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While a significant body of investigations have been focused on the process of protein self-assembly, much less is understood about the reverse process of a filament breaking due to thermal motion into smaller fragments, or depolymerization…
The generation of anisotropic shapes occurs during morphogenesis of almost all organisms. With the recent renewal of the interest in mechanical aspects of morphogenesis, it has become clear that mechanics contributes to anisotropic forms in…
A curious feature of organ and organoid morphogenesis is that in certain cases, spatial oscillations in the thickness of the growing "film" are out-of-phase with the deformation of the slower-growing "substrate," while in other cases, the…
We use a three-dimensional formulation of the cell vertex model to describe the mechanical properties of a confluent planar monolayer of prismatic cells. Treating cell height as a degree of freedom, we reduce the model to a two-dimensional…
Aging interventions frequently improve function and healthspan without arresting long-term deterioration, indicating that existing frameworks do not fully specify the control conditions required for bounded organismal aging. A compact…
Amyloid filaments are associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Simplified models of amyloid aggregation are crucial because the original mass-action equations involve numerous variables, complicating…
Mechanical forces influence the development and behavior of biological tissues. In many situations these forces are exerted or resisted by elastic compliant structures such as the own-tissue cellular matrix or other surrounding tissues.…
We develop a model of amoeboid cell motility based on active gel theory. Modeling the motile apparatus of a eukaryotic cell as a confined layer of finite length of poroelastic active gel permeated by a solvent, we first show that, due to…
Protein aggregation in the form of amyloid fibrils has important biological and technological implications. Although the self-assembly process is highly efficient, aggregates not in the fibrillar form would also occur and it is important to…
In vitro cultures of endothelial cells are a widely used model system of the collective behavior of endothelial cells during vasculogenesis and angiogenesis. When seeded in an extracellular matrix, endothelial cells can form blood…
A numerical model able to simulate the grain breakage with the discrete element method, using the "Non-Smooth Contact Dynamics" is presented. The model reproduces 3D grains having complex shapes and is tested in single grain and in…
By taking advantage of the molecular weight dependence of the glass transition of polymers and their ability to form perfectly miscible blends, we propose a way to modify the fragility of a system, from fragile to strong, keeping the same…
Using field theoretic approach, we study equilibrium shape deformation of a vesicle induced by the presence of enclosed flexible polymers, which is a simple model of drug delivery system or endocytosis. To evaluate the total free energy of…
Biological cells are able to generate intricate structures and respond to external stimuli, sculpting their membrane from within. Simplified biomimetic systems can aid in understanding the principles which govern these shape changes and…
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), such as amyloid polypeptide (IAPP), beta-amyloid (A\b{eta}), and {\alpha}-synuclein are linked to the insurgence of type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's diseases, respectively. Common…
The mechanisms by which organs acquire their functional structure and realize its maintenance (or homeostasis) over time are still largely unknown. In this paper, we investigate this question on adipose tissue. Adipose tissue can represent…
Mammalian cell polarization and motility are important processes involved in many physiological and pathological phenomena, such as embryonic development, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. The traditional view of mammalian cell motility…
Self-assembly of proteins is a biological phenomenon which gives rise to spontaneous formation of amyloid fibrils or polymers. The starting point of this phase, called nucleation exhibits an important variability among replicated…
Muscular dystrophy (MD) describes generalized progressive muscular weakness due to the wasting of muscle fibers. The progression of the disease is affected by known immunological and mechanical factors, and possibly other unknown…
Understanding the influence of macromolecular crowding and nanoparticles on the formation of in-register $\beta$-sheets, the primary structural component of amyloid fibrils, is a first step towards describing \emph{in vivo} protein…