ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus
@ritamateus.bsky.social
1.5K followers 880 following 51 posts
Group Leader @MPI-CBG and @POL, TU-Dresden. Dev Biologist mixing it up w/ Physics. Want to know how organs grow! also obsessed with structural colors | ritamateus.com
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Sep 1
We have a fully funded 3y postdoc position open!!!! Come join us @mpi-cbg.de and @poldresden.bsky.social to understand the role of Membranes in Controlling Biogenic Crystallization :) this is part of our #HFSP funded project with @noemijimenezrojo.bsky.social and @vmonje.bsky.social! Applications👇
maxplanck.de
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · Sep 1
The #MaxPlanckPostdocProgram offers a guaranteed contract of at least 3 years, targeted mentoring, and career workshops. The call for applications is open now! 🚀 Take advantage of this opportunity and browse the job vacancies. www.mpg.de/en/max-planc...
Group photo of postdocs conducting research at a Max Planck Institute
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Reposted by Rita Mateus
gautamdey.bsky.social
Gautam Dey @gautamdey.bsky.social · 4d
If you’re applying to your dream lab for an internship/PhD/postdoc, always send a second email 1-2 weeks after the first one if you don’t hear back.

I promise we will be grateful rather than annoyed. My email inbox is a disaster and I’m quite junior - and very few of us have secretarial support
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 9d
When you arrive to the lab and have flowers waiting for you, you know you have the best lab team ever!!!☺ so grateful!!! #big40 #bestTeam
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 13d
ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 13d
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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 13d
Last week it was a week of much needed celebration 🍾🥳 how best to do it than a pizza party with shark piñatas!! #somuchfun #proudPI #papersparty
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 13d
Big congratulations to Vinita Kini, our most recent MSc graduate!!! What a great job, I'm a #proudPI
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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 13d
We will be taking phD students this round!! Apply to our @mpi-cbg.de phD programme and #growwithus
mpi-cbg.de
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics @mpi-cbg.de · 13d
Our call for PhD students within our International Max Planck Research School for Cell, Developmental and Systems Biology is open! Apply until October 28th. We are looking forward hearing from you! imprs.mpi-cbg.de
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Reposted by Rita Mateus
maxplanck.de
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 19d
Truly chuffed for our fearless food physicists @mpipks.bsky.social + collabs from AT @istaresearch.bsky.social, IT & ES who won this year’s Ig Nobel - the #NobelPrize of hearts❤️for cracking the science of perfect pasta !🍝Kudos to all for intrepidly consuming lots of cheese in the name of science!😋
The Secret to a Smooth Pasta Sauce Wins Ig Nobel Prize
Italian researchers studied how the ingredients of the traditional Roman dish cacio e pepe emulsify into a creamy sauce, winning the 2025 Physics Ig Nobel Prize.
www.the-scientist.com
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Sep 1
We have a fully funded 3y postdoc position open!!!! Come join us @mpi-cbg.de and @poldresden.bsky.social to understand the role of Membranes in Controlling Biogenic Crystallization :) this is part of our #HFSP funded project with @noemijimenezrojo.bsky.social and @vmonje.bsky.social! Applications👇
maxplanck.de
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · Sep 1
The #MaxPlanckPostdocProgram offers a guaranteed contract of at least 3 years, targeted mentoring, and career workshops. The call for applications is open now! 🚀 Take advantage of this opportunity and browse the job vacancies. www.mpg.de/en/max-planc...
Group photo of postdocs conducting research at a Max Planck Institute
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 25
Thank you 😀
ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
Thanks PAvel!!! 😊
ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
Thanks Andre!!! 😊
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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
#devbio #crystals #SizeandShape #zebrafish :)
ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
Of course, this could not be possible without incredible support from @mpi-cbg.de and @poldresden.bsky.social, and their great facilities! 😊
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
In case you’re curious, we do have quite a few new experiments, compared to our preprint, here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The Role of Purine Interactions in Biogenic Crystal Shape Determination
Widespread through phyla, purine crystals are intracellular inclusions serving a myriad of organismal functions. In zebrafish, iridophores concentrate purines in membrane-bound organelles, the iridoso...
www.biorxiv.org
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
Mechanistically, our work shows that purine diversity and availability inside the zebrafish iridosome is key to form anisotropic crystal lattices, explaining the zebrafish distinct functional crystal shapes.
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
Macroscopically, b-axis anisotropy is controlled by the ratio of guanine-to-hypoxanthine in the iridosome, without affecting the other axes. At the atomic level, the extent of the anisotropy depends entirely on the type, number, and strength of the hydrogen bonds within the crystal lattice.
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
Then, by performing comparative genetic analyses in vivo (new mutants and transgenics!) and reproducing such conditions in silico (Monte Carlo simulations!), we found that the zebrafish crystals’ in-plane hydrogen bond molecular structure is the main determinant for the observed crystal anisotropy.
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
Using confocal live imaging of reflection, cryoFIB-SEM, and novel morphometric analysis pipelines, we show that intracellular crystal growth favors the b-axis, producing their characteristic anisotropic shape.
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
In brief, this is a story about subcellular size and shape! Many organisms self-organize crystals, for functions like vision, pigmentation, and metabolite storage. In zebrafish, iridophores concentrate guanine (yes, think DNA!) and other purines in membrane-bound organelles, the iridosomes.
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 22
The first paper of our lab is finally out, and I feel very proud and grateful to our wonderful team! @Jannik Rothkegel, @Sylvia Kaufmann, @Michaela Wilsch-Braueninger, @Catarina Lopes <3
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Purine Molecular Interactions Determine Anisotropic Shape of Zebrafish Biogenic Crystals
Many organisms self-organize crystals for vision, pigmentation, or storage. In zebrafish, iridophores produce anisotropic crystals in iridosomes. Using imaging and genetic tools, crystal growth is sh...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Reposted by Rita Mateus
jcellsci.bsky.social
Journal of Cell Science @jcellsci.bsky.social · Aug 15
Why would anyone want to be a scientist?

Check out our new Essay from Martin Schwartz: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
Screenshot of Essay from Martin Schwartz on 'Why would anyone want to be a scientist'. An anniversary article from The Company of Biologists published in Journal of Cell Science. The first few lines are: It is difficult to fathom why anyone intelligent enough to be a scientist would actually choose to be one. Doing good science requires the utmost exertion of body, mind and spirit, yet is consistently filled with failure and rejection. But, strange even to myself, I not only don't question the unfavorable risk-to-reward ratio but consider myself astonishingly lucky to be a scientist. There are three fundamental pleasures that have sustained me through 50 years of this madness.
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ritamateus.bsky.social
Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 9
It was a great pleasure to write this with Lucas Ribas, the first phD student from our lab :) more to come soon!
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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · Aug 9
Hot off the press!!! Proudly presenting our lab's new review on how do cells communicate to control organ size :) We focus specially on dynamic connections that operate at different timescales to regulate organ growth and morphogenesis. #devbio #SizeandShape www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Start-Shape-Stop: Cell communication mechanisms controlling organ size
Accurate growth control is critical for the achievement of proportional organs during animal development and repair processes. Either extra or deficie…
www.sciencedirect.com
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Reposted by Rita Mateus
redpenblackpen.bsky.social
RedPen/BlackPen @redpenblackpen.bsky.social · Feb 19
A reminder in these hard times. #sciencestrong
Cartoon showing a woman looking in to a microscope saying "Whoaah!!!" The caption states "The best part of Science is knowing, for a moment, something that nobody else in the world knows"
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