Browse our latest Physics of Living Systems articles

Comprehensive 3D electron tomography reconstructions of metaphase spindles in human tissue culture cells reveal that kinetochore-fibers broaden as they extend polewards, forming semi-direct connections to the pole, where they preferentially interact with the spindle network.

Confined magnetotactic bacteria exhibit circling and U-turn trajectories explained by a competition of alignment with a magnetic field and alignment along the confining walls as well as considerable cell-to-cell heterogeneity.

The damage of the bacterial cell envelope is found to be only a secondary effect of the antimicrobial activity of lactoferricin derivatives.

Label-free three-photon imaging of whole, uncleared intact organoids generated from Rett syndrome patients show shorter migration distances and slower migration speeds of mutant radially migrating neurons with more tortuous trajectories.

Combining particle tracking in living cells with statistical analysis demonstrates how the oligomeric organization of cell surface receptor influences their function, a necessary step in the development of drugs targeting specific receptor conformation.

A biophysical model of the process by which bacteria transition from the motile planktonic state to the immobilized biofilm state yields testable predictions in terms of two dimensionless parameters, one describing nutrient availability and the other describing cellular dispersal.

A new model helps to predict under which conditions a species of bacteria will switch to a static lifestyle.

A hydrodynamic model of fish swimming in a channel predicts a critical flow speed for fish to successfully swim against a flow, unveiling a passive mechanism for rheotaxis to emerge without access to any sensory information.

Combined experimental and theoretical analysis identifies a molecular mechanism akin to working memory that enables single cells to perform complex navigation tasks in changing growth factor fields, beyond simple stimulus-response associations.

Computational modeling and single molecule imaging data support frequent disassembly and annealing of newly assembled actin, a process that can underlie structural changes of lamellipodial actin networks.