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Previous models of the cerebrovascular smooth muscle cell have not addressed the interaction between the electrical, chemical and mechanical components of cell function during the development of active tension. These models are primarily…
Many of the processes that underly neural computation are carried out by ion channels embedded in the plasma membrane, a two-dimensional liquid that surrounds all cells. Recent experiments have demonstrated that this membrane is poised…
The proper functioning of multicellular organisms requires the robust establishment of precise proportions between distinct cell-types. This developmental differentiation process typically involves intracellular regulatory and stochastic…
Pluripotent embryonic stem cells are of paramount importance for biomedical research thanks to their innate ability for self-renewal and differentiation into all major cell lines. The fateful decision to exit or remain in the pluripotent…
The initiation of directional cell motion requires symmetry breaking that can happen both with or without external stimuli. During cell crawling, forces generated by the cytoskeleton and their transmission through mechanosensitive adhesions…
Cell differentiation in multicellular organisms is a complex process whose mechanism can be understood by a reductionist approach, in which the individual processes that control the generation of different cell types are identified.…
Bistability plays a central role in the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) controlling many essential biological functions, including cellular differentiation and cell cycle control. However, establishing the network topologies that can…
Unraveling the structure of complex biological networks and relating it to their functional role is an important task in systems biology. Here we attempt to characterize the functional organization of the large-scale metabolic networks of…
Many cellular processes require a polarization axis which generally initially emerges as an inhomogeneous distribution of molecular markers in the cell. We present a simple analytical model of a general mechanism of cell polarization taking…
Biological molecular machines are bifunctional enzymes that catalyze two processes: one donating free energy and the other accepting it. Recent studies show that most protein enzymes have rich stochastic dynamics of transitions between the…
Bacterial cells exhibit a diverse array of shapes and sizes, largely governed by their cell walls in conjunction with cytoskeletal proteins and internal turgor pressure. The present study develops a theoretical framework for modeling the…
A single gene, regulating its own expression via a positive feedback loop, constitutes a common motif in gene regulatory networks and signalling cascades. Recent experiments on the development of competence in the bacterial population…
Multistable gene regulatory systems sustain different levels of gene expression under identical external conditions. Such multistability is used to encode phenotypic states in processes including nutrient uptake and persistence in bacteria,…
Chemical affinities are responsible for driving active matter systems out of equilibrium. At the nano-scale, molecular machines interact with the surrounding environment and are subjected to external forces. The mechano-chemical coupling…
Bacteria can adjust the structure of colonies and biofilms to enhance their survival rate under external stress. Here, we explore the link between bacterial interaction forces and colony structure. We show that the activity of extracellular…
The process controlling the diferentiation of stem, or progenitor, cells into one specific functional direction is called lineage specification. An important characteristic of this process is the multi-lineage priming, which requires the…
Apoptosis is a highly regulated cell death mechanism involved in many physiological processes. A key component of extrinsically activated apoptosis is the death receptor Fas, which, on binding to its cognate ligand FasL, oligomerize to form…
Complex dynamical systems are often modeled as networks, with nodes representing dynamical units which interact through the network's links. Gene regulatory networks, responsible for the production of proteins inside a cell, are an example…
Self-propelled bacteria are marvels of nature with a potential to power dynamic materials and microsystems of the future. The challenge is in commanding their chaotic behavior. By dispersing swimming Bacillus subtilis in a…
Understanding interactions between membranes requires measurements on well-controlled systems close to natural conditions, in which fluctuations play an important role. We have determined, by grazing incidence X-ray scattering, the…