Research

A physical model of a tissue is only worth the measurement that challenges it.

I am an experimentalist working on the mechanics of living tissues, and this conviction is the thread of my work.

During my PhD I asked how far a minimal model, a few surface and line tensions, goes in explaining the shape of epithelial cells, and found where it breaks. Testing models this way requires measuring stresses and material properties inside living tissues, so my postdoctoral work builds droplet sensors and magnetic rheometers that do it in embryos. My research project brings the two together to ask how cellular heterogeneity and tissue mechanics shape one another.

Confocal image of an epithelium on a wavy substrate

Epithelia on curved substrates

How far a few surface and line tensions explain the thickness of epithelial cells on a curved substrate, and where this minimal model breaks.

 Schematic of self-functionalising oil droplets used as stress sensors

Stresses and rheology in embryos

Droplets injected into tissues as stress sensors, then ferrofluid droplets driven by a magnetic field to measure their rheology.

 Map of inferred junction tensions in an MDCK monolayer

Heterogeneous tissues under flow

Research project: how cellular heterogeneity and tissue rheology shape one another, measured without assuming a constitutive law.