Marisol gave a talk in a fantastic session on “Mechanical Forces and the 3D Sculpting of Cell-matrix Interactions and Tissues” at Cell Bio Virtual 2021!

Karen gave a seminar in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton. What a fantastic place for my first in-person visit in a long time! It was great meeting so many new folks and seeing old friends too. A big thank you to Celeste Nelson for the invitation!

Cannot believe our first grad student has defended and is moving on to a postdoc at MIT! Congrats Xun!

And what may become a new lab tradition - an embroidered Drosophila melanogaster going away gift. (Hand-stitched by Hannah Lamar Studio.)

Karen gave a virtual seminar as part of the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering Graduate Seminar Series at Texas A&M University. It was great to get to tell you more about our research. Thank you for the invitation!

Check our new paper in Biophysical Journal on using optogenetics to manipulate myosin-generated mechanical forces in developing embryos! Read the paper here. Read more here.

Congratulations to Xun on very successfully defending his thesis research today! We’re so proud of you Dr. Wang! This is a major milestone for the Kasza Lab - first PhD student graduated!

Congratulations to Mannendri for giving a really excellent final presentation on his research in our lab as part of the Columbia Engineering E.N.G. program! It was such a pleasure having in you in the group this summer!

A huge congratulations to Marisol on being the recipient of a 2021 BWF Career Award at the Scientific Interface! Such an honor! We’re so excited to see what amazing research you do with this tremendous support from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund!

Karen gave a virtual talk in the Symposium on the Mechanics of Biological Systems and Materials at the Society for Experimental Mechanics SEM 2021 Annual Conference. So good to see everyone!

Christian and Xun gave great talks at SB3C in the excellent Development and Morphogenesis session co-chaired by Yubing Sun and Victor Varner!

Karen gave a virtual seminar at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University. A very big thank you to both Victor Lefèvre and Horacio Espinosa for the invitation and for organizing such an excellent day!

Karen gave a talk in the Developmental Mechanics International Seminar Series. A very big thank you to Ronen Zaidel-Bar for organizing such a superb seminar series and for the invitation to be part of it!

Karen gave a virtual talk in the Department of Biological Sciences Spring Seminar Series at Columbia University. A very big thank you to Iva Greenwald for hosting the visit!

A huge congratulations to Christian on being awarded an NIH F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award, which will fund his research on understanding and controlling the mechanical forces that drive tissue morphogenesis!

Karen gave a virtual seminar at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Syracuse University. A big thank you to Victor Duenas for the invitation! As always, I had such a great time “visiting” Syracuse!

Karen co-chaired the “Techniques and Technology” session with Stephanie Mohr, Justin Bosch, and Pavel Tomancak at the Genetics Society of America Annual Drosophila Research Conference. What a great set of talks!

Marisol gave a talk on using optogenetics to study tissue fluidity in a fantastic session on “Regulatory and mechanical processes driving morphogenesis and pattern formation” at the Genetics Society of America Annual Drosophila Research Conference (Dros2021)

Karen gave a talk in the VGZT: Virtual Gastrulation Zoom Talks online seminar series. A big thank you to Margot Williams, Miguel Concha, Jesse Veenvliet, and Ramkumar Sambasivan for the invitation and for organizing such a fantastic virtual seminar series!

A big welcome to Sassan, the newest postdoc in the Kasza Living Materials Lab. So excited to have you in the group!