Big congrats from the Shyer/Rodrigues lab to lab alum @sichen_yang on becoming a Schmidt Science Fellow!

Our recent piece: Transcending the hegemony of the molecular machine through an organic renewal of biology and biomedicine. Here, Alan covers the State of Science in biology and biomedicine, why it has stagnated, and where it needs to go.

4/4 Focusing on the supracellular scale, we articulate how holistic biophysical thinking provides an expanded view of three key concepts in biology (epigenetics, mechanism, and regulation).

3/4 We discuss that, while underrepresented, holistic biophysical thinking is not new and was apparent in the approach of two notable 20th century theorists of morphology, D’Arcy Thompson and Pere Alberch.

2/4 We contrast this practice of ‘holistic biophysical thinking’ with the prevalent contemporary use of physics towards new tools or technologies and more quantitative datasets, embedded within reductionist strategies.

1/4 In our new concept paper in @BiolTheory, we elaborate an investigative approach that prioritizes the art of careful observation, the biological whole, and physical thinking in order to develop novel biological theories of morphogenesis.

@MBLScience Embryology alumna Amy Shyer & Alan Rodriguez from @RockefellerUniv kick off the first afternoon session Amy puts forward a different way of thinking about morphogenesis not as a machine but as a consequence of reciprocal causality https://t.co/NwIbsmIBxu

https://t.co/MZm3wDgzyZ

Our seminar at the Cambridge Morphogenesis Seminar Series is available online! Feel free to take a look if you are interested in attempts to transcend reductive machine thinking through an organic revival of morphogenesis. https://t.co/Xti5mvqk8n

Great Day #2 at #EESMechanobiology with @_Priya_R @CampasLab @MorphoLab_AS_AR and many other great talks.

Congrats to @karl_palmquist for winning the Weintraub Graduate Student Award! We were very fortunate to work with Karl and are immensely grateful for the conceptual openness and intellectual bravery he exhibited throughout his time in the lab.

Thank you @AMartinezArias and @Amro_Hussien for your interest and kind words!

4/Simultaneous causal influence between separate entities—aka reciprocal causality—empowers self-organizing systems to create form. From this outlook, we review recent studies where self-organization at the supracellular scale drives creative processes during organ morphogenesis.

3/For example: interacting components at a low length-scale give rise to complex patterns at a higher scale. At the same time, the self-organized order at the higher scale influences the low-level components, establishing a self-perpetuating system. New forms emerge.

2/In self-organizing systems, causes and effects can’t be separated and arrayed in a causal chain. Instead, entities or processes affect each other simultaneously—and mutually condition each other over time. Such an interplay can be called reciprocal causality.

In our new review, we confront how self-organizing systems blur the line between cause and effect through reciprocal causality! (1/4) https://t.co/r6Ve5lc1Iy #selforganization #causality #supracellular #morphogenesis

By focusing on the emergent features of cell collectives, instead of individual cells, scientists in the @MorphoLab_AS_AR forge a new path for understanding how organs develop their architecture. #RockefellerScience https://t.co/oIp3l7WRIn

10/We are very grateful to graduate students Sichen Yang and @Karl_Palmquist for leading this project. In addition, we had the good fortune of collaborating with applied mathematician Pearson Miller, who created the insightful quantitative biophysical models in this study.

9/This study suggests that the subtle tuning of hundreds of genes at the individual cell scale can coalesce into emergent and discrete material and mechanical properties that are ultimately responsible for the creation of organ morphologies.

8/Our findings indicate that it is necessary to distinguish between the proximal effects of morphogens, which include modulating gene expression within cells, and their ultimate functional effects, which enable the formation of distinct supracellular biophysical properties.