Biological Physics
A large and diverse array of small hydrophobic molecules induce general anesthesia. Their efficacy as anesthetics has been shown to correlate both with their affinity for a hydrophobic environment and with their potency in inhibiting…
Ultrasound-switchable fluorescence (USF) imaging was recently developed to overcome the limitation of the poor spatial resolution of the conventional fluorescence imaging in centimeter-deep tissue. However, in vivo USF imaging has not been…
Despite evidence for a hydrodynamic origin of flagellar synchronization between different eukaryotic cells, recent experiments have shown that in single multi-flagellated organisms, coordination hinges instead on direct basal body…
In this work the stochastic generalization of single Hodgkin-Huxley neuron is further extended to unidirectionally coupled neurons. Our main focus is to elucidate the role of channel noise in the kinetics and energetics of spiking of action…
A prominent organizational feature of bacterial chromosomes was revealed by Hi-C experiments, indicating anomalously high contacts between the left and right chromosomal arms. These long-range contacts have been attributed to various…
We analyze the fate of dynamical systems that consist of two kind of processes. The first type is supposed to perform a certain function by processing information at a required high accuracy, which is, however, limited to less than 100…
We describe imbibition in real and artificial plant seeds, using a combination of experiments and theory. In both systems, our experiments demonstrate that liquid permeates the substrate at a rate which decreases gradually over time.…
In order to study the molecular damage induced in the form of single-strand and double-strand breaks by the ionizing radiation at the DNA level, Geant4-DNA Monte Carlo simulation code for complete transportation of primary protons and other…
Cooperative search games are collective tasks where all agents share the same goal of reaching a target in the shortest time while limiting energy expenditure and avoiding collisions. Here we show that the equations that characterize the…
Cell crawling is critical to biological development, homeostasis and disease. In many cases, cell trajectories are quasi-random-walk. In vitro assays on flat surfaces often described such quasi-random-walk cell trajectories as…
Hydrodynamics and confinement dominate bacterial mobility near solid or air-water boundaries, causing flagellated bacteria to move in circular trajectories. This phenomenon results from the counter-rotation between the bacterial body and…
Due to the physical and chemical processes that are involved, interactions of ionizing radiations with cells lead to single- and double-strand breaks (SSB and DSB) and base damage to DNA cells. The damage may kill the cells or may be…
The central dogma of molecular biology is the principal framework for understanding how nucleic acid information is propagated and used by living systems to create complex biomolecules. Here, by integrating the structural and dynamic…
We show that non-steric molecular interactions between RNA polymerase (RNAP) motors that move simultaneously on the same DNA track determine strongly the kinetics of transcription elongation. With a focus on the role of collisions and…
In this work we have theoretically investigated how the action potential generation and its associated intrinsic properties are affected in presence of ion channel blockers by adapting Gillepie's stochastic simulation technique on a very…
Active contributions to fluctuations are a direct consequence of metabolic energy consumption in living cells. Such metabolic processes continuously create active forces, which deform the membrane to control motility, proliferation as well…
Crosslinked semi-flexible and flexible filaments that are actively deformed by molecular motors occur in various natural settings, such as the ordered eukaryotic flagellum, and the disordered cytoskeleton. The deformation of these composite…
Epithelial cell monolayers exhibit traveling mechanical waves. We rationalize this observation thanks to a hydrodynamic description of the monolayer as a compressible, active and polar material. We show that propagating waves of the cell…
In environments with scarce resources, adopting the right search strategy can make the difference between succeeding and failing, even between life and death. At different scales, this applies to molecular encounters in the cell cytoplasm,…
We describe the photochemical dissipative structuring of fatty acids from CO and CO2 saturated water under the solar UVC and UVA photon potential prevalent at Earth's surface during the Archean. Their association into vesicles and their…