Related papers: Cargo size limits and forces of cell-driven microt…
Recent experiments have demonstrated that dynein motor exhibits catch bonding behaviour, in which the unbinding rate of a single dynein decreases with increasing force, for a certain range of force. Motivated by these experiments, we…
Quantitative experiments are described on spatio-temporal patterns of coherent chemical signaling activity in populations of {\it Dictyostelium discoideum} amoebae. We observe competition between spontaneously firing centers and rotating…
Cells can show not only spontaneous movement but also tactic responses to environmental signals. Since the former can be regarded as the basis to realize the latter, playing essential roles in various cellular functions, it is important to…
Hybrid models of chemotaxis combine agent-based models of cells with partial differential equation models of extracellular chemical signals. In this paper, travelling wave properties of hybrid models of bacterial chemotaxis are…
Advances in synthetic biology allow us to engineer bacterial collectives with pre-specified characteristics. However, the behavior of these collectives is difficult to understand, as cellular growth and division as well as extra-cellular…
Motor-driven cargo transport is a complex phenomenon where multiple motor proteins attached on to a cargo engage in pulling activity, often leading to tug-of-war, displaying bidirectional motion. However, most mathematical and computational…
We study, numerically and analytically, the forced transport of deformable containers through a narrow constriction. Our central aim is to quantify the competition between the constriction geometry and the active forcing, regulating whether…
During cell division, the spindle generates force to move chromosomes. In mammals, microtubule bundles called kinetochore-fibers (k-fibers) attach to and segregate chromosomes. To do so, k-fibers must be robustly anchored to the dynamic…
We present a microscopic model of a charge carrier transfer under an action of a constant electric field in a complex medium. Generalizing previous theoretical approaches, we model the dynamical environment hindering the carrier motion by…
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…
We demonstrate the phenomenon of cumulative inertia in intracellular transport involving multiple motor proteins in human epithelial cells by measuring the empirical survival probability of cargoes on the microtubule and their detachment…
During migration, amoeboid cells perform a cycle of quasi-periodic repetitive events (motility cycle). the cell length and the strain energy exchanged with the substrate oscillate in time with an average frequency, f, on top of which are…
Migrating cells choose their preferential direction of motion in response to different signals and stimuli sensed by spanning their external environment. However, the presence of dense fibrous regions, lack of proper substrate, and cell…
This article presents a novel computational model to study the selective filtering of biological hydrogels due to the surface charge and size of diffusing particles. It is the first model that includes the random 3D fiber orientation and…
As an effective method to deliver external materials into biological cells, microinjection has been widely applied in the biomedical field. However, the cognition of cell mechanical property is still inadequate, which greatly limits the…
A microtubule (MT) is a hollow tube of approximately 25 nm diameter. The two ends of the tube are dissimilar and are designated as `plus' and `minus' ends. Motivated by the collective push and pull exerted by a bundle of MTs during…
The performances of lubricated systems widely used in natural, biological, and artificial settings are traditionally dictated by their load bearing capacities. Here we unveil that, by exploiting a unique coupling between interfacial…
Animal morphogenesis often involves significant shape changes of epithelial tissue sheets. Great progress has been made in understanding the underlying cellular driving forces and their coordination through biomechanical feedback loops.…
Simulations of charge transport in amorphous semiconductors are often performed in microscopically sized systems. As a result, charge carrier mobilities become system-size dependent. We propose a simple method for extrapolating a…
Catalytically active particles suspended in a liquid can move due to self-phoresis by generating solute gradients via chemical reactions of the solvent occurring at parts of their surface. Such particles can be used as carriers at the…