Related papers: Layer dependent role of collagen recruitment durin…
Using analytical calculations and computer simulations we consider both the lateral diffusion of a membrane protein and the fluctuation spectrum of the membrane in which the protein is embedded. The membrane protein interacts with the…
Cortical thickness measurements from magnetic resonance imaging, an important biomarker in many neurodegenerative and neurological disorders, are derived by many tools from an initial voxel-wise tissue segmentation. White matter (WM)…
Some of the key proteins essential for important cellular processes are capable of recruiting other proteins from the cytosol to phospholipid membranes. The physical basis for this cooperativity of binding is, surprisingly, still unclear.…
Studying shape changing thick surfaces induced by differential growth helps us understand morphogenesis in biology and offers opportunities for device design. While ideal 2D differential growth maps have been well studied for both isotropic…
The mechanical behaviour of solid biological tissues has long been described using models based on classical continuum mechanics. However, the classical continuum theories of elasticity and viscoelasticity cannot easily capture the…
The translocation of biopolymers, such as DNA and proteins, across cellular or nuclear membranes is essential for numerous biological processes. The translocation dynamics are influenced by the properties of the polymers, such as polymer…
The recent discovery of a lateral organization in cell membranes due to small structures called 'rafts' has motivated a lot of biological and physico-chemical studies. A new experiment on a model system has shown a spectacular budding…
Type I collagen fibrils have circular cross sections with radii mostly distributed in between 50 and 100 nm and are characterized by an axial banding pattern with a period of 67 nm. The constituent long molecules of those fibrils, the…
This article studies the fundamental problem of separating two adhesive elastic fibers based on numerical simulation employing a recently developed finite element model for molecular interactions between curved slender fibers. Specifically,…
We investigate with Monte Carlo computer simulations the capillary phase behaviour of model colloid-polymer mixtures confined between a flat wall and a corrugated wall. The corrugation is modelled via a sine wave as a function of one of the…
Brittle materials fail catastrophically. In consequence of their limited flaw-tolerance, failure occurs by localized fracture and is typically a dynamic process. Recently, experiments on epithelial cell monolayers have revealed that this…
The adhesion of biological membranes is controlled by various types of receptor and ligand molecules. In this letter, we present a statistical-mechanical model for membranes that interact via receptor/ligand bonds of two different lengths.…
Tip-driven growth processes underlie the development of many plants. To date, tip-driven growth processes have been modelled as an elongating path or series of segments without taking into account lateral expansion during elongation.…
In the last decade, the role of shearing loads has been increasingly suspected to play a determinant impact in the formation of deep pressure ulcers. In vivo observations of such deformations are complex to obtain. Previous studies only…
Animal morphogenesis involves complex tissue deformation processes, which require tight control over tissue rheology. Yet, it remains insufficiently understood how tissue rheology results from the interplay between cellular packing and…
A new class of micromechanically motivated chain network models for soft biological tissues is presented. On the microlevel, it is based on the statistics of long chain molecules. A wormlike chain model is applied to capture the behavior of…
Single-molecule mechanical manipulation has enabled the quantitative understanding of the kinetics of bond ruptures as well as protein unfolding mechanism. Single-molecule experiments with theoretical models have allowed one to gain insight…
A polymer chain tethered to a surface may be compact or extended, adsorbed or desorbed, depending on interactions with the surface and the surrounding solvent. This leads to a rich phase diagram with a variety of transitions. To investigate…
We deduce the qualitative phase diagram of a long flexible neutral polymer chain immersed in a poor solvent near an attracting surface using phenomenological arguments. The actual positions of the phase boundaries are estimated numerically…
Curvature in biological membranes can be generated by a variety of different molecular mechanisms such as protein scaffolding, lipid or protein asymmetry, cytoskeletal forces, etc. These mechanisms have the net effect of generating stresses…