Related papers: Active viscoelastic condensates provide controllab…
Cytoskeletal filaments are capable of self-assembly in the absence of externally supplied chemical energy, but the rapid turnover rates essential for their biological function require a constant flux of ATP or GTP hydrolysis. The same is…
Indentation tests are classical tools to determine material properties. For biological samples such as cysts of cells, however, the observed force-displacement relation cannot be expected to follow predictions for simple materials. Here, by…
Biological membranes often exhibit heterogeneous protein patterns, which cells control. Strong patterns, like the polarity spot in budding yeast, can be described as surface condensates, formed by physical interactions between constituents.…
We performed dynamic pressure buckling experiments on defect-seeded spherical shells made of a common silicone elastomer. Unlike in quasi-static experiments, shells buckled at ostensibly subcritical pressures (i.e. below the…
Cells control the size and organization of biomolecular condensates formed by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), but multiple mechanisms likely contribute to this control and remain to be fully elucidated. Here we propose a…
Formation of highly ordered structures usually needs to overcome a high free-energy barrier that is greatly beyond the ability of thermodynamic fluctuation, such that the system would be easily trapped into a state with many defects and the…
Assembly and stability of mitotic spindle is governed by the interplay of various intra-cellular forces, e.g. the forces generated by motor proteins by sliding overlapping anti-parallel microtubules (MTs) polymerized from the opposite…
We apply a recently developed model of cytoskeletal force generation to study a cell intrinsic contractility, as well as its response to external loading. The model is based on a non-equilibrium thermodynamic treatment of the…
We investigate a model for the accretive growth of an elastic solid. The reference configuration of the body is accreted in its normal direction, with space- and deformation-dependent accretion rate. The time-dependent reference…
Bacterial biofilms, surface-attached communities of cells, are in some respects similar to colloidal solids; both are densely packed with non-zero yield stresses. However, unlike non-living materials, bacteria reproduce and die, breaking…
Growing soft materials which follow a 3D path in space are critical to applications such as search and rescue and minimally invasive surgery. Here, we present a concept for a single-input growing multi-stable soft material, based on a…
We show here a general model of phase separation in isotropic condensed matter, namely, a viscoelastic model. We propose that the bulk mechanical relaxation modulus that has so far been ignored in previous theories plays an important role…
We determine the linear viscoelastic response of jammed packings of athermal repulsive viscous spheres, a model for emulsions, wet foams, and soft colloidal suspensions. We numerically measure the complex shear modulus, a fundamental…
Mechanical properties of disordered materials are governed by their underlying free energy landscape. In contrast to external fields, embedding a small fraction of active particles within a disordered material generates non-equilibrium…
While mechanobiology has demonstrated that precise control over mechanical properties at the whole-cell level is crucial for many biological functions, comparatively little attention has been paid to the intracellular mechanical properties.…
Here, we report the rate-dependent energy absorption behavior of a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE)-based architected material consisting of repeating unit cells of bistable tilted LCE beams sandwiched between stiff supports. Viscoelastic…
Building structures with hierarchical order through the self-assembly of smaller blocks is not only a prerogative of nature, but also a strategy to design artificial materials with tailored functions. We explore in simulation the…
Developing clinically viable tissue-engineered cardiovascular implants remains a formidable challenge. Achieving reliable and durable outcomes requires a deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms driving tissue evolution during in…
Treatises on vibrations devote large space to study the dynamical behavior of an elastic system subject to known external tractions. In fact, usually a "system" is not an isolated body but it is part of a chain of mechanisms which disturb…
Bacterial colonies growing on surfaces are shaped by mechanical stresses transmitted through the community, governed by the balance between cell growth and steric and cell-substrate interactions. Using overdamped dynamics simulations of…