Temporal Patterns
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Sheng-hong Chen's research bridges quantitative and molecular biology. His team at Academia Sinica identified the reactive-oxygen-species feedback loop driving ferroptosis trigger waves, a mechanism of large-scale, propagating cell death with implications for cancer therapy.Academia Sinica Taipei
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Mathias Spliid Heltberg studies the physical mechanisms underlying DNA repair and cell-cycle regulation, including biomolecular condensate formation and oscillatory protein dynamics such as p53 signalling. He was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2025 for his research on condensates and oscillatory concentration fields in the cell.University of Copenhagen
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Aneta Koseska studies how cells process information from dynamic environments as biochemical computations, drawing on theoretical physics and chemical biology (she holds habilitations in both). She was selected for the Max Planck Society's Lise Meitner Excellence Program in 2020, having previously led the "Cellular Cognition" group in Dortmund.MPI Bonn
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Luis Morelli leads a group studying information processing in cells and tissues, with emphasis on the segmentation clock, oscillatory gene expression, and collective rhythms in development and the nervous system. He has been a CONICET researcher since 2007 and joined IBioBA as Max Planck-CONICET Research Group Leader in 2015.IBioBA-CONICET Argentina
Morphogenesis and Developmental Patterning
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Anna Erzberger is a theoretical biophysicist studying the principles governing self-organisation of cells and tissues, with a focus on the role of geometry and shape in biological information processing. She received an ERC Starting Grant in 2025 and is an EMBO Young Investigator.EMBL Heidelberg
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Thomas Lecuit studies cell and tissue morphogenesis, focusing on the mechanochemical basis of epithelial dynamics. He directs the Turing Centre for Living Systems in Marseille, is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, and EMBO, and received the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for Life Sciences in 2015.Collège de France
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Nicoletta Petridou investigates how collective tissue properties emerge during early embryonic development, combining biophysics, quantitative biology, and synthetic biology. She received an ERC Starting Grant for her project on the collective regulation of cell decisions, and has led her group at EMBL since 2020.EMBL Heidelberg
Organismal Pattern Formation (from Animals to Microbes)
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David R. Johnson leads the Microbial Community Assembly Group at Eawag, studying spatial self-organization in surface-associated microbial communities using synthetic ecology. His work addresses how microbial spatial patterning affects functions such as the release of greenhouse gases and the spread of antibiotic resistance.Eawag
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Eva Kanso directs the Bioinspired Motion Lab at USC, studying the physics of animal locomotion and collective behaviour, from ciliated microorganisms to schooling fish, using analytical, computational, and experimental tools. She was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2022.University of Southern California
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Sara Mitri studies the evolutionary ecology of small synthetic microbial communities, combining mathematical modelling with laboratory experiments. Trained originally in computer science and robotics, she moved into microbial ecology and evolution during her postdoctoral work, and leads the Mitri Lab at UNIL since 2015.University of Lausanne
Across Scales and Outside Perspectives on Pattern Formation
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Frank Jülicher develops theoretical approaches to active cellular processes, cytoskeletal dynamics, biomolecular condensates, and tissue morphogenesis. He has directed the Biological Physics department at the MPI-PKS in Dresden since 2002 and co-founded the Center for Systems Biology Dresden.MPI Dresden
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Silvia De Monte studies the ecology and evolution of collective properties in microbial populations, combining mathematical models with observational and experimental data. Her work spans plankton biogeography, quorum sensing, and the evolutionary origins of multicellularity and cooperation in aggregative organisms.ENS Paris
