Related papers: G-quadruplexes and mRNA localization
Droplets are essential for spatially controlling biomolecules in cells. To work properly, cells need to control the emergence and morphology of droplets. On the one hand, driven chemical reactions can affect droplets profoundly. For…
RNA molecules are essential cellular machines performing a wide variety of functions for which a specific three-dimensional structure is required. Over the last several years, experimental determination of RNA structures through X-ray…
The movement of molecules inside living cells is a fundamental feature of biological processes. The ability to both observe and analyse the details of molecular diffusion in vivo at the single molecule and single cell level can add…
Machine learning (ML) has emerged as a pervasive tool in science, engineering, and beyond. Its success has also led to several synergies with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, which we use to identify and characterize the major…
Life in complex systems, such as cities and organisms, comes to a standstill when global coordination of mass, energy, and information flows is disrupted. Global coordination is no less important in single cells, especially in large oocytes…
A simple mechanism for the confinement of red cells in the middle of narrow blood vessels is proposed. In the presence of a quadratic shear, red cells deform in such a way to loose fore-aft symmetry and to achieve a fixed orientation with…
We present a discourse on the stages of discovery that have led to a deeper understanding of the role played by strange quarks in the structure of the nucleon.
An accurate description of the structure and dynamics of interfacial water is essential for phospholipid membranes, since it determines their function and their interaction with other molecules. Here we consider water confined in stacked…
The present article is an invited contribution to the Encyclopedia of Complexity and System Science, Robert A. Meyers Ed., Springer New York (2009). It is a review of the biophysical mechanisms that underly cell motility. It mainly focuses…
We consider compactifications of M-theory on 7-manifolds in the presence of 4-form fluxes, which leave at least four supercharges unbroken. We focus especially on the case, where the 7-manifold supports two spinors which are SU(3) singlets…
Multistability, the coexistence of multiple attractors in a dynamical system, is explored in bursting nerve cells. A modeling study is performed to show that a large class of bursting systems, as defined by a shared topology when…
We develop theory and computational methods to investigate particle inclusions embedded within curved lipid bilayer membranes. We consider the case of spherical lipid vesicles where inclusion particles are coupled through (i) intramembrane…
We report a first-principle study of the electronic and conduction properties of a quadruple-helix guanine wire (G4-wire), a DNA-derivative, with inner potassium ions. The analysis of the electronic structure highlights the presence of…
T1 transitions, which are localised cell rearrangements, play an important role in the fluidization of epithelial monolayers. Using a multi-phase field model and an active elastic solid model, we show that although each cell undergoes T1…
The interaction of graphene with neighboring materials and structures plays an important role in its behavior, both scientifically and technologically. The interactions are complicated due to the interplay between surface forces and…
Despite decades of research, the modeling of moving contact lines has remained a formidable challenge in fluid dynamics whose resolution will impact numerous industrial, biological, and daily life applications. On the one hand, molecular…
This paper focuses on studying a model for molecular motors responsible for the bending of the axoneme in the flagella of microorganisms. The model is a coupled system of partial differential equations inspired by J\"ulicher et al. or…
The precise layout of gene expression patterns is a crucial step in development. Formation of a sharp boundary between high and low expression domains requires a genetic mechanism which is both sensitive and robust to fluctuations, a demand…
A defining feature of efflux pumps is multidrug polyspecificity, which to date still eludes some of the traditional dogmas of drug binding within protein science. We propose a combinatorial approach to explore the neighbourhood of efflux…
We investigate the effect of cooperative interactions in an ensemble of microorganisms, modelled as self-propelled disk-like and rod-like particles, in a three-dimensional turbulent flow to show flocking as an emergent phenomenon. Building…