生物物理
Protein chains of the (FG)$_n$ ($n \simeq$ 300) type cap the cytoplasmatic side of the nucleopore complex, which connects the nucleus to the remainder of an eukaryotic cell. We study the properties of three fundamental polymer models that…
Coarse-graining of fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations is a long-standing goal in order to allow the description of processes occurring on biologically relevant timescales. For example, the prediction of pathways, rates and…
Ensilication is a technology we developed that can physically stabilise proteins in silica without use of a pre-formed particle matrix. Stabilisation is done by tailor fitting individual proteins with a silica coat using a modified sol-gel…
The relationship between velocities, tractions, and intercellular stresses in the migrating epithelial monolayer are currently unknown. Ten years ago, a method known as Monolayer Stress Microscopy (MSM) was suggested from which the…
Biological assemblies such as chromosomes, membranes, and the cytoskeleton are driven out of equilibrium at the nanoscale by enzymatic activity and molecular motors. Similar non-equilibrium dynamics can be realized in synthetic systems,…
The hearts, kidneys, livers, spleens and brains of ${}^57$Fe enriched wild-type and heterozygous $\beta$-thalassaemic mice at 1, 3, 6 and 9 months of age were studied by means of M\"ossbauer Spectroscopy at 80K. Ferritin-like iron…
Collective cell movement, characterized by multiple cells that are in contact for substantial periods of time and undergo correlated motion, plays a central role in cancer and embryogenesis. Recent imaging experiments have provided…
We present a mechanical model of tissue homeostasis that is specialised to the intestinal crypt. Growth and deformation of the crypt, idealised as a line of cells on a substrate, are modelled using morphoelastic rod theory. Alternating…
Cell crawling requires the generation of intracellular forces by the cytoskeleton and their transmission to an extracellular substrate through specific adhesion molecules. Crawling cells show many features of excitable systems, such as…
We consider mechanically-induced pattern formation within the framework of a growing, planar, elastic rod attached to an elastic foundation. Through a combination of weakly nonlinear analysis and numerical methods, we identify how the shape…
Clustering of ligand-binding receptors of different types on thickened isles of the cell membrane, namely lipid rafts, is an experimentally observed phenomenon. Although its influence on cell response is deeply investigated, the role of the…
In swarms of flying insects, the motions of individuals are largely uncoordinated with those of their neighbors, unlike the highly ordered motion of bird flocks. However, it has been observed that insects may transiently form pairs with…
The cortical microtubule array of dark-grown hypocotyl cells of plant seedlings undergoes a striking, and developmentally significant, reorientation upon exposure to light. This process is driven by the exponential amplification of a…
Many species of bacteria swim through viscous environments by rotating multiple helical flagella. The filaments gather behind the cell body and form a close helical bundle, which propels the cell forward during a "run". The filaments inside…
Important cellular processes, such as cell motility and cell division, are coordinated by cell polarity, which is determined by the non-uniform distribution of certain proteins. Such protein patterns form via an interplay of protein…
Within cells, vesicles and proteins are actively transported several micrometers along the cytoskeletal filaments. The transport along microtubules is propelled by dynein and kinesin motors, which carry the cargo in opposite directions.…
The theory of multistate template-directed reversible copolymerization is developed by extending the method based on iterated function systems to matrices, taking into account the possibility of multiple activation states instead of a…
Cell shape changes are vital for many physiological processes such as cell proliferation, cell migration and morphogenesis. They emerge from an orchestrated interplay of active cellular force generation and passive cellular force response -…
The effects of carrying capacity of environment $K$ for degradation (the $K$ effect for short) on the constitutive gene expression and a simple genetic regulation system, are investigated by employing a stochastic Langevin equation combined…
Unbroken and broken spiral waves, in partial-differential-equation (PDE) models for cardiac tissue, are the mathematical analogs of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, namely, ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular-fibrillation…