Related papers: Quantifying intermittent transport in cell cytopla…
Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) mediate the exchange of materials between the nucleoplasm and cytoplasm, playing a key role in the separation of nucleic acids and proteins into their required compartments. The static structure of the NPC is…
Consider a particle whose position evolves along the edges of a network. One definition for the displacement of a particle is the length of the shortest path on the network between the current and initial positions of the particle. Such a…
Molecular motors perform active movements along cytoskeletal filaments and drive the traffic of organelles and other cargo particles in cells. In contrast to the macroscopic traffic of cars, however, the traffic of molecular motors is…
Membrane protein transporters alternate their substrate-binding sites between the extracellular and cytosolic side of the membrane according to the alternating access mechanism. Inspired by this intriguing mechanism devised by nature, we…
Endocytosis underlies many cellular functions including signaling and nutrient uptake. The endocytosed cargo gets redistributed across a dynamic network of endosomes undergoing fusion and fission. Here, a theoretical approach is reviewed…
The first passage probability (FPP), of trafficked intracellular particles reaching a displacement L, in a given time t or inverse velocity S = t/L, can be calculated robustly from measured particle tracks, and gives a measure of particle…
Elastic confinements are an important component of many biological systems and dictate the transport properties of suspended particles under flow. In this chapter, we review the Brownian motion of a particle moving in the vicinity of a…
To maintain homeostasis, living cells process information with networks of interacting molecules. Traditional models for cellular information processing have focused on networks of chemical reactions between molecules. Here, we describe how…
Intracellular processes often rely on the timely encounter of mobile reaction partners, including intermittently motor-driven organelles. The underlying cytoskeletal network presents a complex landscape that both directs particle movement…
The physical approach of a small particle (virus, medical drug) to the cell membrane represents the crucial first step before active internalization and is governed by thermal diffusion. Using a fully analytical theory we show that the…
We consider anomalous non-Markovian transport of Brownian particles in viscoelastic fluid-like media with very large but finite macroscopic viscosity under the influence of a constant force field F. The viscoelastic properties of the medium…
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…
Biological transport is supported by collective dynamics of enzymatic molecules that are called motor proteins or molecular motors. Experiments suggest that motor proteins interact locally via short-range potentials. We investigate the…
In biological systems, molecular-scale forces and motions are pivotal for enabling processes like motility, shape change, and replication. These forces and motions are organized, amplified, and transmitted across macroscopic scales by…
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…
We numerically examine the driven transport of an overdamped self-propelled particle through a two-dimensional array of circular obstacles. A detailed analysis of transport quantifiers (mobility and diffusivity) has been performed for two…
Cytoplasmic dyneins transport cellular organelles by moving on a microtubule filament. It has been found recently that depending on the applied force and the concentration of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules, dynein's step size…
We consider the motion of an underdamped Brownian particle in a tilted periodic potential in a wide temperature range. Based on the previous data [1] and the new simulation results we show that the underdamped motion of particles in…
Dynamic instability in the cytoskeleton underlies a great many vital cellular processes. In neurons, it is thought to play a role in information processing and the establishment of synaptic connections. It is from this interneuronal…
The ability of eukaryotic cells to squeeze through constrictions is limited by the stiffness of their large and rigid nucleus. However, migrating cells are often able to overcome this limitation and pass through constrictions much smaller…