Related papers: Hysteresis in the cell response to time-dependent …
We study the surface wrinkling of a stiff thin elastic film bonded to a compliant graded elastic substrate subject to compressive stress generated either by compression or growth of the bilayer. Our aim is to clarify the influence of the…
Cells are known to sense and respond to their mechanical microenvironment in profound ways. Various evidence has implicated the adhesome, a body of adhesion associated proteins, in several cell fate decisions, including differentiation and…
Myosin II isoforms with varying mechanochemistry and filament size interact with filamentous actin (F-actin) networks to generate contractile forces in cells. How their properties control force production in environments with varying…
Engineering technologies frequently draw inspiration from nature, as exemplified in bio-inspired adhesive surfaces. These surfaces present textures adorned by pillars, mimicking the topography found on the pads of certain animals renowned…
In this paper we report, clarify and broaden various recent efforts to complement the chemistry-centered models of force generation in muscles by mechanics-centered models. The physical mechanisms of interest can be grouped into two…
Cell mechanical functions like locomotion, contraction and division are controlled by the cytoskeleton, a dynamic biopolymer network whose mechanical properties remain poorly understood. We perform single-cell uniaxial stretching…
Tissue cells are in a state of permanent mechanical tension that is maintained mainly by myosin II minifilaments, which are bipolar assemblies of tens of myosin II molecular motors contracting actin networks and bundles. Here we introduce a…
We present a microscopic model of a disordered viscoelastic active solid, i.e. an active material whose long time behaviour is elastic as opposed to viscous. It is composed of filaments, passive crosslinks and molecular motors powered by…
In this paper, we propose a numerical model to describe the adhesive normal contact between a "rigid" spherical indenter and a viscoelastic rough substrate. The model accounts for dissipative process under the assumption that viscoelastic…
Understanding the asymptotic behavior of reaction-diffusion (RD) systems is crucial for modeling processes ranging from species coexistence in ecology to biochemical interactions within cells. In this work, we analyze RD systems in which…
A model of multicellular systems with several types of cells is developed from the phase field model. The model is presented as a set of partial differential equations of the field variables, each of which expresses the shape of one cell.…
We demonstrate a modeling and computational framework that allows for rapid screening of thousands of potential network designs for particular dynamic behavior. To illustrate this capability we consider the problem of hysteresis, a…
Brittle materials fail catastrophically. In consequence of their limited flaw-tolerance, failure occurs by localized fracture and is typically a dynamic process. Recently, experiments on epithelial cell monolayers have revealed that this…
We analyse a generic motility model, with the motility mechanism arising by contractile stress due to the interaction of myosin and actin. A hydrodynamic active polar gel theory is used to model the cytoplasm of a cell and is combined with…
We study the shearing rheology of dense suspensions of elastic capsules, taking aggregation-free red blood cells as a physiologically relevant example. Particles are non-Brownian and interact only via hydrodynamics and short-range repulsive…
Cell layers eliminate unwanted cells through the extrusion process, which underlines healthy versus flawed tissue behaviors. Although several biochemical pathways have been identified, the underlying mechanical basis including the forces…
From the response to external stimuli to cell division and death, the dynamics of living cells is based on the expression of specific genes at specific times. The decision when to express a gene is implemented by the binding and unbinding…
We investigate the dependence of the hardness of materials on their elastic stiffness. This is possible by constructing a series of model potentials of the Morse type; starting on modelling natural Cu, the model potential exhibit an…
Thixotropy, anti-thixotropy, and viscoelasticity are three types of time-dependent dynamics that involve fundamentally different underlying physical processes. Yet distinguishing them can be very challenging, which hinders the understanding…
The natural impedance, or dynamic relationship between force and motion, of a human operator can determine the stability of exoskeletons that use interaction-torque feedback to amplify human strength. While human impedance is typically…