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Biophysics is the study of physical phenomena and physical processes in living things, on scales spanning molecules, cells, tissues and organisms. Biophysicists use the principles and methods of physics to understand biological systems. It is an interdisciplinary science, closely related to quantitative and systems biology.
An experimental method to study how cells sense and react to external mechanical forces combines controlled mechanical stimulation using nanopipettes with fluorescence imaging of membrane tension. This approach facilitates the study of mechanosensitive ion channels and the propagation of cell membrane tension.
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.
Liquid droplets form in cells to concentrate specific biomolecules (while excluding others) in order to perform specific functions. The molecular mechanisms that determine whether different macromolecules undergo co-partitioning or exclusion has so far remained elusive. Now, two studies uncover key principles underlying this selectivity.
Vimentin tunes cell stress by assisting in both actomyosin force transmission and reinforcement of microtubule networks under compression. The competition between these two opposing effects of vimentin is regulated by the microenvironment stiffness.
Here authors aim to understand the 5-HT2AR coupling signature in response to different signaling probes and their physiological impacts using computational modeling, in vitro and in vivo experiments, and analysis of human brain tissue.
A MINFLUX tracking study of a truncated kinesin-1 mutant in gently fixed primary rat hippocampal neurons revealed 8 nm substeps and a rotation of its head during the unbound state with nanometer/millisecond resolution
An experimental method to study how cells sense and react to external mechanical forces combines controlled mechanical stimulation using nanopipettes with fluorescence imaging of membrane tension. This approach facilitates the study of mechanosensitive ion channels and the propagation of cell membrane tension.
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.
Liquid droplets form in cells to concentrate specific biomolecules (while excluding others) in order to perform specific functions. The molecular mechanisms that determine whether different macromolecules undergo co-partitioning or exclusion has so far remained elusive. Now, two studies uncover key principles underlying this selectivity.