BetzLab

If you want to literally play with a microscope, try our new LEGO based one: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…. Plans and multi-language guides to teach kids are on GitHub: github.com/tobetz/LegoMic…. Sub-micron resolution thanks to a smartphone lens. Please RT, so that it reaches the kids!

@FakhriLab @MIT Congratulations. This is so well deserved.🤩

I’m excited to share that I’ve been promoted to Full Professor of Physics at @MIT. This milestone feels especially meaningful: I am the first Iranian woman to hold this position in physics at MIT. I carry my heritage with pride, especially in moments like this. I’m deeply grateful to my students, postdocs, colleagues and mentors. This achievement reflects the community that challenges me, supports me, and elevates the work every day. The work continues: ambitious questions, curiosity-driven science and much still to discover. Onward… to the questions we haven’t yet imagined! Picture: latest Fakhri group meeting

Jochen Guck just passed away. He was not only a brilliant mind, amazing researcher, and outstanding person — he was also one of the best friends one could ever have. Jochen, you will be missed so deeply. Your spirit and laughter will stay in our hearts forever.

After 8 amazing months at the NYU/Center for Soft Matter Research I had to say goodbye😭to a wonderful group of colleagues and students. Thanks for the hospitality and patience in teaching me active swimmers and holographic tweezers🤩. Next thing to do: Setting it up in Germany💪

I am so proud. Dorian's poster was selected for the posterprize at this years spring meeting of the German Physical Society🥳. Well deserved 🫠. Three prizes by my students in three years. I am so lucky that I can call this talented crowd of passionate researchers the BetzLab 🤩

Check out the corresponding paper: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Getting tissue stress from images is tough, and elastic tension sensors are a way to solve this. Still, the analysis is complex. Try our GUI gitlab.gwdg.de/betzlab_public… implementing analytical solutions to obtain surface stresses AND shape parameters of beads and nuclei.

You are a biologist and want to get an idea why looking at intracellular active mechanics is important for cellular function? Check out our recent review preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2501.14538 We try to give an intuitive access, but also provide details in extensive toolboxes.

Congrats to all the authors, especially Wolfram and Malte for an amazing work. The paper is a beautiful icing on the amazing achivement of the heart muscle patches! It's such a gamechanger!!

What a day! Perfect weather for the beautiful Göttingen tradition to give a kiss to the famous 'Gänseliesel'.🥳 Till was pulled to the fountain in a special cart and stepped in the footprints of many famous scholars by offering some flowers and a kiss to the statue 🤩.

Happy and exhausted after an amazing week of active cytoskeleton talks at the #WEH818 seminar in Bad Honnef. We had a whopping 44 talks, 33 posters, a 13km hike, and lots of incredible discussions. Congrats to the poster prize winners👇 and thanks to all for an amazing seminar🤩

The schedule of the #weh818 seminar on the cytoskeleton as active matter is as dense as the cytoskeleton itself, but we do not want to miss any of its great talks. Here a few pictures, from the talks by Francois Nedelec, Erwin Frey @PhysOfLifeLMU, Martin Lenz @lenz_lab and Gijsje Koenderink @BiosoftLab (who just joined the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)

The 818th WE-Heraeus seminar #weh818 on „The cytoskeleton as active matter“ has started at Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, with an introduction by @BetzLab and many great speakers, including @BauschLab, @murrell_lab and @Lblanchoin we-heraeus-stiftung.de/veranstaltunge…

Amazing first day of the #WEH818 Seminar on the 'Cytoskeleton as Active Matter'. Besides the cool talks and fun discussions, we had an impressive lineup of Poster-Presenter Flash talks.

Congrats Leon and Ulrich! This is very well deserved. The paper is a beauty!

Paper alert: nature.com/articles/s4156… @NatureMaterials introduces the “Mean Back Relaxation” which quantifies non-equilibrium from simple passive particle trajectories. Amazing theory (M. Krüger, G.Knotz) and experiments @MunkerTill to obtain cell mechanics by simple observation🧐

What a surprise goodbye from my group, showing up at the station. Best farewell ever 🥹🥰. Now they will have a productive 8 months, as I will not bother them with meetings, journal clubs and updates 🤔. And I look forward learning about Active Droplets and Tweezers @nyu_csmr.🤓

@GuckLab @Alexis_Lomakin @MPI_Light @MPZ_PhysMed This is so intriguing. You guys put forward a riddle that will keep many of us busy for some years 🤓.

… the nucleus is not as dense as the cytoplasm - true for all eukaryotic cells - and the ratio is always 0.8. Go figure... @MPI_Light @MPZ_PhysMed biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Review with @moofaca on the technique that has led to one of the most surprising discoveries in bio photonics, biophysics, and maybe even cell biology in recent years… doi.org/10.1038/s43586…

Amazing week in the Alps during the combined lab retreat with the Gunawan and Raz lab. Not only top science and great hikes, but we all also made many new friends and create hopefully new collaborations🤩.

This is such a nice story. What you show here will surely end up textbooks🤩. Good luck for the next steps!