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Biological physics is a branch of physics that deals with systems of a biological nature, from the scale of biological molecules to whole organisms and ecosystems. Biological physics typically uses quantitative physical approaches to address biological questions similar to those studied in biochemistry and molecular biology.
A clear picture of how and why cells inevitably lose viability is still lacking. A dynamical systems view of starving bacteria points to a continuous energy expenditure needed for maintaining the right osmotic pressure as an important factor.
Spiral waves of cell density can form and propagate through bacterial biofilms. These waves are formed by a self-organization process that coordinates pulling forces between neighbouring cells.
The nuclear pore complex of eukaryotic cells senses the mechanical directionality of translocating proteins, favouring the passage of those that have a leading mechanically labile region. Adding an unstructured, mechanically weak peptide tag to a translocating protein increases its rate of nuclear import and accumulation, suggesting a biotechnological strategy to enhance the delivery of molecular cargos into the cell nucleus.
Emperor penguins colony occupancy is variable and chiefly estimated with remote sensing images at end of the breeding season. Here, the authors provide a phenological model that can extrapolate occupancy from sparse data and can predict phenological events, breeding pairs and fledging chicks.
Supracellular cues play a key role in directing collective cell migration in processes such as wound healing and cancer invasion. New findings emphasize the importance of all length scales of the microenvironment in shaping cell migration patterns.
A clear picture of how and why cells inevitably lose viability is still lacking. A dynamical systems view of starving bacteria points to a continuous energy expenditure needed for maintaining the right osmotic pressure as an important factor.
Spiral waves of cell density can form and propagate through bacterial biofilms. These waves are formed by a self-organization process that coordinates pulling forces between neighbouring cells.
The nuclear pore complex of eukaryotic cells senses the mechanical directionality of translocating proteins, favouring the passage of those that have a leading mechanically labile region. Adding an unstructured, mechanically weak peptide tag to a translocating protein increases its rate of nuclear import and accumulation, suggesting a biotechnological strategy to enhance the delivery of molecular cargos into the cell nucleus.
A distance-based mapping strategy using single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer via DNA eXchange (FRET X) enables full-length fingerprinting of intact protein sequences.