Related papers: Heterogeneous Force Chains in Cellularized Biopoly…
The shapes of epithelial tissues result from a complex interplay of contractile forces in the cytoskeleta of the cells in the tissue, and adhesion forces between them. A host of discrete, cell-based models describe these forces by assigning…
Biological networks provide insight into the complex organization of biological processes in a cell at the system level. They are an effective tool for understanding the comprehensive map of functional interactions, finding the functional…
Living systems rely on coordinated molecular interactions, especially those related to gene expression and protein activity. The Unfolded Protein Response is a crucial mechanism in eukaryotic cells, activated when unfolded proteins exceed a…
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 homeostasis, the biological process of maintaining a steady state in tissue via control of cell proliferation, death, and metabolic function, is essential for the development, growth, maintenance, and proper function of living…
The folding transition of biopolymers from the coil to compact structures has attracted wide research interest in the past and is well studied in polymer physics. Recent seminal works on DNA in confined devices have shown that these long…
A living cell is an active environment where the organization and dynamics of chromatin are affected by different forms of activity. Optical experiments report that loci show subdiffusive dynamics and the chromatin fiber is seen to be…
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…
The development of traction-force microscopy, in the past two decades, has created the unprecedented opportunity of performing direct mechanical measurements on living cells as they adhere or crawl on uniform or micro-patterned substrates.…
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.…
We study the elastic properties of a single A/B copolymer chain with a specific sequence. We predict a rich structure in the force extension relations which can be addressed to the sequence. The variational method is introduced to probe…
In a diversity of physiological contexts, eukaryotic cells adhere to an extracellular matrix (ECM), a disordered network with complex nonlinear mechanics. Such cells can perform mechanosensation: using local force probing they can measure…
We use a computational phase-field model together with analytical analysis to study how inter-cellular active forces can mediate individual cell morphology and collective motion in a confluent cell monolayer. Contractile inter-cellular…
To understand how the mechanical properties of tissues emerge from interactions of multiple cells, we measure traction stresses of cohesive colonies of 1-27 cells adherent to soft substrates. We find that traction stresses are generally…
The unique nonlinear mechanics of the fibrous extracellular matrix (ECM) facilitates long-range cell-cell mechanical communications that would be impossible on linear elastic substrates. Past research has described the contribution of two…
The two approaches to analyzing the large strain behavior of rubbery networks are phenomenologically, using strain energy functions drawn from continuum mechanics, and molecular models, which apply statistical mechanics to compute the…
In this paper we present a derivation and multiscale analysis of a mathematical model for plant cell wall biomechanics that takes into account both the microscopic structure of a cell wall coming from the cellulose microfibrils and the…
We study a model describing some aspects of the dynamics of biopolymers. The models involve either one or two finite chains with a number N of sites that represent the "units" of a biophysical system. The mechanical degrees of freedom of…
The longitudinal response of single semiflexible polymers to sudden changes in externally applied forces is known to be controlled by the propagation and relaxation of backbone tension. Under many experimental circumstances, realized, e.g.,…
We study the mechanical stiffening behavior in two-dimensional (2D) cross-linked networks of semiflexible biopolymer filaments under simple shear. Filamental constituents immersed in a fluid undergo thermally excited bending motions.…