Building Bridges Between Biology and Physics: Insights from a Workshop on Early Embryonic Cell Divisions

Written by Irene Li, Magdalena Schindler and Isaac Wong

We recently had the chance to be amongst 30 developmental biologists and theoretical biophysicists who tackled the complex dynamics of early embryonic cell divisions in a workshop organized by The Company of Biologists. This scientifically stimulating event took place at Buxted Park in the picturesque Sussex countryside of England. The small size of the workshop fostered conversations and encouraged sharing of unpublished work, creating an ideal environment for both established and early-career researchers to engage in scientific discourse that wouldn’t have been possible at larger-scale meetings.

Thanks to the hard work of the organizers Lendert Gelens and Julia Kamenz, scientific conversations flowed seamlessly from morning presentations into afternoon walks around the countryside and evening minglings at the bar. The program’s design struck an excellent balance between structured sessions and informal discussions, while the venue’s inviting spaces encouraged participants to delve deep into scientific exchanges. The atmosphere of openness was further enhanced by the break-out sessions in the evening, where the participants brainstormed on the bigger picture for early embryonic studies. These interactions throughout the workshop laid excellent groundwork for new friendships and exciting future ventures. We summarised here some, to us, outstanding sessions:

Session on cell cycle control

Recent studies are painting a vivid picture of just how finely tuned and adaptable the cell cycle really is. Stefano di Talia opened the session with a fascinating talk on the relationship between nearest-neighbour network topology and spindle packing. He showed that embryonic cells start deciding their future nuclear identities surprisingly early, hinting that fate is determined sooner than we might expect [1]. Next, Julia Kamenz introduced a new sensor that gives us a clearer view of how the cell cycle progresses. Yuting Irene Li’s research uncovers a kind of “tug-of-war” between two mechanisms that keep the meta-synchrony of cell cycles in early embryonic divisions: pre-set gradients of cell cycle lengths and short-range interactions [2]. Finally, Lendert Gelens highlighted how even temperature can influence these delicate processes, showing that environmental factors can shift the gears of cell division [3]. Taken together, these insights reveal just how dynamic and responsive the cell cycle can be.

Session on the cytoskeleton and cytoplasmic flow

Despite many years of research, there are still countless open questions on the interplay of the cell cycle, the cytoskeleton and the cytoplasm. How these components interact within the embryo to achieve proper tissue-scale development is even more elusive. Olga Afonso addressed this problem by analysing how scaling of cytoplasmic flows can happen despite the massive cell size changes throughout the reductive cell cleavages of the embryo. The session concluded with Isaac Wong’s presentation, which examined how variations in the cytoplasmic concentration of centrosomal proteins influence centrosome growth. His findings offered new insights into the mechanisms that enable early embryos to maintain centrosome size homeostasis.

Session on multicellular dynamics

In the last session, the participants explored how one egg cell can give rise to complex multicellular dynamics. Nathan Goehring opened the discussion with exciting research on cell polarity and its propagation during early embryonic divisions in C. elegans [4]. Next, Sebastian Streichan addressed how cytoskeletal anisotropy arises in the first place. Magdalena Schindler then asked the question of how changes in cell cycle synchrony can impact the tissue material state of a developing embryo. She suggested that an optimum level of variability in cell cycle synchronicity driven by cell lineage is key in controlling tissue fluidization, which is essential for developmental progression. Diana Pinheiro’s research then explored how cell fate and macroscopic patterns may be impacted by material properties in Warmflash patterns. Lastly, Nicoletta Petridou’s work showed how cell scale dynamics dictate emergent tissue mechanical properties and how using optogenetics to control those properties revealed unexpected changes in cell signalling. The talks altogether gave a great insight into the impact of cell divisions and other cellular dynamics across scales.

Breakout sessions

The workshop included 3 breakout sessions, during which the participants were split into subgroups to discuss big-picture questions. The three workshops respectively addressed community building within and across fields, important scientific questions we need answered and the tools we might use to do so. Given the interdisciplinarity of the participants, many different problems and hopes for technologies came up. As young researchers, we really appreciated this opportunity to exchange with leaders in our field and the engagement in this higher-level thinking. Altogether, we may have not been able to agree on one common goal in these sessions, but we are excited to see where our field will be going in the future and how we can shape it.

[1] Xu Y, Chao A, Rinaldin M, Kickuth A, Brugués J, Di Talia S. The cell cycle oscillator and spindle length set the speed of chromosome separation in Drosophila embryos. Curr Biol. 2025 Feb 3;35(3):655-664.e3.

[2] Mishra N, Li YI, Hannezo E, Heisenberg CP. Geometry-driven asymmetric cell divisions pattern cell cycles and zygotic genome activation in the zebrafish embryo. bioRxiv [Preprint]

[3] Rombouts J, Tavella F, Vandervelde A, Phong C, Ferrell JE Jr, Yang Q, Gelens L. Mechanistic origins of temperature scaling in the early embryonic cell cycle. bioRxiv [Preprint]

[4] Rodrigues NT, Bland T, Ng K, Hirani N, Goehring NW. Quantitative perturbation-phenotype maps reveal nonlinear responses underlying robustness of PAR-dependent asymmetric cell division. PLoS biology. 2024 Dec 9;22(12):e3002437.

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