Kate Cavanaugh

Kate Cavanaugh

@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

Migrating on my own path. Cytoskeletal enthusiast with a love for mechanics, development, and biophysical approaches. | BWF CASI Fellow with Orion Weiner at UCSF | PhD Gardel lab at UChicago | HHMI Gilliam, Ford Predoctoral Fellow Alum |

2.6K followers2.3K following147 posts

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Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

Song Kim
@songk.bsky.social

Excited to share my first preprint from my PhD work in the Bement lab 🥳 💝 We discovered a previously unrecognized function of the RhoGAP RGA-3/4: RGA-3/4 directly and cooperatively binds to F-actin and reorganizes it by crosslinking actin filaments www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgMolecular and cellular characterization of the interaction between the Rho GAP RGA-3/4 and F-actinDuring cytokinesis in amphibian and echinoderm embryos, propagating waves of Rho activity and F-actin assembly - cortical excitability - are amplified and focused at the equatorial cortex by the mitot...
Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

Absolutely ecstatic to share that WE GOT THE COVER!!! 🥹🎉 Seeing this on NCB's cover feels surreal. So much time, science, and teamwork went into this project, and I couldn’t be more excited to see it celebrated like this. A very, very happy day for this really really old and grown embryo 🐭🧫💥

Kate Cavanaugh@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

🧵 What if one reason fertility declines with age isn’t just genetic-but mechanical? Thrilled to share our new paper in @NatureCellBio : Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females… here’s what we found 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/11

nature.comElevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females - Nature Cell BiologyCavanaugh et al. show that embryos from aged mice have increased contractility and tissue viscosity on embryonic day 4.5, which leads to poor spreading and attachment. Similar age-associated mechanica...

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

Ricard Alert Zenón
@ricardalert.bsky.social

New paper @natcellbio.nature.com! We propose to understand embryo implantation as active wetting. Embryos from older mothers spread less because they are too contractile and viscous. Experiments by @katecavanaugh.bsky.social and theory by MJ Franco-Oñate in my group. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comElevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females - Nature Cell BiologyCavanaugh et al. show that embryos from aged mice have increased contractility and tissue viscosity on embryonic day 4.5, which leads to poor spreading and attachment. Similar age-associated mechanica...
Kate Cavanaugh@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

🧵 What if one reason fertility declines with age isn’t just genetic-but mechanical? Thrilled to share our new paper in @NatureCellBio : Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females… here’s what we found 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/11

nature.comElevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females - Nature Cell BiologyCavanaugh et al. show that embryos from aged mice have increased contractility and tissue viscosity on embryonic day 4.5, which leads to poor spreading and attachment. Similar age-associated mechanica...
Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

And finally—a bit of personal news: 🔬 I’m on the faculty job market this year! I’m looking for tenure-track opportunities where I can build a lab at the intersection of developmental biology, mechanobiology, reproductive biology & aging.

Kate Cavanaugh@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

🧵 What if one reason fertility declines with age isn’t just genetic-but mechanical? Thrilled to share our new paper in @NatureCellBio : Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females… here’s what we found 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/11

nature.comElevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females - Nature Cell BiologyCavanaugh et al. show that embryos from aged mice have increased contractility and tissue viscosity on embryonic day 4.5, which leads to poor spreading and attachment. Similar age-associated mechanica...
Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

More broadly, I want to understand how mechanics, cell fate, and morphogenesis talk to one another across scales—from the ovary, to the embryo, to implantation. Specifically how reproductive aging might compromise this communication. And please share/RT: the academic job market runs on diffusion. 🫠

Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

And in clinical time-lapse datasets, we found related morphokinetic signatures associated with implantation potential. Our work suggests Embryo mechanics may be an overlooked regulator of reproductive longevity and a new way to understand, predict, and maybe improve implantation

Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

And that early behavior contains information about the embryo's future. Using time-lapse imaging, we found that compaction dynamics predict how well an embryo will later implant. The embryo may be revealing its mechanical state days before implantation begins! 7/11

Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

But Mechanics -> cell fate. Embryos from A females showed altered trophectoderm, and Aged cells placed into young embryos were biased away from the trophectoderm lineage. So the consequences of altered mechanics may reshape developmental decisions themselves. 8/11

Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

But correlation ≠ causation. So we changed contractility ourselves. ⬆️ Increase contractility in young embryos → they acquire the aged implantation phenotype. ⬇️ Reduce contractility in aged embryos → implantation competence improves. 5/11

Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

Then came one of my favorite surprises: The mechanical defect appears long before implantation. At the 8-cell stage, embryos undergo compaction: a dramatic actomyosin-driven shape change. Embryos from aged females compact differently and move through this transition faster. 6/11

Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

Turns out: yes. Embryos from aged females are hypercontractile. Their outer epithelium (the trophectoderm) generates too much contractile force, increasing tissue surface tension and viscosity. In other words: Aged embryos are mechanically different. 3/11

Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

Why does that matter? To implant, a blastocyst has to physically interact with its environment. We found that aged embryos behave like a droplet that doesn't want to wet a surface: Too much viscosity makes the embryo less able to implant. 4/11

Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

🧵 What if one reason fertility declines with age isn’t just genetic-but mechanical? Thrilled to share our new paper in @NatureCellBio : Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females… here’s what we found 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/11

nature.comElevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females - Nature Cell BiologyCavanaugh et al. show that embryos from aged mice have increased contractility and tissue viscosity on embryonic day 4.5, which leads to poor spreading and attachment. Similar age-associated mechanica...
Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

We know fertility declines dramatically with maternal age. Aneuploidy is a major part of the story—but even chromosomally normal embryos from older women can fail to implant. So we asked a different question: Could aging change the physical properties of the embryo? 2/11

Kate Cavanaugh
@katecavanaugh.bsky.social

Honored to be featured in this year's cohort of winners. Thank you to ASCB for recognizing my work on the mechanics of mammalian embryo development with reproductive aging. Excited to present my work later this year at the 2026 ASCB meeting in San Diego! www.ascb.org/society-news...

ascb.orgASCB Announces 2026 Honorific Award Winners - ASCBEach year, the American Society for Cell Biology honors exceptional scientists whose research, mentorship, and leadership are shaping the future of cell biology. From groundbreaking discoveries to tir...

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

Kari Herrington
@kahsage.bsky.social

This is our classy polarized rac-rho cell's good friend. The noise it makes is "Oblelbebebelbebeb" Draw with acrylic pens #art #sciart #traditionalart

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

Nicoletta Petridou
@nicolettapetridou.bsky.social

A very pleasant surprise to see that we got the cover for this paper 🥳 @natphys.nature.com

Nicoletta Petridou@nicolettapetridou.bsky.social

Here the published version of our work on uncoupling different types of tissue phase transitions during development! Find out more on how contact surface tension-driven rigidity transitions trigger tricellular junction formation and initiate epithelial organization! @natphys.nature.com

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

Henry De Belly
@henrydebelly.bsky.social

Very excited to be sharing our new paper, just out in Nature Cell Biology! The big question we investigate: How do migrating cells put their front 🔴 and back 🔵 in the right place?

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

Brugues Lab
@brugueslab.bsky.social

Replying to @brugueslab.bsky.social

This poses an intriguing question: how is cytoplasm robustly and accurately organized in absence of physical barriers, and how is cytoplasmic partitioning achieved within the constrained time window of rapid embryonic divisions? (2/9)

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

Nicole Edwards
@nicoleedwds.bsky.social

I’m happy to announce that I joined @umich.edu Department of Cell & Developmental Biology as an Assistant Professor and I will open my lab this month! My lab will investigate the genetic and cellular mechanisms underlying digestive and respiratory organs with a focus on the trachea and esophagus 1/2

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

Vítor Yang
@vitoryang.bsky.social

Replying to @vitoryang.bsky.social

RhoGAP15B RNAi collapses leader protrusions, while RhoGAP15B OE stabilises and extends them, underscoring tight control protrusion dynamics.

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

Simon Cook
@drsimoncook.bsky.social

Christmas has come early. Fantastic to see this beautiful study from Peter Rugg-Gunn's lab at The Babraham Institute published today. Congratulations to Matteo Mole, Sarah Elderkin, Irene Zorzan and all other authors! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

cell.comModeling human embryo implantation in vitroBuilding an in vitro model of receptive endometrium allows investigation of human embryo implantation and early post-implantation development and recapitulates the earliest stages in establishing the ...

Kate Cavanaugh reposted

c0nc0rdance
@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social

“A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress - though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known" - Bertrand Russell, 1976. Time-lapse video of Vampyrella lateritia eating Spirogyra algae from Science Source/Oliver Skibbe. 🦠