{"id":133175,"date":"2026-04-10T08:33:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ibecbarcelona.eu\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=133175"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:33:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:33:23","slug":"ibec-seminar-pablo-j-saez","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/ibecbarcelona.eu\/ca\/event\/ibec-seminar-pablo-j-saez\/","title":{"rendered":"Ibec Seminar: Pablo J. S\u00e1ez"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Decision-making during cell migration<\/h3>\n
Pablo J. S\u00e1ez, PhD Cell Communication and Migration Laboratory, UKE, Hamburg<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Moving cells navigate inside living tissues often encountering obstacles and junctions, where their path branches into alternative directions of migration. This is the case of cells moving on top or within blood vessels, which often bifurcate into branches. Cells have\u00a0diverse\u00a0migratory strategies that differentially rely on the adhesion to the substrate. Cells that undergo mesenchymal migration are highly dependent on the adhesion to the substrate, and when facing bifurcations are forced to coordinate the adhesion and detachment of the\u00a0competing branches. Recent studies showed how\u00a0the decision is made -to keep or retract a\u00a0branch and choose a new direction- when there is bias:\u00a0open versus\u00a0dead-end, differences in pressure, presence\/absence\u00a0of a chemoattractant. However, much less\u00a0is know about how cells decide a new direction when the decision is unbiased. Similarly, it is poorly understood how migrating cells coordinate membrane dynamics and polarity during branching to maintain a good trade-off between microenvironmental exploration and migratory efficiency.\u00a0 Here, we use\u00a0in vitro<\/i>\u00a0live-cell imaging using different levels of complexity, conventional and label-free microscopy (holotomography), advanced image analysis and\u00a0in vivo<\/i>\u00a0live-cell imaging (zebrafish) to analyze the response of migrating cells when facing symmetric junctions, and\u00a0extreme branching when cells simultaneously\u00a0face several bifurcations.\u00a0We found that actin and membrane dynamics play a key role to choose a new direction in both cases i) when cells face a single symmetric junction (Y-shaped with equal angles,\u00a0Ron et al. 2024<\/a>), and ii) when cells exhibit high levels of branching because they face several junctions at the same time (Liu et al.<\/a>). In addition, we found that migrating\u00a0immune cells have a fine tune regulation of branching in order to coordinate surveillance and migration. Microtubules, and organelle position and function were required in a cell-specific manner for efficient directional decision-making in symmetric, as well as in asymmetric junctions (i.e. different angles or adhesion). We integrated this data into a coarse-grain model to explain and predict migratory behaviour during decision-making. These results shed light on the mechanisms by which\u00a0cells resolve unbiased junctions and branching\u00a0during cell migration.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Pablo J. S\u00e1ez is a cell\u00a0biologist from Chile where he did most of his training until the PhD working in cell communication and inflammation in the lab at the Juan S\u00e1ez lab (Catholic University). Then, he did a short transition in the same university, in the\u00a0lab of Marcelo Far\u00edas\u00a0working in organelles, in particular in obesity-induced\u00a0ER stress. Then, he came to Europe as a postdoc to work in leukocyte migration and organelle\u00a0polarity in the lab of Ana-Mar\u00eda Lennon at the Institut Curie in Paris. From there he move to the lab of Matthieu Piel\u00a0at IPGG-Curie in the group of Pablo Vargas to continue his work\u00a0in leukocyte migration and microfluidics. In 2020 he started his own group as a Full\u00a0Professor\u00a0at the UKE in Hamburg, and since\u00a02022 he leads\u00a0a\u00a0HFSP grant team\u00a0(in collaboration\u00a0with Yamuna Krishnan and Nir Gov)\u00a0dedicated to understand directional decision-making. He also has a great interest in promoting diversity, mentoring, scientific communication, and sciart.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decision-making during cell migration Pablo J. S\u00e1ez, PhD Cell Communication and Migration Laboratory, UKE, Hamburg Moving cells navigate inside living tissues often encountering obstacles and junctions, where their path branches … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[105],"class_list":["post-133175","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","hentry","tribe_events_cat-ibec-seminar","cat_ibec-seminar"],"yoast_head":"\nIbec Seminar: Pablo J. 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