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Active transport of biomolecules assisted by motor proteins is imperative for the proper functioning of cellular activities. Inspired by the diffusion of active agents in crowded cellular channels, we computationally investigate the…
Active polymeric systems exhibit a rich spectrum of non-equilibrium phenomena arising from stochastic forces that explicitly break detailed balance. Despite the rapid growth of experimental and numerical studies, analytical progress remains…
The classical nucleation theory finds the rate of nucleation proportional to the monomer concentration raised to the power, which is the `critical nucleaus size', ${n_c}$. The implicit assumption, that amyloids nucleate in the same way, has…
In addition to the biologically active monomer of the protein Insulin circulating in human blood, the molecule also exists in dimeric and hexameric forms that are used as storage. The Insulin monomer contains two distinct surfaces, namely…
We describe a phase transition that gives rise to structurally non-trivial states in a two-dimensional ordered network of particles connected by harmonic bonds. Monte Carlo simulations reveal that the network supports, apart from the…
Cell polarization underlies many cellular processes, such as differentiation, migration, and budding. Many living cells, such as budding yeast and fission yeast, use cytoskeletal structures to actively transport proteins to one location on…
Determining how energy flows within and between molecules is crucial for understanding chemical reactions, material properties, and even vital processes such as photosynthesis. While the general principles of energy transfer are well…
Confined thin structures are ubiquitous in nature. Spatial and length constraints have led to a number of novel packing strategies at both the micro-scale, as when DNA packages inside a capsid, and the macro-scale, seen in plant root…
We examine the phase transition of polymer adsorption as well as the underlying kinetics of polymer binding from dilute solutions on a structureless solid surface. The emphasis is put on the properties of regular multiblock copolymers,…
Trafficking of glutamate receptors into and out of synapses is critically involved in the plasticity of excitatory synaptic transmission. Endocytosis and exocytosis of receptors have initially been thought to account alone for this…
We consider the properties of a self-avoiding polymer chain, adsorbed on a solid attractive substrate which is attached with one end to a pulling force. The conformational properties of such chain and its phase behavior are treated within a…
The spatial localization or sequestering of motile cargo and their dispersal within cells is an important process in a number of physiological contexts. The morphology of the cytoskeletal network, along which active, motor-driven…
In this paper we present simulations of a surface-adsorbed polymer subject to an elongation force. The polymer is modelled by a self-avoiding walk on a regular lattice. It is confined to a half-space by an adsorbing surface with attractions…
We address two-level systems arranged in ring configurations affected by static disorder. In particular we investigate the role of dephasing in the transport of an excitation along the ring. We compare the efficiency of the transfer process…
In this paper, we explore osmotic transport by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We first consider osmosis through a membrane, and investigate the reflection coefficient of an imperfectly semi-permeable membrane, in the dilute…
Pathogenic fungi are a leading cause of crop disease and primarily spread through microscopic, durable spores adapted differentially for both persistence and dispersal. Computational Earth System Models and air pollution models have been…
We consider a generalization of the classical logistic growth model introducing more than one inflection point. The growth, called multi-sigmoidal, is firstly analyzed from a deterministic point of view in order to obtain the main…
Mesh-like structures, such as mucus gel or cytoskeleton networks, are ubiquitous in biological systems. These intricate structures are composed of cross-linked, semi-flexible bio-filaments, crucial to numerous biological processes. In many…
Spatially ordered systems confined to surfaces such as spheres exhibit interesting topological structures because of curvature induced frustration in orientational as well as translational order. The study of these structures is important…
Despite being of vital importance to the immune system, the mechanism by which cells engulf relatively large solid particles during phagocytosis is still poorly understood. From movies of neutrophil phagocytosis of polystyrene beads, we…