iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ilya @leventallab.bsky.social is clarifying the puzzles of biomembrane asymmetries amplifying our knowledge with comprehensive lipidomics #BiomembraneDays25

0200

The last session of the #BiomembraneDays25 starts with Petra Schwille presenting minimal systems for cell division @comeincell.bsky.social @syncelleu.bsky.social

091

Georg Pabst presented how lipid asymmetry in membranes can modulate the performance of proteins like OmpLA and the importance of ions regulating this #BiomembraneDays25

030

Helge @ewerslab.bsky.social knows not only how to organize conferences (#BiomembraneDays25) but also how septins organize. Exceptional imaging #ExpansionMicroscopy of cytokinesis

0153

Misha Kozlov presented a pressure/tension propagation model supported by the experiments of the lab of Raya Sorkin @sorkinlab.bsky.social #BiomembraneDauys25 @comeincell.bsky.social

051

Rainer Böckmann expanded on the (never ending story) about the effect of cholesterol on bending rigidity of membranes #BiomembraneDays25

180

Kandice @leventallab.bsky.social showed a great construct for resolving membrane organization around transmembrane domains #BiomembraneDays25

0142

Alf Honigman clarified condensation and receptor segregation at cell junctions at the #BiomembraneDays25

031

Padmini Rangamani enforced the theory talks at the #BiomembraneDays25 focusing on curvature generation by the glycocalyx

071

Giacomo Fiorin discusses role of cholesterol and asymmetry on membrane stiffness at the #BiomembraneDays25

030

Jan @steinkuehler.bsky.social is now exciting us with electrically excitable membranes at the #BiomembraneDays25

030

Yuka Sakuma brings back (long and short-range) viscosity into spotlight at the #BiomembraneDays25

151

Yuka Sakuma brings back (long and short-range) viscosity into spotlight at the #BiomembraneDays25

040

We start off the last day of the #BiomembraneDays25 with a lecture of Jay Groves on protein condensation at membranes.

060

Petia Vlahovska explained the contributions of viscous dissipation to membrane fluctuations and their increasing importance in analyzing data from small vesicles and interpretation of #NSE data #BiomembraneDays25 Check her paper Faizi et al PNAS 2024

040

Seraphine Wegner showed how to make membranes talk - light-based communication at the #BiomembraneDays25 @sigsyncell.bsky.social @comeincell.bsky.social

0120

Omer Dushek @tcell.bsky.social starts the afternoon session of the #BiomembraneDays25 with a talk on CAR-T cell sensitivity and optimization

050

Puzzling temperature-responsive membrane rods in cells now presented by Oliver Rocks with work by @pm-mueller.bsky.social at the #BiomembraneDays25

0133

Lu Tiemei just presented her work from the @spruijtlab.bsky.social showing coacervate wetting and penetrating membranes #BiomembraneDays25

050

We start the second day of the #BiomembraneDays25 with impressive results on phase separation in the yeast plasma membrane by Roland Wedlich-Söldner

0111

Charu Sharma from the group of Gijsje Koenderink and @ceesdekker.bsky.social is now showing how to drive dynaminA-assisted division of minimal cells #BiomembraneDays25

0133

The great Patricia Bassereau continues with ESCRTIII-mediated membrane fission involved in HIV viral budding #BiomembraneDays25

060

Javier Montenegro introduced boron superchaotropes as membrane transporters at the #BiomembraneDays25 @montenegrolabo.bsky.social @comeincell.bsky.social

182

Tension rules ... and is a main player at the #BiomembraneDays25 as shown by @agatawitkowska.bsky.social for neurotransmission

081

We continue the #BiomembraneDays25 with Zheng Shi @zs-biophys.bsky.social who presented nice work on mechanosensors and membrane tension.

091

Great talk from @sciezgin.bsky.social (aka komsu) at the #BiomembraneDays25 on correlating biophysical properties like packing and hydration to biomatkers for disease

0123

@continiclau.bsky.social at the #BiomembtaneDays25 introduced us to a variety of synthetic-cell-like systems showing motility, contraction and deformation @comeincell.bsky.social

0113

Dimova Lab @dimovalab.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

The #BiomembraneDays25 started off with a talk by Reinhard Lipowsky @mpici.bsky.social discussing, among others the role of tension in membrane remodeling and wetting.

080

🙏 A HUGE THANK YOU to our sponsors who made #BiomembraneDays2025 possible: @abberior.rocks Critical Insights in Biophysics \ Ernst Rudolf Schloeßmann Foundation @dfg.de @jcellsci.bsky.social @lipotype.bsky.social @naniontech.bsky.social @picoquant.bsky.social Refeyn Ltd @biologists.bsky.social

0100

Dimova Lab @dimovalab.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

🎉 Finally: tomorrow Sept 29 we open BIOMEMBRANE DAYS 2025 in Berlin: 3 days packed with exciting science on membranes! Looking forward to an amazing program of invited & contributed talks, posters & lively discussions. 📍 events.mpikg.mpg.de/event/15/ @ewerslab.bsky.social @mpici.bsky.social

2337

Dimova Lab @dimovalab.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

2/3 We learn all this from hyperspectral imaging 🔬 of condensates. Here comes another surprise: Condensates show a very wide range of permittivities 😲 - from oil-like🛢️ to water-like 💧, so they vary greatly in hydrophobicity.

130

Dimova Lab @dimovalab.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

1/3 📢 New work from our lab 📢 We uncover a unifying dielectric principle for biomolecular condensates! 💦Contrary to intuition, we find that it is not a condensate’s absolute polarity, but the permittivity contrast with its surroundings, that governs its affinity for membranes. #GUV #condensates

1142

Dimova Lab @dimovalab.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Thrilled and deeply humbled! 🙏 Honored to receive the Avanti/EBSA Award for pioneering work on giant vesicles at the #EBSA Congress in Rome.🏆 This award goes to my group–so grateful for their hard work! 🧪✨ Thanks to Avanti Research & @mpici.bsky.social for the amazing support! Long live #GUVs!

5250

Dimova Lab @dimovalab.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

And huge thanks to our sponsors: abberior Instruments GmbH • Ernst Rudolf Schloeßmann Foundation • @dfg.de • @jcellsci.bsky.social • @lipotype.bsky.social • @naniontech.bsky.social • @picoquant.bsky.social • Refeyn Ltd. See you in Berlin! @mpici.bsky.social @ewerslab.bsky.social

071

Dimova Lab @dimovalab.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

📢 Registration is open for the Biomembrane Days 2025! 🔗 biomembrane-days-2025.mpikg.mpg.de A top-notch lineup of speakers, 120 posters, 200 scientists. 📜Submit an abstract by July 14 🏆3 Poster prizes ⚠️Limited spots-previous events were fully booked! #BiomembraneDays2025 #Biophysics #CellMembranes

1228

Dimova Lab @dimovalab.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Poster session = a blast! Great science, good laughs, and old friends like @labrobinson.bsky.social. Bonus: conference dinner featured Félix Goñi singing & an asymmetry song with Georg Pabst & John Seddon! At the library of the RSC Burlington House #FaradayDiscussion #MembraneAsymmetry #ScienceVibes

0133

6/8 A side note: adsorption of membrane nanotubes onto condensate can also transform them into double-membrane sheets (i.e. flat vesicles). bit.ly/4kI3k0l

100

5/8 But that’s not all! Condensates don’t just bind-they also make membranes tubulate. We knew that already(bit.ly/4itKMj2), but now we also see that protein binding transforms tubes into double-membrane sheets at the vesicle surface.🌀 This remodeling could have implications for organelle dynamics!

100

4/8 When you characterize affinity/wetting, watch out 👀! Measure not just 1️⃣ microscopic contact angle (note that microscopic contact angles differ from vesicle to vesicle). Measure all 3️⃣ of them to give you the real (intrinsic) contact angle. Check also previous work 📖: link.aps.org/abstract/PRL...

Under the microscope we see 3 contact angles (and they differ from vesicle to vesicle in the sample). They are apparent as the membrane cannot exhibit a kink. From them one can calculate the real (intrinsic) contact angle

100