
Benoit LADOUX
Visiting Faculty, Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Research Director, Université Paris Diderot & Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Laboratory website
Cell Adhesion and Mechanics Lab
Research Program
Mechanotransduction in Tissues Group
Affiliations
Research Director, Université Paris Diderot & Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Seeking Research Assistant in the research group of Prof. Alexander Bershadsky
We are seeking to recruit a Research Assistant to work in the research group of Prof. Alexander Bershadsky at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS.
Ivo Johannes Hendrikus Marie de Vos
Research Fellow, Li Group
Hann Shen Ng
Research Fellow, Holle Group
Congratulations to Kim Whye and Jake for their recent achievements
Congrats to Kim Whye for being selected to give an oral presentation and for receiving a travel award for the upcoming Imaging Mouse Development Workshop! Congrats also to Jake for being awarded the prestigious EMBL CPP grant to engage in collaboration with the Prevedel lab!
Joe invited to present at various conferences and research institutes in Japan
Joe was invited to present at the International Symposium on Mechanical control of biological self-organization and the IUPAB Congress 2024 in Kyoto, as well as at WPI-PRIMe in Osaka. It was also a great pleasure to meet up with Katsuhiko Hayashi, an inspiring figure in ovaroids studies!
Push and pull: Joe shares his two cents on current approaches to measuring mechanics in Nature
Great to see developmental mechanics getting highlighted!
Benoit Ladoux
Visiting Faculty
Research Areas
Epithelial cell migration; microfabrication for cell mechanics; influence of the mechanical environments on cell functions; mechanotransduction
Research Interests
Our research aims at understanding how living organisms interact with their environment. In particular, we are studying the cooperation between adhesion, biomechanical and biochemical signaling for the adaptation of living organisms to changes in their environment. To probe these questions, our laboratory has developed a repertoire of micro- and nano-fabrication tools to control and measure the chemical and mechanical environment of cells. Our research programme thus focuses on the integration of novel microfabricated devices for the quantitative imaging of living organisms.
Biography
With a background in Physics, Prof Ladoux started his career at Curie Institute working on single molecule biophysics. He worked on two main problems combining statistical physics, microfabrication and molecular biology: 1) chromatin condensation in real time; 2) fluctuations of a single polymer under shear flows. After a post-doc on cell mechanics, he used his knowledge in biophysics and microfabrication to start a new subject on mechanical studies of cell migration and adhesion at the University Paris Diderot. He developed microsystems to characterise the mechanical interactions of cells with their migration support. He is currently working on rigidity sensing, collective cell migration and tissue homeostasis.
Recent Publications
- Shiratsuchi N, Fujita Y, Simon de Beco , Daubech C, Ladoux B, Grata A, Levayer R, Magny E, O'Brien LE, Priya R, Mitchell SJ, Rosenblatt J, Rupprecht J, Stockmann L, Sedzinski J, Roquin L, Suzanne M, Toyama Y, Matekcic M, Trepat X, Vinzens S, Wickström SA, Lwin AKO, and Yap AS. Meeting report - CellExIt#1, the first international symposium on cell extrusion. J Cell Sci 2026; 139(14). [PMID: 42504880]
- Balasubramaniam L, Monfared S, Ardaševa A, Rosse C, Schoenit A, Dang T, Maric C, Hautefeuille M, Kocgozlu L, Chilupuri R, Dubey S, Marangoni E, L Doss B, Chavrier P, Mège R, Doostmohammadi A, and Ladoux B. Dynamic forces shape the survival fate of eliminated cells. Nat Phys 2025;. [PMID: 40636322]
- Kawaue T, Yow I, Pan Y, Le AP, Lou Y, Loberas M, Shagirov M, Teng X, Prost J, Hiraiwa T, Ladoux B, and Toyama Y. Inhomogeneous mechanotransduction defines the spatial pattern of apoptosis-induced compensatory proliferation. Dev Cell 2023;. [PMID: 36800994]
- Sonam S, Balasubramaniam L, Lin S, Ivan YMY, Jaumà IP, Jebane C, Karnat M, Toyama Y, Marcq P, Prost J, Mège R, Rupprecht J, and Ladoux B. Mechanical stress driven by rigidity sensing governs epithelial stability. Nat Phys 2022; 19:132-141. [PMID: 36686215]
- Rose N, Estrada Chavez B, Sonam S, Nguyen T, Grenci G, Bigot A, Muchir A, Ladoux B, Cadot B, Le Grand F, and Trichet L. Bioengineering a miniaturized in vitro 3D myotube contraction monitoring chip to model muscular dystrophies. Biomaterials 2022; 293:121935. [PMID: 36584444]
- . https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36103541
- Yang Y, Nguyen E, Sankara Narayana GHN, Heuzé M, Fu C, Yu H, Mège R, Ladoux B, and Sheetz MP. Local contractions regulate E-cadherin rigidity sensing. Sci Adv 2022; 8(4):eabk0387. [PMID: 35089785]
- . https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33850145
- Latorre E, Kale S, Casares L, Gómez-González M, Uroz M, Valon L, Nair RV, Garreta E, Montserrat N, Del Campo A, Ladoux B, Arroyo M, and Trepat X. Addendum: Active superelasticity in three-dimensional epithelia of controlled shape. Nature 2021;. [PMID: 33846613]
- Balasubramaniam L, Doostmohammadi A, Saw TB, Narayana GHNS, Mueller R, Dang T, Thomas M, Gupta S, Sonam S, Yap AS, Toyama Y, Mège R, Yeomans JM, and Ladoux B. Author Correction: Investigating the nature of active forces in tissues reveals how contractile cells can form extensile monolayers. Nat Mater 2021;. [PMID: 33750921]
Lab Members
How do bacteria modulate the host cytoskeleton?
How do bacteria modulate the host cytoskeleton? Some bacterial pathogens gain entry and subvert immune detection by surviving intracellularly. Others remain extracellular, but manipulate host pathways from outside. A common strategy employed by both [...]
What are actin pedestals?
What are actin pedestals? Actin pedestals are raised actin structures formed by the dynamic polymerization of host actin, induced by effector proteins secreted by extracellular pathogens like Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia [...]
What are actin comet tails?
What are actin comet tails? Actin comet tails are actin structures formed by the dynamic polymerization of actin beneath some species of intracellular bacteria belonging to the genus Listeria, Shigella, Ricketssia, Mycobacterium and Burkholderia. [...]
Mechanobiology of bacterial pathogenesis
Bacterial Pathogenesis Pathogenesis is defined as the origination and development of a disease. Insights into disease etiology and progression, the two major aspects of pathogenesis, are paramount in the prevention, management and treatment of [...]
What processes occur during cardiac development?
What processes occur during cardiac development? The heart is the first functional organ to form during the development of an embryo, which, in humans, occurs during the third week post-fertilization. It primarily involves the [...]
How do cardiomyocytes differentiate?
How do cardiomyocytes differentiate? Cardiomyocytes are the chief cell type in the heart and their coordinated contraction as a mass is responsible for the pumping of blood around the developing embryo. Cardiac specification occurs [...]
How does the vascular system form?
How does the vascular system form? What is vasculogenesis? Vasculogenesis refers to the morphogenetic process occurring during the earliest stages of embryonic development by which a de novo vascular system, consisting of the heart [...]
What is dorsal closure?
What is dorsal closure? The shaping of the embryo during development is driven by large-scale movements of epithelial cell sheets as they bend, spread, and fuse with each other. One such major, well-defined morphogenetic [...]
How is dorsal closure controlled by mechanics?
How is dorsal closure controlled by mechanics? A number of studies, which describe the cellular mechanisms and signaling pathways underlying dorsal closure, have pointed towards a mechanical basis for the morphogenetic changes associated with [...]
What are epithelial tubes?
What are epithelial tubes? Tubulogenesis, or the formation of tubes, is one of the fundamental morphogenetic events taking place during development. Several major organs, such as the respiratory, circulatory, and secretory systems, are constituted [...]
How is tubulogenesis regulated by mechanics?
How is tubulogenesis regulated by mechanics? The basic steps during tube formation, including cell polarization, the formation of small multiple lumens and the coalescence of multiple lumens into a single lumen, and subsequent tube [...]
What is cell migration?
What is cell migration? Cell migration is the directed movement of a single cell or a group of cells in response to chemical and/or mechanical signals. It is a fundamental cellular process that occurs [...]

