Soft Matter inside cover of crosslinkers and spherocylinders

Robert Blackwell's paper published online in Soft Matter

Nov. 23, 2015

Robert Blackwell's paper "Microscopic origins of anisotropic active stress in motor-driven nematic liquid crystals" was published online in Soft Matter.

Simulation snapshot

Multiscale modeling and simulation of microtubule/motor protein assemblies

Oct. 7, 2015

Microscopic motor activity causes polarity-dependent interactions between motor proteins and microtubules in reconstituted cytoskeletal active matter.

Phase diagram

Hysteresis, reentrance, and glassy dynamics in systems of self-propelled rods

Sept. 30, 2015

Non-equilibrium active matter made up of self-driven particles with short-range repulsive interactions exhibits collective motion and nonequilibrium order-disorder transitions.

Model cartoon

Motor protein accumulation on antiparallel microtubule overlaps

Sept. 24, 2015

Biopolymers serve as one-dimensional tracks on which motor proteins move. These phenomena have inspired theoretical models of one-dimensional transport, crowding, and jamming.

Meredith Betterton profile picture

Meredith Betterton awarded NSF EAGER grant

Sept. 1, 2015

Meredith Betterton was awarded a National Science Foundation grant DMR 1551095, "EAGER: Biophysical theory of mitotic spindle length instability and self assembly."

Model cartoon

Multiscale polar theory of microtubule and motor-protein assemblies

Jan. 30, 2015

Microtubules and motor proteins can form new “bioactive” liquid-crystalline fluids that are intrinsically out of equilibrium and which display complex flows and defect dynamics.

Motor mechanics on simulated microtubules

Robert Blackwell's paper published in Physical Review Letters

Jan. 27, 2015

Robert Blackwell's paper (with Tony Gao) "Multiscale polar theory of microtubule and motor-protein assemblies" was published in Physical Review Letters .

model cartoon

Regulation of chromosome speeds in mitosis

Sept. 6, 2013

When chromosomes are being separated in preparation for cell division, their motions are slow relative to the speed at which many motor enzymes can move their cellular cargoes and at which microtubules depolymerize.

data plot

Biophysics of filament length regulation by molecular motors

April 16, 2013

Regulating physical size is an essential problem that biological organisms must solve, but it is not well understood what physical principles and mechanisms organisms use to sense and regulate their size.

journal cover

Linear aggregation and liquid-crystalline order: comparison of Monte Carlo simulation and analytic theory

Dec. 31, 2010

Many soft-matter and biophysical systems are composed of monomers that reversibly assemble into rod-like aggregates that can then order into liquid-crystal phases.

Pages