Related papers: Elastohydrodynamic study of actin filaments using …

Predicting the large-amplitude deformations of thin elastic sheets is difficult due to the complications of self-contact, geometric nonlinearities, and a multitude of low-lying energy states. We study a simple two-dimensional setting where…

The actin cytoskeleton of adherent tissue cells often condenses into filament bundles contracted by myosin motors, so-called stress fibers, which play a crucial role in the mechanical interaction of cells with their environment. Stress…

Inspired by microscopic paramecies which use trichocyst extrusion to propel themselves away from thermal aggressions, we propose a macroscopic experiment to study the stability of a slender beam extruded in a highly viscous fluid. Piano…

The cytoskeleton is an inhomogeneous network of semi-flexible filaments, which are involved in a wide variety of active biological processes. Although the cytoskeletal filaments can be very stiff and embedded in a dense and cross-linked…

Motivated by recent free-standing graphene experiments, we show how thermal fluctuations affect the mechanical properties of microscopically thin solid ribbons. A renormalization group analysis of flexural phonons reveals that elongated…

Inspired by recent experiments demonstrating that vibrating elastic sheets can function as seemingly contactless suction cups, we investigate the elastohydrodynamic hovering of a thin elastic sheet vibrating near a rigid substrate. Previous…

Mechanical characteristics of single biological cells are used to identify and possibly leverage interesting differences among cells or cell populations. Fluidity---hysteresivity normalized to the extremes of an elastic solid or a viscous…

The symmetry breaking of the actin network from radial to longitudinal symmetry has been identified as the major mechanism for keratocytes (fish cells) motility on solid substrate. For strong friction coefficient, the two dimensional actin…

The effect of annealing on the dynamical behavior of swelling for ultrathin polyacrylamide films deposited on silicon substrates have been studied using X-ray reflectivity technique. The spin coated polyacrylamide films of similar…

Filopodia are ubiquitous fingerlike protrusions, spawned by many eukaryotic cells, to probe and interact with their environments. Polymerization dynamics of actin filaments, comprising the structural core of filopodia, largely determine…

The effects of a driven fast-oscillating spinneret on the bending instability of electrified jets, leading to the formation of spiral structures in electrospinning experiments with charged polymers, are explored by means of extensive…

Adhesive contact between a thin elastic sheet and a substrate in a liquid environment arises in a range of biological, physical and technological applications. By considering the dynamics of this process that naturally couples fluid flow,…

Many biological functions rely on the reshaping of cell membranes, in particular into nanotubes, which are covered in vivo by dynamic actin networks. Nanotubes are subject to thermal fluctuations, but the effect of these on cell functions…

Crosslinked semi-flexible and flexible filaments that are actively deformed by molecular motors occur in various natural settings, such as the ordered eukaryotic flagellum, and the disordered cytoskeleton. The deformation of these composite…

We formulate and characterize a model to describe the dynamics of semiflexible polymers in the presence of activity due to motor proteins attached irreversibly to a substrate, and a transverse pulling force acting on one end of the…

We consider directed semiflexible polymers embedded in a fluctuating surface which is governed by either surface tension or bending rigidity. The attractive interactions induced by the fluctuations of the surface reduce the rigidity of the…

We report the self-assembly of thin actin shells beneath the membranes of giant vesicles. Ion-carrier mediated influx of Mg2+ induces actin polymerization in the initially spherical vesicles. Buckling of the vesicles and the formation of…

Research into the orbital angular momentum carried by helical wave-fronts has been dominated by the fields of electromagnetism and acoustics, owing to its practical utility in sensing, communication and tweezing. Despite the huge research…

We study the wetting of a thin elastic filament floating on a fluid surface by a droplet of another, immiscible fluid. This quasi-2D experimental system is the lower-dimensional counterpart of the wetting and wrapping of a droplet by an…

Viscous electron flow exhibits exotic signatures such as superballistic conduction. In order to observe hydrodynamics effects, a 2D device where the current flow is as inhomogeneous as possible is desirable. To this end, we build three…