with phalloidin. A close up of the same muscles was featured by FocalPlane.

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Emma Scales @emmascales.bsky.social · Jul 19

Happy #FluorescenceFriday !!! Pt 2: fungal hyphae challenged with various oxidative stressors; nucleic acids - yellow, ROS - magenta feat. bubbles induced by H2O2 from earlier imaging experiments when I had no idea what I was doing :)

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Adam Braithwaite @braithwaiteat.bsky.social · Jul 3

Stimulating immune cells in vitro is a common experimental lab model. We profiled 150K blood immune cells treated with 11 different stimuli to compare the effects. The data are freely available for researchers. See the preprint for our findings and to access the data 🧪 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Maik Bischoff @maikbischoff.bsky.social · Jun 18

FINALLY out in #Science Advances! 🎉
3 years of hard work, a fantastic team — and I’m proud to be first and co-corresponding author!

It's about Plexin signaling driving collective cell migration & organ sculpting. Check out the videos 😀

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#DevBio #CellBio #Microscopy

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · Jun 16

3D printed microscopy we could perhaps try in the lab

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Scabbage @scabbage.bsky.social · May 16

#GLSL #Shaders

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Julian Gargiulo @nano-juli.bsky.social · Feb 26

HIGH-RESOLUTION IN VIVO BRAIN IMAGING OF DROSOPHILA 🪰
New Preprint by Tassara et al.!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#FluorescenceMonday #SnoutClub 1/6

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Amy Engevik @amyengevik.bsky.social · Jun 2

A perfectly round liver organoid stained for mitochondria (yellowish/green), e-cadherin in blue and nuclei in pink for #MicroscopyMonday

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · Jun 3

Pretty!

Reposted by Debraj Ghose

hicklvincent.bsky.social @hicklvincent.bsky.social · Apr 11

Excited to share our latest paper in PLOS Comp Bio, describing how accurate, multi-species segmentation models for bacteria can be created quickly and easily using image-to-image translation. 🧪⚛️
#biophysics #imageanalysis #microscopy #AI

dx.doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Segmentation of dense and multi-species bacterial colonies using models trained on synthetic microscopy images

Author summary Bacteria organize themselves on surfaces in ways that influence the spread of infections, but studying these behaviors is difficult, especially when multiple species are involved or the...

dx.doi.org

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Dominik Robak @dominikrobak.bsky.social · Apr 14

Bonus: ran a quick color variation test — because it's always worth playing with presentation.
Color isn’t just style — it shapes what you see.

#MicroscopyCommunity #ScientificVisualization #Biophysics

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Journal of Cell Biology @jcb.org · Apr 24

#Microtubule-driven cell shape changes and #actomyosin flow synergize to position the #centrosome, say Alexandre Schaeffer, Manuel Théry (@manuelthery.bsky.social ) and colleagues: rupress.org/jcb/article/...

@lblanchoin.bsky.social
@gelinmatthieu.bsky.social

#Biophysics #Cytoskeleton

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Maik Bischoff @maikbischoff.bsky.social · May 8

My #FlyWeek contribution:

The Variety of Testis Shapes in Pomace Fly Species

Aren't they beatiful?🌈🪰🔬

An old-school sci-poster meets modern confocal imaging!
#Drosophila testis diversity fascinated even Curt Stern (yes, the human genetics textbook guy!) back in the 1930s.
#microscopy #insects

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

eric lai @lucksmith.bsky.social · May 8

indeed, i begin my grad lecture on RNAi/miRNAs by discussing petunias. and mentioning while none of our students will do a plant phd (no faculty), they can learn A LOT by occasionally reading plant literature (think epigenetics, small RNAs, developmental biology, etc etc). also, consider the worm!

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · May 7

The quest to make darker petunias led to a 2006 Nobel & a fundamental tool of modern molecular biology.

In 1986, Richard Jorgensen was trying to make a darker purple petunia to get some VC funding. So he inserted additional copies of the pigment gene into petunias.

Instead, they turned WHITE.

An Alamy stock photo of a bowl containing white and purple petunias, in very roughly equal measure of each. The backdrop is a masonry wall, and it sits on weathered concrete. The blooms are numerous and glowing with color. The purples are velvety dark, while the white and pure and glowing.

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Rebecca Ann Jones @rebannjones.bsky.social · May 6

What governs where DNA replication begins in human cells? Here, we show that origins of replication in human DNA are epigenetically specified and that crucially, this epigenetic mark is required for both DNA replication and cell proliferation! @narjournal.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

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Reposted by Debraj Ghose

Jupiter Algorta @jupiteralgorta.bsky.social · May 6

If you're curious about how cells make decisions in complex environments, and how mathematical models can capture such behaviour, our preprint is now live!
Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Investigating Local Negative Feedback of Rac Activity by Mathematical Models and Cell Motility Simulations

For polarization and directed migration, cells use a combination of local positive feedback and long-range inhibition. We have previously used mathematical models to show the ability of this core…

www.biorxiv.org

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · May 5

Manuscript: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Feedback welcome!

Talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7XH...

Had a ton of fun working on this with James Nolen and Daniel Lew! Super glad Kathy Guan and Timothy Elston joined us on our adventure!

Grateful to NIH and Sloan Foundation for their support!

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Local collective memory from ratiometric signaling outperforms cellular gradient sensing limits

YouTube video by Debraj Shubham Ghose

www.youtube.com

Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · May 5

This strategy could underly fertilization, immune responses, embryo patterning—or allow us to build gradient-sensing microrobots for targeted drug delivery. 8/n

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · May 5

This local memory allows cells to average receptor signals and outperform instantaneous cellular gradient sensing limits.
— Left: classical sensing drifts.
— Right: ratiometric model stays locked on target. 7/n

Schematic showing that gradient estimates by ratiometric sensing outperform estimates by classical sensing.

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · May 5

We find that the ratiometric readout, which is enabled by a population of diffusing G‑proteins, generates a rolling local collective memory of past receptor states. 6/n

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · May 5

Surprisingly, our simulations show that the ratiometric sensing strategy can outperform instantaneous physical limits of gradient detection. How??? 5/n

www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3Dg...

Ratiometric NG 2500 NR 375 Dm 002 Pher 8 4 1

YouTube video by Debraj Shubham Ghose

www.youtube.com

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · May 5

But cells also pay attention to the “quiet.” By comparing bound (ON) and unbound (OFF) receptors, they build a ratiometric readout. 4/n

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Debraj Ghose @debrajghose.bsky.social · May 5

Classic view: focus only on the “ON” beeps—molecules binding to receptors. Useful, but half the story. 3/n

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