Interested in polarity and mechanics during epithelial morphogenesis? Considering joining us! Students to be hired initially as Research Associates. Postdocs encouraged to obtain fellowship, and we help/train you to do that. Apply to tinyurl.com/y6x489t5. Deadline Dec 15.

Please repost!

Tissues transition between solid & fluid states in development & disease; cytoplasm turns crowded or inert to literally 'solidify'. Any connections? Turns out nothing's known. @sameerthukral.bsky.social & @bipashadey29.bsky.social pulled this review off brilliantly with a conceptual synthesis.

Here is to the awesome power of Chicago gang Steffen and his fly zoo. Big shoutout to @itaiyanai.bsky.social as this is true testimony for "It takes two to think." tinyurl.com/6z4ezeu2 (8/9)

With storytelling spirit, #cephalicfurrow is a bit of a personal obsession for nearly 20 yrs. Got me Helen Hay Whitney for my time with Eric Wieschaus and yet failed me completely, until Steffen came to the rescue figuring out its motor (tinyurl.com/3axmm2mm) with help of @hfspo.bsky.social (7/9)

Our heroes: Bipasha Dey in my lab, Verena Kaul and @girishkalephd.bsky.social in Steffen's lab. PI search committees: be on the look out for Bipasha and Girish. They do wonders. But not after Bipasha does some additional cool things with Pavel. Stay tuned! (6/9)

Two distinct solutions, out-of-plane deformation and out-of-plane division, prevent mechanical instabilities. Our paper www.nature.com/articles/s41...; Pavel's and @bruvellu.bsky.social's with beautiful HCR in situ, lightsheet and @carldmodes.bsky.social's model www.nature.com/articles/s41... (5/9)

In Steffen's lab, @girishkalephd.bsky.social and Verena went out of their way to heroically sample much expanded range of fly phylogeny. #cephalicfurrow and lack there of split neatly along the divide of cyclorrhapha/non-cyclorrhapha. (4/9)

#cephalicfurrow forms and retracts to prevent tissue collision. Blocking it optogenetically not only causes buckling during #gastrulation, it also causes specific defects several hours after normal timeframe of retraction. More mysteries yet to be solved! (3/9)

Tissue 'tectonic' collision is detrimental, but flies found two distinct solutions! Gratifying and grateful to be included in this collective effort, w/ Steffen Lemke, to crack the (or 'a') code of #cephalicfurrow, now out in @nature.com, all with @paveltomancak.bsky.social at the helm. (1/9)