Related papers: Enhancement of cargo processivity by cooperating m…
Actin is a key component of the cytoskeleton, which plays central roles in cell motility, division, growth, and tensile strength. To enable this wide range of transient mechanical processes and properties, networks of actin filaments…
Molecular machines are stochastic systems that catalyze the energetic processes keeping living cells alive and structured. Inspired by the examples of F1-ATP synthase and the bacterial flagellum, we present a minimal model of an externally…
During cell division, sister chromatids are segregated by the mitotic spindle, a bipolar assembly of interdigitating antiparallel polar filaments called microtubules. Establishing a stable overlap region is essential for maintenance of…
The collective motion of microorganisms and microrobots can be used for particle delivery, especially when guided by external magnetic fields, phototaxis, or chemotaxis. This cargo transport is enhanced significantly by hydrodynamic…
We study a minimal lattice model which describes bidirectional transport of "particles" driven along a one dimensional track, as is observed in microtubule based, motor protein driven bidirectional transport of cargo vesicles, lipid bodies…
The use of active colloids for cargo transport offers unique potential for applications ranging from targeted drug delivery to lab-on-a-chip systems. Previously, Janus particles (JPs), acting as mobile microelectrodes have been shown to…
The motility of a cell can be triggered or inhibited not only by an applied force but also by a mechanically neutral force couple. This type of loading, represented by an applied stress and commonly interpreted as either squeezing or…
Molecular motors of the kinesin-1 family move in a directed and processive fashion along microtubules (MTs). It is generally accepted that steric hindrance of motors leads to crowding effects; however, little is known about the specific…
We study a model of an active gel of cross-linked semiflexible filaments with additional active linkers such as myosin II clusters. We show that the coupling of the elasticity of the semiflexible filaments to the mechanical properties of…
Force fluctuations exhibited in focal adhesions (FAs) that connect a cell to its extracellular environment, point to the complex role of the underlying machinery that controls cell migration. To elucidate the explicit role of myosin motors…
We study the effect of a coupling between two motor domains in highly-processive motor protein complexes. A simple stochastic discrete model, in which the two parts of the protein molecule interact through some energy potential, is…
We investigate the conditions for reactivity enhancement of catalytic processes in porous solids by use of molecular traffic control (MTC). With dynamic Monte-Carlo simulations and continuous-time master equation theory applied to the high…
We propose a novel mechanism of cell motility, which relies on the coupling of actin polymerization at the cell membrane to geometric confinement. We consider a polymerizing viscoelastic cytoskeletal gel confined in a narrow channel, and…
The traffic of molecular motors through open tube-like compartments is studied using lattice models. These models exhibit boundary-induced phase transitions related to those of the asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) in one…
The cytoskeleton -- a composite network of biopolymers, molecular motors, and associated binding proteins -- is a paradigmatic example of active matter. Particle transport through the cytoskeleton can range from anomalous and heterogeneous…
In this paper, we introduce an ASEP-like transport model for bidirectional motion of particles on a multi-lane lattice. The model is motivated by {\em in vivo} experiments on organelle motility along a microtubule (MT), consisting of…
In living cells, motor proteins, such as kinesin and dynein can move processively along microtubule (MT), and also detach from or attach to MT stochastically. Experiments have found that, the traffic of motor might be jammed, and various…
In organic semiconductors charge transport typically takes place via slow hopping processes. Molecular aggregation can lead to enhanced exciton and charge transport through coupling of the transition dipole moments. In this work, we…
The movement of motor particles consisting of one or several molecular motors bound to a cargo particle is studied theoretically. The particles move on patterns of immobilized filaments. Several patterns are described for which the motor…
Active matter systems evade the constraints of thermal equilibrium, leading to the emergence of intriguing collective behavior. A paradigmatic example is given by motor-filament mixtures, where the motion of motor proteins drives alignment…