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Diana Pinheiro

Embryogenesis is the process by which pattern and form emerge. This requires cells to adopt increasingly distinct fates, but also a complex repertoire of mechanical behaviours (e.g. rearrangements, motility) needed to shape tissues. A handful of conserved signals, many of which proposed to act as morphogens (secreted molecules that trigger cell responses at a distance from the source) play key roles in embryo patterning and morphogenesis. We are interested in the mechanisms by which morphogens encode such a diversity of biological responses, in particular how they regulate, and cooperate, with tissue mechanics to trigger embryo self-organization.

Publications

Ventura, G., Pinheiro, D. (2025)

Gastrulation: Lessons from the quail embryo.

 Curr Biol. 35(10):R384-R386
Tsai, TY., Pinheiro, D. (2025)

Coping with uncertainty: Challenges for robust pattern formation in dynamical tissues.

 Semin Cell Dev Biol. 173:103629
Pinheiro, D., Mitchel, J. (2024)

Pulling the strings on solid-to-liquid phase transitions in cell collectives.

 Curr Opin Cell Biol. 86:102310
Huljev, K., Shamipour, S., Pinheiro, D., Preusser, F., Steccari, I., Sommer, CM., Naik, S., Heisenberg, CP. (2023)

A hydraulic feedback loop between mesendoderm cell migration and interstitial fluid relocalization promotes embryonic axis formation in zebrafish.

 Dev Cell.
Pinheiro, D. (2023)

How embryos sort themselves out.

 Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 24(12):856
Pinheiro,D., Kardos,R., Hannezo, E., Heisenberg,CP. (2022)

Morphogen gradient orchestrates pattern-preserving tissue morphogenesis via motility-driven unjamming

Corresponding preprint nature physics.
Schauer, A., Pinheiro, D., Hauschild, R., Heisenberg, CP. (2020)

Zebrafish embryonic explants undergo genetically encoded self-assembly.

 Elife. 9
Pinheiro, D., Heisenberg, CP. (2020)

Zebrafish gastrulation: Putting fate in motion.

 Curr Top Dev Biol. 136:343-375
Pinheiro, D., Bellaϊche, Y. (2018)

Mechanical Force-Driven Adherens Junction Remodeling and Epithelial Dynamics.

 Dev Cell. 47(3):391
Pinheiro, D., Bellaïche, Y. (2017)

Studying cytokinesis in Drosophila epithelial tissues.

 Methods Cell Biol. 137:73-84
Pinheiro, D., Hannezo, E., Herszterg, S., Bosveld, F., Gaugue, I., Balakireva, M., Wang, Z., Cristo, I., Rigaud, SU., Markova, O., Bellaïche, Y. (2017)

Transmission of cytokinesis forces via E-cadherin dilution and actomyosin flows.

 Nature. 545(7652):103-107
Pinheiro, D., Bellaïche, Y. (2014)

Making the most of the midbody remnant: specification of the dorsal-ventral axis.

 Dev Cell. 28(3):219-20
Herszterg, S., Pinheiro, D., Bellaïche, Y. (2014)

A multicellular view of cytokinesis in epithelial tissue.

 Trends Cell Biol. 24(5):285-93
Conde, C., Osswald, M., Barbosa, J., Moutinho-Santos, T., Pinheiro, D., Guimarães, S., Matos, I., Maiato, H., Sunkel, CE. (2013)

Drosophila Polo regulates the spindle assembly checkpoint through Mps1-dependent BubR1 phosphorylation.

 EMBO J. 32(12):1761-77
Drpic, D., Barisic, M., Pinheiro, D., Maiato, H. (2013)

Selective tracking of template DNA strands after induction of mitosis with unreplicated genomes (MUGs) in Drosophila S2 cells.

 Chromosome Res. 21(3):329-37
Benes, P., Knopfova, L., Trcka, F., Nemajerova, A., Pinheiro, D., Soucek, K., Fojta, M., Smarda, J. (2011)

Inhibition of topoisomerase IIα: novel function of wedelolactone.

 Cancer Lett. 303(1):29-38