Hannezo Group
Physical Principles in Biological Systems
During embryo development, cells must “know” how to behave at the right place and at the right time. The Hannezo group applies methods from theoretical physics to understand how these robust choices occur.
The Hannezo group is particularly interested in design principles and processes of self-organization in biology, at various scales, in close collaboration with cell and developmental biologists. Their methods include tools from solid and fluid mechanics, statistical physics as well as soft matter approaches. Examples of problems that the group is working on – at three different scales – include: 1) how do cytoskeletal elements, which generate forces within cells, self-organize to produce complex spatio-temporal patterns? 2) how do cells concomitantly acquire identities and shape a tissue during development? and 3) how does complex tissue architecture derive from simple self-organizing principles, for instance during branching morphogenesis (in organs such as the kidneys, mammary glands, pancreas, and prostate) as a prototypical example.
Group Leader
Administrative Support
On this site:
Team
Current Projects
Stochastic branching in mammalian organs | Active fluids and cell cytoskeleton | Models of fate choices of stem cells during homeostasis and embryo development
Publications
Dunajova Z, Prats Mateu B, Radler P, Lim K, Brandis D, Velicky P, Danzl JG, Wong RW, Elgeti J, Hannezo EB, Loose M. 2023. Chiral and nematic phases of flexible active filaments. Nature Physics. View
Unterweger IA, Klepstad J, Hannezo EB, Lundegaard PR, Trusina A, Ober EA. 2023. Lineage tracing identifies heterogeneous hepatoblast contribution to cell lineages and postembryonic organ growth dynamics. PLoS Biology. 21(10), e3002315. View
Ucar MC, Hannezo EB, Tiilikainen E, Liaqat I, Jakobsson E, Nurmi H, Vaahtomeri K. 2023. Self-organized and directed branching results in optimal coverage in developing dermal lymphatic networks. Nature Communications. 14, 5878. View
Alanko JH, Ucar MC, Canigova N, Stopp JA, Schwarz J, Merrin J, Hannezo EB, Sixt MK. 2023. CCR7 acts as both a sensor and a sink for CCL19 to coordinate collective leukocyte migration. Science Immunology. 8(87), adc9584. View
Grober D, Palaia I, Ucar MC, Hannezo EB, Šarić A, Palacci JA. 2023. Unconventional colloidal aggregation in chiral bacterial baths. Nature Physics. View
ReX-Link: Edouard Hannezo
Career
since 2017 Assistant Professor, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
2015 – 2017 Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow, Gurdon Institute, Cambridge, UK
2015 – 2017 Junior Research Fellow, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK
2014 Postdoc, Institut Curie, Paris, France
2014 PhD, Institut Curie and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
Selected Distinctions
2019 EMBO Young Investigator Award
2019 ERC Starting Grant
2015 Wellcome Trust Fellowship
2014 Young Researcher Prize of the Bettencourt-Schuller Foundation
2014 Trinity College Junior Research Fellowship
2010 PhD grant from the French Ministry of Research
Additional Information
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Physics & Beyond at ISTA
