Related papers: A continuous model for microtubule dynamics with c…
Many cellular processes are tightly connected to the dynamics of microtubules (MTs). While in neuronal axons MTs mainly regulate intracellular trafficking, they participate in cytoskeleton reorganization in many other eukaryotic cells,…
A major goal of modern computational biology is to simulate the collective behaviour of large cell populations starting from the intricate web of molecular interactions occurring at the microscopic level. In this paper we describe a…
The cytoskeleton is a model active matter system that controls diverse cellular processes from division to motility. While both active actomyosin dynamics and actin-microtubule interactions are key to the cytoskeleton's versatility and…
We discuss the relaxation kinetics of a one-dimensional dimer adsorption model as recently proposed for the binding of biological dimers like kinesin on microtubules. The non-equilibrium dynamics shows several regimes: irreversible…
Many biological processes can be thought of as the result of an underlying dynamics in which the system repeatedly undergoes distinct and abortive trajectories with the dynamical process only ending when some specific process, purpose,…
In this study, a two-state mechanochemical model is presented to describe the dynamic instability of microtubules (MTs) in cells. The MTs switches between two states, assembly state and disassembly state. In assembly state, the growth of…
The disappearance of the guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-tubulin cap is widely believed to be the forerunner event for the growth-shrinkage transition (`catastrophe') in microtubule filaments in eukaryotic cells. We study a discrete version of…
Polymers consisting of more than one type of monomer, known as copolymers, are vital to both living and synthetic systems. Copolymerisation has been studied theoretically in a number of contexts, often by considering a Markov process in…
We formulate a dynamical model for microtubules interacting with a catastrophe-inducing boundary. In this model microtubules are either waiting to be nucleated, actively growing or shrinking, or stalled at the boundary. We first determine…
We investigate the dynamics of an idealized model of microtubule growth that evolves by: (i) attachment of guanosine triphosphate (GTP) at rate lambda, (ii) conversion of GTP to guanosine diphosphate (GDP) at rate 1, and (iii) detachment of…
Microtubules self-organize to form part of the cellular cytoskeleton. They give cells their shape and play a crucial role in cell division and intracellular transport. Strikingly, microtubules driven by motor proteins reorganize into stable…
Engineering synthetic materials that mimic the remarkable complexity of living organisms is a fundamental challenge in science and technology. We study the spatiotemporal patterns that emerge when an active nematicfilm of microtubules and…
We have developed several distinct model systems of microtubule-based 3D active isotropic fluids and have compared their dynamical and structural properties. The non-equilibrium dynamics of these fluids is powered by three different types…
In many intracellular processes, the length distribution of microtubules is controlled by depolymerizing motor proteins. Experiments have shown that, following non-specific binding to the surface of a microtubule, depolymerizers are…
The majority of solid tumours arise in epithelia and therefore much research effort has gone into investigating the growth, renewal and regulation of these tissues. Here we review different mathematical and computational approaches that…
Microtubules, the primary components of the chromosome segregation machinery, are stabilized by longitudinal and lateral non-covalent bonds between the tubulin subunits. However, the thermodynamics of these bonds and the microtubule…
Biological activity gives rise to non-equilibrium fluctuations in the cytoplasm of cells; however, there are few methods to directly measure these fluctuations. Using a reconstituted actin cytoskeleton, we show that the bending dynamics of…
Using molecular dynamics we investigate the thermodynamics, dynamics and structure of 250 diatomic molecules interacting by a core-softened potential. This system exhibits thermodynamics, dynamics and structural anomalies: a maximum in…
Much of our mechanistic understanding of the functions of biological macromolecules is based on static structural experiments, which can be modelled either as single structures or conformational ensembles. While these provide us with…
The dynamic behavior of microtubules in solution can be strongly modified by interactions with walls or other structures. We examine here a microtubule growth model where the increase in size of the plus-end is perturbed by collisions with…