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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 6d

Another pre-print from our group see's the light of day! 🎉 This time we how the coarsening of droplets is affected by advection and reactions: arxiv.org/abs/2510.00827 @stefankoestler2025.bsky.social describes our surprising findings in the thread below ⤵️

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 8d

Our latest work from a stimulating collaboration with @jerelleaj.bsky.social and @nathanieldhess.bsky.social is out now!

Jerelle Joseph @jerelleaj.bsky.social · 8d

Out now in #ACSMacroLett: we demonstrate how molecular charge asymmetry can control the size of condensates! Work done in collaboration with @zwickergroup.bsky.social!!

Theory led by Chengjie Luo and simulations by @nathanieldhess.bsky.social!!

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Theory of Condensate Size Control by Molecular Charge Asymmetry

Biomolecular condensates are complex droplets comprising diverse molecules that interact by various mechanisms. Condensation is often driven by short-range attraction, but net charges can also mediate...

pubs.acs.org

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 8d

A great example of a totally unplanned discovery in our group, spearheaded by a Bachelor and a PhD student! Curiosity wins 🥳

Noah Ziethen @nziethen.bsky.social · 8d

New preprint 🎉
What began as Frieder Johannsen’s bachelor thesis in the @zwickergroup.bsky.social (which I had the pleasure to supervise) evolved into our latest paper: “Chemically Active Liquid Bridges Generate Repulsive Forces” — unlike passive ones, which attract.
📄 arxiv.org/abs/2509.18777

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Reposted by Zwicker Group

Noah Ziethen @nziethen.bsky.social · 8d

New preprint 🎉
What began as Frieder Johannsen’s bachelor thesis in the @zwickergroup.bsky.social (which I had the pleasure to supervise) evolved into our latest paper: “Chemically Active Liquid Bridges Generate Repulsive Forces” — unlike passive ones, which attract.
📄 arxiv.org/abs/2509.18777

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 15d

It was fun to do a little interview and think about the relevance of our work for a more experimental and engineering inclined community.

European Synthetic Cell Initiative @syncelleu.bsky.social · 15d

David Zwicker, theoretical physicist and SynCellEU community member, explores how biological soft matter organises itself in space and time.

In our new article, we discuss his work, his contribution to #syncell research, and his advice to early-career researchers.

syntheticcell.eu/david-zwicke...

Meet the Community - David Zwicker

Theoretical physicist David Zwicker leads a research group that explores how biological soft matter organises itself in space and time

syntheticcell.eu

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Reposted by Zwicker Group

Denis Wirtz @deniswirtz.bsky.social · 16d

We have developed a new workflow to map whole human organs at single-cell resolution, while integrating spatial transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics.

We applied this workflow to map precancerous lesions of the fallopian tubes.

More here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 26d

In other news, we welcome Mengmeng Wu 🇨🇳 and Lukas Kristensen 🇩🇰 to our group! 🥳 Mengmeng is a postdoc who will combine particle-based simulations with analytical theory to study chemically active droplets. Lukas visits us for three months and will work on anchored active droplets. Welcome aboard! 🎉

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 26d

Marcel developed and analyzed a generalized coarsening model to explain chromosomal crossover placements during meiosis (arxiv.org/abs/2509.09521). This model provides a coherent explanation of experimental data across mutants and species!

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 26d

Cathelijne discovered that the energy required to maintain Turing patterns can be reduced substantially if the involved molecules repel each other (arxiv.org/abs/2509.05093). This work permits a thermodynamic analysis of this classical reaction-diffusion system!

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 26d

Oliver looked at the dynamics of phase separation in elastic networks, where non-local effects arrest coarsening and lead to patterns with a well-defined length scale (arxiv.org/abs/2508.09829). These patterns can be realized experimentally to make materials with interesting optical properties!

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 26d

Yicheng discovered that driven chemical reactions between solvent components can induce a pressure difference at interfaces (arxiv.org/abs/2508.09816). This can lead to fun effects, including self-propulsion, and showcases the surprising versatility of chemically active emulsions.

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 26d

We were exceptionally effective at finishing manuscripts in the last weeks and couldn't keep up with describing pre-prints here. This thread summarizes the main results of our recent works:

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 28d

This is a great opportunity to start an independent group in one of the best research environments you could think of!

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 29d

Springboard for an international scientific career! 🧬🧪🔭⚛️🧠🌱 Call for #MaxPlanckResearchGroups launched; applications are possible until October 14, 2025 www.mpg.de/max-planck-r... #ScienceCareer

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Reposted by Zwicker Group

Daniela J Kraft @danielajkraft.bsky.social · Sep 6

Interested in doing a PhD in my group? I have an opening for a PhD student to work on understanding and designing nanomedicine-membrane interactions! Apply here:
careers.universiteitleiden.nl/job/Leiden-P...

PhD position in understanding and designing nanomedicines-membranes interaction

careers.universiteitleiden.nl

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · Sep 5

Looking forward to discussing our little active droplet theories with students!

Max Planck School Matter to Life @mattertolife.bsky.social · Sep 4

Can tiny droplets hold clues to the origin of life? 🙌

The MtL Lecture Series continues with a talk on “Droplets Come to Life” by MtL Fellow David Zwicker @zwickergroup.bsky.social from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization! 🎉

Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Flyer for the lecture, which will take place on September, 17th at 3 pm Central European Summer Time

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · Sep 4

Congratulations, Anna!

Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · Sep 4

Congratulations! This is very well deserved

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Reposted by Zwicker Group

Karen Alim @karenalim.bsky.social · Aug 31

Join my team for a PhD in Learning in living adaptive networks (Theory). Apply by October 7th through www.portal.graduatecenter.lmu.de/ocgc/qmb

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · Aug 22

It was a lot of fun to write this little piece on using phase transitions to process cellular information! We probably pose more questions than we give answers, but that’s exciting.

Laboratory of Soft and Living Materials @SoftLiv_Cornell @softliv.bsky.social · Aug 22

🚨 New preprint!

Could living cells use phase transitions to process information?

We explore computational aspects of biomolecular condensation — from classification to control — while posing questions on expressivity (problems they solve) and learning (how they adapt).

📄 arxiv.org/abs/2507.23384

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · Aug 3

That’s a super cool story!

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · Jul 16

Our institute turned 100 years today! We had a fantastic celebration with scientific talks by Howard Stone and Christina Marchetti. 🎉

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · Jul 14

Das Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation in Göttingen feiert am 16. Juli seinen 100. Geburtstag. Ein Blick auf die Geschichte des Instituts und die Verantwortung, die daraus erwächst. www.mpg.de/25050354/100... #Wissenschaftsgeschiche #Physik

Große Physik und große Verantwortung

Vor hundert Jahren nahm das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Strömungsforschung seine Arbeit auf. Aus ihm wurde das heutige Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, das grundlegende Fragen d...

www.mpg.de

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · Jul 12

This workshop was just exceptional! Thanks to everyone for making it such a success

WeberLab@McGill @weber-lab.bsky.social · Jul 11

And that concludes our #kitp program on biomolecular condensates 😢 Wow, what an *incredible* experience, and unique place to learn and think and grow! 🤓

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Reposted by Zwicker Group

WeberLab@McGill @weber-lab.bsky.social · Jun 28

Took us until the end of Week 5 to take a group picture 🤦‍♀️, so we're missing a number of key participants. But what a wonderful group of thoughtful and creative people to talk science with! Thanks for joining us at #KITP! 🤓

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · Jun 19

Glad to see our paper out in press! The long delay to publication emphasizes the role of pre-prints, and I'm happy that people were able to read about our ideas years before they appear in a journal.

Abby Dernburg @adernburg.bsky.social · Jun 19

Very happy (and frankly relieved) to see this paper finally out in peer-reviewed form. (Preprint was posted in August 2021, but this is the world we live in now). rdcu.be/erMk6

Crossover patterning through condensation and coarsening of pro-crossover factors

Nature Cell Biology - Zhang et al. provide evidence that, during meiosis, recombination proteins assemble into active droplets, the coarsening of which partially explains the phenomenon of...

rdcu.be

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · Jun 19

It's sad that our conference on biomolecular condensates is already over. On the flip side, you can watch almost all talks online to relive the stimulating vibe! Thanks again to all speakers for delivering clear talks, and to the audience for asking great questions!

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social · Jun 18

The Biological Physics of Biomolecular Condensates: Bridging Theory and Experiment (#biomol-c25) conference has concluded today, but the associated program continues next week! Learn more at buff.ly/Us4nwg3

Watch all conference talks at buff.ly/pksEEXt or on our YouTube channel buff.ly/c3Vzp02 🧪

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