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The actin cortex is an active biopolymer network underneath the plasma membrane at the periphery of mammalian cells. It is a major regulator of cell shape through the generation of active cortical tension. In addition, the cortex…
The intracellular environment is a dynamic space filled with various organelles moving in all directions. Included in this diverse group of organelles are vesicles, which are involved in transport of molecular cargo throughout the cell.…
The semiflexible F-actin network of the cytoskeleton is cross-linked by a variety of proteins including filamin, which contain Ig-domains that unfold under applied tension. We examine a simple semiflexible network model cross-linked by such…
Molecular motor proteins such as Myosin V, Dynein or Kinesin are no ratchets, at least not with a flashing asymmetric potential; the crucial asymmetry is in the dynamical activity. We make that explicit in terms of a simple Markov model,…
Tissue remodelling in diverse developmental contexts require cell shape changes that have been associated with pulsation and flow of the actomyosin cytoskeleton. Here we describe the dynamics of the actomyosin cytoskeleton as a confined…
We explored the dynamical and structural effects of actin-related proteins 2/3 (Arp2/3) on actomyosin networks using mechanochemical simulations of active matter networks. At a nanoscale, the Arp2/3 complex alters the topology of actomyosin…
Microtubules self-organize to form part of the cellular cytoskeleton. They give cells their shape and play a crucial role in cell division and intracellular transport. Strikingly, microtubules driven by motor proteins reorganize into stable…
The accurate visual tracking of a moving object is a human fundamental skill that allows to reduce the relative slip and instability of the object's image on the retina, thus granting a stable, high-quality vision. In order to optimize…
Intracellular transport is essential for maintaining proper cellular function in most eukaryotic cells, with perturbations in active transport resulting in several types of disease. Efficient delivery of critical cargos to specific…
Cytoskeletal crowding plays a key role in the diffusion of DNA molecules through the cell, acting as a barrier to effective intracellular transport and conformational stability required for such processes as transfection, viral infection,…
Propulsion by growing actin networks is a universal mechanism used in many different biological systems. Although the core molecular machinery for actin network growth is well preserved in most cases, the geometry of the propelled obstacle…
We use optical tweezers microrheology and fluorescence microscopy to apply nonlinear microscale strains to entangled and crosslinked actin networks, and measure the resulting stress and actin filament deformations. We couple nonlinear…
Based on the Stochastic Inclined Rods Model (SIRM) proposed by H. Matsuura and M. Nakano, we study the microscopic motion of actin myosin system including the motion of the G-actin. Our model is composed of an inclined spring (rod), a…
The actin cytoskeleton in living cells has many types of crosslinkers. The mechanical interplay between these different crosslinker types is an open issue in cytoskeletal mechanics. We develop a framework to study the cooperativity and…
Cytoskeletal networks are the main actuators of cellular mechanics, and a foundational example for active matter physics. In cytoskeletal networks, motion is generated on small scales by filaments that push and pull on each other via…
Cellular migration is crucial for biological processes including embryonic development, immune response, and wound healing. The myosin-clutch model is a framework that describes how cells control migration through the interactions between…
The study of complex many-body systems via analysis of the trajectories of the units that dynamically move and interact within them is a non-trivial task. The workflow for extracting meaningful information from the raw trajectory data is…
Musculoskeletal humanoids are robots that closely mimic the human musculoskeletal system, offering various advantages such as variable stiffness control, redundancy, and flexibility. However, their body structure is complex, and muscle…
How do protein structure prediction models fold proteins? We investigate this question by tracing how ESMFold folds a beta hairpin, a prevalent structural motif. Through counterfactual interventions on model latents, we identify two…
Microtubules are inherently dynamic sub-cellular filamentuous polymers that are spatially organized within the cell by motor proteins which cross-link and move microtubules. In-vitro microtubule motility assays, in which motors attached to…