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Cell membranes are studded with protrusions that were thoroughly analyzed with electron microscopy. However, the nanometer-scale three-dimensional motions generated by cell membranes to fit the topography of foreign surfaces and initiate…
Mesoscale molecular assemblies on the cell surface, such as cilia and filopodia, integrate information, control transport and amplify signals. Synthetic devices mimicking these structures could sensitively monitor these cellular functions…
Titanium surface treated with titanium oxide nanotubes was used in many studies to quantify the effect of surface topography on cell fate. However, the predicted optimal diameter of nanotubes considerably differs among studies. We propose a…
Gaining access to the cell interior is fundamental for many applications, such as electrical recording, drug and biomolecular delivery. A very promising technique consists of culturing cells on nano/micro pillars. The tight adhesion and…
The plasma membrane of living cells is compartmentalized at multiple spatial scales ranging from the nano- to the meso-scale. This non-random organization is crucial for a large number of cellular functions. At the nanoscale, cell membranes…
Cellular uptake of nanoplastics is instrumental in their environmental accumulation and transfer to humans through the food chain. Despite extensive studies using spherical plastic nanoparticles, the influence of the morphological…
The alignment of fibers and cells in living tissues affect their mechanical properties and functionality. In this context, one can draw an analogy between tissues and nematic liquid crystal elastomers. We explore this analogy by growing…
Recent advances in optical technology have significantly enhanced the resolution of imaging of living cells, achieving nanometer-scale precision. However, the crowded three-dimensional environment within cells presents a challenge for…
Insects like dragonflies and cicadas possess nanoprotusions on their wings that rupture bacterial membranes upon contact, inspiring synthetic antibacterial surfaces mimicking this phenomenon. Designing such biomimetic surfaces requires…
Modeling membrane interactions with arbitrarily shaped colloidal particles, such as environmental micro- and nanoplastics, at the cell scale remains particularly challenging, owing to the complexity of particle geometries and the need to…
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) has a great potential as a tool to characterize mechanical and morphological properties of living cells; these properties have been shown to correlate with cells' fate and patho-physiological state in view of…
The biological membrane, which compartmentalizes the cell and its organelles, exhibit wide variety of macroscopic shapes of varying morphology and topology. A systematic understanding of the relation of membrane shapes to composition,…
Lipid membranes, the barrier defining living cells and many of their sub-compartments, bind to a wide variety of nano- and micro-meter sized objects. In the presence of strong adhesive forces, membranes can strongly deform and wrap the…
Biomembranes play a central role in various phenomena like locomotion of cells, cell-cell interactions, packaging of nutrients, and in maintaining organelle morphology and functionality. During these processes, the membranes undergo…
Hierarchical biomaterials embody nature's intricate design principles, offering advanced functionalities through the complex, multi-level organization of their molecular and nanosized building blocks. However, the comprehensive…
Signal transduction and cell function are governed by the spatiotemporal organization of membrane-associated molecules. Despite significant advances in visualizing molecular distributions by 3D light microscopy, cell biologists still have…
We present a self-contained study of the dynamics of oscillating nanomenisci anchored on nanometric topographical defects around a cylindrical nanofiber -- radius below 100 nm. Using frequency-modulation atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM), we…
A detailed understanding of the interface between living cells and substrate materials is of rising importance in many fields of medicine, biology and biotechnology. Cells at interfaces often form epithelia. The physical barrier that they…
Molecular self-assembly, the function of biomembranes, and the performance of organic solar cells rely on molecular interactions on the nanoscale. The understanding and design of such intrinsic or engineered heterogeneous functional soft…
Polydisperse fibre networks are the basis of many natural and man-made architectures, ranging from high-performance bio-based materials to components of living cells and tissues. The formation and persistence of such networks are given by…