Related papers: A link between ECM plasticity and synaptic morphol…
Eukaryotic cells and intracellular pathogens such as bacteria or viruses utilize the actin polymerization machinery to propel themselves forward. Thereby, the onset of motion and choice of direction may be the result of a spontaneous…
Conducting Polymer Dendrites (CPD) can engrave sophisticated patterns of electrical interconnects in their morphology with low-voltage spikes and few resources: they may unlock in operando manufacturing functionalities for electronics using…
Cooperative action of molecular motors is essential for many cellular processes. One possible regulator of motor coordination is the elasticity-mediated crosstalk (EMC) coupling between myosin II motors whose origin is the tensile stress…
In the framework of a phase field model of a single cell crawling on a substrate, we investigate how the properties of the cell membrane affect the shape and motility of the cell. Since the membrane influences the cell dynamics on multiple…
Most elementary behaviors such as moving the arm to grasp an object or walking into the next room to explore a museum evolve on the time scale of seconds; in contrast, neuronal action potentials occur on the time scale of a few…
We here study a network of synaptic relations mingling excitatory and inhibitory neuron nodes that displays oscillations quite similar to electroencephalogram (EEG) brain waves, and identify abrupt variations brought about by swift synaptic…
Many biological materials consist of sparse networks of disordered fibres, embedded in a soft elastic matrix. The interplay between rigid and soft elements in such composite networks leads to mechanical properties that can go far beyond the…
The temporal evolution of step-edge fluctuations under electromigration conditions is analysed using a continuum Langevin model. If the electromigration driving force acts in the step up/down direction, and step-edge diffusion is the…
A continuum electromechanical model is proposed to describe the membrane curvature induced by electrostatic interactions in a solvated protein-membrane system. The model couples the macroscopic strain energy of membrane and the…
During animal development and homeostasis, the structure of tissues, including muscles, blood vessels and connective tissues adapts to mechanical strains in the extracellular matrix (ECM). These strains originate from the differential…
To fulfill their killing functions, cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) need to migrate to search for their target cells in complex biological microenvironments, a key component of which is extracellular matrix (ECM). The mechanisms underlying…
In biological settings membranes typically interact locally with other membranes or the extracellular matrix in the exterior, as well as with internal cellular structures such as the cytoskeleton. Characterization of the dynamic properties…
Collective cell migration governs a range of physiological and pathological processes, from tissue morphogenesis to cancer invasion, in which topological defects arise as an inevitable consequence of frequent cellular rearrangement and…
The synaptic connectivity of cortical networks features an overrepresentation of certain wiring motifs compared to simple random-network models. This structure is shaped, in part, by synaptic plasticity that promotes or suppresses…
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), and the corresponding reverse process, Mesenchymal-Epithelial Transition (MET), are dynamic and reversible cellular programs orchestrated by many changes at biochemical and morphological levels. A…
In this paper, we model the mechanics of a collagen pair in the connective tissue extracellular matrix that exists in abundance throughout animals, including the human body. This connective tissue comprises repeated units of two main…
In a diversity of physiological contexts, eukaryotic cells adhere to an extracellular matrix (ECM), a disordered network with complex nonlinear mechanics. Such cells can perform mechanosensation: using local force probing they can measure…
T cells undergo large shape changes (morphodynamics) when migrating. While progress has been made elucidating the molecular basis of cell migration, statistical characterization of morphodynamics and migration has been limited, particularly…
We propose a three dimensional mechanical model of embryonic tissue dynamics. Mechanically coupled adherent cells are represented as particles interconnected with elastic beams which can exert non-central forces and torques. Tissue…
Experiments studying vibrational effects on electronic transport through single molecules have observed several seemingly inconsistent behaviors, ranging from up to 30 harmonics of a vibrational frequency in one experiment, to an absence of…