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Maté Biro

Role
Laboratory Head
Lab/Group
Cancer Mechanoimmunology Lab

Associate Professor Maté Biro received his PhD summa cum laude at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany in 2011. His doctoral work focused on the biophysics of cellular actin cortex assembly. He previously studied Physics (BSc) and then Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology (MSc) at the Imperial College in London, UK, and did his Masters research at MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. He has worked at a particle accelerator in Tsukuba, Japan and as a Research Associate for A*STAR in Singapore. In 2012, he moved to the Centenary Institute at the University of Sydney, working on T cell migration and antitumour functions. Associate Professor Biro worked as EMBL Australia group leader at the Single Molecule Science node at the University of New South Wales, Sydney from 2016 to 2024, before joining the Garvan Institute of Medical Research as Laboratory Head and Faculty in 2025. Associate Professor Biro is a founder and the current president of the Australian Society for Mechanobiology. His research, highly multidisciplinary in nature, focuses on the migration of cytotoxic lymphocytes and tumour cells, and the signalling and mechanical interactions between them.

Selected publications

2025

  • Hernandez B., Tetlak P., Domingo-Muelas A., Akizawa H., Skory R.M., Ardestani G., Biro M., Liu X., Bissiere S., Sakkas D., Plachta N. (2025), “Actin organizes chromosomes and microtubules to ensure mitotic fidelity in the preimplantation embryo” Science 388(6749):ads1234

  • Tang R., Tay S.S., Sharbeen G., Herrmann D., Youkhana J., Timpson P., Phillips P.A., Biro M. (2025), “Bystander expression of atypical chemokine receptor 2 protects T cells from chemoattraction towards cancer-associated fibroblasts” European Journal of Immunology 55(2):e202451215
2024
  • Golo M., Newman P.L.H., Kempe D., Biro M. (2024), “Mechanoimmunology in the solid tumor microenvironment” Biochemical Society Transactions 52(3):1489-1502
  • Mazalo J.K., Tay S.S., Kempe D., and Biro M. (2024), “Chemokine Receptor Distribution on the Surface of Repolarising T cells” Biophysical Journal 123(15): 2328-2342
2023
  • Tearle J.L.E., Arjunan S.N.V., Tay S.S., Colakoglu F., Cremasco J., Golo M., Biro M. (2023), “Targeted single cell isolation of spontaneously escaping live melanoma cells for comparative transcriptomics” Cancer Research Communications 3(8): 1524–1537
  • Grootveld A.K., Kyaw W., Panova V., Lau A.W.Y., Ashwin E., Seuzaret G., Dhenni R., Bhattacharyya N.D., Khoo W.H., Biro M., Mitra T., Meyer-Hermann M., Bertolino P., Tanaka M., Hume D.A., Croucher P.I., Brink R., Nguyen A., Bannard O., Phan T.G. (2023), “Apoptotic cell fragments locally activate tingible body macrophages in the germinal center” Cell 186(6):1144-1161
2022
  • Govendir M.A., Kempe D., Sianati S., Cremasco J., Mazalo J.K., Colakoglu F., Golo M., Poole K., Biro M. (2022), “T cell cytoskeletal forces shape synapse topography for targeted lysis via membrane curvature bias of perforin” Developmental Cell 57(18):2237-2247
2021
  • Hywood J.D., Rice G., Pageon S.V., Read M.N. and Biro M.* (2021), “Detection and characterization of chemotaxis without cell tracking” Journal of the Royal Society Interface 18(176):20200879 (* volume cover)
  • McDonald M.M., Khoo W.H., Ng P.Y., Xiao Y., Zamerli J., Thatcher P., Kyaw W., Pathmanandavel K., Grootveld A.K., Moran I., Butt D., Nguyen A., Corr A., Warren S., Biro M. et al., Brink R., Williams G.R., Bassett J.H.D., Kemp J.P., Pavlos N.J., Croucher P.I., Phan T.G.. (2021), “Osteoclasts recycle via osteomorphs during RANKL-stimulated bone resorption” Cell 184(5):1330-1347.E13
2020
  • Lamm N., Read M.N., Nobis M., Ly D.V., Page S.G., Masamsetti V.P., Timpson P., Biro M. and Cesare A.J. (2020), “Nuclear F-actin counteracts nuclear deformation and promotes fork repair during replication stress” Nature Cell Biology 22(12):1460-1470
  • Galeano Niño J.L, Pageon S.V., Tay S.S., Colakoglu F., Kempe D., Hywood J., Mazalo J.K., Cremasco J., Govendir M.A., Dagley L.F., Hsu K., Rizzetto S., Zieba J., Rice G., Prior V., O’Neill G.M., Williams R.J., Nisbet D.R., Kramer B., Webb A.I., Luciani F., Read M.N., Biro M. (2020), “Cytotoxic T Cells Swarm by Homotypic Chemokine Signalling” eLife 9:e56554
  • Lim H.Y.G., Alvarez Y.D., Gasnier M., Wang Y., Tetlak P., Bissiere S., Wang H., Biro M., Plachta N. (2020), “Keratins are asymmetrically inherited cell fate determinants in the mammalian embryo” Nature 585(7825):404-409
2018
  • Zenker J., White M.D., Gasnier M., Alvarez Y.D., Lim H.Y.G., Bissiere S, Biro M.*, Plachta N* (2018), Expanding Actin Rings Zipper the Mouse Embryo for Blastocyst Formation, Cell 173(3):776-791 (∗ senior and corresponding authors)