Congratulations, Monica! You continue to inspire 🌟

My first post on Bluesky! Very excited to share our work just published in @science.org. We find that “Interphase cell morphology defines the mode, symmetry, and outcome of mitosis” - in angiogenesis and other tissues! www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

New(ish) preprint! 📰What whole-cell patterns emerge from the arrangement, morphologies, and interactions of organelles in the 3D space of the cell? What would we see if we could gather ALL the whole-cell reconstruction data that's out there in one place? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵 1/11

@ucsusa.bsky.social is running a "science advocacy training webinar on writing letters to the editor to inform and influence different audiences about the impacts of federal cuts to science and science workers" next Thursday April 17 🧪

It will be recorded for those who register but cannot attend

We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.

REPOSTING this here just to officially leave "the other place"

Our work on the role of endogenous electric fields in guiding collective cell migration during #morphogenesis is out @naturematerials.bsky.social
nature.com/articles/s41...

tagging @leeba.bsky.social!

This is the outcome of Leeba Chacko's PhD research - all credit to her (she also recently submitted her thesis - pictured below with her PhD hat). This work also included incredibly fruitful and fun collaborations with Hidenori (Tokushima U.), Richard (UNSW) and @wallaceucsf.bsky.social! (n/n)

In summary, we demonstrate a central role for mitochondrial activity in dictating cellular growth rates/kinetics and ensuring mitochondrial volume homeostasis. (6/n)

The prediction of this model was that cells that lacked mitochondrial activity would grow linearly, and indeed we saw that rho0 cells (without mtDNA) switched to linear growth! (5/n)

Both the cell size and mitochondrial volume grew exponentially during the cell cycle, but given our previous data, we asked if mitochondrial activity drove the cell's exponential growth - using quantitative modeling we found this was the case. (4/n)

We compared pairs of daughter cells that divided symmetrically but partitioned mitochondria asymmetrically - cells with fewer mitochondria grew slower. Those with more mitochondria grew faster. Both daughter cells eventually divided according to the 'sizer' mechanism, but at different times. (3/n)

At cell division, small newborn cells inherited fewer mitochondria from the mother, while larger received more. But by division, all cells ended up with the same mitochondrial volume! (2/n)

How is mitochondrial volume maintained across successive generations of dividing cells? In our new preprint, we show how fission yeast cells use mitochondrial activity to control division timing and maintain mitochondrial homeostasis! (1/n)

📖 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

openRxiv has arrived!

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of openRxiv as an independent, researcher-led nonprofit to oversee bioRxiv and medRxiv, the world’s leading preprint servers for life and health sciences.
openrxiv.org/introducing-...

#openRxiv #OpenScience #Preprints #bioRxiv #medRxiv

Posting this here now that the orange man has erasing scientific literature. What people, perhaps without any strong opinions on this, never understand is the barriers that academics have to overcome to publish papers on gender and trans identities.

He can burn the journals, but we will keep PDFs 😘

Aaaand that’s a wrap at Asia Pacific Microscopy Congress 2025 in sunny Brisbane, attended by a big team from Single Molecule Science. Lots of exciting new 🔬 tools and translation in biomedical investigations. @ijayas.bsky.social @arindam92.bsky.social

U2OS labeled with OMP25-GFP, an outer membrane marker for mitochondria.

Left shows a zoom-in on the dimmer cell.

Imaged by OPM (oblique plane microscope).

#Microscopy

Reading the paper in Cell about how to close the scissor plots in gender representation at senior academic positions, I feel just a touch of pessimism. Having reached a level of seniority (middle management) I didn’t think I ever would, I read these great ideas wanting more, much more /1.

My lab at UMass Chan Med School uses a variety of approaches to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of membrane traffic. Striving to make academic science a more diverse, equitable, welcoming and inclusive place. Incoming President for the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)! Opinions are mine.

Congratulations Marcus!

Always a solution

I am delighted to share our new preprint in which we reveal the crucial role for mechanical forces in myoblast fusion. Great work from Yoann, Sushil and Aleksandra and great collaboration with Christophe Marcelle and Amin Doostmohammadi!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Non-native English speakers need 50% more time to write a paper

When they do, they face a 2.5 times higher chance of being rejected because of language

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...