@phdthesis{21423,
  author       = {Dunajova, Zuzana},
  isbn         = {978-3-99078-076-3},
  issn         = {2663-337X},
  pages        = {110},
  publisher    = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria},
  title        = {{Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments}},
  doi          = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423},
  year         = {2026},
}

@misc{21439,
  abstract     = {These files contain supplementary movies accompanying the PhD thesis “Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments” by Zuzana Dunajova (2026). The videos provide additional visual material supporting the experiments and results described in the thesis.},
  author       = {Dunajova, Zuzana},
  publisher    = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria},
  title        = {{Supplementary movies to PhD thesis “Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments”}},
  doi          = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-21439},
  year         = {2026},
}

@unpublished{21427,
  abstract     = {While tumor malignancy has been extensively studied under the prism of genetic and epigenetic heterogeneity, tumor cell states also critically depend on reciprocal interactions with the microenvironment. This raises the hitherto untested possibility that heterogeneity of the untransformed tumor stroma can actively fuel malignant progression. As biological heterogeneity is inherently difficult to control, we adopted a reductionist approach and let tumor cells invade micro-engineered environments harboring obstacles with precision-controlled geometry. We find that not only the presence of obstacles, but more surprisingly their spatial disorder, causes a drastic shift from a collective to a single-cell mode of invasion – comparable in strength to cadherin loss. Combining live-imaging and perturbation experiments with minimal biophysical modeling, we demonstrate that cell detachments result both from local geometrical constraints and a global integration of spatial disorder over time. We show that different types of microenvironments map onto different universality classes of invasion dynamics - homogeneous substrates follow Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) scaling, while disordered ones exhibit exponents consistent with KPZ with quenched disorder (KPZq). Our findings highlight generic physical principles for how the mode of cancer cell invasion depends on environmental heterogeneity, with potential implications to understand tumor evolution in vivo.},
  author       = {Dunajova, Zuzana and Tasciyan, Saren and Majek, Juraj and Merrin, Jack and Sahai, Erik and Sixt, Michael K and Hannezo, Edouard B},
  publisher    = {bioRxiv},
  title        = {{Substrate heterogeneity promotes cancer cell dissemination through interface roughening}},
  doi          = {10.1101/2025.05.20.655037},
  year         = {2025},
}

@misc{13116,
  abstract     = {The emergence of large-scale order in self-organized systems relies on local interactions between individual components. During bacterial cell division, FtsZ -- a prokaryotic homologue of the eukaryotic protein tubulin -- polymerizes into treadmilling filaments that further organize into a cytoskeletal ring. In vitro, FtsZ filaments can form dynamic chiral assemblies. However, how the active and passive properties of individual filaments relate to these large-scale self-organized structures remains poorly understood. Here, we connect single filament properties with the mesoscopic scale by combining minimal active matter simulations and biochemical reconstitution experiments. We show that density and flexibility of active chiral filaments define their global order. At intermediate densities, curved, flexible filaments organize into chiral rings and polar bands. An effectively nematic organization dominates for high densities and for straight, mutant filaments with increased rigidity. Our predicted phase diagram captures these features quantitatively, demonstrating how the flexibility, density and chirality of active filaments affect their collective behaviour. Our findings shed light on the fundamental properties of active chiral matter and explain how treadmilling FtsZ filaments organize during bacterial cell division. },
  author       = {Dunajova, Zuzana and Prats Mateu, Batirtze and Radler, Philipp and Lim, Keesiang and Brandis, Dörte and Velicky, Philipp and Danzl, Johann G and Wong, Richard W. and Elgeti, Jens and Hannezo, Edouard B and Loose, Martin},
  publisher    = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria},
  title        = {{Chiral and nematic phases of flexible active filaments}},
  doi          = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:13116},
  year         = {2023},
}

@article{13314,
  abstract     = {The emergence of large-scale order in self-organized systems relies on local interactions between individual components. During bacterial cell division, FtsZ—a prokaryotic homologue of the eukaryotic protein tubulin—polymerizes into treadmilling filaments that further organize into a cytoskeletal ring. In vitro, FtsZ filaments can form dynamic chiral assemblies. However, how the active and passive properties of individual filaments relate to these large-scale self-organized structures remains poorly understood. Here we connect single-filament properties with the mesoscopic scale by combining minimal active matter simulations and biochemical reconstitution experiments. We show that the density and flexibility of active chiral filaments define their global order. At intermediate densities, curved, flexible filaments organize into chiral rings and polar bands. An effectively nematic organization dominates for high densities and for straight, mutant filaments with increased rigidity. Our predicted phase diagram quantitatively captures these features, demonstrating how the flexibility, density and chirality of the active filaments affect their collective behaviour. Our findings shed light on the fundamental properties of active chiral matter and explain how treadmilling FtsZ filaments organize during bacterial cell division.},
  author       = {Dunajova, Zuzana and Prats Mateu, Batirtze and Radler, Philipp and Lim, Keesiang and Brandis, Dörte and Velicky, Philipp and Danzl, Johann G and Wong, Richard W. and Elgeti, Jens and Hannezo, Edouard B and Loose, Martin},
  issn         = {1745-2481},
  journal      = {Nature Physics},
  pages        = {1916--1926},
  publisher    = {Springer Nature},
  title        = {{Chiral and nematic phases of flexible active filaments}},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41567-023-02218-w},
  volume       = {19},
  year         = {2023},
}