Physics of Living Systems

Physics of Living Systems

eLife reviews research in which approaches from the physical sciences are used to provide insights into the properties of biological systems and processes. Learn more about what we review and sign up for the latest research.
Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Latest articles

    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Escape problem of magnetotactic bacteria - physiological magnetic field strengths help magnetotactic bacteria navigate in simulated sediments

    Agnese Codutti, Mohammad A Charsooghi ... Stefan Klumpp
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    Reversing protonation of weakly basic drugs greatly enhances intracellular diffusion and decreases lysosomal sequestration

    Debabrata Dey, Shir Marciano ... Gideon Schreiber
    Poor intracellular availability and diffusion of weakly basic, small molecule drugs can be greatly enhanced by preventing ion trapping in crowded cellular environments.
    1. Neuroscience
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    Wavenumber-dependent transmission of subthreshold waves on electrical synapses network model of Caenorhabditis elegans

    Iksoo Chang, Taegon Chung, Sangyeol Kim
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    1. Computational and Systems Biology
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    Emergence of planar cell polarity from the interplay of local interactions and global gradients

    Divyoj Singh, Sriram Ramaswamy ... Mohd Suhail Rizvi
    A minimal mathematical model can explain the emergence of planar cell polarity in epithelial tissues using only three free parameters, namely the rate of protein binding to cell membrane, the intracellular protein concentration, and the steepness of tissue-level gradients.
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Interplay of condensate material properties and chromatin heterogeneity governs nuclear condensate ripening

    Deb Sankar Banerjee, Tafadzwa Chigumira ... Huaiying Zhang
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    1. Computational and Systems Biology
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    How cancer-associated fibroblasts promote T-cell exclusion in human lung tumors: a physical perspective

    Joseph Ackermann, Chiara Bernard ... Martine Ben Amar
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    1. Neuroscience
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    Annihilation of action potentials induces electrical coupling between neurons

    Moritz Schlötter, Georg Maret, Christoph J Kleineidam
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Enhanced bacterial chemotaxis in confined microchannels: Optimal performance in lane widths matching circular swimming radius

    Caijuan Yue, Chi Zhang ... Junhua Yuan
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Emergence of alternative stable states in gene exchange communities

    Juken Hong, Wenzhi Xue, Teng Wang
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    A scale-invariant log-normal droplet size distribution below the critical concentration for protein phase separation

    Tommaso Amico, Samuel Toluwanimi Dada ... Amos Maritan
    The scaling invariance of the droplet size distribution as a universal aspect of protein phase separation is reported, providing a quantitative approach to determinate the critical concentration for this process.
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Highlights

    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Flagella: A new kind of beat

    Kirsty Y Wan
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Cancer: Cells under pressure

    Dhiraj Indana, Ovijit Chaudhuri
    1. Physics of Living Systems
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Modelling biomolecular condensates

    Furqan Dar, Rohit Pappu

Senior editors

  1. Felix Campelo
    The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain
  2. Aleksandra Walczak
    Ecole Normale Superieure, France
  3. See more editors