Julia Eckert
@juliaeckert.bsky.social
@dfg.de Walter Benjamin Fellow & Postdoctoral Researcher @yap-lab.bsky.social | Co-organizer @epimechfc.bsky.social | Mechanobiology - Cell & Tissue Mechanics - Soft Matter Physics - Image Analysis
👉 https://julia-eckert.github.io
👉 https://julia-eckert.github.io
Pinned
Julia Eckert
@juliaeckert.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Now published in @natcomms.nature.com! 🥳
👉 rdcu.be/eATn3
We developed image analysis tools to capture the nematic orientation field of 3D tissue surfaces. Tested on epithelial aggregates, zebrafish hearts, myoblasts on spheres & micro-vessels, we combined soft matter physics with exp. biology.
👉 rdcu.be/eATn3
We developed image analysis tools to capture the nematic orientation field of 3D tissue surfaces. Tested on epithelial aggregates, zebrafish hearts, myoblasts on spheres & micro-vessels, we combined soft matter physics with exp. biology.
Reposted by Julia Eckert
🔬 New paper in Developmental Biology 🐟
Our researchers have now tested a largely ignored hypothesis—that the geometry of an embryo drives its development. Read more in the 🧵below.
📷 Zebrafish in ISTA’s Aquatic Facility.
Our researchers have now tested a largely ignored hypothesis—that the geometry of an embryo drives its development. Read more in the 🧵below.
📷 Zebrafish in ISTA’s Aquatic Facility.
January 5, 2026 at 10:01 AM
🔬 New paper in Developmental Biology 🐟
Our researchers have now tested a largely ignored hypothesis—that the geometry of an embryo drives its development. Read more in the 🧵below.
📷 Zebrafish in ISTA’s Aquatic Facility.
Our researchers have now tested a largely ignored hypothesis—that the geometry of an embryo drives its development. Read more in the 🧵below.
📷 Zebrafish in ISTA’s Aquatic Facility.
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Findings in Science demonstrate that successful mitosis may draw on more mechanisms than commonly assumed.
Learn more in this #SciencePerspective: https://scim.ag/4axnAiA
Learn more in this #SciencePerspective: https://scim.ag/4axnAiA
Rewriting the rules of cell division
Microtubules get help from actin filaments during mitosis
scim.ag
January 3, 2026 at 7:45 PM
Findings in Science demonstrate that successful mitosis may draw on more mechanisms than commonly assumed.
Learn more in this #SciencePerspective: https://scim.ag/4axnAiA
Learn more in this #SciencePerspective: https://scim.ag/4axnAiA
Reposted by Julia Eckert
New paper out!
We show how mechanosensitive adherens junction proteins link actomyosin contractility to actin assembly using in vitro reconstitution.
Huge congrats to Aurélie Favarin, Rayan Said, & all authors!
In Science Advances: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#actin #myosin #mechanobiology
We show how mechanosensitive adherens junction proteins link actomyosin contractility to actin assembly using in vitro reconstitution.
Huge congrats to Aurélie Favarin, Rayan Said, & all authors!
In Science Advances: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#actin #myosin #mechanobiology
January 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
New paper out!
We show how mechanosensitive adherens junction proteins link actomyosin contractility to actin assembly using in vitro reconstitution.
Huge congrats to Aurélie Favarin, Rayan Said, & all authors!
In Science Advances: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#actin #myosin #mechanobiology
We show how mechanosensitive adherens junction proteins link actomyosin contractility to actin assembly using in vitro reconstitution.
Huge congrats to Aurélie Favarin, Rayan Said, & all authors!
In Science Advances: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#actin #myosin #mechanobiology
Reposted by Julia Eckert
“Loss of wnt10a or of Wnt/β-catenin activity blocks the [osteoblast] dedifferentiation program, whereas wnt10a overexpression enhances dedifferentiation and is sufficient to induce it even without injury.”
New work from Weidinger Lab at Uni-Ulm 🐟
New work from Weidinger Lab at Uni-Ulm 🐟
Wnt/β-catenin signaling promotes zebrafish osteoblast dedifferentiation by wnt10a-mediated inhibition of NF-κB https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.29.696582v1
January 2, 2026 at 12:07 PM
“Loss of wnt10a or of Wnt/β-catenin activity blocks the [osteoblast] dedifferentiation program, whereas wnt10a overexpression enhances dedifferentiation and is sufficient to induce it even without injury.”
New work from Weidinger Lab at Uni-Ulm 🐟
New work from Weidinger Lab at Uni-Ulm 🐟
Reposted by Julia Eckert
#HappyNewYear !
Let's start 2026 with a @cellcommlab.bsky.social paper
How many branches is OK during #CellMigration?
It depends on the #cell: for ex. immune cells are just fine.
In collab. w. #NirGov @hfspo.bsky.social
Full www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@focalplane.bsky.social @science.org 🧪🔬
Let's start 2026 with a @cellcommlab.bsky.social paper
How many branches is OK during #CellMigration?
It depends on the #cell: for ex. immune cells are just fine.
In collab. w. #NirGov @hfspo.bsky.social
Full www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@focalplane.bsky.social @science.org 🧪🔬
January 1, 2026 at 8:59 PM
#HappyNewYear !
Let's start 2026 with a @cellcommlab.bsky.social paper
How many branches is OK during #CellMigration?
It depends on the #cell: for ex. immune cells are just fine.
In collab. w. #NirGov @hfspo.bsky.social
Full www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@focalplane.bsky.social @science.org 🧪🔬
Let's start 2026 with a @cellcommlab.bsky.social paper
How many branches is OK during #CellMigration?
It depends on the #cell: for ex. immune cells are just fine.
In collab. w. #NirGov @hfspo.bsky.social
Full www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@focalplane.bsky.social @science.org 🧪🔬
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Happy 2026!
May this year be good for your cells,
Discovering all the cool
#EpithelialMechanics as well.
May this year be good for your cells,
Discovering all the cool
#EpithelialMechanics as well.
January 1, 2026 at 8:00 AM
Happy 2026!
May this year be good for your cells,
Discovering all the cool
#EpithelialMechanics as well.
May this year be good for your cells,
Discovering all the cool
#EpithelialMechanics as well.
Reposted by Julia Eckert
How do migrating cell groups balance force and flexibility?
Our new preprint shows that RhoGAP15B downregulates RhoA–Myosin activity to stabilise protrusions and enable efficient collective migration in vivo.
Happy New Year!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Our new preprint shows that RhoGAP15B downregulates RhoA–Myosin activity to stabilise protrusions and enable efficient collective migration in vivo.
Happy New Year!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
December 31, 2025 at 2:14 PM
How do migrating cell groups balance force and flexibility?
Our new preprint shows that RhoGAP15B downregulates RhoA–Myosin activity to stabilise protrusions and enable efficient collective migration in vivo.
Happy New Year!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Our new preprint shows that RhoGAP15B downregulates RhoA–Myosin activity to stabilise protrusions and enable efficient collective migration in vivo.
Happy New Year!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
✨ Happy 2026, everyone! ✨
Wishing you a peaceful New Year filled with curiosity, new discoveries, success, and fun!
Wishing you a peaceful New Year filled with curiosity, new discoveries, success, and fun!
December 31, 2025 at 2:13 PM
✨ Happy 2026, everyone! ✨
Wishing you a peaceful New Year filled with curiosity, new discoveries, success, and fun!
Wishing you a peaceful New Year filled with curiosity, new discoveries, success, and fun!
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Comlekoglu, T., Dzamba, B. J., ... & DeSimone, D. W. (2024). Modeling the roles of cohesotaxis, cell-intercalation, and tissue geometry in collective cell migration of Xenopus mesendoderm. Biology Open, #EpithelialMechanics doi.org/10.1242/bio....
December 31, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Comlekoglu, T., Dzamba, B. J., ... & DeSimone, D. W. (2024). Modeling the roles of cohesotaxis, cell-intercalation, and tissue geometry in collective cell migration of Xenopus mesendoderm. Biology Open, #EpithelialMechanics doi.org/10.1242/bio....
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Simply delighted to end the year with the acceptance of Yan’s paper www.nature.com/articles/s41.... It was a heroic effort on her part, and many thanks to all our collaborators for their help!
@vizcie.bsky.social @juliaeckert.bsky.social
@vizcie.bsky.social @juliaeckert.bsky.social
December 30, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Simply delighted to end the year with the acceptance of Yan’s paper www.nature.com/articles/s41.... It was a heroic effort on her part, and many thanks to all our collaborators for their help!
@vizcie.bsky.social @juliaeckert.bsky.social
@vizcie.bsky.social @juliaeckert.bsky.social
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Zhaofei Zheng, Yuxin Luo, Juan Chen, Yimin Luo: Myofibroblasts slow down defect recombination dynamics in mixed cell monolayers https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.22923 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.22923 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.22923
December 30, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Zhaofei Zheng, Yuxin Luo, Juan Chen, Yimin Luo: Myofibroblasts slow down defect recombination dynamics in mixed cell monolayers https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.22923 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.22923 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.22923
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Our review article is now available in Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics: “Full-Integer Topological Defects in Polar Active Matter.” @luizaangheluta.bsky.social @emmalaang.bsky.social doi.org/10.1146/annu...
December 29, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Our review article is now available in Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics: “Full-Integer Topological Defects in Polar Active Matter.” @luizaangheluta.bsky.social @emmalaang.bsky.social doi.org/10.1146/annu...
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Our work on mesoderm development in 2D gastruloids is now published in nature methods
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Extended culture of 2D gastruloids to model human mesoderm development - Nature Methods
This study reports an extended 2D gastruloid system for spatially modeling human mesoderm development.
www.nature.com
May 8, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Our work on mesoderm development in 2D gastruloids is now published in nature methods
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Genetically engineered ESC-derived embryos reveal Vinculin-dependent force responses required for mammalian neural tube closure https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.696028v1
December 25, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Genetically engineered ESC-derived embryos reveal Vinculin-dependent force responses required for mammalian neural tube closure https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.696028v1
Reposted by Julia Eckert
James, J., Winn, L. B., Mottram-Epson, P., & Köster, D. (2025). Paths to stability–actin regulation of adherens junction mechanics. Journal of Cell Science, #EpitheilalMechanicsReview doi.org/10.1242/jcs....
December 25, 2025 at 8:01 AM
James, J., Winn, L. B., Mottram-Epson, P., & Köster, D. (2025). Paths to stability–actin regulation of adherens junction mechanics. Journal of Cell Science, #EpitheilalMechanicsReview doi.org/10.1242/jcs....
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Happy to share our new work from my graduate lab: DynamicAtlas, a morphodynamic atlas of Drosophila development! We develop methods for morphological time alignment of live data. Surprisingly, we find that the kinematics of fly morphogenesis are *very* simple. Enjoy!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
DynamicAtlas: a morphodynamic atlas for Drosophila development - Nature Methods
DynamicAtlas integrates fixed and live imaging data to generate a morphodynamic atlas of Drosophila development.
www.nature.com
December 24, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Happy to share our new work from my graduate lab: DynamicAtlas, a morphodynamic atlas of Drosophila development! We develop methods for morphological time alignment of live data. Surprisingly, we find that the kinematics of fly morphogenesis are *very* simple. Enjoy!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Fingerprints as Frozen Nematic Fields https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.19.695577v1
December 23, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Fingerprints as Frozen Nematic Fields https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.19.695577v1
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Can biological tissues "learn"? Our new preprint shows that epithelial tissues exhibit emergent behaviors akin to unsupervised learning. Local tension remodeling allows cell networks to store long-range memory and program global elasticity properties.
Read more here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Read more here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
December 20, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Can biological tissues "learn"? Our new preprint shows that epithelial tissues exhibit emergent behaviors akin to unsupervised learning. Local tension remodeling allows cell networks to store long-range memory and program global elasticity properties.
Read more here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Read more here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Now that you have gathered you raw data from a cell migration assay, how do you analyze that data?
In our review, we describe methods - including AI methods - to track migrating cells and extract as much information as possible.
Read our paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
In our review, we describe methods - including AI methods - to track migrating cells and extract as much information as possible.
Read our paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
December 19, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Now that you have gathered you raw data from a cell migration assay, how do you analyze that data?
In our review, we describe methods - including AI methods - to track migrating cells and extract as much information as possible.
Read our paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
In our review, we describe methods - including AI methods - to track migrating cells and extract as much information as possible.
Read our paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Check out our latest preprint on the cellular mechanical basis of Voronoi tessellations in epithelia! This biophysics study is inspired by disordered tessellations observed in zebrafish hearts 🤓🐟💙 #SulaimaanLim #ChiuFanLeeLab
arxiv.org/html/2512.13...
arxiv.org/html/2512.13...
December 19, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Check out our latest preprint on the cellular mechanical basis of Voronoi tessellations in epithelia! This biophysics study is inspired by disordered tessellations observed in zebrafish hearts 🤓🐟💙 #SulaimaanLim #ChiuFanLeeLab
arxiv.org/html/2512.13...
arxiv.org/html/2512.13...
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Tracking coordinated cellular dynamics directly from images -- New method paper by labmates @bgraedel.bsky.social & @macdobry.bsky.social ! Python package & @napari.org plugin, all the good stuff:
Paper: doi.org/10.1242/jcs....
Code: github.com/pertzlab/arc...
Plugin: github.com/pertzlab/arc...
Paper: doi.org/10.1242/jcs....
Code: github.com/pertzlab/arc...
Plugin: github.com/pertzlab/arc...
December 18, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Tracking coordinated cellular dynamics directly from images -- New method paper by labmates @bgraedel.bsky.social & @macdobry.bsky.social ! Python package & @napari.org plugin, all the good stuff:
Paper: doi.org/10.1242/jcs....
Code: github.com/pertzlab/arc...
Plugin: github.com/pertzlab/arc...
Paper: doi.org/10.1242/jcs....
Code: github.com/pertzlab/arc...
Plugin: github.com/pertzlab/arc...
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Leybova, L., Biswas, A., Sharan, R., Trejo, B. M., Kim, K., ..., Phillips, B. K., & Devenport, D. (2024). Radially patterned morphogenesis of murine hair follicle placodes ensures robust epithelial budding. Developmental cell, 59(24), 3272–3289.e5. #EpithelialMechanics
buff.ly/z1wX1O6
buff.ly/z1wX1O6
December 19, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Leybova, L., Biswas, A., Sharan, R., Trejo, B. M., Kim, K., ..., Phillips, B. K., & Devenport, D. (2024). Radially patterned morphogenesis of murine hair follicle placodes ensures robust epithelial budding. Developmental cell, 59(24), 3272–3289.e5. #EpithelialMechanics
buff.ly/z1wX1O6
buff.ly/z1wX1O6
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Reposted by Julia Eckert
Paper alert! β-catenin forms condensates that help build cell–cell adhesions - showing its role goes beyond simply linking E-cadherin to α-cat/actin. Great collaboration with the Schuijers lab!
👉 nature.com/articles/s41...
👉 nature.com/articles/s41...
December 16, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Paper alert! β-catenin forms condensates that help build cell–cell adhesions - showing its role goes beyond simply linking E-cadherin to α-cat/actin. Great collaboration with the Schuijers lab!
👉 nature.com/articles/s41...
👉 nature.com/articles/s41...