Related papers: A link between ECM plasticity and synaptic morphol…
The 'elastic capacitor' (EC) model was first introduced in studies of lipid bilayers (the major components of biological membranes). This electro-elastic model accounted for the compression of a membrane under applied voltage and allowed…
Entangled states are ubiquitous amongst fibrous materials, whether naturally occurring (keratin, collagen, DNA) or synthetic (nanotube assemblies, elastane). A key mechanical characteristic of these systems is their ability to reorganise in…
T cells use sophisticated shape dynamics (morphodynamics) to migrate towards and neutralise infected and cancerous cells. However, there is limited quantitative understanding of the migration process in 3D extracellular matrices (ECMs) and…
This paper concerns a model for tumor cell migration through the surrounding extracellular matrix by considering mass balance phenomena involving the chemical interactions produced on the cell surface. The well-posedness of this model is…
Enzymes are on the front lines of evolution. All living organisms rely on highly efficient, specific enzymes for growth, sustenance, and reproduction; and many diseases are a consequence of a mutation on an enzyme that affects its catalytic…
Optimal characterization of the mechanical properties of both cells and their surrounding is an issue of major interest. Indeed, cell function and development are strongly influenced by external stimuli. Furthermore, a change in cell…
Cell migration plays a fundamental role in numerous physiological processes, including embryonic development, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. While cell-cell adhesion is known to regulate motion by shaping cell morphology and…
Living tissues experience various external forces on cells, influencing their behaviour, physiology, shape, gene expression, and destiny through interactions with their environment. Despite much research done in this area, challenges remain…
A new form of two-photon exchange(TPE) effect is studied to explain the discrepancy between unpolarized and polarized experimental data in elastic $ep$ scattering. The mechanism is based on a simple idea that apart from the usual TPE…
Extracellular matrix (ECM) constitutes a key basement structure to human organisms by acting as a complex network of large proteins and carbohydrates that provide structural support to surrounding cells. Remodeling in the extracellular…
Elastic crystalline membranes exhibit a buckling transition from sphere to polyhedron. However, their morphologies are restricted to convex polyhedra and are difficult to externally control. Here, we study morphological changes of closed…
The response of cell populations to external stimuli plays a central role in biological mechanical processes such as epithelial wound healing and developmental morphogenesis. Wave-like propagation of a signal of ERK MAP kinase has been…
Cell polarization and directional cell migration can display random, persistent and oscillatory dynamic patterns. However, it is not clear if these polarity patterns can be explained by the same underlying regulatory mechanism. Here, we…
Cell shape is determined by a balance of intrinsic properties of the cell as well as its mechanochemical environment. Inhomogeneous shape changes underly many morphogenetic events and involve spatial gradients in active cellular forces…
Tumor spheroids are in vitro three-dimensional, cellular collectives consisting of cancerous cells. Embedding these spheroids in an in vitro fibrous environment, such as a collagen network, to mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM) provides…
Learning and memory relies on synapses changing their strengths in response to neural activity. However there is a substantial gap between the timescales of neural electrical dynamics (1-100 ms) and organism behaviour during learning…
Transmembrane ion flow through channel proteins undergoing density fluctuations may cause lateral gradients of the electrical potential across the membrane giving rise to electrophoresis of charged channels. A model for the dynamics of the…
Polymers with active segments constitute prospective future materials and are used as a model for some biological systems such as chromatin. The directions of the active forces are typically introduced with temporal or spatial correlations…
Living cells are soft bodies of a characteristic form, but endowed with a capacity for a steady turnover of their structures. Both of these material properties, i.e. recovery of the shape after an external stress has been imposed and…
In this paper, we study how cytoskeletal remodeling is correlated to changes in subcellular microrheology. We analyze the changes in the magnitude and directionality of the shear and elastic moduli of bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs)…