Cell Behavior
Stem cells maintain tissues by generating differentiated cell types while simultaneously self-renewing their own population. The mechanisms that allow stem cell populations to function collectively to control their density, maintain robust…
This paper introduces the application of game theory to understand noisy real-time signalling and the resulting behavioural dynamics in microscopic populations such as bacteria and other cells. It presents a bridge between the fields of…
Electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction studies of dormant E. coli cells revealed several forms of nucleoid condensation: quasi - nanocrystalline, quasi -liquid crystalline (or spore-like) and folded nucleosome - like structure. Of…
Long ago, life obtained nucleotides in the course of evolution and became a vehicle for them. Before assembly with nucleotides, in the pre-RNA era, what system dominated heredity? What was the subject of survival competition? Is it still a…
Saccharomyces cerevisiae target of rapamycin (TOR) complex 2 (TORC2) is an essential regulator of plasma membrane lipid and protein homeostasis. How TORC2 activity is modulated in response to changes in the status of the cell envelope is…
To observe internalization of the yeast pheromone receptor Ste2 by fluorescence microscopy in live cells in real time, we visualized only those molecules present at the cell surface at the time of agonist engagement (rather than the total…
Growth rate is one of the most important and most complex phenotypic characteristics of unicellular microorganisms, which determines the genetic mutations that dominate at the population level, and ultimately whether the population will…
Ischemia leading to heart attacks and strokes is the major cause of deaths in the world. Whether an occlusion occurs or not, depends on the ability of a growing thrombus to resist forces exerted on its structure. This manuscript provides…
We discuss several continuum cell-cell adhesion models based on the underlying microscopic assumptions. We propose an improvement on these models leading to sharp fronts and intermingling invasion fronts between different cell type…
We study a simple run-and-tumble random walk whose switching frequency from run mode to tumble mode and the reverse depend on a stochastic signal. We consider a particularly sharp, step-like dependence, where the run to tumble switching…
We present a model for cell growth, division and packing under soft constraints that arise from the deformability of the cells as well as of a membrane that encloses them. Our treatment falls within the framework of diffuse interface…
We propose a new model for the emergence of blood capillary networks. We assimilate the tissue and extra cellular matrix as a porous medium, using Darcy's law for describing both blood and intersticial fluid flows. Oxygen obeys a…
Cell migration is a fundamental process involved in physiological phenomena such as the immune response and morphogenesis, but also in pathological processes, such as the development of tumor metastasis. These functions are effectively…
It has been shown recently that changing the fluidic properties of a drug can improve its efficacy in ablating solid tumors. We develop a modeling framework for tumor ablation, and present the simplest possible model for drug diffusion in a…
Bacterial growth presents many beautiful phenomena that pose new theoretical challenges to statistical physicists, and are also amenable to laboratory experimentation. This review provides some of the essential biological background,…
Recent experimental studies have suggested the ratio between T-helper and T-suppressor lymphocytes as an index of immunosuppression in HIV, cancer, immunosenescence and inflammatory and auto-immune diseases. However, a quantitative…
One of the central problems in animal and plant developmental biology is deciphering how chemical and mechanical signals interact within a tissue to produce organs of defined size, shape and function. Cell walls in plants impose a unique…
The state of chromatin in individual cells is directly related to the state of the whole organism and may be used for assessment of the state of the whole organism. Many hereditary diseases are connected with chromatin rearrangements.…
In pancreatic $\beta$-cells, calcium oscillation signal is the core part of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Intracellular calcium concentration oscillates in response to the intake of glucose, which triggers the exocytosis of insulin…
In living cells, oscillation of the concentration of cytosolic Ca2+ is an important and pervasive signal for the intercellular and intracellular information conduction. To generate the oscillation, the hydrolysis of ATP is always needed.…