Ronen ZAIDEL-BAR
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
Laboratory website
Zaidel-Bar Cell Adhesion Lab
Check out the lab’s latest publication and preprint!
Access the publication or the preprint here!
Seeking Head of Microfabrication Core Facility at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS, seeks to recruit a Facility Manager to heads its Microfabrication Core Facility.
Seeking Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Biomaterials and Mechanobiology) in the group of Asst. Prof. Jennifer Young at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS, seeks to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Biomaterials and Mechanobiology) in the group of Asst. Prof. Jennifer Young.
Seeking Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Spatial Omics) in the group of Asst. Prof. Jennifer Young at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS, seeks to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Spatial Omics) in the group of Asst. Prof. Jennifer Young.
Congrats to Kelly and Gefei for passing their Qualifying Exams!
Looking forward to the exciting science ahead!
The Chan Lab is delighted to host visitor Norah Spears from U. Edinburgh!
The scientific exchange was fantastic and we deeply appreciated her sharing her scientific journey. It was both inspiring and humbling for our early career researchers!
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
Luo Xujie
Research Assistant, Lim Group
Prof. Lim Chwee Teck elected as an FREng, and received the Otto Schmitt Award
Professor Lim Chwee Teck elected as an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and received the Otto Schmitt Award from IFMBE
Yee Zhuangli
Research Fellow, Low Group
Quantitative Micro-Elastography: New Imaging Tool Uncovers Age-Dependent Mechanical Changes in Ovarian Tissue
Researchers from the Chan Lab at MBI develop a a novel method called quantitative micro-elastography to create detailed 3D maps of ovarian stiffness in mice—revealing crucial insights that could lead to new infertility treatments.
Jie Zhang
Research Fellow, Lim Group
Sui Mingyu
Research Fellow, Yan Jie Group
MBI-MPG Conference 2025: Mechanobiology in Space and Time
The MBI-MPG Conference 2025 was held from 9-12th September at the Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore.
MBI-MPG Conference 2025: Mechanobiology in Space and Time.
The MBI-MPG Conference 2025 was held from 9-12th September at the Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore.
Seeking Postdoctoral Fellow in Asst. Prof. Natalie Dye’s Laboratory at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
We are seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Dye Laboratory at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS.
Dr. Jennifer Young Awarded Robert Brown Promising Researcher Award for MOE AcRF Tier 2 Grant
Dr. Jennifer Young received the Robert Brown Promising Researcher Award for her MOE AcRF Tier 2 Grant
Prof Lim Chwee Teck received the 2025 President’s Science Award
Prof. Lim Chwee Teck was awarded the 2025 President’s Science Award (PSA) for his pioneering contributions to cancer research through innovative mechanobiology approaches, successfully bridging engineering, biological sciences and medicine to foster a deeper understanding of cancer metastasis.
