iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

We have a brand new lab website! Lot's of useful bits about our science and team. Check it out at www.ritamateus.com/home/

ritamateus.com

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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Thanks!! for now it will be accompanying Carolyn's exhibition here in DD, but I'll find out her plans for the future :)

Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Join us for an evening at the intersection of Art and Science <3 this will be fun!!!

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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Thabk you for highlighting our work! We 🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🩷 lasers and microscopes of all kinds and shapes!

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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Thanks! We are familiar with the Dilp8 work :) indeed our system is a little different (there's no developmental arrest upon injury in the zebrafish). Insulin Growth Factor (IGF) is related to Dilps in vertebrates. So far we have not explored the systemic role of IGF in our system :)

This was again a wonderful collaboration at the interface of theory and experiments :) We are grateful to our funders and all the facilities at @mpi-cbg.de and @poldresden.bsky.social

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Finally, we understood that this size recovery is at least in part due to ectopic BMP signalling driven by the injury.

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Because of this, injury is sufficient to rescue fin growth in BMP gradient scaling mutants, restoring size-defective fins to the wildtype target area 🤯 *yes you read well* injury makes mutants with small fins recover the size of wildtype fins!

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At the molecular level, we unexpectedly found that injury triggers specific signals capable of bypassing existing developmental growth regulation, such as the BMP signaling gradients deployed in the pectoral fin.

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To rationalize how such growth rates are adapted, we developed a feedback-control model which suggests that fin size is sensed, integrated and adjusted towards an organ-specific target area.

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We found that by activating organ-wide cell proliferation and increasing extracellular space, injury leads to compensatory fin growth that increases with the amount of tissue lost, restoring organ size and structure without compromising developmental timing.

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So, we established precision microsurgery to inflict large fin lesions reproducibly. That opened two questions we could not ask before. How does injury change growth rates in a developing vertebrate organ? And how do those dynamics connect to developmental positional cues like morphogen gradients?

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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

When starting the lab 5y ago, in my obsession with organ growth control, scaling and proportional sizes and shapes, I kept dreaming of a system that would allow us to compare developmental and regenerative growth simultaneously, and quantitatively. We have it now: the larval pectoral fin!

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Reposted by Rita Mateus

“the academic community is enormously heterogeneous and it’s almost impossible to keep everyone happy” Never a truer word said in this analysis of downstream consequences of openness by @jacoates.bsky.social ripplingideas.org/2026/06/26/t...

ripplingideas.org

The 1% club and the rocky road ahead for bioRxiv

The recent launch of qed’s “top 1%” preprint ranking has sparked controversy, with concerns about its arbitrary nature, potential harm to authors, and low-quality inclusions. Whil…

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Reposted by Rita Mateus

Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...

open.substack.com

My Peer Review of The 1%

I wanted to like QED's new 1% ranking. I don't.

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Reposted by Rita Mateus

James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

In our latest editorial @amjeve.uk & I take on the dreaded impact factor Like Monday mornings no one likes them but you can't ignore them & they keep coming around However there are things we should all do as authors, reviewers & editors journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

journals.biologists.com

The elephant in the room: impact factor

Summary: This Editorial offers an honest look at impact factor trends in developmental biology, explains how Development serves its community, and makes the case that sustaining developmental biology ...

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Reposted by Rita Mateus

TUD | Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering (CMCB) @cmcb-tud.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Join #MSc Physics of Life @tudresden.bsky.social and help shape the future of #Biophysics! Learn from the world-class scientists of the CMCB and @poldresden.bsky.social More about the program ➡️ tud.link/3wz553 Don't miss the testimonials from our graduates ⤵️ #studyinGermany #MastersProgram

youtube.com

Study Physics of Life at the CMCB, TU Dresden - Testimonial - Hamza, Part 1

YouTube video by Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering

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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Just finished (or finishing) your phD in the US? Come join our lab :) Dresden is a great place to live and we will support your scientific independence! apply until May 20th!!! 👇

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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Congrats Mekayla, super cool :)

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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Sending all the good vibes and energy for *the* move!!

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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Congrats James, so happy this is official :)

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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

The HFSP whisperer without doubts!!! :)

Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Really generous package, I'm happy to discuss opportunities and clarify doubts :) Dresden is a great place to live, and scientifically amazing!

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Reposted by Rita Mateus

Human Frontier Science Program @hfspo.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

🧪 To celebrate the #InternationalWomensDay we highlight two HFSP-supported projects led by international teams of women pushing the frontiers of life science! 💪 🔬 Spatial translation during development 💎 Intracellular metabolic crystals 🔗zurl.co/rPPsF & zurl.co/ICmaG #WomenInScience #sts #HFSP

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Rita Mateus @ritamateus.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

This will be a really cool meeting!👇

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This was a wonderful collaboration at the interface of physics and biology with the lab of Frank Jülicher @mpipks.bsky.social :) We are grateful to our funders and all the facilities at @mpi-cbg.de and @poldresden.bsky.social

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But how do cells relay the electrical signal to trigger proliferation? it's all about a Voltage Sensing Phosphatase! This protein changes conformation upon membrane depolarization effectively bridging timescales, and coupling electric and biochemical signals in the cell.

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Briefly, after organ injury, 100 milliseconds, we detected collective changes in membrane potential at the tissue level. This is so far the earliest detected wound-response!! This electric signal sparks the formation of a tissue-wide calcium wave👇

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