Maik Bischoff
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maikbischoff.bsky.social
Maik Bischoff
@maikbischoff.bsky.social
Junior Group Leader in Münster, Germany.
Morphogenesis, collective cell migration, cytoskeleton, cell-adhesion and self-organization/emergent behavior in #Drosophila.
Animal photos: 📷 instagram.com/maikscritters 🐸🐍
My entry for today’s #FluorescenceFriday: a pupal #Drosophila testis with muscles expressing
🔵 lifeact &
🔴 RFP-nls

Honored & grateful to receive an honorable mention at @healthcare.nikon.com Nikon Small World 🌍🔬✨

🔗 www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/20...

#NikonSmallWorld #Microscopy #ScienceArt
October 3, 2025 at 9:06 AM
September 28, 2025 at 5:12 PM
All done
September 28, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Almost done...
September 28, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Leccinum spec 2
September 28, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Leccinum spec.
September 28, 2025 at 3:06 PM
September 28, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Finally it's #porcini -time in Germany 😊🍄

#mushroom #fungifriends
September 28, 2025 at 2:38 PM
11/12
This links directly to my own research: how a mesenchymal sheet in the Drosophila testis uses directed, contact-dependent migration to generate complex forms.

This Perspective can almost serve as a mission statement for my future lab in Münster. Writing it helped me a lot sharpen my vision 😊
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
10/12
...sculpt entire organs, as shown by the Gartner, @streichan.bsky.social , and Nelson labs. We highlight these examples and speculate on how DIRECTED, contact-based migration might also contribute to these processes.
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
9/12
And this isn’t just a fringe hypothesis: eg. fish pigment cells and Xenopus neural crest cells are already known to use such mechanisms to self-pattern.

Mesenchymal collectives can even...
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
8/12
...the potential for complexity. Cells can react in specific ways to eg. different cell types and use this to create PATTERNS. We propose the term “directed mesenchymal self-patterning” for this process.

Patterns can be encoded in the ways cells change their migration behaviors upon contact.
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
7/12
...in principle, many of these dynamics are related, even if their outcomes can differ dramatically.

Please read the Perspective for more details and comparisons 😊

But the coolest consequence of all this is...
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
6/12)
…that’s just one of many possible “architecture transitions.”

Think of a landscape of architecture transitions and a corresponding landscape of collective dynamics.

HOWEVER..
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
5/12
... that they can REPROGRAM each other: even brief contacts can trigger architectural changes and thus cause coordinated swarm-like behaviors.

A classic example is contact inhibition of locomotion (CIL), BUT…
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
4/12
... the SPATIAL ORGANIZATION of these building blocks defines single-cell behavior—e.g., lamellipodium & trailing edge positions set migration direction.

SHIFTS in this organization drive behavioral transitions.

What’s cool about cells is...
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
3/12
...we propose that a migrating cell is a PATCHWORK of morphodynamic building blocks, a concept dating back to Michael Abercrombie.

As a result...
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
2/12
It all started with inspiring conversations with #Drosophila legend Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard at @gfeev.bsky.social-meeting and at the Spemann-Mangold Centennial meeting—where I also first discussed the idea for this review with my great co-author @mayorlab.bsky.social.

a quick summary...
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
1/12 A very special moment for me! 🎉

My first paper as corresponding author—a @jcb.org Perspective on how contact-based decision-making in collective cell migration can itself encode blueprints for complex patterns and shapes.

rupress.org/jcb/article/...

#cellbio #devbio #science

🧵for details
September 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Less than a week back in Germany - and I already found some nice cauliflower mushrooms 🍄. Yumm!

Fun fact: in german, we call them frizzy [mother] hen (krause Glucke)... 🐔
September 7, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Exciting news — I am super honored to receive the 2025 MBoC Early Career Paper Award 🎉 My very first award 😊

www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/...

Couldn’t imagine a better send-off as I just wrapped up my postdoc at UNC and get ready to start a lab in Münster this fall 😃
September 1, 2025 at 10:59 AM
This thread below is criminally under-liked and under-shared!

Young #Drosophila researchers (PhDs, postdocs, and early-career Drosophilists): fill out the survey by Sept 1st to get matched with a mentor who can support you with your career.

Established Drosophilists, like/share Shefali's Thread ;)
July 30, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Such an honor to be featured by @focalplane.bsky.social , especially on my favorite day of the week: #FluorescenceFriday! 🔬

Below for reference, a picture of the full hydei testis with the musculature stained (depth-coded) taken together with @saraheclark.bsky.social

#cellbio #devbio #microscopy
July 18, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Everyone is talking about this #paper as if the rat penis is the only weird picture. 😁

I present: Figure 2 and 3/3 😂...

Yep... seems legit to me. JAK interacts with JAK which activates JAK, then JAK and then JA or JK...

All downstream of the proprounization of Stat proteins🤓

#devbio #science
July 14, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Mathieu - in your picture, are the hyper elongated structures in the middle nuclei too?
July 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM