Schwayer Lab

Our research aims to understand how cells integrate mechanochemical and metabolic signals across multiple spatial and temporal scales to control cell fate decisions and tissue remodelling. By uncovering how tissues interpret their environment and rebuild themselves, we seek to reveal fundamental principles governing tissue organization, plasticity, and repair.

Building on our previous work demonstrating how mechanical forces shape tissues (Schwayer et al., Cell, 2019) and how multiscale information controls cell fate decisions during regeneration (Schwayer, Barbiero, Brückner et al., Cell, 2026), we use 3D liver organoids as tractable model systems to investigate how cells coordinate behaviour from local interactions to tissue-scale dynamics. Combining self-organizing organoids, high-content imaging, bioengineering, CRISPR/​Cas9 genome editing, quantitative biophysical measurements, and biophysical modelling in close collaboration with theorists, our laboratory takes a highly interdisciplinary approach at the interface of cell biology, biophysics, bioengineering and regeneration research.

Ultimately, we aim to develop predictive frameworks for how tissues sense damage and restore function, with implications for developmental biology, regenerative medicine, and tissue engineering. In particular, we seek to address the following questions:

• How are mechanical forces, biochemical signals, and metabolic states integrated across scales to drive regenerative responses?
• How do liver epithelial cells coordinate their behaviours to re-establish tissue architecture during regeneration?
• What principles determine whether regeneration is successful or impaired in disease contexts such as MASLD and fibrosis?
• Can we predict and manipulate regenerative trajectories to promote tissue repair and prevent disease progression?

By uncovering the principles that enable liver regeneration, our work may ultimately contribute to new therapeutic strategies for chronic liver disease and help address the shortage of donor organs for transplantation.