Jump in for November lecture?
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Leo Zeitler
Nov 9, 2025, 5:25:13 AM11/9/25
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Hi everyone,
unfortunately, Christof Teuscher, our lecturer for November, won't be able to present anymore? Can anyone of you (or do you know anyone who would be interested) to step in spontaneously? Please email us on
leo [dot] zeitler [at] pasteur [dot] fr
gautham [dot] ganesh [at] cbs [dot] cnrs [dot] fr
gautham [dot] ganesh [at] cbs [dot] cnrs [dot] fr
If you don't have material for 30-45 minutes, that's fine! We could also do one or two short talks during the November session instead.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best
Gautham & Leo
Gautham Ganesh
Nov 10, 2025, 2:49:36 AM11/10/25
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You can also reply to this thread! Please note that this session was initially scheduled for Thursday, November 20, but we will be flexible in case you can only present on an alternative day. And if possible, please send a short abstract with your reply so that we have a rough idea of the topic.
Thanks everyone,
Gautham and Leo
Thanks everyone,
Gautham and Leo
Leo Zeitler
Nov 10, 2025, 6:35:15 PM11/10/25
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We're super excited to announce Matthias Merkel's November lecture (thanks very much Matthias for stepping in!) on
Oriented flows in multi-cellular systems
November 20, 5-6pm CET.
November 20, 5-6pm CET.
Zoom link: coming soon!
Abstract
A key morphogenetic process during animal development is convergent extension (CE). From a physics perspective, tissues undergoing CE can be described as oriented active materials. However, active matter physics predicts that such materials are inherently unstable, raising the question of how CE can be robust during development. During his talk, Matthias will show that the presence of a signaling gradient can stabilize CE, but only if it acts to actively extend the tissue along the gradient direction. Conversely, tissues are unstable if they tend to actively contract along the gradient direction. Intriguingly, developing tissues seem to exclusively use the gradient-extensile and not the unstable gradient-contractile coupling. This suggests that the active matter instability acts as an evolutionary selection criterion. In other words, his lab's work points to a new principle of multi-cellular development that is directly rooted in active matter physics. He will further discuss oriented flows in the context of body axis formation. Most animals display one or more body axes (e.g. head-to-tail, dorsal-ventral, left-right). His team has demonstrated that the formation of the primary, head-to-tail, axis can be promoted by large-scale tissue flows. Specifically, we study aggregates of mouse embryonic stem cells, called gastruloids, which are initially spherically symmetric, but later form an axis defined by the polarized expression of the transcription factor T/Brachyury. They show that advection of cells with tissue flows contribute substantially to the overall polarization, and that these flows are driven by effective interface and surface tension differences.
A key morphogenetic process during animal development is convergent extension (CE). From a physics perspective, tissues undergoing CE can be described as oriented active materials. However, active matter physics predicts that such materials are inherently unstable, raising the question of how CE can be robust during development. During his talk, Matthias will show that the presence of a signaling gradient can stabilize CE, but only if it acts to actively extend the tissue along the gradient direction. Conversely, tissues are unstable if they tend to actively contract along the gradient direction. Intriguingly, developing tissues seem to exclusively use the gradient-extensile and not the unstable gradient-contractile coupling. This suggests that the active matter instability acts as an evolutionary selection criterion. In other words, his lab's work points to a new principle of multi-cellular development that is directly rooted in active matter physics. He will further discuss oriented flows in the context of body axis formation. Most animals display one or more body axes (e.g. head-to-tail, dorsal-ventral, left-right). His team has demonstrated that the formation of the primary, head-to-tail, axis can be promoted by large-scale tissue flows. Specifically, we study aggregates of mouse embryonic stem cells, called gastruloids, which are initially spherically symmetric, but later form an axis defined by the polarized expression of the transcription factor T/Brachyury. They show that advection of cells with tissue flows contribute substantially to the overall polarization, and that these flows are driven by effective interface and surface tension differences.
Further information
Matthias Merkel is group leader at Aix-Marseille Université on Self-organization and collective effects in living systems, in particular tissues during animal development. See
http://www.merkellab.net and https://centuri-livingsystems.org/m-merkel/
Gautham Ganesh
Nov 11, 2025, 6:07:51 AM11/11/25
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Hello everyone!
Here's the Zoom invite for Matthias Merkel's lecture on Thursday next week.
Here's the Zoom invite for Matthias Merkel's lecture on Thursday next week.
Topic: AdaBioSys Lecture Series: Matthias Merkel
Time: Nov 20, 2025 17:00 (Paris)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://umontpellier-fr.zoom.us/j/91362963455
Meeting ID: 913 6296 3455
Hoping to see everyone there,
Gautham and Leo
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