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Xavier Trepat

@xaviertrepat.bsky.social

2.9K followers 450 following 47 posts

Scientist of Living Matter. ICREA Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona. The need to know.

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Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Dec 3

🎈New preprint! We study how single cells move up, down and about fibronectin gradients. Experiments by @icfortunato.bsky.social, theory by David Bruckner. Collaboration with @raimonsunyer.bsky.social and @ehannezo.bsky.social 👇https://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2024.12.02.626413v1

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Barriga Lab @eliasbarrigalab.bsky.social · 6d

New Review! #devbiol #bioelectricity #CellBiology #tissueregeneration

In our new @annualreviews.bsky.social piece, we explore how bioelectricity is generated, sensed & translated into responses that sculpt tissues, guide growth & enable tissue regeneration.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Bioelectricity in Morphogenesis

Bioelectricity is likely as old as life itself. From the moment the first proto-cell was enclosed in a lipid bilayer, a membrane potential arose. Thus, one can expect that bioelectrical activities inf...

www.annualreviews.org

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Buzz Baum @buzzbaum.bsky.social · 6d

LMB PhD studentship available in the Baum lab to use informatics to infer cell structure from genomic data in collaboration with the brilliant Tom Williams. If you write to me and I don’t reply - try again - the spam filter is hungry…

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Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · 6d

Active wetting at work 🤩

Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 7d

See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...

Reposted by Xavier Trepat

David Brückner @davidbrueckner.bsky.social · 11d

How do cells navigate up gradients of adhesive proteins?
🤔

Termed "Haptotaxis", this effect is ubiquitous in cell migration, but it's mechanism was poorly understood

We show that passive friction directs cells & explains complex trajectories on gradients

👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Daniel J. Cohen (Princeton) @djcohen.bsky.social · 21d

SCHEPHERD--the bioelectric cell herding platform built for YOU. Single cells, monolayers, organoids--this herds them all + new tricks. Plz try it-- we will *give* you parts! Teaser here of a steering a single cell. GS Yubin Lin's lifeblood with J. Yodh on piano; Celeste R. and Paul K. Thread 1/N

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Benoit Ladoux @bladoux.bsky.social · 21d

Happy to share our new study @ijmonod.bsky.social and @mpi-scienceoflight.bsky.social with C. Duclut and J. Prost. on forces generated by active fluid transport in epithelia and their role in tissue dynamics.
Congrats to Huiqiong Wu, G. Arkowitz and R. Chilupuri!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Regulation of epithelial tissue homeostasis by active trans-epithelial transport

Epithelia are intricate tissues whose function is intimately linked to mechanics. While mechanobiology has primarily focused on factors such as cell-generated contractility and mechanical properties o...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Daniel Alber @danielalber.bsky.social · 20d

A ring of cells deforms into a triangular keyhole in just 15 minutes. Meet the hindgut, a model for boundary-driven morphogenesis!

Out now in @pnas.org at doi.org/10.1073/pnas... with @zhaoshh.bsky.social, Alex Jacinto, Eric Wieschaus, Stas Shvartsman, @lepuslapis.bsky.social (1/8)

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Barbara Marte @barbmarte.bsky.social · Sep 6

new out in Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Compression causes cancer cells to start spreading

The switch between proliferation and invasion is triggered by mechanical force.

www.nature.com

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Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Sep 6

Fantastic news! Congrats!

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Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Sep 2

Thanks Adrien!

Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Sep 1

These topological transitions provide epithelia with a multiscale mechanism to adapt to sustained stretch. Beautifully modelled by Marco Pensalfini and Marino Arroyo.

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Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Sep 1

New preprint! 🚨 We uncover a slow adaptation to stretch that links star-bundling of keratin filaments with nuclear escape from its keratin cage. Led by @tomgolde.bsky.social‬ 🙌
@IBECBarcelona
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Sylvain Gabriele @sgabriele.bsky.social · Aug 25

Excited to share our new publication in Nature Physics about the mechanical memory of morphology in confined migrating cells by @kyohalie.bsky.social 🥳

Super fun collab with @davidbrueckner.bsky.social and @gcharras.bsky.social 👏🏻

Enjoy the reading www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The actin cortex acts as a mechanical memory of morphology in confined migrating cells - Nature Physics

Cells often navigate through confined spaces. Now it is shown that cells retain a mechanical memory of previous confinement events, which makes them more efficient at migrating through narrow microenv...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Kate Miroshnikova @katemiro.bsky.social · Aug 15

Pathologists have used nuclear & tissue shapes to diagnose #cancer for decades, but what is the molecular basis for this? In our latest work, we develop a computational pipeline to figure this out in #colorectalcancer! Check out 🧵& preprint #mechanobiology #stemcells www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Jonas Neipel @neipel.bsky.social · Jul 20

(1/10)
I am excited to finally share our work on avian left/right symmetry breaking with you. We reveal a tissue-scale active torque dipole generated at the Hensen’s node, thanks to crazy experiments by Julia @juliapfanzelter.bsky.social and some analysis by me.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

An active torque dipole across tissue layers drives avian left-right symmetry breaking

Unlike in mice, frogs, and fish, left-right (L/R) body axis formation in avian embryos does not arise from the chiral beat of cilia. Instead, a counter-clockwise tissue rotation around Hensen′ node, t...

doi.org

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Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Jul 8

New paper from the lab led by @marija-matejcic.bsky.social ! Supracellular force patterns driving intestinal cell extrusion. 👇

Marija Matejčić @marija-matejcic.bsky.social · Jul 4

On cell extrusion in the #intestine!
After 80 years of observations, we finally took a deeper look thanks to 2D #organoids. We report:

3D #forces, #extrusion still only in the villus even without curvature, #lamellipodia generate 3D force.. and more. Have a look!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Xavier Trepat

Nimesh Chahare @onenimesa.bsky.social · Jul 3

Have you ever thought about inflating tissues?
Or maybe quickly deflating those inflated tissues?

New #EpithelialMechanics pre-print: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
🧵 with pressure control, multiscale buckling, controlled wrinkling

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Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Jul 3

Thanks Julia!

Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Jul 3

Thanks Carmelo!

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Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Jul 3

Thanks Fabrice. Indeed, two very different physical mechanisms to engineer 3D shapes.

Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Jul 3

Thanks Mark, stay tuned for @marija-matejcic.bsky.social preprint in a few days!

Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Jul 3

🚨 Second preprint of the week!

We uncover the multiscale dynamics of active viscoelastic buckling in epithelia.

We harness these mechanical instabilities for synthetic morphogenesis.

Led by @onenimesa.bsky.social 🙌. Theory by Marino Arroyo etal. @ibecbarcelona.eu

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Jul 1

Thanks Benoit!

Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Jul 1

Indeed 😀

Xavier Trepat @xaviertrepat.bsky.social · Jul 1

Thanks Ritu!