Related papers: Hitchhiking Through the Cytoplasm
A theory of electronic transport through molecular wires is applied to analyze characteristics of a long-range electron transfer (ET) through molecular bridges in macromolecules with complex donor/acceptor subsystems. Assuming a coherent…
Mechanochemical coupling was studied for two different types of myosin motors in cells: myosin V, which carries cargo over long distances by as a single molecule; and myosin II, which generates a contracting force in cooperation with other…
Charge transport through a short DNA oligomer (Dickerson dodecamer) in presence of structural fluctuations is investigated using a hybrid computational methodology based on a combination of quantum mechanical electronic structure…
Large scale motion of cytoplasm called cytoplasmic streaming occurs in some large eukaryotic cells to stir the cell's constituents. In Drosophila oocytes, microtubules have been observed to undergo undulating motion, curving to form…
Synaptic vesicle transport by motor proteins along microtubules is a crucial active process underlying neuronal communication. It is known that microtubules are destabilized by tau-hyperphosphorylation, which causes tau proteins to detach…
Within microcentrifuge devices, a microfluidic vortex separates larger particles from a heterogeneous suspension using inertial migration, a phenomenon that causes particles to migrate across streamlines. The ability to selectively capture…
The actomyosin cortex is an active material that provides animal cells with a strong but flexible exterior, whose mechanics, including non-Gaussian fluctuations and occasional large displacements or cytoquakes, have defied explanation. We…
Molecular motors power directed transport of cargoes within cells. Even if a single motor is sufficient to transport a cargo, motors often cooperate in small teams. We discuss the cooperative cargo transport by several motors theoretically…
The transport of particles through channels holds immense significance in physics, chemistry, and biological sciences. For instance, the motion of solutes through biological channels is facilitated by specialized proteins that create…
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…
Active motion of molecules along filamentous structures is a crucial feature of cell biology and is often modeled with the paradigmatic asymmetric simple exclusion process. Motivated by recent experimental studies that have addressed the…
Microtubule-based molecular motors often work in small groups to transport cargos in cells. A key question in understanding transport (and its regulation in vivo) is to identify the sensitivity of multiple-motor-based motion to various…
Motor-proteins are responsible for transport inside cells. Harnessing their activity is key towards developing new nano-technologies, or functional biomaterials. Cytoskeleton-like networks, recently tailored in vitro, result from the…
Cells perform directed motion in response to external stimuli that they detect by sensing the environment with their membrane protrusions. In particular, several biochemical and biophysical cues give rise to tactic migration in the…
A living cell actively generates traction forces on its environment with its actin cytoskeleton. These forces deform the cell elastic substrate which, in turn, affects the traction forces exerted by the cell and can consequently modify the…
Cell migration is essential for regulating many biological processes in physiological or pathological conditions, including embryonic development and cancer invasion. In vitro and in silico studies suggest that collective cell migration is…
The motion of molecules across channels is critically important for understanding mechanisms of cellular processes. Here we investigate the mechanism of interactions in the molecular transport by analyzing exactly solvable discrete…
As society paves its way towards device miniaturization and precision medicine, micro-scale actuation and guided transport become increasingly prominent research fields with high impact in both technological and clinical contexts. In order…
Many cellular networks rely on the regulated transport of their components to transduce extracellular information into precise intracellular signals. The dynamics of these networks is typically described in terms of compartmentalized…
Cells contain elaborate and interconnected networks of protein polymers which make up the cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton governs the internal positioning and movement of vesicles and organelles, and controls dynamic changes in cell…