The mechanical properties of a cell determine many aspects of its behavior, and these mechanics are largely determined by the cytoskeleton. Although the contribution of actin filaments and microtubules to the mechanics of cells has been investigated in great detail, relatively little is known about the contribution of the third major cytoskeletal component, intermediate filaments (IFs). To dete...

Actin filaments are thought to be the major structural components of most eukaryotic cells, but reconstituted actin networks have yet to account for the remarkable strength exhibited by cellular networks. A new study has found that reconstituted networks that include the cross-linker filaminA can replicate many of the mechanical properties of cells if they are stressed prior to mechanical measu...

Cell mechanics has proven to be important in many biological processes. Although there is a number of experimental techniques which allow us to study mechanical properties of cell, there is still a lack of understanding of the role each sub-cellular component plays during cell deformations. We present a new mesoscopic particle-based eukaryotic cell model which explicitly describes cell membrane...

Living cells can sense mechanical forces and convert them into biological responses. Similarly, biological and biochemical signals are known to influence the abilities of cells to sense, generate and bear mechanical forces. Studies into the mechanics of single cells, subcellular components and biological molecules have rapidly evolved during the past decade with significant implications for bio...

We present and study a model for the nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of protein distributions in a proliferating cell population. Our model describes how the total protein variation is shaped by two processes: variation in protein production internal to the cells and variation in division and inheritance at the population level. It enables us to assess the contribution of each of these com...

Coupling surface deformations with active stresses in two-dimensional nematic liquid crystal films leads to a rich area of investigation, particularly biological fluid mechanics across multiple scales from tissue cell membrane mechanics. In Al-Izzi & Morris ( J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 957, 2023, A4), the authors derive complete set governing equations for such systems. Their results provide an ...

Current approaches to cancer treatment focus on targeting signal transduction pathways. Here, we develop an alternative system for targeting cell mechanics for the discovery of novel therapeutics. We designed a live-cell, high-throughput chemical screen to identify mechanical modulators. We characterized 4-hydroxyacetophenone (4-HAP), which enhances the cortical localization of the mechanoenzym...

Large-scale astrophysical systems are non-extensive due to their long-range force of gravity. Here we show an approach toward the statistical mechanics of such self-gravitating systems (SGS). This is a generalization of the standard statistical mechanics based on the new definition of entropy; Tsallis statistical mechanics. Developing the composition of entropy and the generalized Euler relatio...

Changes in the microstruture of blood caused by the red blood cell aggregation phenomenon affect the mechanical properties of the fluid. This fact has been extensively investigated in the past and it has been verified that the formation of rouleaux (the characteristic coin-pile like structures) and aggregates at low shear rates affect the flow and as a consequence the viscosity of the fluid is ...