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Recent observations demonstrate that densely packed tissues exhibit features of glassy dynamics, such as caging behavior and dynamical heterogeneities, although it has remained unclear how single-cell properties control this behavior. Here…
Colonies of rod-shaped bacteria constitute a system of colloidal active matter with nematic properties. As a single initial bacterium multiplies through repeated divisions, the resulting colony quickly loses long-range orientational order,…
The coarsening instability typically disrupts steady-state cluster-size distributions. We show that degradation coupled to the cluster size, such as arising from biological proteolysis, leads to a novel fixed-point cluster size. Stochastic…
Topological defects, which are singular points in a director field, play a major role in shaping active systems. Here, we experimentally study topological defects and the flow patterns around them, that are formed during the highly rapid…
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is highly heterogeneous, with five-year survival rates dropping from $\sim$90% in localized disease to $\sim$15% with distant metastases. Disease progression is shaped not only by tumor-intrinsic alterations but also…
Topological defects play a critical role across many fields, mediating phase transitions and macroscopic behaviors as they move through space. Their role as robust information carriers has also generated much attention. However, controlling…
The transport by molecular motors along cytoskeletal filaments is studied theoretically in the presence of static defects. The movements of single motors are described as biased random walks along the filament as well as binding to and…
The homeostasis of epithelial tissue relies on a balance between the self-renewal of stem cell populations, cellular differentiation, and loss. Although this balance needs to be tightly regulated to avoid pathologies, such as tumor growth,…
Animal cells use traction forces to sense the mechanics and geometry of their environment. Measuring these traction forces requires a workflow combining cell experiments, image processing and force reconstruction based on elasticity theory.…
We present numerical simulations of a model of cellulose consisting of long stiff rods, representing cellulose microfibrils, connected by stretchable crosslinks, representing xyloglucan molecules, hydrogen bonded to the microfibrils. Within…
Observations of single epidermal cells on flat adhesive substrates have revealed two distinct morphological and functional states, namely a non-migrating symmetric unpolarized state and a migrating asymmetric polarized state. These states…
The dynamics of cellular pattern formation is crucial for understanding embryonic development and tissue morphogenesis. Recent studies have shown that human dermal fibroblasts cultured on liquid crystal elastomers can exhibit an increase in…
Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer. Survival rates are excellent if it is detected early but fall markedly if it metastasises. A key step in early tumour progression is the formation of cell clusters, which can promote…
The spongy mesophyll is a complex, porous tissue found in plant leaves that enables carbon capture and provides mechanical stability. Unlike many other biological tissues, which remain confluent throughout development, the spongy mesophyll…
The day we understand the time evolution of subcellular elements at a level of detail comparable to physical systems governed by Newton's laws of motion seems far away. Even so, quantitative approaches to cellular dynamics add to our…
Based on a detailed crossbridge model for individual myosin II motors, we systematically study the influence of mechanical load and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) concentration on small myosin II ensembles made from different isoforms. For…
The migration of cells through tight constricting spaces or along fibrous tracks in tissues is important for biological processes, such as embryogenesis, wound healing, and cancer metastasis, and depends on the mechanical properties of the…
We monitored isotropic spreading of mouse embryonic fibroblasts on fibronectin-coated substrates. Cell adhesion area versus time was measured via total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. Spreading proceeds in well-defined phases.…
We systematically explore the self-assembly of semi-flexible polymers in deformable spherical confinement across a wide regime of chain stiffness, contour lengths and packing fractions by means of coarse-grained molecular dynamics…
Macrophages in atherosclerotic lesions exhibit a spectrum of behaviours or phenotypes. The phenotypic distribution of monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs), its correlation with MDM lipid content, and relation to blood lipoprotein densities…