Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social
Migrating on my own path. Cytoskeletal enthusiast with a love for mechanics, development, and biophysical approaches. | BWF CASI Fellow with Orion Weiner at UCSF | PhD Gardel lab at UChicago | HHMI Gilliam, Ford Predoctoral Fellow Alum |
Pinned
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 Kate Cavanaugh
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...
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
RhoGAP15B RNAi collapses leader protrusions, while RhoGAP15B OE stabilises and extends them, underscoring tight control protrusion dynamics.
December 31, 2025 at 2:32 PM
RhoGAP15B RNAi collapses leader protrusions, while RhoGAP15B OE stabilises and extends them, underscoring tight control protrusion dynamics.
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
Christmas has come early. Fantastic to see this beautiful study from Peter Rugg-Gunn's lab at The Babraham Institute published today. Congratulations to Matteo Mole, Sarah Elderkin, Irene Zorzan and all other authors!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Modeling human embryo implantation in vitro
Building an in vitro model of receptive endometrium allows investigation of human
embryo implantation and early post-implantation development and recapitulates the
earliest stages in establishing the ...
www.cell.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Christmas has come early. Fantastic to see this beautiful study from Peter Rugg-Gunn's lab at The Babraham Institute published today. Congratulations to Matteo Mole, Sarah Elderkin, Irene Zorzan and all other authors!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Stacked lineup just dropped. I know where I'll be 👀
The 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting website is LIVE!!! Go see the incredible list of scientists who will be speaking at the meeting next summer! (...and check the site early next year for info on registration and abstract submission.)
scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu
scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu
Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting
scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu
December 20, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Stacked lineup just dropped. I know where I'll be 👀
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
The 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting website is LIVE!!! Go see the incredible list of scientists who will be speaking at the meeting next summer! (...and check the site early next year for info on registration and abstract submission.)
scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu
scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu
Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting
scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu
December 19, 2025 at 8:38 PM
The 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting website is LIVE!!! Go see the incredible list of scientists who will be speaking at the meeting next summer! (...and check the site early next year for info on registration and abstract submission.)
scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu
scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
I don't always get pretty, isolated, AND transfected primary neurons in culture, but when I do I take advantage.... Rat hippocampal neuron overexpressing ThymosinB4-mScarlet and imaged for 16hr on a @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social LSM880 with Airyscan. #FluorescenceFriday #Microscopy
December 19, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I don't always get pretty, isolated, AND transfected primary neurons in culture, but when I do I take advantage.... Rat hippocampal neuron overexpressing ThymosinB4-mScarlet and imaged for 16hr on a @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social LSM880 with Airyscan. #FluorescenceFriday #Microscopy
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
“A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress - though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known"
- Bertrand Russell, 1976.
Time-lapse video of Vampyrella lateritia eating Spirogyra algae from Science Source/Oliver Skibbe. 🦠
- Bertrand Russell, 1976.
Time-lapse video of Vampyrella lateritia eating Spirogyra algae from Science Source/Oliver Skibbe. 🦠
December 17, 2025 at 4:53 PM
“A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress - though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known"
- Bertrand Russell, 1976.
Time-lapse video of Vampyrella lateritia eating Spirogyra algae from Science Source/Oliver Skibbe. 🦠
- Bertrand Russell, 1976.
Time-lapse video of Vampyrella lateritia eating Spirogyra algae from Science Source/Oliver Skibbe. 🦠
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
To build the body plan of an animal, cells must adhere to one another via cell-cell junctions. We now know these assemble as punctate protein complexes containing thousands of proteins, but how this occurs remains mysterious. 1/n 🧪
www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
December 14, 2025 at 2:59 PM
To build the body plan of an animal, cells must adhere to one another via cell-cell junctions. We now know these assemble as punctate protein complexes containing thousands of proteins, but how this occurs remains mysterious. 1/n 🧪
www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
😍 What a beaut! 😍
*New preprint alert* uncovering a mechanical pacemaker that synchronizes nephron formation with branching of the kidney's epithelial tubule tree. Read below to learn about this twisty journey lead by Sam Grindel and Sachin Davis in the lab. [Movie by Nils Lindstrom]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
December 13, 2025 at 2:24 AM
😍 What a beaut! 😍
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
another old one...a microtubule (MT) movie - EB3-GFP label of MT plus ends growing...thanks to Vlad Costache (if interested, black holes = yolk granules, Ascidian Phallusia embryo)
December 11, 2025 at 3:16 PM
another old one...a microtubule (MT) movie - EB3-GFP label of MT plus ends growing...thanks to Vlad Costache (if interested, black holes = yolk granules, Ascidian Phallusia embryo)
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
I like this movie, but a friend of mine likes to complain about the obvious stitching artifacts. I'll try harder next time, Michael. Vimentin (orange) and ER (blue) in an overnight acquisition.
November 25, 2025 at 6:06 AM
I like this movie, but a friend of mine likes to complain about the obvious stitching artifacts. I'll try harder next time, Michael. Vimentin (orange) and ER (blue) in an overnight acquisition.
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
Ovarian follicles🥚are influenced by biochemical signals and the physical mechanics of their surroundings.
A study from Joe Chan's group (NUS) reveals that surface stiffness and internal compressive stress are key for follicle development.
📖Read more: https://go.nature.com/4ptpMvE
A study from Joe Chan's group (NUS) reveals that surface stiffness and internal compressive stress are key for follicle development.
📖Read more: https://go.nature.com/4ptpMvE
December 10, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Ovarian follicles🥚are influenced by biochemical signals and the physical mechanics of their surroundings.
A study from Joe Chan's group (NUS) reveals that surface stiffness and internal compressive stress are key for follicle development.
📖Read more: https://go.nature.com/4ptpMvE
A study from Joe Chan's group (NUS) reveals that surface stiffness and internal compressive stress are key for follicle development.
📖Read more: https://go.nature.com/4ptpMvE
🚨 Link up with me at #Cellbio2025 ! 🚨 Excited to present the majority of my postdoc work in the Physical Cell Biology from Molecules to Organisms Minisymposium. Thanks to the organizers for putting together such an exciting session 🤩
If you're at #cellbio2025, @atmolines.bsky.social Hernan Garcia and I invite you to attend our Minisymposium “Physical Cell Biology from Molecules to Organisms” for incredible talks on epigenetic mechanical memory, viscoelasticity, cortical flows, morphogenesis, tissue wetting, size scaling, et al!
December 6, 2025 at 2:25 AM
🚨 Link up with me at #Cellbio2025 ! 🚨 Excited to present the majority of my postdoc work in the Physical Cell Biology from Molecules to Organisms Minisymposium. Thanks to the organizers for putting together such an exciting session 🤩
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
Featuring @katecavanaugh.bsky.social @yusuke-mori.bsky.social @fengtongji.bsky.social @liamjrussell99.bsky.social Gavin Schlissel, June Ho Hwan, Yuxuan Rain Xiong, Rohit Joshi, and myself!
Sun 10AM–12PM, Room 120 (The app is missing the first few talks, but I assure you talks start right at 10AM!)
Sun 10AM–12PM, Room 120 (The app is missing the first few talks, but I assure you talks start right at 10AM!)
December 6, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Featuring @katecavanaugh.bsky.social @yusuke-mori.bsky.social @fengtongji.bsky.social @liamjrussell99.bsky.social Gavin Schlissel, June Ho Hwan, Yuxuan Rain Xiong, Rohit Joshi, and myself!
Sun 10AM–12PM, Room 120 (The app is missing the first few talks, but I assure you talks start right at 10AM!)
Sun 10AM–12PM, Room 120 (The app is missing the first few talks, but I assure you talks start right at 10AM!)
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
If you're at #cellbio2025, @atmolines.bsky.social Hernan Garcia and I invite you to attend our Minisymposium “Physical Cell Biology from Molecules to Organisms” for incredible talks on epigenetic mechanical memory, viscoelasticity, cortical flows, morphogenesis, tissue wetting, size scaling, et al!
December 5, 2025 at 11:13 PM
If you're at #cellbio2025, @atmolines.bsky.social Hernan Garcia and I invite you to attend our Minisymposium “Physical Cell Biology from Molecules to Organisms” for incredible talks on epigenetic mechanical memory, viscoelasticity, cortical flows, morphogenesis, tissue wetting, size scaling, et al!
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
SAVE THE DATE! Stoked to organize the 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting with @rashmi-priya.bsky.social, @lowelab.bsky.social, and Shelbi Russell. Come learn about Biomedicine, Biomechanics, and the Biosphere, August 24-28, 2026. Registration dates, etc., coming soon! Please RT
November 19, 2025 at 8:23 PM
SAVE THE DATE! Stoked to organize the 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting with @rashmi-priya.bsky.social, @lowelab.bsky.social, and Shelbi Russell. Come learn about Biomedicine, Biomechanics, and the Biosphere, August 24-28, 2026. Registration dates, etc., coming soon! Please RT
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
I'm thrilled to be able to share this new paper from post-doc Camilla Teng @xsciteng.bsky.social and our collaborators in the Leslie-Clarkson lab @emorygenetics.bsky.social on mechanisms of tissue fusion and cleft lip url: rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Actomyosin contractility and a threshold of cadherin cell adhesion are required during tissue fusion | Journal of Cell Biology | Rockefeller University Press
Teng et al. investigate the cellular basis for tissue fusion during mammalian lip formation. They demonstrate that actomyosin contractility drives fusion,
rupress.org
November 13, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I'm thrilled to be able to share this new paper from post-doc Camilla Teng @xsciteng.bsky.social and our collaborators in the Leslie-Clarkson lab @emorygenetics.bsky.social on mechanisms of tissue fusion and cleft lip url: rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
🔬🍀
A timelapse movie (unpublished data) from the lab.
In the movie, the nucleus is moving towards the base of the polarized root hair cell.
A timelapse movie (unpublished data) from the lab.
In the movie, the nucleus is moving towards the base of the polarized root hair cell.
November 11, 2025 at 6:01 PM
🔬🍀
A timelapse movie (unpublished data) from the lab.
In the movie, the nucleus is moving towards the base of the polarized root hair cell.
A timelapse movie (unpublished data) from the lab.
In the movie, the nucleus is moving towards the base of the polarized root hair cell.
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
We built a targeted protein degradation–based system to mimic reproductive age-related aneuploidy in young eggs - revealing how chromosome errors associated with female infertility arise with age. 🧬✨
With @jiyeonleem.bsky.social and our team at Yale MCDB.
Read: www.nature.com/articles/s43...
With @jiyeonleem.bsky.social and our team at Yale MCDB.
Read: www.nature.com/articles/s43...
A versatile cohesion manipulation system probes female reproductive age-related egg aneuploidy - Nature Aging
To study pathways that lead to aneuploidy during aging, the authors provide a system that enables cohesion protein depletion in mouse oocytes, mimicking effects that occur during aging. They uncover a...
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:17 PM
We built a targeted protein degradation–based system to mimic reproductive age-related aneuploidy in young eggs - revealing how chromosome errors associated with female infertility arise with age. 🧬✨
With @jiyeonleem.bsky.social and our team at Yale MCDB.
Read: www.nature.com/articles/s43...
With @jiyeonleem.bsky.social and our team at Yale MCDB.
Read: www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
📣 New preprint! Stoked to share a fantastic collaboration with @campaslab.bsky.social!
We discover a unique mammalian mechanism for body axis elongation using mouse and human gastruloids, and confirm central findings in mouse embryos.
Check out the 🧵 👇
@mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social
We discover a unique mammalian mechanism for body axis elongation using mouse and human gastruloids, and confirm central findings in mouse embryos.
Check out the 🧵 👇
@mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social
Really excited to present the results of a fantastic collaboration with Jesse Veenvliet @jesseveenvliet.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social 🤩
We find a unique mechanism for body axis elongation in mammals, different from other vertebrate species
➡️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We find a unique mechanism for body axis elongation in mammals, different from other vertebrate species
➡️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 28, 2025 at 3:34 PM
📣 New preprint! Stoked to share a fantastic collaboration with @campaslab.bsky.social!
We discover a unique mammalian mechanism for body axis elongation using mouse and human gastruloids, and confirm central findings in mouse embryos.
Check out the 🧵 👇
@mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social
We discover a unique mammalian mechanism for body axis elongation using mouse and human gastruloids, and confirm central findings in mouse embryos.
Check out the 🧵 👇
@mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
Thrilled to announce the launch of my lab
@cri-utsw.bsky.social at UTSW this January!
We will explore how cells sense and respond to mechanical forces, focusing on membrane mechanics to reveal how tension and signaling work together to shape cell behavior.
@cri-utsw.bsky.social at UTSW this January!
We will explore how cells sense and respond to mechanical forces, focusing on membrane mechanics to reveal how tension and signaling work together to shape cell behavior.
We're growing! Our newest Investigator @henrydebelly.bsky.social will join the CRI Tissue #Regeneration Program in January 2026. Learn more about Henry ➡️ cri.utsw.edu/faculty/henr... and 📌apply to research in his lab cri.utsw.edu/careers
October 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Thrilled to announce the launch of my lab
@cri-utsw.bsky.social at UTSW this January!
We will explore how cells sense and respond to mechanical forces, focusing on membrane mechanics to reveal how tension and signaling work together to shape cell behavior.
@cri-utsw.bsky.social at UTSW this January!
We will explore how cells sense and respond to mechanical forces, focusing on membrane mechanics to reveal how tension and signaling work together to shape cell behavior.
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
Induction of menstruation in mice reveals the regulation of menstrual shedding
During menstruation, an inner layer of the endometrium is selectively shed, while an outer, progenitor-containing layer is preserved to support repeated regeneration. Progress in understanding this co...
www.biorxiv.org
October 10, 2025 at 12:50 PM
I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
Happy Fluorescence Friday with this new preprint 👀
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 🧵...
October 3, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Happy Fluorescence Friday with this new preprint 👀
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
New job, new preprint! We found that embryo implantation can be understood as active wetting! Embryos from older mothers have trouble implanting because they are too contractile and viscous. Check out the wonderful thread (and movies!) by @katecavanaugh.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 2, 2025 at 8:04 AM
New job, new preprint! We found that embryo implantation can be understood as active wetting! Embryos from older mothers have trouble implanting because they are too contractile and viscous. Check out the wonderful thread (and movies!) by @katecavanaugh.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Kate Cavanaugh
Amazingly, yes! Here, we indexed embryos, calculated compaction metrics, and selected Normal and Accelerated tempo’d embryos for later implantation assays. We find compaction metrics correlate with ultimate implantation potential – for both aged and young maternal conditions.
October 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Amazingly, yes! Here, we indexed embryos, calculated compaction metrics, and selected Normal and Accelerated tempo’d embryos for later implantation assays. We find compaction metrics correlate with ultimate implantation potential – for both aged and young maternal conditions.