How can we learn tissue mechanics directly from patterns and images?

In our new preprint, we introduce VertAX, a differentiable vertex-model framework in JAX for simulating epithelia, inferring parameters, and designing target tissue behaviors.

shorturl.at/PUzT0
1/5

Very happy to have this work finally published! How do embryos sculpt their shape? We map the contractile & adhesive forces shaping early C. elegans embryos.

With K. Yamamoto @Kazu_YAMAMOTO4 G. Charras' lab and my team

shorturl.at/xv7G51/6

A central result: cadherin-dependent adhesion contributes significantly to cell-cell tension in C. elegans, with a highly non-linear, Hill-like dependence. Adhesion is not just a small correction to contractility.

6/6

Huge thanks to all co-authors & collaborators!

Thanks @ebardot for his kind highlight in Nat Cell Biol shorturl.at/Sq1f4

@CNRSbiologie

Very glad to see this great transatlantic collaborative work published in NCB 🎉!
nature.com/articles/s4155…

Congratulations to all authors: @Henry_de_belly, @andreu_gallen, Eric neiva, @OWeinerLab

Funding from MSCA @EU_Commission & @CNRSbiologie

A true computational tour de force by Eric Neiva during his Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship in the team, now published in Journal Computational Physics: urlr.me/AuzK86

Congratulations, Eric!

@CNRSbiologie
Grateful to @EU_Commission for funding support

Beyond synthetic benchmarks, we show applications to mechanical parameter inference from microscopy images and to inverse design problems in epithelial tissues. 4/5

We hope VertAX can help make inverse problems & differential programming more accessible in tissue mechanics.

Thanks to @appasqui, @MaxenceErnoult, Italian colleagues, & other members of the team for this collaboration.

Comments very welcome.

Code github.com/VirtualEmbryo/…
5/5

If you think the next big idea in your field will come from inside the field, you're probably wrong.

Conference Alert🚨 16-21 Feb 2025
From Soft Matter to Biophysics @ Les Houches FR
t.ly/GXhPL
Apply by Dec 15 to explore the latest in soft matter & biophysics, focusing on functional materials & synthetic biology!
@karen_alim
@Karin__Jacobs
@MartinLenz
@HerveTurlier

Registrations are open for the Qlife Quantitative Biology spring school on Cell Dynamics in Developmental System March 3-April 04 2025. Great line of talks, lectures and hands-on practicals on omics, image analysis, modeling and inference: shorturl.at/Ygthh

Team retreat in the Pyrenees
📝⛰️🍻

We recapitulate our findings in a mathematical model and show that this creates a feedback loop, where the front and back communicate through mechanical signals. @virtual_embryo @andreu_gallen

It ensures that the cell can move forward in a coordinated way.

Our workshop on Finite Elements for Cell & Tissue Morphogenesis at Villa Clythia @caescnrs was a great success !
Congratulations to @ericnumerics for the perfect organisation and looking forward to a next edition.

Thanks to all speakers @MarinoArroyo2 @AnjaGeitmann @AlainGoriely Jessica Zhang @aland_lab @GabriellaBioMec Arezki Boudaoud Christophe Godin, Brendan Lane, Robert Nürnberg, Padmini Rangamani, Arnold Reusken, Axel Voigt, Sara Zahedi, Roman Vetter