Related papers: A generic self-stabilization mechanism for biomole…
The effect of self-generated tension in the backbone of a bottle-brush (BB) macromolecule, adsorbed on an attractive surface, is studied by means of Molecular Dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model in the good solvent…
The control of biopolymer length is mediated by proteins that localize to polymer ends and regulate polymerization dynamics. Several mechanisms have been proposed to achieve end localization. Here, we propose a novel mechanism by which a…
The adhesion of biological membranes is mediated by the binding of membrane-anchored receptor and ligand proteins. Central questions are how the binding kinetics of these proteins is affected by the membranes and by the membrane anchoring…
Phase separation in passive systems leads to uncontrolled droplet growth, limiting structural control in soft materials and cells. We identify a generic mechanism to arrest coarsening based on chemical interconversion between molecular…
The stability of molecular junctions under transport is of the utmost importance for the field of molecular electronics. This question is often addressed within the paradigm of current-induced heating of nuclear degrees of freedom or…
We show that the vibrational response of a glassy liquid at finite frequencies can be described by continuum mechanics despite the vast degeneracy of the vibrational ground state; standard continuum elasticity assumes a unique ground state.…
Given a finite set of local constraints, we seek a cellular automaton (i.e., a local and uniform algorithm) that self-stabilises on the configurations that satisfy these constraints. More precisely, starting from a finite perturbation of a…
We investigate a continuum mechanical model for an adherent cell on two dimensional adhesive micropatterned substrates. The cell is modeled as an isotropic and homogeneous elastic material subject to uniform internal contractile stresses.…
Tuning cell rearrangements is essential in collective cell movement that underlies cancer progression, wound repair, and embryonic development. A key question is how tissue material properties and morphology emerge from cellular factors…
We perform molecular dynamics simulations under uniaxial tension to investigate the micromechanisms underlying strain hardening in glassy polymers. By decomposing the stress into virial components associated with pair, bond, and angle…
The initiation of directional cell motion requires symmetry breaking that can happen both with or without external stimuli. During cell crawling, forces generated by the cytoskeleton and their transmission through mechanosensitive adhesions…
Topological properties of quantum systems are one of the most intriguing emerging phenomena in condensed matter physics. A crucial property of topological systems is the symmetry-protected robustness towards local noise. Experiments have…
In a binary fluid mixture, the concentration gradient of a heavier molecular solute leads to a diffusive flux of solvent and solute to achieve thermodynamic equilibrium. If the solute concentration decreases with height, the system is…
We propose a mechanism of cell motility which is based on contraction and does not require protrusion. The contraction driven translocation of a cell is due to internal flow of the cytoskeleton generated by molecular motors. Each motor…
Conjugated polymers are observed to aggregate in solution. To account for this observation we propose a inter-chain binding mechanism based on the intermolecular tunneling of the delocalized $\pi$-electrons occurring at points where the…
Equilibrating proteins and other biomacromolecules is cardinal for molecular dynamics simulation of such biological systems in which they perform free dynamics without any externally-applied mechanical constraint, until thermodynamic…
Structure formation and constant reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton are key requirements for the function of living cells. Here we show that a minimal reconstituted system consisting of actin filaments, crosslinking molecules and…
The interaction of the actin cytoskeleton with cell-substrate adhesions is necessary for cell migration. While the trajectories of motile cells have a stochastic character, investigations of cell motility mechanisms rarely elaborate on the…
The paper presents a topology optimization approach that designs an optimal structure, called a self-supporting structure, which is ready to be fabricated via additive manufacturing without the usage of additional support structures. Such…
We elucidate the molecular forces leading to assembly of two dimensional membrane-like structures composed of a one rod-length thick monolayer of aligned rods from an immiscible suspension of hard rods and depleting polymers. We perform…