Related papers: Resonant activation: a strategy against bacterial …
Phenotypic heterogeneity in an isogenic, microbial population enables a subset of the population to persist under stress. In mycobacteria, stresses like nutrient and oxygen deprivation activate the stress response pathway involving the…
Clustering of molecules on biological membranes is a widely observed phenomenon. In some cases, such as the clustering of Ras proteins on the membranes of mammalian cells, proper cell signaling is critically dependent on the maintenance of…
As the development of new classes of antibiotics slows, bacterial resistance to existing antibiotics is becoming an increasing problem. A potential solution is to develop treatment strategies with an alternative mode of action. We consider…
Bacteria sense a diverse range of environmental analytes with high sensitivity and temporal resolution. Engineering and synthetic biology approaches enabled harnessing this capability through development of whole-cell biosensors that…
Biological systems often consist of a small number of constituents and are therefore inherently noisy. To function effectively, these systems must employ mechanisms to constrain the accumulation of noise. Such mechanisms have been…
Light shining through wall experiments (in the optical as well as in the microwave regime) are a powerful tool to search for light particles coupled very weakly to photons such as axions or extra hidden sector photons. Resonant…
Bacteria pose unique challenges for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) because of strong structuring into distinct strains and substantial linkage disequilibrium across the genome. While methods developed for human studies can correct…
Bacterial cells use run-and-tumble motion to climb up attractant concentration gradient in their environment. By extending the uphill runs and shortening the downhill runs the cells migrate towards the higher attractant zones. Motivated by…
Bacteria living on surfaces use different types of motility mechanisms to move on the surface in search of food or to form micro-colonies. Twitching is one such form of motility employed by bacteria such as N. gonorrhoeae, in which the…
There is an urgent need for the development of novel and truly rapid (equal or less than 1 hour) antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) platforms in order to provide best antimicrobial prescribing practices and to help reduce the…
Stochastic Resonance (SR) describes a phenomenon where an additive noise (stochastic carrier-wave) enhances the signal transmission in a nonlinear system. In the nervous system, nonlinear properties are present from the level of single ion…
In natural environments, solid surfaces present both opportunities and challenges for bacteria. On one hand, they serve as platforms for biofilm formation, crucial for bacterial colonization and resilience in harsh conditions. On the other…
In this paper we study a nonlinear reaction-diffusion system which models an infectious disease caused by bacteria such as those for cholera. One of the significant features in this model is that a certain portion of the recovered human…
The rapid rise of antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to global public health. Without further incentives, pharmaceutical companies have little interest in developing antibiotics, since the success probability is low and development…
We propose a stochastic dynamical model of noisy neural networks with complex architectures and discuss activation of neural networks by a stimulus, pacemakers and spontaneous activity. This model has a complex phase diagram with…
Bacteria possess diverse mechanisms to regulate their motility in response to environmental and physiological signals, enabling them to navigate complex habitats and adapt their behavior. Among these mechanisms, interspecies recognition…
In this work we theoretically investigate the stochastic resonance (SR) effect in an optomechanical membrane system subject to two weak signals (one optical field and one mechanical force). The quadratic optomechanical coupling allows us to…
Developing rapid methods for pathogen detection and growth monitoring at low cell and analyte concentrations is an important goal, which numerous technologies are working towards solving. Rapid biosensors have already made a dramatic impact…
Persistent activity is postulated to drive neural network plasticity and learning. To investigate its underlying cellular mechanisms, we developed a biophysically tractable model that explains the emergence, sustenance, and eventual…
Cells employ control strategies to maintain a stable size. Dividing at a target size (the `sizer' strategy) is thought to produce the tightest size distribution. However, this result follows from phenomenological models that ignore the…