Thanks for sharing! Zebrafish is such a perfect model system to study tissue fluidity. Here's a sneak peak of what I'm working on now!

Playing back some example simulations, you can immediately see why tissue fluidity matters. If fluidity is too low, cells can’t sort because they can’t move. But if tissue fluidity is too high, cells mix randomly. In most cases, an intermediate tissue fluidity is optimal for sorting. 11/20

To determine the predictive power of our model, @seanemcgeary.bsky.social mixed fibroblasts cells expressing different cadherins, and used quantitative imaging to watch them sort. We were excited to see that the model recapitulated the experiments in striking detail! 8/20

The model is based on a powerful tool in physics called the Ising model. Here’s an example. On top, each cell is colored by a unique ID, so you can visualize cell mixing. On the bottom, cells are colored by their cell type, so you can watch them sort. Beautiful, right? 7/20

In developing embryos, cells move a lot! Plenty of that movement is random. Is random cell mixing a feature or bug for tissue patterning? Turns out, it’s both! Excited to share the 1st preprint from my postdoc w/ Sean Megason @seanemcgeary.bsky.social and Allon Klein. 1/20 doi.org/10.1101/2025...