Many cell types in our body, such as fibroblasts, immune cells but also cancer cells, are able to actively migrate and squeeze through the tiny pores and cell layers in our tissue. Similarly, blood cells are passively pushed and squeezed through narrow capillaries. In both cases, the deformability o... 

Optical recordings are ubiquitous in current scientific research. As recording and storing images and videos have become simpler and cheaper over the past years, new and more efficient tools are needed to analyse the growing amount of data. While current scientific image analysis tools focus on medi... 

Fate and function of anchorage-dependent cells depend on a variety of environmental cues, including those of mechanical nature. Previous progress in the understanding of cellular mechanosensitivity has been closely linked to the availability of artificial cell substrates of adjustable viscoelasticit... 

Mechanosensation in many organs (e.g. lungs, heart, gut) is mediated by biosensors (like mechanosensitive ion channels), which convert mechanical stimuli into electrical and/or biochemical signals. To study those pathways, technical devices are needed that apply strain profiles to cells, and ideally... 

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive malignancy with a dismal survival rate. Persistent activation of pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) can perturb the biomechanical homoeostasis of the tumour microenvironment to favour cancer cell invasion. Here we report that ATRA, an acti... 

Human cells can be easily deformed — they stretch or become squashed under external pressure. The relationship between force and cell deformation changes in diseases such as cancer, lung disease and heart disease, as well as muscle disorders. To gain a better understanding of these diseases it... 

Metastases occur when tumour cells detach from the primary tumour and migrate to distant sites through the connective tissue of organs. During this migration process, the tumour cells generate mechanical forces in order to overcome the resistance of the connective tissue or to change their shape so ... 

Search and rescue teams routinely use Bayesian updating to track down crashed airplanes or sunken ships: they draw a map with a first guess of the most probable locations and then continuously update the probability map as new information comes in. Physicists from the University of Erlangen-Nurember... 

Penguin Observatory is on the move to Antarctica Our penguin observatory is on the research vessel “Polarstern”  on its way to Antarctica.  It will arrive there around Dec 20th. We hope that the observatory will not be battered too much by braking waves. 

Emperor penguins are able to maintain the tight huddle that protects them from the harsh conditions of an Antarctic winter with stop-and-go movements like cars in a traffic jam. By using a mathematical model that computes the positions, movements and interactions of individual penguins in a huddle, ...