Helen Matthews
Cell biologist
Group leader & Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the University of Sheffield
Cell shape, cytoskeleton and mechanics in cancer
Cancer researcher who had #breastcancer
helenmatthewslab.org
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsCome and work with us! We're looking for a talented postdoc with interests in developmental biology, cancer and the primary cilia to join us @mortlab.bsky.social. An exciting MRC funded collaboration with Pleasantine Mill - @cilialab.bsky.social. Further details: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPR804/s...
- Having gone down a rabbit hole trying to find biographical information about Jennifer Harvey who isolated the HRAS oncogene, I've been looking at her papers. Now I want to know about Mrs Schendler!
- Anyone know anything about Jennifer Harvey, who first isolated the virus containing HRAS (Harvey-Ras) at Mill Hill in 1967? Prepping a lecture including the discovery of Ras oncogenes and wanted to add pics of the scientists involved. The Internet has NOTHING #sciencehistory #forgottenwomen
- paging @jennyrohn.bsky.social as I know she knows about cancer virology
- Huge congrats Giulia! my fellow @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social @buzzbaum.bsky.social @yanlanmao.bsky.social lab member. Very well deserved :)
- We are delighted to announce that @giuliapaci.bsky.social from @ucllifesciences.bsky.social has been awarded the 2026 BSCB Postdoctoral researcher medal You can read about Giulia's work on how tissues withstand mechanical stress here: bscb.org/postdoctoral...
- And apparently the postdoc medal was envisioned by another alumnus @gautamdey.bsky.social when he was the @bscb-official.bsky.social postdoc rep.
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsTwo weeks left to apply to be the BSCB Postdoc rep
- Are you a postdoc with a passion for cell biology? We are looking for a postdoc representative to join the BSCB committee! Applications are open to existing BSCB postdoc members. See our website for further details. Apply by 31st Jan bscb.org/call-for-app...
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsProud to have been awarded LEAF Silver (again) - with @helenkmatthews.bsky.social lab!! @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social
- New online ECR-focused seminar series from the BSCB organised by @harrietasmith.bsky.social Register now
- Happy New Year from the BSCB! We're very excited to announce 'BSCB NextGen', a new monthly online seminar series aimed at ECRs in Cell Biology. The series kicks off on 13th January For full details and how to register see: bscb.org/announcing-b...
- Last chance to apply for a PhD Position in our lab on #keratins in #celldivision Applications close on 7/1/26
- 📢 PhD opportunity: fully-funded BBSRC Yorkshire Bioscience project available @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social Interdisciplinary project on keratins in cell division combines cell biology, biophysics and in vivo Zebrafish imaging. 👇Apply by 7th Jan www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
- Excited to be a speaker at Dynamic Cell VI. Always a great meeting
- Don't forget to register for our Spring Meeting: Dynamic Cell VI A joint meeting with the @biochemsoc.bsky.social Super early bird registration ends 21st Jan
- How does Ras signalling affect actin? Some answers in a new review from Joe Tyler & I @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social authors.elsevier.com/a/1m8v-3PA3s... We discuss how Ras proteins coordinate local and global changes to the actin cytoskeleton and contribute to cytoskeletal plasticity in cancer.
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsHow does signalling control cortical tension? Using optogenetics and AFM, we show that myosin recruitment and cortical tension increase proportionally with RhoA signalling. More here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Super work by Pierre Bohec with Guillaume Salbreux and @dianakhorom.bsky.social
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsMy lab is hiring a postdoc (ERC funded)! If you're interested, get in touch!
- 📢 PhD opportunity: fully-funded BBSRC Yorkshire Bioscience project available @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social Interdisciplinary project on keratins in cell division combines cell biology, biophysics and in vivo Zebrafish imaging. 👇Apply by 7th Jan www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsAre you a postdoc with a passion for cell biology? We are looking for a postdoc representative to join the BSCB committee! Applications are open to existing BSCB postdoc members. See our website for further details. Apply by 31st Jan bscb.org/call-for-app...
- Reposted by Helen Matthews- A postdoc to work on cancer extravasation (4-year project). - A postdoc help in completing Filopodia-related lab projects (2-year). - Multiple Marie Curie postdoc positions that will open in the fall. - We will open a 5-year position to cover my teaching (70% research and 30% teaching).
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsWe are very happy to share our new PrePrint: Myosin VI orchestrates estrogen-driven gene expression in breast cancer cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We characterise how Myosin VI is a key regulator of the Estrogen Receptor. Perturbation of Myosin VI impedes ER functionality.
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsAre you an independently funded fellow or lecturer within three years of your appointment? Join our webinar on 8 December to find out more about the Crucible Programme which is designed to transform your approach to research and collaboration. Book your place: whiterose.ac.uk/event/transf...
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsJoin us in Sheffield! We are keen to support early career researchers in applying for independent research fellowships (IRFs) to join our friendly and collaborative environment, in areas related to developmental biology, stem cells and regenerative biology, and neuroscience.
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsEXTENDED DEADLINE: the deadline for BSCB medal nominations is now 14th November. 🔬Hooke Medal 👩🔬Women in Cell Biology medal 🧫 Postdoctoral Researcher medal 🔬Raff PhD medal award Details of eligibility and how to nominate are on our website.
- Looking forward to this!
- Registration is OPEN for our Spring meeting: Dynamic Cell VI 🗓️ 21st-26th April 2026 📍Reading, UK Co-organised with @biochemsoc.bsky.social @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social and the Chinese Society for Cell Biology Register here: www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/f...
- 📢 Fully-funded 4-year MRC DiMeN PhD opportunity in our lab. 🔬 Exciting cancer cell biology collab with @maiblab.bsky.social & Liz Smythe @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social to use recombinant biosensors to image active KRAS in #pancreaticcancer 👇Apply by 4th Dec www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
- Great talk from Rob de Bruin @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social yesterday. Made us rethink some of our cell cycle data. Thanks to PhD student @isabelladavis00.bsky.social for inviting Rob
- We are delighted to host Prof Rob deBruin from @ucl.ac.uk today "Targeting Cell Cycle Control in Cancer" 📍 Alfred Denny Conference Room 📅 22nd October - 1pm
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsAnother fantastic set of talks at the 7th Sheffield Pancreatic Cancer Research Interest Network. A big thank you to Stephen Bradley and Ifeoluwa Oyelade for sharing their inspiring research. #PancreaticCancer #CancerResearch
- Reposted by Helen Matthews🗓️ the deadline for our medal nominations is fast approaching! Send your nominations by 1st Nov For full details see bscb.org
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsHow do cells adapt their volumes when they proliferate and form a multicellular mass in 3D? If you have wondered about this or work with 3D in-vitro systems, then you will be happy to read our paper now on bioRxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... See the thread 🧵 below for more information.
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsRegister for the Dynamic Cell VI conference, Reading, UK, April 2026! This conference focusses on all aspects of cell dynamics, co-organised by @bscb-official.bsky.social and @biochemsoc.bsky.social with @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social and the Chinese Society for Cell Biology. bit.ly/Dynamic-Cell-VI
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsAmazing talk by Bella, from @helenkmatthews.bsky.social lab at #NECB2025
- PhD students @isabelladavis00.bsky.social and @zhebao.bsky.social doing a great job representing @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social at the Crick Cancer Conference this week
- Very sad news that Jochen Guck has died. A true pioneer of biophysics, he was an inspiration to me and so many others.
- With deep sadness, we share that Prof. Jochen Guck, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light passed away on October 3. His visionary work bridged physics and medicine. We have lost a brilliant scientist and dear friend. mpl.mpg.de/news/article... @fau.de 📸 Stephan Spangenberg
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsDo you know an outstanding cell biologist? Nominations are open for our 2026 medals: 🔬Hooke Medal for outstanding contribution in cell biology 👩🔬Women in Cell Biology medal 🧫 Postdoctoral Researcher medal 🔬Raff PhD medal award Deadline 1st November
- Reposted by Helen Matthews@mariasecrier.bsky.social & I are looking for an enthusiastic & excellent data scientist for a 4-year postdoc to understand cell cycle dysregulation in cancer. Deadline 15th October. Get in touch if you have any questions. Please repost! More details: www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...
- Amazing talk by Bella, from @helenkmatthews.bsky.social lab at #NECB2025
- Great talks this morning from all the @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social final year students including from our very own Rachel and Meg. It's amazing to see how all the projects have developed.
- More fascinating talks this morning by our final year students Megan Poxon (@jasonkinglab.bsky.social & @helenkmatthews.bsky.social), Nada Alosaimi (C. Smythe lab), Zhe Bao (@erainerolab.bsky.social), @rlawson954.bsky.social @helenkmatthews.bsky.social) and Ashleigh Whelan (Wilson lab)
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsLess than a week to go, before the North England Cell Biology Forum in Liverpool #NECB-2025 We’re excited to be welcoming cell biologists, from across the North, to our amazing city. The schedule is packed full of great science! bit.ly/3Vh5dpg
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsStudying cancer evolution needs multi-region or single cell seq for phylogenetics, right? Amazingly (I think!) we found single-sample bulk methylation suffices, via analysis of "fluctuating methylation". In @nature.com today led by brilliant @calumgabbutt.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Well done to our PhD student @rlawson954.bsky.social 👏 on giving a talk on her data on keratins and mitotic mechanics at the MBI-MPG conference at @mbisg.bsky.social in Singapore! @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social
- What happens to packed cells in a monolayer during mitosis? @rlawson954.bsky.social presented varying experiments investigating shape and force changes, cell-cell junctions, and mechanics in mitotic cells, suggesting important roles for keratin and desmosomes #MBIMPG2025 @helenkmatthews.bsky.social
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsOur new collection offers cell biologists practical, expert-driven guidance and best practices in the design, execution, and analysis of experiments, and the subsequent communication of their results to their peers. 👉 rupress.org/jcb/collecti... #Reproducibility
- Sad to say goodbye to our brilliant mRes student Alessia Atzori. Alessia has done fantastic work on the transcription factors that control cell motility (watch this space for future publications) and is heading to Newcastle for a PhD
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsWe are sponsoring the North of England Cell Biology Forum in Liverpool on 18th Sept Register and submit your abstracts here: markmorgan60.wixsite.com/necb2025
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsInterested in #mechanobiology of the cell nucleus? The submission deadline for the first ever FASEB Science Research Conference on the Mechanobiology of the Nucleus is August 31, 2025. Submit your abstract to be considered for a platform presentation. #MBNSRC events.faseb.org/event/Mechan...
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsThrilled to share the first story from my postdoc! 🎉 A wonderful experiment + simulations collaboration. In the Drosophila wing, we find that 3D cell shapes affect signalling range and fine-tune developmental patterning www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Thread below ⬇️
- Great talks by PhD students @isabelladavis00.bsky.social and Meg at the Sheffield Pancreatic Cancer Research Network meeting 👏
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsA beautiful day in the sunshine for our lovely lab summer social ☀️ @isabelladavis00.bsky.social @helenkmatthews.bsky.social @rlawson954.bsky.social
- Fantastic lab hike with @erainerolab.bsky.social yesterday. Included a much needed ice cream stop at Chatsworth House (bakewell tart flavoured ice cream 😋) @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsExcited to be selected as a Social Media Contributor for Small G proteins in cellular signalling and disease 2025! 🧬 Follow along for insights into how these tiny but mighty proteins shape health and disease! #BiochemEvent @BiochemSoc #SmallGProteins #CellBiology #SciComm
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsRegistration is now OPEN for the UK Physics of Life Summer School 2025 – 8–11 Sept at Durham University! 🔗 Book now: pay.durham.ac.uk/event-durham... ℹ️ Info & programme: www.physicsoflife.org.uk/summer-schoo... Wellcome Travel bursaries are available for LMICs
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsAre you looking for a postdoc? I will be looking for 2-4 people after the summer to join the lab !! Do not hesitate to reach out and disseminate !!
- Everyone in the lab is raving about Cellpose-SAM. Segmenting the previously unsegmentable across a range of different cell types and markers.
- 🚀🔬🦠 Releasing 🤖Cellpose-SAM🤖, a cellular segmentation algorithm with superhuman generalization 🦸♀️. Try it now on 🤗 huggingface.co/spaces/mouse... paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... w/ @computingnature.bsky.social 1/n
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsI am excited to share our new Sheffield Pancreatic Cancer Research Network website! Please check it out at... sites.google.com/sheffield.ac... @fohsheffield.bsky.social @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsHad a great time at Physics Within The Cell hosted by the IOP today, and it was such an honour to share my work on epithelial division mechanics there ☺️ Thank you! @instituteofphysics.bsky.social #biomechanics #mitosis #phdlife #conferences
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsToday’s speaker in our DRN external seminar series (joint with MCB @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social) is Dr Giulia Paci @giuliapaci.bsky.social from UCL @ucl.ac.uk Giulia is a biophysicist interested in mechanics and developmental patterning. Host: Helen Matthews @helenkmatthews.bsky.social All welcome!
- Looking forward to Vicky's talk today! Thanks to our postdoc @vichart33.bsky.social for hosting
- We are delighted to host @vickysanzmoreno.bsky.social today from the @icr.ac.uk! "Biomechanical hallmarks and vulnerabilities of metastatic cancer cells" 📍 Alfred Denny Conference Room 📅 4th June - 1pm @insigneoinstitute.bsky.social @sheffielduni.bsky.social @sheffielduni.bsky.social
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsJoin us in Singapore in September for the "Mechanobiology in Time and Space" meeting hosted by the Mechanobiology Institute at NUS @mbisg.bsky.social and Max Planck Society @maxplanck.de. Abstracts due soon! www.mbi.nus.edu.sg/events/mbico...
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsWe are sponsoring the first UK cell motility club on 13th June in Cambridge. Lots of slots for ECR presentations. It's not too late to submit an abstract!
- Reposted by Helen Matthewsnew out in Nature www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- A new role for mitotic shape changes! Mitotic rounding (or lack of) during division can control the segregation of cell fate determinants and therefore daughter cell state
- My first post on Bluesky! Very excited to share our work just published in @science.org. We find that “Interphase cell morphology defines the mode, symmetry, and outcome of mitosis” - in angiogenesis and other tissues! www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...
- Happy to publish this News & Views article highlighting exciting new work from Rod Bremner's lab that shows that cell populations with a short cell cycle are intrinsically more susceptible to forming tumours
- and the News & Views www.nature.com/articles/d41...
- You can read the original paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsGreat to hear about the research going on in @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social at University of Sheffield. Short talks from @helenkmatthews.bsky.social and @erainerolab.bsky.social about the projects going on in their labs 😊
- Reposted by Helen MatthewsI have a 1 year fellowship available (MSc level) for someone interested in studying how nuclear mechanics regulates the timing of mitotic entry. Plus it´s in the beautiful city of Porto! Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested. dozer.i3s.up.pt/applicationm...
- Enjoyed this April Fools joke in my son's Phoenix Comic this morning @phoenixcomics.bsky.social
- Back in Sheffield and excited to play with an exciting new bit of kit - our new @lumicks.bsky.social c-trap optical tweezers with @mattdnewton.bsky.social @insigneoinstitute.bsky.social @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social
- Rare footage of a theorist at the bench @mehmetcanucar.bsky.social
- Congratulations to Bella for winning a poster prize at @physicsoflifeuk.bsky.social 2025 👏👏👏🎉🎉 #proudPI @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social
- Meanwhile in Harrogate... Rachel & Bella from the lab are presenting at @physicsoflifeuk.bsky.social #physicsoflife2025
- @vichart33.bsky.social and Meg representing the lab at @bscb-official.bsky.social @biologists.bsky.social #biologists100 @mcb-sheffield.bsky.social
- Ewa Paluch kicks off the mechanobiology session at #biologists100
