Bastounis lab had a great time at @cellmech2025.bsky.social — such an engaging and well-organized #Mechanobiology conference in Leuven 🙌 Thanks to everyone for the inspiring exchanges! And big congrats to our lab member @hundsdorfer.bsky.social for winning the Best PhD Student Poster Prize 🎉

The Bastounis Lab is at #CellMech2025 in Leuven 🇧🇪!
We explore how mechanics shape infection: from epithelial entry to endothelial barriers.

📅 Sept 30: Raúl Aparicio Yuste & Lara Hundsdorfer
📅 Oct 1:Julio César Sánchez Rendón, Marie Münkel, Nadine Oder& I

Excited for inspiring discussions! 🚀

Synthetic materials accumulate damage with every mechanical challenge. Epithelial tissues are regularly loaded, yet healthy epithelia rarely rupture. Why?

We are @epmech.bsky.social and @baldaufsci.bsky.social and in this thread we introduce you to cyclic loading.

bsky.app/profile/epim...

We’re hiring! A PhD position (E13 TV-L, 65%) is available at @cmfi.bsky.social @unituebingen.bsky.social. The DFG-funded project explores how mechanical forces shape intracellular bacterial infections, focusing on Listeria. Details & application: www.euraxess.de/jobs/366585. Start: ASAP!

Looking for a method to characterise cell #motility and #ERK signalling waves?
Check out our STAR protocols paper:
star-protocols.cell.com/protocols/41...

Thanks for the great work Julio Cesar Sanchez-Rendon & @effiebastounis.bsky.social!

#protocol #epithelia #FRET #singlecell #imaging

How is extrusion of infected host cells related to ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase) activity?

Hi, I’m @hundsdorfer.bsky.social from the @effiebastounis.bsky.social lab. Let’s follow the recent development of bacterially-infected cell extrusion & mechanochemical ERK activity waves.

Hundsdorfer, L., Muenkel, M., Aparicio-Yuste, R., ..., Mostowy, S., & Bastounis, E. E. (2025). ERK activation waves coordinate mechanical cell competition leading to collective elimination via extrusion of bacterially infected cells. Cell reports, 44(1), 115193. #EpithelialMechanics
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Crozet, F., & Levayer, R. (2023). Emerging roles and mechanisms of ERK pathway mechanosensing. Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS, 80(12), 355. #EpithelialMechanicsReview
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Hino, N., Rossetti, L., Marín-Llauradó, A., Aoki, K., Trepat, X., Matsuda, M., & Hirashima, T. (2020). ERK-Mediated Mechanochemical Waves Direct Collective Cell Polarization. Developmental cell, 53(6), 646–660.e8. #EpithelialMechanics
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Bastounis, E. E., Serrano-Alcalde, F., ..., García-Aznar, J. M., & Theriot, J. A. (2021). Mechanical competition triggered by innate immune signaling drives the collective extrusion of bacterially infected epithelial cells. Developmental cell, 56(4), 443–460.e11. #EpithelialMechanics
buff.ly/c4eJTxW

Thanks for the amazing support @effiebastounis.bsky.social, the great contributions from all authors & collaborating labs (Serge Mostowy, María José Gómez Benito, Boris Macek, Tilman Schäffer, Iordania Constantinou) & for the support from @dfg.de, @cmfi.bsky.social & @unituebingen.bsky.social (4/4)

Collective infected cell extrusion (CICE) also occurs with another #pathogen & in vivo! Huge thanks to Marie Muenkel & the @sergemostowylab.bsky.social lab for showing that #zebrafish larvae fins infected with #Shigella also extrude the infected cells in an ERK activity dependent manner. (3/4)

Epithelial cells in monolayer ( #MDCK) coordinate their collective cell migration via ERK activation waves, thereby squeezing & extruding #host cells infected with #Listeria. ERK inhibition or constitutive activation abolish ERK activation waves and obstruct this cell extrusion. (2/4)

Super happy that our paper is published in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social! Find out more about how #ERK waves coordinate the mechanical competition that lead to collective infected cell #extrusion: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... (1/4)

Delighted that our review on modeling of #endothelial and #epithelial #cell monolayer #biomechanics is now published in @cp-trendscellbio.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1016/j.tc...! Thanks to all contributors and to DFG, Universität Tübingen, @cmfi.bsky.social for the support!

Happy to share our paper describing StretchView, an accessible cell-stretching device compatible with automated live-cell videomicroscopy: doi.org/10.1002/advs...! A great collaboration with the Constantinou lab TU Braunschweig. Thanks to DFG, Universität Tübingen, @cmfi.bsky.social for supporting!

📢 Meet Lisa-Marie Erlandsdotter at #CellBio2024 in San Diego!
🧠 Learn about our #Neuroinflammation-on-Chip for #DiseaseModeling & therapy discovery!
🗣 Talk: Today, 3:15 PM PST | #StemCell & #Organoid Models
📊 Poster: Today, 11:15 AM PST | P2822, Board B441 | Exhibit Halls D-G
#MPS #OrganOnChip #iPSC