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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

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arXiv physics.bio-ph Biological Physics @physicsbioph-bot.bsky.social · Jun 18

Oliver W. Paulin, J\'ulia Garcia-Baucells, Luise Zieger, Sebastian Aland, Alexander Dammermann, David Zwicker: Active viscoelastic condensates provide controllable mechanical anchor points https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14591 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.14591 https://arxiv.org/html/2506.14591

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

6/6 This was a huge team effort, and I'm deeply grateful to everyone involved: Carlo Bevilacqua & Robert Prevedel @prevedel-lab.bsky.social, Connie Rumpf-Kienzl, Alexandra Zampetaki & Sebastian Fürthauer, Manuel Rufin, Orestis G. Andriotis & Philipp J. Thurner!

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

5/6 2️⃣ Softening may allow the PCM to expand. This could promote microtubule nucleation throughout a larger volume, which is critical for building a large mitotic spindle quickly, especially in big embryonic cells. A mechanical adaptation for cell division!

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

4/6 Why would centrosomes need to soften? 1️⃣ Softer material dampens force fluctuations from the astral microtubules, which could protect chromosome attachments. A stiff centrosome wouldn't do this.

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

3/6 But are mitotic centrosomes more deformed just because they have more microtubules, or also because they get softer? We used two methods to find out: AFM on isolated centrosomes and Brillouin microscopy in living cells. The result? They soften during mitosis!

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

2/6 This deformation isn't from cortical pulling forces. It's caused by microtubules inside the centrosome scaffold. These internal microtubules define centrosome size, making it scale with cell volume. Deformation is smaller in smaller cells!

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

 1/6 Extremely happy to share my PhD work is out on bioRxiv! We discovered that microtubules deform mitotic centrosomes. When we removed them, the SPD-5 scaffold became denser but didn't lose material. This suggests it's an elastically deformable solid! This only happens in mitosis.

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

6/end This was a huge team effort, and I'm deeply grateful to everyone involved: Carlo Bevilacqua & Robert Prevedel @prevedel-lab.bsky.social, Connie Rumpf-Kienzl, Alexandra Zampetaki & Sebastian Fürthauer, Manuel Rufin, Orestis G. Andriotis & Philipp J. Thurner!

Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

5/n 2️⃣ Softening may allow the PCM to expand. This could promote microtubule nucleation throughout a larger volume, which is critical for building a large mitotic spindle quickly, especially in big embryonic cells. A mechanical adaptation for cell division!

1

Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

4/n Why would centrosomes need to soften? 1️⃣ Softer material dampens force fluctuations from the astral microtubules, which could protect chromosome attachments. A stiff centrosome wouldn't do this.

1

Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

3/n But are mitotic centrosomes more deformed just because they have more microtubules, or also because they get softer? We used two methods to find out: AFM on isolated centrosomes and Brillouin microscopy in living cells. The result? They soften during mitosis!

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · 19d

2/n This deformation isn't from cortical pulling forces. It's caused by microtubules inside the centrosome scaffold. These internal microtubules define centrosome size, making it scale with cell volume. Deformation is smaller in smaller cells!

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · May 21

Wohoo new paper from the lab! @shiviyaraina.bsky.social

Max Perutz Labs Vienna @maxperutzlabs.ac.at · May 21

🆕 publication! What do centriolar satellites really do? In @jcb.org the Dammermann lab challenges the idea that they simply shuttle proteins to the centrosome and cilium. Instead, their findings reveal a surprising new role linked to translation and protein quality control. More tinyurl.com/4dnb2c24

Perutz group leader Alex Dammermann together with first author Claudia Pachinger. (c) Max Perutz Labs

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Reposted by Júlia Garcia-Baucells

Renkawitz Lab @renkawitzteam.bsky.social · Apr 28

Excited to share our discovery www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

that the #centrosome is prone to breakage!

Using #motile cells, we identify centrosome breakage during #pathfinding, caused by #actin #forces, & prevented by #Dyrk3

Kudos to 1st author Madeleine & thanks to all collaborators!

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Reposted by Júlia Garcia-Baucells

Aafke Gros @aafkegros.bsky.social · Jan 15

With Microscopy Nodes, you can play with large volumes (this ExM dataset from Granita Lokaj is 49 GB total) and integrate this with all the cool tools in Blender, such as this #geonodes model of the centriole, made by @banterlegroup.bsky.social !

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Reposted by Júlia Garcia-Baucells

Nicolas Minc @minclab.bsky.social · Jan 14

Our first paper on BlueSky!! Remarkable work published in @currentbiology.bsky.social from Jing Xie, Javad Najafi and others, on how cell shape affects mitotic spindle positioning forces in embryos, by impacting cytoplasm flows.

@ijmonod.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Reposted by Júlia Garcia-Baucells

Ben Engel @cellarchlab.com · Dec 25

#TeamTomo visits the centrosome. I remember the centrosome and PCM being one of Julia's first targets when we were postdocs together at @mpibiochem.bsky.social. It's cool seeing the progress here in worms with Jeff. Beautiful #CryoET across the cell cycle. @centriolelab.bsky.social take a look! 🧪🧶🧬

Fabian Zimmermann @fabianzimmermann.bsky.social · Dec 25

Mahamid and Woodruff labs use cryo-ET to look at mitotic centrosomes: Stunned to see the pericentriolar matrix taking shape, and what seem to be ‚S size’ gamma-tubulin complex oligomers capping the end of 11-pf microtubules.

www.cell.com/developmenta...

Molecular architectures of centrosomes in C. elegans embryos visualized by cryo-electron tomography

Tollervey et al. use cryo-electron tomography to capture 3D snapshots of centrosomes at molecular resolution in their near-native state inside embryonic C. elegans cells in different stages of cell division. They characterize structural features of centrioles during their assembly and of a disordered matrix that nucleates and organizes mitotic spindle microtubules.

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Júlia Garcia-Baucells

Monica Bettencourt-Dias @monicabettencourt.bsky.social · Dec 19

Thank you Susana, Jadranka, Kevin and Jennifer for organizing these amazing sessions @ascbiology.bsky.social - so much exciting centrosome biology!!

Susana Godinho @susanagodinho.bsky.social · Dec 18

We would like to thank all the speakers for their amazing and inspiring talks and all the attendees that made these sessions lively and engaging! We were so impressed with the younger investigators 🤩 the field has a bright future 👏👏👏

Susana Godinho @susanagodinho.bsky.social · Dec 14

On my way to San Diego ASCB/EMBO 🤩

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Reposted by Júlia Garcia-Baucells

Wallace Marshall @wallaceucsf.bsky.social · Dec 14

what if organelle interactions could be created and controlled synthetically? if you are at ASCB tomorow, check out the session "Toward Building In Vitro Organelle Interaction Systems" Saturday 9:30- 11:00 room 33B organized by @marymirvis.bsky.social Hanaa Hariri, and Gant Luxton.

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Júlia Garcia-Baucells @jugarbau.bsky.social · Dec 12

Excited to join the #CellBio2024 to present our novel investigations into the mechanical properties of the centrosome on Tuesday. It’ll be a pleasure to discuss the details of my project with you!

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Reposted by Júlia Garcia-Baucells

Vienna BioCenter Scientific Training @vbcscitraining.bsky.social · Nov 25

Congrats to Claudia Pachinger PhD (Dammermann Lab), who recently defended her thesis: Novel insights into centriolar satellites as regulators of centrosome and cilium function. Well done! @univie.ac.at @impvienna.bsky.social @imbavienna.bsky.social @gmivienna.bsky.social @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social

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