Yu-Chiun Wang
Developmental biology fascinated about the mane (sur)faces/phases of epithelial morphogenesis: from mechanics to evolution.
bdr.riken.jp/en/research/labs/wa…
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangHappy to see Rashmi’s latest on embedded ncMTs at the nucleus and how they enable intercalation out @jcb.org. Congrats to her and many thanks to the constructive editors/reviewers at JCB! doi.org/10.1083/jcb....
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangHi bsky! How do cells coordinate fate with migration during development? 🐣 Turns out EMT doesn't just drive cell behaviour changes... it actively primes BMP signalling competence, creating a reciprocal coupling that drives collective invasion! (@bensteventon.bsky.social lab) tinyurl.com/2ncc8zap
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangWe are excited to announce the first Eastern ☀️VGZT session for this season!✨🎉 📅Tomorrow, November 12th ⏰ 9:00 UTC / 9:00 GMT / 10:00 CET / 14:30 IST / 18:00 JST / 20:00 AEDT Our speakers are: 👉Sameer Thukral (on X: @SameerThukral6) 👉Axel Newton (on X: @AxelHNewton) See you on tomorrow☕️👋
- 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!
- Excited to be traveling to meetings.embo.org/event/25-cyt... in Pune, India. Looking forward to seeing friends not seen in years and revisiting for the first time since 2020. My lab is recruiting. Those interested, let’s meet up there! (Look out for ads up here soon.)
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun Wang🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny. #ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
- Missing also @bipashadey29.bsky.social, but with @sameerthukral.bsky.social crashing the party, more than making up for it!
- Today our #cephalic #furrow #evolution story hits the shelves in the glossy journal form. How appropriate that it’s architects met in Paris. Missing @bruvellu.bsky.social but joined by #CF enthusiast Mateo Rauzi & @heisenbergcplab.bsky.social @yuchiunwang.bsky.social Steffen Lemke #mechanicsfirst
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangJohn Gurdon, former Group Leader and Head of @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social has died. Despite calling himself a "total non-intellectual” his work to reprogramme somatic cells to pluripotent stem cells transformed the field of developmental biology. More: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/john-gurdon-... #LMBNews
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun Wang🧠 Join us @uzh-ch.bsky.social ! We are a new lab looking for PhDs, Postdocs & Master’s students interested in studying how human neural systems emerge & go awry using brain organoids, light-sheet imaging & genomics. 🚀 Deadline for LSZGS 1st Nov! www.lifescience-graduateschool.uzh.ch/en.html.
- How nice! Mechanochemical feedback that shuts it self off below threshold. That is THE frontier of developmental mechanisms. Congrats!
- Our latest preprint! Into morphogenesis, Yap, ECM, signaling, vertex models, feedbacks/robustness? There is something here for everyone. We discovered a positive feedback loop that extends inner ear canals, and a built-in mechanism that shuts it down when morphogenesis is done. tinyurl.com/464wsjhd
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangDevelopment does not happen in isolation! Material properties, geometry, stiffness, fluid flows...can all steer how development unfolds. If you’re exploring these kinds of questions, we’d love to see your work @dev-journal.bsky.social More info below ⬇️
- 📢Call for papers. Submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue – The Extracellular Environment in Development, Regeneration and Stem Cells Guest Editors: Alex Hughes and Rashmi Priya 📅 Deadline: 1 March 2026 journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/ex... #DevBio
- Many thanks to @riken-bdr.bsky.social press team for publicizing our work.
- 🪰Yu-Chiun Wang’s team & Univ. of Hohenheim group discovered how fly embryos solve the “tissue tectonic collision” that occurs in morphogenetic movements between tissues and why the #cephalicfurrow evolved, a longstanding mystery to developmental biologists. In @nature.com doi.org/10.1038/s415...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangA ring of cells deforms into a triangular keyhole in just 15 minutes. Meet the hindgut, a model for boundary-driven morphogenesis! Out now in @pnas.org at doi.org/10.1073/pnas... with @zhaoshh.bsky.social, Alex Jacinto, Eric Wieschaus, Stas Shvartsman, @lepuslapis.bsky.social (1/8)
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangThrilled 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 ⬇️
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun Wang🔔 Proud to share the preprint of my PhD work in the Petridou group @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social @embl.org ✨ “A closed feedback between tissue phase transitions and morphogen gradients drives patterning dynamics” 🐟 🔁 📶 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #devbio #biophysics 🧵⤵️
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangSuper thrilled to see our review out! It was a great experience to put this together with @sameerthukral.bsky.social and @yuchiunwang.bsky.social. Use it as a primer to the field or as inspiration to brainstorm how rigidity transitions can bridge scales!
- Excited to share our new review in Development, Growth and Differentiation(DGD) Journall! With the amazing @yuchiunwang.bsky.social & @bipashadey29.bsky.social,we explore how rigidity transitions bridge cytoplasmic & tissue scales. Read the full review: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangThanks to @liamholt.bsky.social @fredchanglab.bsky.social for inspiration during the 2023 RIKEN symposium & @itaiyanai.bsky.social @nightsciencepod.bsky.social for encouraging us to blend day & night science,using a review not only to recap but also generate new perspectives!
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangFrom crowded cytoplasm to flowing tissues:how material properties changes across scales shaping development,especially during transitions? We provide primers on tissue scale & cytoplasmic rigidity,control parameters,new hypotheses on possible cross-scale feedback,linking scales rarely integrated.
- 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.
- Excited to share our new review in Development, Growth and Differentiation(DGD) Journall! With the amazing @yuchiunwang.bsky.social & @bipashadey29.bsky.social,we explore how rigidity transitions bridge cytoplasmic & tissue scales. Read the full review: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
- Taking advantage of organizing the often intellectually disjointed BDR symposium, we hijacked a session & turned it into a coherent & stimulating session with Kinneret Keren, @heisenbergcplab.bsky.social, @liamholt.bsky.social, and @fredchanglab.bsky.social, who inspired us to write this review.
- Although direct evidence remains ahead of us, smoking guns are all over the place. Cross-scale feedback of material properties could be the next frontier in #mechanobiology. A harbinger of exciting work to come from @sameerthukral.bsky.social and @bipashadey29.bsky.social.
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangNew preprint! 🚨 We uncover a slow adaptation to stretch that links star-bundling of keratin filaments with nuclear escape from its keratin cage. Led by @tomgolde.bsky.social 🙌 @IBECBarcelona www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangVery happy to share our new study from CAM team @ijmonod.bsky.social and @mpi-scienceoflight.bsky.social (MPZPM) on the unanticipated “hidden fluidity” in jammed epithelia. Congrats to Yuan Shen and great collaboration with Walter Kob. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangA long-standing mystery in the development of fly embryos has been resolved go.nature.com/4nhVxaa
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangNature research paper: Patterned invagination prevents mechanical instability during gastrulation go.nature.com/420lbIj
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangNature research paper: Divergent evolutionary strategies pre-empt tissue collision in gastrulation go.nature.com/4m3exrU
- Fascinating observations and beautiful physical modeling from our very own @tomokiishibashi.bsky.social and Tatsuo Shibata. Do check it out.
- Tiny molecular spirals in cells can scale up to control the twist and turn of entire tissues, an important step towards understanding left-right symmetry in tissues and organs. buff.ly/2pSf3xS
- @bipashadey29.bsky.social we wouldn’t have pulled it off without you. So lucky to have you head our effort.
- 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)
- One of my all time favorite quotes, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”, since the tender age of a skinny undergrad. (I’m still kind of skinny…) 🤣
- The moral of the story is that building the #bridge between #evolution & #morphogenesis is hard. I still think it needs a concerted push, because, to paraphrase the classic: "Everything in biology, even the #CF, starts making sense in the light of evolution." I add, it is #stuff_that_matters (12/12)
- Thanks so much, Juan. Steffen and I are very lucky to count you as our friend. We are rooting for you to bring #mechanobiology and #morphogenesis to the next level with #Brillouin microscopy and #proteomics with embryos.
- Great work from two great scientists that happen to be my friends too, so I am double happy, for Developmental Biology and for them and their groups! Congratulations!!!!!! 🎉🎉Yu Chiun Wang and Steffen Lemke!!!!! @yuchiunwang.bsky.social
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangWe are excited to share our recent preprint on how tissue spreading guides extracellular matrix changes during early morphogenesis @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social
- Tissue spreading couples gastrulation through extracellular matrix remodelling in early avian embryos biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Forgot to tag @verenakaul.bsky.social. Verena’s following up on this brand new discovery of out of plane division, linking cell biology, tissue mechanics to evolution with Steffen. Stay tuned!
- 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)
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangThe #cephalic #furrow story from @yuchiunwang.bsky.social perspective. The saga is even longer than what’s in my thread. Worth reading 👇
- 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)
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangLike "this is just the cephalic furrow. Why would you ask what it does?" Turns out, one needed an evolutionary approach. Congrats @bruvellu.bsky.social @paveltomancak.bsky.social @yuchiunwang.bsky.social et al and @endofthepier.bsky.social for shepherding this to publication!
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangThe papers have been improved by reviewers @amartinezarias.bsky.social, @thibautbrunet.bsky.social & Cassandra Extavour. Thibaut synthesized the work beautifully in the #News_and_Views. None of that can happen without The Editor: @endofthepier.bsky.social (11/12) www.nature.com/articles/d41...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangWe had #four interdisciplinary teams, integrating dev-bio, evolution, tissue mechanics, and biophysical modeling, all going full throttle to understand the #CF. Still, it took more than 7 years to publish two papers back-to-back (10/12) www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangThe important event for the genesis of the project was the mechanobiology conference @embl.org in 2022. My talk inspired Steffen Lemke to revisit the data on the distribution of #CF across the Dipteran phylogeny, revealing that it is an #evolutionary_novelty. Crucial insight! (8/12)
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangWe are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)
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View full threadReposted by Yu-Chiun WangWe started working together, and that meant that the powerful biophysical expertise of @yuchiunwang.bsky.social, Steffen's long-time collaborator under @hfspo.bsky.social, expanded the team. Bipasha Dey made some of the most complex experiments bridging dev-bio & tissue mechanics (9/12)
- 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)
- Where to start? Beautifully concise, yet comprehensive N&V by @thibautbrunet.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41... Essential reading from Pavel himself: tinyurl.com/4vurwar2 A thread of our bioRxiv from the other platform: tinyurl.com/46ceutx9 But read on for new stuff from revision! (2/9)
- #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)
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View full threadFinal thanks to reviewers @amartinezarias.bsky.social @thibautbrunet.bsky.social & Cassandra Extavour and the editor @endofthepier.bsky.social. Quest for the mysteries of #cephalicfurrow and #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis continues (9/9)
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangCongratulations, Michael Dorrity and Anna Erzberger! The two EMBL Heidelberg group leaders have received ERC Starting Grants that will enable ambitious projects related to developmental timing and tissue self-organisation, respectively. Learn more: www.embl.org/news/awards-...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangDresden researchers @paveltomancak.bsky.social @bruvellu.bsky.social, Carl Modes, @cuencam15.bsky.social & colleagues published in @nature.com that a tissue fold in fruit fly embryos buffers mechanical stresses & may have evolved in response to mechanical forces. www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangNeue Studie von #UniHohenheim in #Nature: Fliegenembryonen nutzen raffinierte Strategien, um gefährliche Gewebespannungen auszugleichen. Mechanische Kräfte könnten damit ein Treiber der #Evolution sein. @springernature.com Mehr dazu: t1p.de/7qth2
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangThrilled to share 🎉 I’m starting my lab at University of Zurich, DMLS as Assistant Professor (tenure track) from Jan 2026! The Neural MorphoGenomics & Developmental Dynamics Lab will be exploring how genes + morphogenesis shape brain development with organoids, imaging & spatial genomics 🧠🔬🧬
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangPriyom's preprint is out on biorxiv. See below for a detailed thread. In a nutshell, she has discovered and characterized the oscillator that times notochord and spine segmentation in zebrafish. Turns out that there are uniform Erk oscillations across the entire tissue that act as timekeepers!
- Building a spine is no joke, but thankfully zebrafish have their own clocks to keep the pace. Excited to share our preprint on the role of biological oscillators in coordinating notochord development! (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) Additional thread below
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangIf you love cytoskeleton and tissue morphogenesis, have a read!
- Supracellular actomyosin assemblies: master coordinators of development In this Review, Katja Röper @katjaroeper.bsky.social discusses supracellular actomyosin structures, tissues where they function, their known roles as well as potential properties journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangOur latest: We developed a chemo-optogenetic system for precise spatiotemporal control of morphogen production. Using dual light + small molecule control of Sonic Hedgehog production, we recapitulated neural tube patterning in vitro & measured spread of Shh 🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangHeartfelt obituary of Ben Shilo by Stas Shvartsman
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangFINALLY! 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 💚
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangWe are searching for an enthusiastic scientist to join our team and establish annual killifish as a model system for early developmental biology and biophysics! @embl.org @embldbunit.bsky.social Apply here: embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Hei... Please re-post 🙏
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangThank you @the-node.bsky.social for inviting me to write a 'Behind the Story' piece on our recent study! Exploring the Uncharted Waters of Endothelial Tip Cell Migration: A Story of Aquaporins, Hydrostatic Pressure, and Angiogenesis thenode.biologists.com/exploring-th...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangLab Meeting with the Phng Lab Meet the lab of @phnglab.bsky.social, based @riken-bdr.bsky.social, Kobe, Japan. The lab is interested in vascular #morphogenesis, in particular, endothelial cell mechanobiology in #zebrafish 🐟 Find out more about the lab and what it's like working at RIKEN BDR:
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun Wang
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangOut now! Our very first paper@crick.ac.uk, an impressive feat by @tobyandrews.bsky.social where we show how a developing heart grows and scales up its morphological complexity to keep beating...an excellent summary below ⬇️ www.cell.com/developmenta...
- Thrilled to bits to see our latest work online in Dev Cell! 🥳 We wanted to know how cells build functional organs with precision🫀🫁📏 Here we show how coupling of cell shape and organ function fine tunes the form and contractile power of the developing #zebrafish heart 1/n tinyurl.com/cell-stretch
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangCytoplasmic localization of the mRNA encoding actin regulator, Serendipity-α, promotes adherens junction assembly and nuclear repositioning #Drosophila
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangVery happy that the first article from my postdoc work in the Tomancak lab is now published @PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... We studied the self-organization of actin in aggregates made from Hydra cells. Thread below (1/9)
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangStretching the immortal Hydra. Publication by @paveltomancak.bsky.social group with Carl Modes @mpi-cbg.de & @zechnerlab.bsky.social shows how cells can create a new organism from scratch by coordinating their mechanical properties. @anaisbailles.bsky.social @pnas.org www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangExcited to share a new preprint from the lab! This (doi.org/10.1101/2025...) and an earlier one (doi.org/10.1101/2025...) mark my lab's first steps into studying how Polycomb modifications get established in early Drosophila development. 🧵 1/10
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangBrillouin microscopy showing strength in non-invasive, live-imaging applications! Studying fruit fly embryos during gastrulation as cells rapidly change shape @prevedel-lab.bsky.social @gomezjm-devmech.bsky.social @marialep.bsky.social characterised & mapped mechanical changes in 3D. rdcu.be/ev6ZX
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangJapan is the only country in the world that legally requires married couples to share the same family name go.nature.com/4lfbXPL
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangDelighted to share our latest work on the mechanisms of epithelial curvature and 3D morphogenesis ! Amazing work from newly graduated Dr @courtneyl7a7.bsky.social 🎉 @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangNew work on dynamics of morphogen signaling: Cells decode BMP gradient via temporal integration of signaling level, not instantaneous thresholds. While GRN gates response to provide additional spatial input Morphogen signalling dynamics + GRN for tissue patterning www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangDavid’s @davidmoersdorf.bsky.social cool paper about the role of Chordin in BMP signaling in the sea anemone Nematostella is finally out www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Such an exhilarating meeting —thanks to all those who travel the distance, the ECRs, the staff and none other than Fumio Motegi. A personal heartfelt note to all who helped me overcome my disability, which explains my absence in the group photo!
- Missing @yuchiunwang.bsky.social in the group photo!
- Reposted by Yu-Chiun WangThanks to the generosity of #FujiharaFoundation and the excellent organization of Fumio Motegi and his team, the ' #Mechanics of Life Across Scales' symposium was held successfully at beautiful Awaji. We had 3 days of fantastic #mechanobiology talks with speakers from Japan, India, Europe and US.
