Related papers: Microstructural model for calponin stabilization o…

The mechanism of propulsion of host bacteria under the action of actin gel networks is examined by means of a continuum model of the dynamics of F-actin concentration. The model includes the elasticity of the network, its attachment to the…

Eukaryotic cells and intracellular pathogens such as bacteria or viruses utilize the actin polymerization machinery to propel themselves forward. Thereby, the onset of motion and choice of direction may be the result of a spontaneous…

Actin networks, acting as an engine pushing against an external load, are fundamentally important to cell motility. A measure of the effectiveness of an engine is the velocity the engine is able to produce at a given force, the…

We present a generic formulation of the continuum elasticity of an isotropic crosslinked active gel. The gel is described by a two-component model consisting of an elastic network coupled frictionally to a permeating fluid. Activity is…

There is compelling evidence that substrate stiffness affects cell adhesion as well as cytoskeleton organization and contractile activity. This work was designed to study the cytoskeletal contractile activity of cells plated on microposts…

Achieving control and tunability of lyotropic materials has been a long-standing goal of liquid crystal research. Here we show that the elasticity of a liquid crystal system consisting of a dense suspension of semiflexible biopolymers can…

Actin is a globular protein which forms long polar filaments in eukaryotic. The actin filaments play roles of cytoskeleton, motility units , information processing and learning. We model actin filament as a double chain of finite state…

The cellular cytoskeleton is an active material, driven out of equilibrium by molecular motor proteins. It is not understood how the collective behaviors of cytoskeletal networks emerge from the properties of the network's constituent motor…

The cytoskeleton -- a collection of polymeric filaments, molecular motors, and crosslinkers -- is a foundational example of active matter, and in the cell assembles into organelles that guide basic biological functions. Simulation of…

Experiments have shown that elasticity of disordered filamentous networks with compliant crosslinks is very different from networks with rigid crosslinks. Here, we model and analyze filamentous networks as a collection of randomly oriented…

Essentially all biology is active and dynamic. Biological entities autonomously sense, com- pute, and respond using energy-coupled ratchets that can produce force and do work. The cytoskeleton, along with its associated proteins and motors,…

Cellular actin structures are continuously turned over while keeping similar sizes. Since they all compete for a shared pool of actin monomers, the question arises how they can coexist in these dynamic steady states. Recently, the…

The growth of viscous two-dimensional lipid domains in contact with a viscoelastic actin network was recently shown to exhibit unusual lipid domain ripening due to the geometry and anisotropy of the actin network [Arnold & Takatori.…

We report analytical and numerical modelling of active elastic networks, motivated by experiments on crosslinked actin networks contracted by myosin motors. Within a broad range of parameters, the motor-driven collapse of active elastic…

Depletion interactions are thought to significantly contribute to the organization of intracellular structures in the crowded cytosol. The strength of depletion interactions depends on physical parameters like the depletant number density…

Live cells have ambiguous mechanical properties. They were often described as either elastic solids or viscoelastic fluids and have recently been classified as soft glassy materials characterized by weak power-law rheology. Nonlinear…

The multiscale behavior of the individual fibrin fibers and fibrin clots is modeled by coupling atomistic simulation data and microscopic experimental data. We propose a protofibril element made up of nonlinear spring network, constructed…

Fluid-structure interactions between active and passive components are important for many biological systems to function. A particular example is chromatin in the cell nucleus, where ATP-powered processes drive coherent motions of the…

We introduce an approach for performing "very long" computer simulations of the dynamics of simplified, folded proteins. Using an alpha-carbon protein model and a fine grid to mimic continuum computations at increased speed, we perform…

Filopodia are ubiquitous fingerlike protrusions, spawned by many eukaryotic cells, to probe and interact with their environments. Polymerization dynamics of actin filaments, comprising the structural core of filopodia, largely determine…