iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jenna Elliott

Aafke Gros @aafkegros.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Microscopy Nodes 3.1 is out for Blender 5.2! 🎉 This has cool new features for conditional masking, working with even larger data (regional upscaling), and data manipulation! Watch the new youtube tutorials that explain the features: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

A FIB-SEM plankton visualization where the top shows only the volumetric data of the chromosomes, and the bottom a normally sliced region of the cell.

A fluorescence microscopy dataset where a region has been reloaded to be much higher resolution

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Reposted by Jenna Elliott

Laura Rustarazo-Calvo @laura-rustarazo.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Our beautiful mosaic embryo made it to the cover! 🔥

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Reposted by Jenna Elliott

Laura Rustarazo-Calvo @laura-rustarazo.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

⚡ Our paper is now out in @natphys.nature.com ! This version now includes a detailed molecular characterisation of the optogenetic perturbations, new insights on the relevance of tricellular junctions for tissue morphology, and beautiful light-sheet timelapses. 🔬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Adhesion-driven rigidity transition decoupled from density-driven jamming triggers epithelial organization in embryonic tissues - Nature Physics

Tissue phase transitions are key to morphogenesis. Now adhesion-driven rigidification is identified as key to epithelial organization but only if uncoupled from density-driven jamming.

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Reposted by Jenna Elliott

EMBL @embl.org · 19/02/2026

Our cells are experts at navigating inherently noisy and complicated environments. EMBL researchers are using theoretical physics approaches to uncover fundamental principles behind how cells use complex information to self-organise. www.embl.org/news/science...

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Reposted by Jenna Elliott

joe dobbs @joedobbs.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Check out our preprint! With new molecular mechanisms, 140 subtomogram averages, and ~600 annotated cells under different conditions, we @embl.org were able to describe bacterial populations with in-cell #cryoET. And there’s a surprise at the end 🕵️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #teamtomo

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Reposted by Jenna Elliott

EMBL @embl.org · 04/09/2025

Congratulations, 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-...

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Reposted by Jenna Elliott

Gautam Dey @gautamdey.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Want to acquire #ExM images like this and help us understand the true extent of cytoskeletal diversity across the tree of life? This position might be for you! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j... With @dudinlab.bsky.social @embl.org @biology-unige.bsky.social @moorefound.bsky.social

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Thanks for sharing! I think scale-hierarchical “zones” offer an interesting lens on sub-cellular information flow. I’d be curious how compression, selection, or computation at each scale could be approached analytically, especially with physical and emergent properties shaping the flow.

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

11/ We're excited about the implications for membrane organisation, cellular decision-making, and how physical interactions can encode computational logic in biology. 📝 Check out the full paper here: arxiv.org/abs/2506.14739 We would love to hear your thoughts! 👇

arxiv.org

Repulsive particle interactions enable selective information processing at cellular interfaces

Living systems relay information across membrane interfaces to coordinate compartment functions. We identify a physical mechanism for selective information transmission that arises from the sigmoidal ...

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

10/ Huge thanks to my incredible coauthors Hiral Shah (@hiralshah.bsky.social), Roman Belousov, Gautam Dey (@gautamdey.bsky.social), and Anna Erzberger -- this project was a true collaboration, combining theory, modelling, and experimental validation. So grateful for your brilliance and support!

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

9/ The observed patterns matched our model, and their parameters place these systems near the predicted optimal filtering regime -- These NPCs may act as efficient spatial thresholding filters! #Microscopy #QuantBio #Microtubules #UExM

Expansion microscopy image, and accompanying sketch, of S. arctica nucleus with labelled microtubules and nuclear pore complexes.

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

8/ To test our predictions, we used expansion microscopy to examine distributions of nuclear pore complexes in Sphaeroforma arctica.

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

7/ Surprisingly (and excitingly!), when we analysed real biological systems from the literature, their particle parameters often fell within these optimal regions, suggesting that cells might indeed be taking advantage of this mechanism! #EvoDevo #Biophysics

Plot of the mutual information between input energy profiles and output density profiles as a function of parameter ratio, for various input dimensions.

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

6/ We identified an optimal phase space region where this classification works best. Interestingly, this region depends on the dimensionality of the input signal.

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

5/ Cells could perform a binary classification of spatial cues based on particle organisation -- transmitting only “relevant” information across compartment interfaces (like membranes). It’s a simple yet energy-efficient and powerful way for cells to decide what signals to pass on. #CellSignaling

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

4/ The particle distribution therefore acts like a spatial thresholding filter, providing a new way to think about how membrane-bound structures manage information flow. #MembraneBiology #InformationProcessing

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

3/ We found that when surface-associated particles (e.g., proteins) repel each other and interact with nearby structures, their density exhibits a nonlinear, sigmoidal response to spatial features in the environment.

Plot of equilibrium particle density dependence on environment interaction energy, which takes the form of a sigmoid when there are particle repulsions, and is exponential if not.

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

2/ Living systems use chemical signals to communicate, but physical properties like repulsion between particles also shape how information flows. We propose a physics-based mechanism by which cells could interpret spatial cues. #CellBiology #Biophysics #Physics

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Jenna Elliott @jennaelliott.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

🧵 🧪 1/ Hi! I’m excited to share our latest work, now on arXiv: Repulsive particle interactions at cellular interfaces enable selective information processing (arxiv.org/abs/2506.14739) Where we explore how the physical properties of living systems can help cells process spatial information.

Sketch of membrane-enclosed compartment with particles on its surface, which interact with an adjacent structure

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