Fridtjof Brauns

Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institutes for Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS) and for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG).

Contact: fbrauns [at] pks.mpg.de

ORCID

Google Scholar

Join us

We are hiring PhD students and Postdocs interested in morphogenesis, tissue mechanics, active matter, pattern formation, and more.

Resarch Interests

I'm broadly interested in self-organization in living systems: How does biology control and harness physical instabilities? How does geometry emerge from genes during development? Addressing these questions requires briding the scales from cells to tissues and organs. I use concepts and ideas from theoretical physics, dynamical systems, and geometry, working in close collaboration with experimentalists.

Morphogenesis

• Cell and tissue mechanics: How does active tissue mechanics emerge from cellular behaviors?
• Where and how is shape encoded? (Top-down genetic control vs bottom-up self-organization)
• Interplay of nematic order (with topological defects), morphogen patterns and mechanics
• Robustness through (not despite) fluctuatios

Active assembly and collective actuation

• How do active flows facilitate self-assembly?
• Collective actuation elastic filaments and networks

Further research interests

• Principles of nonlinear pattern selection
• Non-reciprocal interactions
• Protein patterns and mass-conserving reaction–diffusion systems

Selected Publications

• Active Solids: Topological Defect Self-Propulsion Without Flow

  FB*, M. O’Leary, A. Hernandez, M. J. Bowick, M. C. Marchetti
  PRL 136, 058302 (2026) [arXiv:2502.11296]
  

• A Geometric Tension Dynamics Model of Epithelial Convergent Extension

  N. H. Claussen*, FB*, B. I. Shraiman
  PNAS 121, e2321928121 (2024) [arXiv:2311.16384]

• The Geometric Basis of Epithelial Convergent Extension

  FB*, N. H. Claussen*, E. F. Wieschaus, B. I. Shraiman
  eLife, 10.7554/eLife.95521 (2024)

• Nonreciprocal pattern formation of conserved fields

  FB and M. Cristina Marchetti
  Phys. Rev. X 14, 021014 (2024)
  Videos: YouTube

• Patterning of morphogenetic anisotropy fields

  Z. Wang, M. Cristina Marchetti, and FB
  PNAS 120 (13), e2220167120 (2023)
  Videos: YouTube

• Bulk-surface coupling identifies the mechanistic connection between Min-protein patterns in vivo and in vitro

  FB*, G. Pawlik*, J. Halatek*, J. Kerssemakers E. Frey, and C. Dekker
  Nature Communications 12, 3312 (2021)

• Phase-space geometry of mass-conserving reaction–diffusion dynamics

  FB*, J. Halatek*, and E. Frey
  Phys. Rev. X 10, 041036 (2020)

• Self-organization principles of intracellular pattern formation

  J. Halatek, FB, and E. Frey
  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 373, 20170107 (2018)

*Equal contributions

For my full publication list, see Google Scholar.

Short CV

since 2025	MPI-PKS and MPI-CBG, Dresden. Research Group Leader.
2021 - 2025	KITP, UC Santa Barbara. Independent PostDoc Fellow. Work on cell and tissue mechanics during morphogenesis (with with Boris Shraiman) and on non-reciprocal pattern formation (with Cristina Marchetti). Collaborations with Andreas Bausch (TU Munich), Zvonimir Dogic (UCSB), Adrienne Roeder (Cornell), Sebastian Streichan (UCSB), Eric Wieschaus (Princeton)
2015 – 2021	LMU Munich. PhD student with Erwin Frey. Thesis: Principles and theory of intracellular pattern formation
2010 – 2015	LMU Munich. BSc (Physics) and MSc (Theoretical and Mathematical Physics)

Invited conference talks

2025	Conservation laws and non-reciprocity (Münster University) Workshop: Biological systems that learn (NITMB, Chicago)
2024	KITP Conference: The Many Faces of Active Matter [Recording] DPG Annual Conference (Symposium: New Trends in Nonequilibrium Physics: Conservation Laws and Nonreciprocal Interactions)
2023	Workshop at TU Dresden: Vector- and Tensor-Valued Surface PDEs Isaac Newton Institute: Active mechanics, from single cells to cell layers, tissues and development KITP Program: Dynamics of Self-Organization in Animal and Plant Development [Recording] Workshop at Emory University: Working across scales in complex systems