Cell Behavior
Titanium surface treated with titanium oxide nanotubes was used in many studies to quantify the effect of surface topography on cell fate. However, the predicted optimal diameter of nanotubes considerably differs among studies. We propose a…
It is difficult to predict how antibodies will behave when mixed together, even after each has been independently characterized. Here, we present a statistical mechanical model for the activity of antibody mixtures that accounts for whether…
Cellularized tissue and polymer networks can both transition from floppy to rigid as a function of their control parameters, and, yet, the two systems often mechanically interact, which may affect their respective rigidities. To study this…
The actin cortex is a thin layer of actin, myosin, and actin binding proteins that underlies the membrane of most animal cells. It is highly dynamic and can undergo remodelling on time-scales of tens of seconds thanks to protein turnover…
During the last decade, intracellular actin waves have attracted much attention due to their essential role in various cellular functions, ranging from motility to cytokinesis. Experimental methods have advanced significantly and can…
There is no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19. One current focus is drug repurposing research, but those drugs have limited therapeutic efficacies and known adverse effects. The pathology of COVID-19 is essentially…
A hallmark of the adaptive immune response is the proliferation of pathogen-specific lymphocytes that leave in their wake a long lived population of cells that provide lasting immunity. A subject of ongoing investigation is when during an…
The geometric control of bone tissue growth plays a significant role in bone remodelling, age-related bone loss, and tissue engineering. However, how exactly geometry influences the behaviour of bone-forming cells remains elusive. Geometry…
Cells are constantly exposed to DNA damaging insults. To protect the organism, cells developed a complex molecular response coordinated by P53, the master regulator of DNA repair, cell division and cell fate. DNA damage accumulation and…
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a variable clinical presentation that ranges from asymptomatic, to severe disease with cytokine storm. The mortality rates also differ across the globe, ranging from 0.5-13%.…
Cells are known to sense and respond to their mechanical microenvironment in profound ways. Various evidence has implicated the adhesome, a body of adhesion associated proteins, in several cell fate decisions, including differentiation and…
There are a number of different stem cell sources that have the potential to be used as therapeutics in vascular degenerative diseases. On the one hand, there are so called endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which are typically derived…
Adherent biological cells generate traction forces on a substrate that play a central role for migration, mechanosensing, differentiation, and collective behavior. The established method for quantifying this cell-substrate interaction is…
The emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease (COVID-19) has posed a serious threat to global health. As no specific therapeutics are yet available to control disease evolution, more in-depth…
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the etiologic agent responsible for COVID-19 coronavirus disease, is a global threat. To better understand viral tropism, we assessed the RNA expression of the coronavirus receptor, ACE2, as well as the viral S…
In cell extrusion, a cell embedded in an epithelial monolayer loses its apical or basal surface and is subsequently squeezed out of the monolayer by neighboring cells. Cell extrusions occur during apoptosis, epithelial-mesenchymal…
Within the human respiratory tract (HRT), viruses diffuse through the periciliary fluid (PCF) bathing the epithelium, and travel upwards via advection towards the nose and mouth, as the mucus escalator entrains the PCF. While many…
Cellular mechanics plays an important role in epithelial morphogenesis, a process wherein cells reshape and rearrange to produce tissue-scale deformations. However, the study of tissue-scale mechanics is impaired by the difficulty of direct…
Cell division is a process that involves many biochemical steps and complex biophysical mechanisms. To simplify the understanding of what triggers cell division, three basic models that subsume more microscopic cellular processes associated…
Chronic fetal hypoxia and infection are examples of adverse conditions during complicated pregnancy, which impact cardiac myogenesis and increase the lifetime risk of heart disease. However, the effects that chronic hypoxic or inflammatory…