Associate Professor Maté Biro

Visit the Biro Group website at EMBL Australia

Dr Maté Biro received his PhD with summa cum laude at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany. 

Dr. Biro has previously worked at the Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology in Sydney, in the Imaging Informatics division at the Bioinformatics Institute of A*STAR in Singapore, at the MIT BioImaging Center in Cambridge, MA, USA and in the Belle collaboration at the KEK: High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation in Tsukuba, Japan.

As an EMBL Australia Group Leader he will expand his exciting studies on the way actomyosin complexes control cell shape, homeostasis and migration in cancer and immune function, focusing on the elucidation of biomechanical interaction within and between cells.

Dr. Biro is spearheading the use of complex in vitro and in vivo models for studying the cell-intrinsic actin cytoskeleton cues and dynamics that govern the invasive migration of tumour cells, the tissue scanning of T cells and their cytotoxic interaction with tumour cells. Using a multidisciplinary approach encompassing cell biology, biophysics, bioimage informatics and advanced light microscopy, he aims to unravel fundamental actin-based processes and develop new methodologies for basic cell biological research. Dr. Biro's research relies heavily on advanced microscopy and the development of image analysis platforms capable of automatically detecting and analysing the kinetics of actomyosin, cell movement and protrusions.

Dr. Biro's group is primarily concerned with the cell biology and mechanics of the actin cytoskeleton, and how immune cells (T cells) locate and kill cancer cells.

Main research topics are:

• Mechanobiology of immune cell-tumour cell interactions
• Single cell and population-wide immune cell migration dynamics
• Advanced imaging and image analysis
• Computational modelling and simulations

The group uses high-speed imaging to watch how cells move throughout complex 3-dimensional environments and also uses single molecule microscopes to observe the dynamics of actomyosin, a major and the force-generating component of the cytoskeleton.

When he is not involved with research Dr. Biro enjoys flying all things powered or unpowered and discovering the marvels of the underwater world whilst diving. He is also always happy to discuss his research and other passions over a beer...