Biological physics articles within Nature Materials

Featured

  • Article |

    The rational design of out-of-equilibrium demixing transitions remains challenging. Active fluids are used to control the liquid–liquid phase separation of passive DNA nanostars and establish the activity-based control of the phase diagram.

    • Alexandra M. Tayar
    • , Fernando Caballero
    •  & Zvonimir Dogic

  • Article |

    Integer topological defects promote cellular self-organization, leading to the formation of complex cellular assemblies that trigger cell differentiation and the formation of swirling cellular pillars once differentiation is inhibited. These findings suggest that integer topological defects are important modulators of cellular differentiation and tissue morphogenesis.

    • Pau Guillamat
    • , Carles Blanch-Mercader
    •  & Aurélien Roux

  • Article |

    The basement membrane stiffness is shown to be a more dominant determinant than pore size in regulating cancer cell invasion, metastasis formation and patient survival. This stiffness is now known to be affected by the ratio of netrin-4 to laminin, with more netrin-4 leading to softer basement membranes.

    • Raphael Reuten
    • , Sina Zendehroud
    •  & Janine T. Erler

  • News & Views |

    Single-particle tracking of nanoparticles dispersed in the cytoplasm of living cells shows that non-specific interactions with the intracellular environment are the major contributors for the anomalous diffusion characteristics of intracellular motion.

    • Matthias Weiss

  • Article |

    Proceeding from quantum mechanical predictions, a high shear piezoelectric constant of 178 pm V−1 was measured for the amino acid crystal beta glycine. This originates from the efficient packing of the molecules of the amino acid.

    • Sarah Guerin
    • , Aimee Stapleton
    •  & Damien Thompson

  • Article |

    DNA origami allows the design of rod-shaped particles with specific geometrical features. This is exploited to examine how particle-level characteristics affect properties of the bulk phase and the superstructures such colloids assemble into.

    • Mahsa Siavashpouri
    • , Christian H. Wachauf
    •  & Zvonimir Dogic

  • Letter |

    Experiments and theory show that plastic energy dissipation during cell deformation is linked to elastic cytoskeletal stresses.

    • Navid Bonakdar
    • , Richard Gerum
    •  & Ben Fabry

  • Article |

    A polymeric protein complex consisting of a newly identified magnetoreceptor protein and known magnetoreception-related photoreceptor cryptochromes exhibits spontaneous alignment in magnetic fields.

    • Siying Qin
    • , Hang Yin
    •  & Can Xie

  • Letter |

    Soft filamentous bundles, including F-actin, microtubules or bacterial flagella, can experience large frictional forces that scale logarithmically with sliding velocity, and such frictional coupling can be tuned by modifying lateral interfilament interactions.

    • Andrew Ward
    • , Feodor Hilitski
    •  & Zvonimir Dogic

  • Article |

    Measurements in stretched epithelial cell sheets show that epithelial cracks are independent of tension and that epithelial fracture is caused by the hydraulic pressure that builds up in the extracellular matrix during stretching.

    • Laura Casares
    • , Romaric Vincent
    •  & Xavier Trepat

  • Article |

    Cell behaviour is in part regulated by the rigidity of their environment, yet the underlying mechanisms have remained unclear. It is now shown for breast myoepithelial cells expressing two types of integrin that rigidity sensing and adaptation can be explained by a clutch-bond model that considers the different rates of binding and unbinding between the integrins and the extracellular matrix.

    • Alberto Elosegui-Artola
    • , Elsa Bazellières
    •  & Pere Roca-Cusachs

  • Article |

    The collective migration of epithelial cells arises from the interplay between intercellular forces and cellular signalling networks. It is now shown that the migration of an epithelium can be controlled by applying electric fields that bias the signalling networks, and that such galvanotactic control can prompt cell populations to make coordinated U-turns, undergo divergent or convergent migration, or move against an obstacle.

    • Daniel J. Cohen
    • , W. James Nelson
    •  & Michel M. Maharbiz

  • Article |

    The fact that cells sense and respond to the mechanical properties of their environment is now a well-explored concept, although the mechanism of this response is still unknown. Now it is shown that cells themselves can mechanically manipulate the materials surrounding them by pulling at connective points, providing a feedback loop to influence cell fate.

    • Nathaniel Huebsch
    • , Praveen R. Arany
    •  & David J. Mooney

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