
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 Postdoctoral Fellow in the Young & Thibault Laboratories at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS seeks to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to Asst. Prof. Jennifer Young's lab.
An early Christmas dinner to celebrate Chan Lab’s accomplishments in 2023!
As the year draws to a close, the Chan Lab celebrated the achievements and contributions by everyone (including many new faces!) in 2023 with an early Christmas dinner, and to thank them for their hard work this busy year. The Lab looks forward to more wonderful things to come in 2024!
Is Mechanosensing an Active Process?
Is Mechanosensing an Active Process?Types of MechanosensingWhen a cell periodically tests its external environment, a mechanical signal is converted to a chemical signal across the cell membrane. Adhesion receptors located on the external cell membrane [...]
How is Energy Transferred Across the Cellular System?
How is Energy Transferred Across the Cellular System?Cellular systems function at a nanometer level and use a highly dynamic set of components. Both of these factors act as primary constraints that prevent the generation of [...]
How are forces transduced in a cellular environment?
How are forces transduced in a cellular environment?The application of the tensegrity, semiflexible chain and dipole polarization models to biological scenarios has proven most successful in the case of the tensegrity hypothesis (as reviewed in [...]
What is Mechanobiology?
What is Mechanobiology?Mechanobiology describes how physical factors, such as forces and mechanics, are able to influence biological systems at the molecular, cellular, and tissue level. The fundamental process which drives mechanobiology is mechanotransduction, the ability [...]
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 are actin filaments?
What are actin filaments? Actin filaments (F-actin) are linear polymers of globular actin (G-actin) subunits and occur as microfilaments in the cytoskeleton and as thin filaments, which are part of the contractile apparatus, in [...]
What is the cytoskeleton?
What is the Cytoskeleton? The eukaryotic cytoskeleton is a network of three long filament systems, made from the repetitive assembly and disassembly of dynamic protein components. The primary filament systems comprising the cytoskeleton are [...]
Arikta and Yuting shared their research as speakers at the MBI Conference 2023
Congratulations to Arikta and Yuting for being selected as speakers and sharing their latest research on ovarian folliculogenesis in MBI Conference 2023: Mechanobiology in Health and Disease. Thanks to various feedback following the talks!
Seeking Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Anne Beghin’s Group at MBI, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS seeks to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to Dr. Anne Beghin's lab.
Seeking Postdoctoral Fellow in the Young Laboratory at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS seeks to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to Asst. Prof. Jennifer Young's lab.
Know You Foe, Work Safely: MBI Safety Day and Safety & Health Management Awards
Through useful talks, fun games and good food, MBI learnt about the dangers in the lab/workplace, and celebrated the good work MBI has done in securing a safe and healthy work environment for all
MBI Conference 2023: Mechanobiology in Health and Disease
MBI's biggest in-person conference and event-of-the-year saw the convergence more than 250 enthusiastic researchers from 21 countries and their exciting discoveries from years of research in mechanobiology
Faculty Recruitment 2023/24
The Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) invites applications from outstanding candidates for faculty positions at all levels.
Seeking Research Fellow in the Theory Collaborator team at MBI, NUS
We seek to recruit a Research Fellow in the Theory Collaborator at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS.
Congratulations to Jashan and Jessica for their awards at the NUS 3MT Competition!
Ph.D. students Jashan and Jessica represented MBI and presented their research theses in 3 short minutes, their compact but impactful presentations earning them the top awards at this year's NUS 3MT Competition.
Soumya Bunk
PhD Student, Department of Biological Sciences
Seeking Graduate Program Administrator at MBI, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute (MBI), National University of Singapore (NUS), seeks to recruit an administrator for its Graduate Program.









