Benjamin Friedrich

New research group at the CRTD @tudresden.bsky.social !🎉🔬

Supported by the ERC Starting Grant, Dr. Anna Czarkwiani @aniaczark.bsky.social is launching a new group to study the sense of gravity and #regeneration in the inner ear in axolotl.

Read more ➡️ tud.link/buva24

#CMCBnews

This is a fantastic #biophysics job opportunity to join us in Dresden @mpipks.bsky.social! Apply by the 3rd of April!

Looking for a theory partner for an #HFSP project? #morphogenesis in cells and tissues, #chemotaxis, #cilia? Feel free to reach out! Deadline for letters of intent 26.03.2026.
physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/team/pol-gro...

Would the dot pattern be compatible with a Turing mechanism?

The abstract deadline for our Motors and Filaments Meeting is approaching fast - 1st March. We have plenty slots for 15/10min talks and 3min flash talks to allocate. Thanks to generous support from @embo.org and @biologists.bsky.social, we can offer sustainable travel bursaries and a free livestream

Deciphering Rapid Cell Signaling and Control of Cell Motility by Reverse Opto-Chemical Engineering By using temporal light patterns and photo-triggers to create virtual sensory landscapes for cells, the reverse opto-chemical engineering technique can be used to both monitor and remotely control the...

Link to full paper: journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...

@mpinb.mpg.de @unibonn.bsky.social @limes-bonn.bsky.social @mpi-nat.bsky.social
@poldresden.bsky.social @cmcb-tud.bsky.social @tudresden.bsky.social

Just published: chemotactic sperm cells become phototactic 💡- by loading photo-activatable second messengers. This allows to "reverse-engineer" chemotactic signaling dynamics and expose cells to signals they would never see in the wild. Honoured to be part of this collaboration with the Kaupp lab.

Congratulations to Prof. María Teresa Pisabarro, our expert in structure-based computational approaches! 🎉 She's part of a new @dfg.de consortium with @uni-saarland.de that investigates signaling in vascular inflammation. 🩸🔬

Read more ➡️ tud.link/tmga7z

@tudresden.bsky.social #CMCBnews

This month, together with @cmcb-tud.bsky.social, we celebrate #WomenInScience 🔬✨

Read the full interview with Prof. Yael Politi ➡️ tud.link/y6755t

#everyvoiceinscience #idwgs2026 #IWD2026

Great to see our paper on light-intensity dependent swimming patterns in #Chlamydomonas out now in Phys Rev Lett. as an Editors' suggestion! With a nice commentary by @philipcball.bsky.social.

Chlamy actively modulate the beat planes of their #cilia!
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract... #protistsonsky

Exciting news 🧬 Funded by a Rise Up! grant from @boehringerglobal.bsky.social, the Albert group @mareikealbert.bsky.social will explore how epigenetics shapes the timing of brain development across species.

Read more ➡️ tud.link/uakytp

Two funded PhD positions investigating the evolution of sarcomeres @ibdm.bsky.social in @biancah0406.bsky.social and our lab, together with @cnidevo.bsky.social - Interested to explore how similar or different Jellyfish sarcomeres are to Drosophila or human ones?
www.ibdm.univ-amu.fr/ibdm_job/2-a...

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

Ooooh. Cool new paper on origins of life. A simple 45-nucleotide RNA molecule that can perfectly copy itself.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Here's a beautiful #microscopy image from our PoL Photo Competition 📸

👨‍🔬 🔬©️ Image taken by Yogishree Arabinda Panda, PhD student in the Fischer-Friedrich group @fischerfriedriclab.bsky.social

🔍 Caption: A SEM micrograph of a mitotically arrested HeLa cell with visible filopodia membrane reservoirs

Injury-induced electrochemical coupling triggers organ growth Organ repair and growth rely on coupling tissue-wide membrane depolarization with intracellular proliferative signaling.

New paper alert!🤩Super proud that our story led by superstar postdocs @liujinghui.bsky.social and @nerlielisa.bsky.social is finally out! We found how electrical signals are key for promoting organ regenerative growth!!! A thread 🧵https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aec0687

⚡👩‍🔬Electrical signals are key for promoting organ regenerative growth, a new study!

Out now in Science Advances, from the Mateus group @ritamateus.bsky.social at PoL and @mpi-cbg.de along with the lab of Frank Jülicher @mpipks.bsky.social

Read the news here: tud.link/7jzptz
Video:©️ Mateus group

The Elbe Program is offering positions for independent postdocs at the interface between theory (physics, maths, computing) and biology. Join us in Dresden! Deadline 13 March.

🎉Exciting new findings out in @nature.com today by the Brugués lab! @brugueslab.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

👨‍🔬 The authors describe how physical instability of the cytoskeleton works with the cell cycle to drive organization in the embryo during early development

Read our press release: tud.link/kctu4s

Really excited to share our new paper in @nature.com! We uncovered how a physical instability of the cytoplasm coupled with the cell cycle drives cytoplasmic partitioning in early embryos #zebrafish #drosophila. Read more in this🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩
@poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

You have a background in math/physics/computer science/ML and are looking for an interdisciplinary postdoc fellowship in life sciences with free choice of host groups? Then join us at the CSBD as an ELBE postdoc! The application deadline is the 13 of March

🦠 Antibiotic resistance is a growing global challenge 🌍.
With support from the GO-Bio program (BMFTR), Dr. Ekaterina Vorobevskaia & Prof. Michael Schlierf @schlierflab.bsky.social are taking the next step to develop new tools against multiresistant bacteria. 🔬🧪

Read more: tud.link/q66rj1

Making human pancreatic acinar cells Dresden researchers develop novel methods to create acinar cells, which are involved in the formation of pancreatic cancer.

The group of @anne-grapin.bsky.social developed methods to create functional acinar cells, which are involved in the formation of pancreatic cancer. Rashmiparvathi Keshara, Karolina Kuodyte, and the TDS facility used image-based screen & robust analysis pipeline. www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...

I remember the great talk - great to see the story mature. I am truly intrigued how Chlamydomonas seemingly uses two fundamentally different taxis mechanisms for gradient sensing in either space or time: helical klinotaxis and run-and-tumble phototaxis

How do phototactic microorganisms navigate structured light fields? 🦠🔬

We show that their motion depends on both the light gradient and a memory of illumination. By exploiting this, we can guide and confine microalgae using tailored light patterns.

@comedialkb.bsky.social

arxiv.org/pdf/2601.07741

ECM as a cell-cycle brake.
Led by Liyuan Sui (Dahmann lab), we show that the ECM gates Yorkie nuclear entry to halt proliferation at final size via G2 arrest in the Drosophila wing disc. Programmed ECM degradation later enables re-entry + proper adult wing size. Link 👇
#Mechanobiology #ECM

New paper out: AFM-tip fluctuations inside the actin cortex reveal that effective temperature can remain unchanged while time-irreversibility/entropy production drop (turnover inhibition). #CellMechanics #ActiveMatter #Nonequilibrium
@poldresden.bsky.social @tudresden.bsky.social

🎉Exciting findings out today in Nature @nature.com from the PoL group of Jan Brugués @brugueslab.bsky.social! The authors describe a new mechanism driving cell division during early development in #zebrafish, fundamentally altering our view of the process.

Read the press release: tud.link/2s3bxj

Apply for a PhD in Singapore at NUS! Deadline Jan 12. I'm recruiting:

Here with Mechanobiology Institute: www.mbi.nus.edu.sg/education/gr...

and

Here with Biomedical Engineering dept: cde.nus.edu.sg/bme/

Biophysics of organoids In this review, Weichselberger, Moore et al. discuss how physics-based approaches illuminate organoid development and homeostasis by integrating mechanical, chemical, and informational processes. They...

Interested in the biophysics of organoids? We just published a review in Dev Cell—take a look! dlvr.it/TPyTb8 #Organoids #Biophysics

Curious to read about the 'Physical Basis of Sarcomere Assembly'. Here are some thoughts from @friedrich-group.bsky.social and me - you might learn the difference between nematic and smectic order in biological assemblies pubs.aip.org/aip/bpr/arti...