Related papers: A generic self-stabilization mechanism for biomole…
Gels are an increasingly important class of soft materials with applications ranging from regenerative medicine to commodity materials. A major drawback of gels is their relative mechanical weakness, which worsens further under strain. We…
When plated onto substrates, cell morphology and even stem cell differentiation are influenced by the stiffness of their environment. Stiffer substrates give strongly spread (eventually polarized) cells with strong focal adhesions, and…
Cohesive zone models do not consider the lateral contraction of adhesive layers under tensile loads. The constraint of the lateral contraction by the adherents which depends on the geometry of the adhesive layer has a major influence on the…
The theory of mechanical response and stress transmission in disordered, jammed solids poses several open questions of how non-periodic networks -- apparently indistinguishable from a snapshot of a fluid -- sustain shear. We present a…
In this work, we consider the stability of a spherical shell under combined loading from a uniform external pressure and a homogenous natural curvature. Non-mechanical stimuli, such as one that tends to modify the rest curvature of an…
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 optimal shapes attained by contractile cells on adhesive substrates are determined by the interplay between intracellular forces and adhesion with the extracellular matrix. We model the cell as a contractile film bounded by an elastic…
Topology optimization is an important basis for the design of components. Here, the optimal structure is found within a design space subject to boundary conditions. Thereby, the specific material law has a strong impact on the final design.…
We report a new mechanism of pattern formation in growing bistable systems coupled indirectly. A modified Fujita et. al. model is studied as an example of a reaction-diffusion system of nondiffusive activator and inhibitor molecules…
The formation of molecules and supramolecular structures results from bonding by conservative forces acting among electrons and nuclei and giving rise to equilibrium configurations defined by minima of the interaction potential. Here we…
We report on a cellular pattern which spontaneously forms at the surface of a thin layer of a cohesive granular material submitted to in-plane stretching. We present a simple model in which the mechanism responsible of the instability is…
We study a one-dimensional model of microtubule assembly/disassembly in which GTP bound to tubulins within the microtubule undergoes stochastic hydrolysis. In contrast to models that only consider a cap of GTP-bound tubulin, stochastic…
We estimate density of defects frozen into a biological Turing pattern which was turned on at a finite rate. A self-locking of gene expression in individual cells, which makes the Turing transition discontinuous, stabilizes the pattern…
Adhesion-independent migration is a prominent mode of cell motility in confined environments, yet the physical principles that guide such movement remain incompletely understood. We present a phase-field model for simulating the motility of…
This paper deals with the adhesive interaction arising between a cell circulating in the blood flow and the vascular wall. The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of the blood flow velocity on the cell dynamics, and in…
Stability and reliable operation under a spectrum of environmental conditions is still an open challenge for soft and continuum style manipulators. The inability to carry sufficient load and effectively reject external disturbances are two…
Gene regulatory networks exhibit remarkable stability, maintaining functional phenotypes despite genetic and environmental perturbations. Discrete dynamical models, such as Boolean networks, provide systems biologists with a tractable…
Fibrous networks are ideal functional materials since they provide mechanical rigidity at low weight. Such structures are omnipresent in natural biomaterials from cells to tissues, as well as in man-made materials from polymeric composites…
Colloidal gels have strong industrial relevance as they can behave liquid- and solid-like. The latter allows them to support the buoyant weight against gravity. However, the system is intrinsically out-of-equilibrium, which means that the…
We analyze stress transmission in wet granular media in the pendular state by means of three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations. We show that the tensile action of capillary bonds induces a self-stressed particle network organized…