
Ronen ZAIDEL-BAR
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
Laboratory website
Zaidel-Bar Cell Adhesion Lab
Seeking Research Associate in Molecular and Cell Biology in the Kanchanawong Lab at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
We are seeking a Research Associate in Molecular and Cell Biology to join the Kanchanawong at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
Teh Zhi Jing
Research Assistant, Low Group
Congratulations to Kim Whye Leong for presenting excellent work at the Imaging Mouse Development Workshop held at EMBL Heidelberg!
Congratulations to Kim Whye Leong for presenting excellent work at the Imaging Mouse Development Workshop held at EMBL Heidelberg from 2 to 5 Sept 2024. Thanks for all the feedback from the expert audience!
Seeking Research Assistant in the labs of Dr. Natalie Dye and Dr. Alphée Michelot at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
We are seeking a Research Assistant to join the labs of Dr. Natalie Dye and Dr. Alphée Michelot at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS.
Seeking Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Chan Laboratory, Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
We are seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Chan Laboratory at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS.
Welcome to Daniel!
Daniel is a UROP intern who will be applying a machine learning approach to study follicle development.
Ronen Zaidel-Bar
Visiting Faculty
Currently Visting
6-12 Nov 2018
Office: T-Lab, Level 5
Research Areas
Cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion, Regulation of actomyosin contractility and dynamics, C. elegans development, mechanics and molecular mechanisms of morphogenesis
Research Interests
- How do specific cytoskeletal proteins contribute to the organization and function of cell adhesion and actomyosin structures?
- How are signals processed within the “adhesome” and “contractome” to arrive at the appropriate cytoskeletal arrangement for a given cell state?
- How do adhesion sites and the cytoskeleton sense and respond to external mechanical forces?
Biography
Dr Zaidel-Bar obtained his Ph.D. working with Prof Benny Geiger (Weizmann Institute of Science) on the role of force in regulating cell-matrix adhesions. Their work first focused on single proteins and evolved to encompass the entire adhesome network. In his Postdoctoral training with Prof Jeff Hardin (University of Wisconsin – Madison) Dr Zaidel-Bar switched from studying cells in culture to employing the genetic model organism C. elegans for the study of cell-cell adhesions during development. Dr Zaidel-Bar was attracted to Singapore by the opening of MBI and was awarded the Singapore National Research Foundation Fellowship for promising young investigators.
Education
PhD Weizmann Institute of Science
Recent Publications
- Bertocchi C, Alegría JJ, Vásquez-Sepúlveda S, Ibanez-Prat R, Srinivasan A, Arrano-Valenzuela I, Castro-Pereira B, Soto-Montandon C, Trujillo-Espergel A, Montenegro-Rojas I, Deguchi S, Owen GI, Kanchanawong P, Cerda M, Motta G, Zaidel-Bar R, and Ravasio A. Systematic AI-assisted screening of the cadhesome to map epithelial monolayer mechanics. Cell Commun Signal 2026;. [PMID: 42399739]
- Ray S, Agarwal P, Nitzan A, Nédélec F, and Zaidel-Bar R. Actin capping protein regulates actomyosin contractility to maintain germline architecture in C. elegans. Development 2023;. [PMID: 36897576]
- Avivi Kela S, Sethi K, Tan PY, Suresh D, Ong HT, Castaneda PG, Amin MR, Laviv T, Cram EJ, Faix J, and Zaidel-Bar R. Tension-dependent RHGF-1 recruitment to stress fibers drives robust spermathecal tissue contraction. J Cell Biol 2022; 222(2). [PMID: 36574264]
- Chen Z, Oh D, Biswas KH, Zaidel-Bar R, and Groves JT. Probing the effect of clustering on EphA2 receptor signaling efficiency by subcellular control of ligand-receptor mobility. Elife 2021; 10. [PMID: 34414885]
- Hu S, Grobe H, Guo Z, Wang Y, Doss BL, Pan M, Ladoux B, Bershadsky AD, and Zaidel-Bar R. Reciprocal regulation of actomyosin organization and contractility in non-muscle cells by tropomyosins and alpha-actinins. Mol. Biol. Cell 2019;:mbcE19020082. [PMID: 31216217]
- Desai SK, Padmanabhan A, Harshe S, Zaidel-Bar R, and Kenney LJ. Salmonella biofilms program innate immunity for persistence in Caenorhabditis elegans. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2019;. [PMID: 31160462]
- Bouffard J, Cecchetelli AD, Clifford C, Sethi K, Zaidel-Bar R, and Cram EJ. The RhoGAP SPV-1 regulates calcium signaling to control the contractility of the C. elegans spermatheca during embryo transits. Mol. Biol. Cell 2019;:mbcE18100633. [PMID: 30726159]
- Priti A, Ong HT, Toyama Y, Padmanabhan A, Dasgupta S, Krajnc M, and Zaidel-Bar R. Syncytial germline architecture is actively maintained by contraction of an internal actomyosin corset. Nat Commun 2018; 9(1):4694. [PMID: 30410005]
- Agarwal P, and Zaidel-Bar R. Principles of Actomyosin Regulation In Vivo. Trends Cell Biol. 2018;. [PMID: 30385150]
- Chen Z, Oh D, Biswas KH, Yu C, Zaidel-Bar R, and Groves JT. Spatially modulated ephrinA1:EphA2 signaling increases local contractility and global focal adhesion dynamics to promote cell motility. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2018;. [PMID: 29866846]
Lab Members
What is flotillin-associated endocytosis?
What is flotillin-associated endocytosis? Flotillins, which are proteins that localize to specific microdomains or lipid rafts in the plasma membrane, mediate a clathrin-independent endocytosis pathway that is regulated by the Src family tyrosine kinase [...]
What is Rho-dependent IL-2 receptor endocytosis?
What is Rho-dependent IL-2 receptor endocytosis? Internalization of transmembrane receptors was thought to occur exclusively via clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME). However, the discovery of clathrin-independent endocytic routes, in particular, the pathway that mediates the internalization [...]
What is Arf6-associated endocytosis?
What is Arf6-associated endocytosis? Arf6-associated endocytosis is a clathrin-independent, plasma membrane-endosomal recycling pathway, regulated by the Arf6 protein, which is a member of the Arf family of small GTPases [1]. In this pathway, Arf6 [...]
What is the CLIC/GEEC Endocytosis pathway?
What is the CLIC/GEEC Endocytosis pathway? The CLIC/GEEC (CG) pathway is a clathrin-independent endocytic pathway mediated by uncoated tubulovesicular primary carriers called clathrin-independent carriers (CLICs) which arise directly from the plasma membrane and later [...]
How does scission of the clathrin-coated vesicle occur?
How does scission of the clathrin-coated vesicle occur? As mentioned, in mammalian CME the GTPase dynamin is believed to play important roles in invagination and clathrin-coated pit (CCP) maturation [1]. Its binding partners endophilin [...]
What is autophagy?
What is autophagy? Autophagy, meaning self-eating, is an intracellular degradation system wherein unwanted cargo, such as old or damaged organelles, unneeded proteins, as well as pathogenic agents, are digested and the macromolecular contents from [...]
Genome Regulation
Genome Regulation Genome regulation encompasses all facets of gene expression, from the biochemical modifications of DNA, to the physical arrangement of chromosomes and the activity of the transcription machinery. The genome regulation programs that [...]
What is caveolar endocytosis?
What is caveolar endocytosis? Macropinocytosis or ‘cell drinking’ is a type of endocytosis that involves the nonspecific uptake of extracellular material, such as soluble molecules, nutrients, and antigens. First observed in 1931 by Warren [...]
What is phagocytosis?
What is phagocytosis? Phagocytosis is a process by which cells ingest large particles (> 0.5 micrometers) into membrane-bound vesicles called phagosomes, which are then targeted to the lysosomes for enzymatic degradation. The internalization of [...]
What are chromosomes and chromosome territories?
What are chromosomes and chromosome territories? While metaphase chromosomes can be depicted as distinct bodies with well-defined shapes and sizes, interphase chromosomes are less uniform and, by filling the nuclear space, difficult to distinguish. [...]
What are chromatin, heterochromatin and euchromatin?
What is chromatin, heterochromatin and euchromatin? The human genome contains over 3 billion base pairs or nucleotides. These nucleotides, which are arranged in a linear sequence along DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), encode every protein and [...]
What are nucleosomes?
What are nucleosomes? In order to fit DNA into the nucleus, it must be packaged into a highly compacted structure known as chromatin. In the first step of this process DNA is condensed into [...]

