Conrad Möckel
mctwo.bsky.social
Conrad Möckel
@mctwo.bsky.social
Scientist and musician. PhD candidate in the @GuckLab at @MPI_Light, @MPZ_PhysMed and @UniFAU
Fresh in press:
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Great collaboration with the Scarcelli lab!
One of the last projects I had the honor of working on with my PhD supervisor, Jochen Guck :(

Will present this work at the BioBrillouin conference in Berlin.
@gucklab.bsky.social @biobrillouinsoc.bsky.social
Optical Measurement of the Mass Density of Biological Samples
Mass density is a vital property for the improved biophysical understanding of and within biological samples. It is increasingly attracting active investigations, but still lacks reliable, noncontact ...
pubs.acs.org
October 23, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Conrad Möckel
FINALLY! Challenging to publish but we believe it is an important discovery: rdcu.be/eATFz

💚 Thanks to the team ‪@biswashere.bsky.social‬, Omar Muñoz, ✨Q✨ C. Hoege, B. Lorton, R. Nikolay ‪@matthewkraushar.bsky.social‬ @dshechter.bsky.social @gucklab.bsky.social @vasilyzaburdaev.bsky.social‬ 💚
Conserved nucleocytoplasmic density homeostasis drives cellular organization across eukaryotes
Nature Communications - Cells can regulate their mass density. Here, the authors demonstrate how eukaryotes establish and maintain a lower density in the nucleus than in the cytoplasm via pressure...
rdcu.be
August 15, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Excited to have this up on the Rχiv!
Hierarchical Heterogeneities in Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of the Cytoplasm
Understanding of the dynamics inherent to biological matter is crucial for illuminating the physical mechanisms underlying cellular processes. In this study, we employ bright-field differential dynamic microscopy (DDM) to investigate density fluctuations inherent in a cell-free model of eukaryotic cytoplasm. Our measurements reveal subdiffusive fractional Brownian motion and non-Gaussian displacement distributions, highlighting cytoplasmic heterogeneity. We introduce an empirical model that combines fractional Brownian motion with an inverse Gaussian distribution of diffusivities to describe the observed non-Gaussianity. Validated through Monte Carlo simulations, this model allows us to estimate the fractional diffusivity and exponent effectively. By altering macromolecular composition, the addition of energy, and assembly of a cytoskeleton, we identify three independent mechanisms that result in similar fractional exponents yet distinct diffusivities. We find that energy addition leads to non-stationary dynamics, in contrast to the stationary behavior observed under passive conditions. Presence of microtubules introduces a secondary dynamical timescale, which we describe using a two-state fractional Brownian motion model to differentiate between cytosolic and microtubule network associated contributions. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of DDM as a label-free tool for quantifying viscoelastic and heterogeneous properties of the cytoplasm and provide insights into how physical and biochemical factors, including cytoskeletal organization, govern subcellular dynamics. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
www.biorxiv.org
May 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Conrad Möckel
Beautiful work by @mctwo.bsky.social investigating the spatio-temporal dynamics of the cytoplasm using label-free tools and 🐸 extracts!

🐸 + 🔬 + 📈 = ✨

w. @gucklab.bsky.social , @simonereber.bsky.social , @vasilyzaburdaev.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
May 10, 2025 at 9:41 AM