The first preprint from my postdoctoral work, in collaboration with Michael Zhao, Anna Erzberger and Alexander Aulehla is now out! In it, we use nonlocal advection-diffusion models to study aggregation-based patterning. In particular, we ask how the size of a confining domain determines patterning dynamics. We find that whereas the long-time attracting state is always the same, the transient dynamics are highly variable dependent on the domain size. We also did some fun mathematics and predict the outcome of an exciting set of experiments by Michael. Find the preprint on arXiv!

I recently attended the Conference on Complex Systems in Siena. It's always a pleasure to interact with the complex systems community; many of the conference's topics transport me back to my studies in complex systems science. After my Master's in complex systems I focused more exclusively on biological systems, which is why it's fun and a bit nostalgic to listen again to talks on network science, game theory, dynamics of city growth and so on. On the last day I presented a talk on our work on pattern formation in developmental biology.

Our paper on the temperature scaling of the embryonic cell cycle is now published. I'm glad to see it out: it was a work of many years, with the first experiments (not by me, to be clear) dating from 10 years ago. Thanks to the Ferrell, Yang and Gelens labs for bringing this work to an end together. Find the paper here.

Hot or cold: it matters to us, but also to the dividing egg cell. Over a wide range of temperatures, the hotter it is, the faster the cell divisions go. However, too hot, or too cold, and the cycles stop. In this work, we set out to understand how the scaling of cell cycle duration with temperature originates in the protein interaction network that drives the cycle forward. This was a collaboration with the labs of Jim Ferrell and Qiong Yang. Find the preprint on biorxiv!

After three years, I say goodbye to Heidelberg. My postdoc at EMBL comes to an end but the project and collaborations will go on. It was a very inspiring time and I will be happy to visit again once in a while!

I am now starting a new position at the Université Libre de Bruxelles with Geneviève Dupont in the Unit of Theoretical Chronobiology. I will be working as an FNRS-funded postdoc (chargé de recherches), continuing my research on pattern formation in developmental biology.

On September 16-17, I attended the Physics of Living Matter conference organized by the Turing Centre for Living Systems in Marseille. The great view from the conference venue combined with many cool talks led to a very nice conference.

I attended Dynamics Days Europe 2024 in Bremen. As always, this conference was a stimulating mix of topics ranging from billiards (the mathematical kind) to climate dynamics and vegetation pattern formation. On Monday I presented our current work on pattern formation in multicellular systems on bounded domains.

Together with the Young Marsilius Fellows of the Marsilius Kolleg of Heidelberg University, we organized an event with discussions, talks, games and an exhibition with posters from our 'Data is Art' competition. The title was 'From end to Beginning: An Interdisciplinary Adventure'. We talked about our research and how we found unexpected connections between very different fields, we had discussions about the meaning of heritage and opened up the black box of progress in science.

It was a great afternoon and I think the participants enjoyed it a lot.

I contributed a computer game where players have to cooperate and communicate in order to accomplish a common goal (see also Outreach).

Some years ago during my PhD work, we came up with a new method of modeling bistable switches, based on a modification of the Hill function. We used it to model the transitions between different phases of the cell cycle, described in our 2021 paper. Now, these models have been chosen as one of the three winners of the competition 'Model of the Year 2023'. This competition is held by the BioModels website, and aims to promote reproducibility and good modeling practice in systems biology. I'm happy to be among the winners! Thanks to Jolan and Lendert for working together on the paper. Also check out this year's competition: Model of the Year 2024.

Together with Jenna and Anna, we wrote a review paper on mechanochemical pattern formation. We illustrate using a range of examples how mechanical processes such as flows and forces can be important in the formation of biological patterns. Thanks to Jenna and Anna, and also to the many people who gave feedback on the manuscript!