Related papers: Treadmilling stability of a one-dimensional actin …
We investigate avascular tumour growth as a two-phase process consisting of cells and liquid. Based on the one-dimensional continuum moving-boundary model formulated by (Byrne, King, McElwain, Preziosi, Applied Mathematics Letters, 2003,…
Branched actin networks at the leading edge of a crawling cell evolve via protein-regulated processes such as polymerization, depolymerization, capping, branching, and severing. A formulation of these processes is presented and analyzed to…
The cytoskeleton protein actin assembles into large bundles when supporting stresses in the cell, but grows into a fine branched network to induce cell motion. Such self-organization processes are studied in artificial networks of…
We probed the bending of actin subject to external forcing and viscous drag. Single actin filaments were moved perpendicular to their long axis in an oscillatory way by means of an optically tweezed latex bead attached to one end of the…
Actin filaments, crosslinkers and myosin molecular motors form contractile networks. For instance, the cell cortex is a thin network below the cell membrane ; contraction of the cell cortex allows cells to round up during cell division.…
Experiments have been performed using microscopic beads to probe the small scale mechanics of actin solutions. We show that that there are a number of regimes possible as a function of the size of the probing particle. In certain cases we…
The field of active matter explores the behaviors of self propelled agents out of equilibrium, with active suspensions, such as swimming bacteria in solutions, serving as impactful models. These systems exhibit spatio-temporal patterns akin…
The dynamics of active viscoelastic surfaces plays an important role in biological systems. One prominent example is the actin cortex, a thin bio-polymer sheet underneath the outer membrane of biological cells which combines active…
The polymerization of actin via branching at a cell membrane containing nucleation-promoting factors is simulated using a stochastic-growth methodology. The polymerized-actin distribution displays three types of behavior: a) traveling…
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…
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…
Molecular motors are involved in key transport processes inside actin-based cellular protrusions. The motors carry cargo proteins to the protrusion tip which participate in regulating the actin polymerization, and play a key role in…
We describe a comprehensive model for the formation and morphological development of atmospheric ice crystals growing from water vapor, also known as snow crystals. Our model derives in part from empirical measurements of the intrinsic ice…
We optically drive a microsphere at constant speed through entangled actin networks of 0.2 - 1.4 mg/ml at rates faster than the critical rate controlling the onset of a nonlinear response. By measuring the resistive force exerted on the…
A continuum model for the dynamics of a single step with the strongly anisotropic line energy is formulated and analyzed. The step grows by attachment of adatoms from the lower terrace, onto which atoms adsorb from a vapor phase or from a…
A constitutive relation between stress and strain relative to a reference state is the basic assumption of elasticity theory. However, in living matter, force generation is governed by motor molecule activity, which does not depend on…
The steps at the crystal surfaces could be transparent for the migrating adatoms. In the case of significant transparency the velocity of a given step in a given moment is affected by detachment of atoms from rather distant steps in rather…
We study the onset of delamination blisters in a growing elastic sheet adhered to a flat stiff substrate. When the ends of the sheet are kept fixed, its growth arouses residual stresses that lead to delamination. This instability can be…
To develop a minimal model for a cell moving in a crowded environment such as in tissue, we investigate the response of a liquid drop of active matter moving on a flat rigid substrate to forces applied at its boundaries. We consider two…
The actin droplet machine is a computer model of a three-dimensional network of actin bundles developed in a droplet of a physiological solution, which implements mappings of sets of binary strings. The actin bundle network is conductive to…