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Many natural systems are organized as networks, in which the nodes (be they cells, individuals or populations) interact in a time-dependent fashion. The dynamic behavior of these networks depends on how these nodes are connected, which can…
The extensor mechanism is a tendinous structure that plays an important role in finger function. It transmits forces from several intrinsic and extrinsic muscles to multiple bony attachments along the finger via sheets of collagen fibers.…
The cytoskeleton is a model active matter system that controls diverse cellular processes from division to motility. While both active actomyosin dynamics and actin-microtubule interactions are key to the cytoskeleton's versatility and…
Biological cells embedded in fibrous matrices have been observed to form inter-cellular bands of dense and aligned fibers, through which they mechanically interact over long distances. Such matrix-mediated cellular interactions have been…
Movement within eukaryotic cells largely originates from localized forces exerted by myosin motors on scaffolds of actin filaments. Although individual motors locally exert both contractile and extensile forces, large actomyosin structures…
A plethora of natural and industrial shear-driven granular flows exhibit particle-size segregation. Its occurrence is commonly attributed to two primary mechanisms: kinetic sieving and squeeze expulsion. While kinetic sieving is relatively…
Actomyosin networks are major structural components of the cell. They provide mechanical integrity and allow dynamic remodeling of eukaryotic cells, self-organizing into the diverse patterns essential for development. We provide a…
During the last decade, network approaches became a powerful tool to describe protein structure and dynamics. Here we review the links between disordered proteins and the associated networks, and describe the consequences of local,…
We prove that complex networks of interactions have the capacity to regulate and buffer unpredictable fluctuations in production events. We show that non-bursty network-driven activation dynamics can effectively regulate the level of…
We have studied the elastic response of actin networks with both compliant and rigid crosslinks by modeling molecular motors as force dipoles. Our finite element simulations show that for compliant crosslinkers such as filamin A, the…
Tuning of active prestress e.g. through activity of molecular motors constitutes a powerful cellular tool to adjust cellular stiffness through nonlinear material properties. Understanding this tool is an important prerequisite for our…
The advances in understanding complex networks have generated increasing interest in dynamical processes occurring on them. Pattern formation in activator-inhibitor systems has been studied in networks, revealing differences from the…
Neuromorphic networks can be described in terms of coarse-grained variables, where emergent sustained behaviours spontaneously arise if stochasticity is properly taken in account. For example it has been recently found that a directed…
Inner porous regions play a critical role in the load bearing capability of large bones.We show that an extension of disordered elastic networks [Chung et. al., Phys. Rev. B, {\bf 54}, 15094 (1996)] exhibits analogs of several known…
We study a mechanism of activity sustaining on networks inspired by a well-known model of neuronal dynamics. Our primary focus is the emergence of self-sustaining collective activity patterns, where no single node can stay active by itself,…
Cells accomplish diverse functions using the same molecular building blocks, from setting up cytoplasmic flows to generating mechanical forces. In particular, transitions between these non-equilibrium states are triggered by regulating the…
Accurately determining and classifying the structure of complex networks is the focus of much current research. One class of network of particular interest are metabolic pathways, which have previously been studied from a graph theoretical…
Proliferating cell collectives often develop an active growth layer near their boundary that regulates expansion and morphology, as observed in systems ranging from bacterial biofilms to epithelial tissues and tumor spheroids. While such…
The structural reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton is facilitated through the action of motor proteins that crosslink the actin filaments and transport them relative to each other. Here, we present a combined experimental-computational…
Neural activity exhibits a vast range of timescales that can be several fold larger than the membrane time constant of individual neurons. Two types of mechanisms have been proposed to explain this conundrum. One possibility is that large…