Browse our latest Physics of Living Systems articles

Computer simulations of the evolution of broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV suggest that non-traditional pathways involving framework mutations which lead initially to increased antibody flexibility do occur, but can be avoided by appropriate vaccine design.

Mathematical methods based on geometry that directly embody the developmental concepts of competency, commitment, and determination provide succinct descriptions of morphogenesis and allow quantitative predictions from fits to sparse genetic data in Caenorhabditis elegans.

The interplay between the opposing responses mediated by different chemoreceptors enables bacteria to swim towards a preferred temperature.

Trypanosome development within the transmitting tsetse fly reveals essential adaptations of microbial motility to diverse physical microenvironments.

Large-scale in vivo imaging of the zebrafish left-right organizer (Kupffer's vesicle) combined with fluid dynamics calculations allows to quantitatively test the possible flow detection mechanisms and supports the flow transport of chemical signals as the mechanism of side determination.

Atomic force microscopy based single-molecule force spectroscopy of smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase strongly indicates the existence of a mechanically triggerable activation pathway analogous to its well-established biochemical regulation pathway via calcium-loaded calmodulin.

Conserved contacts on cognate ligands trigger an induced fit pathway that confers selective promiscuity to PD-1, a flexible regulatory protein and promising anticancer target.

In a consumer-resource model obeying the physical requirement of flux conservation, metabolic competition between microbes yields consortia of cell types that collectively resist invasion via optimal use of resources.

An ultra-high static magnetic field changes mitotic spindle orientation in cells by exerting magnetic torques on both microtubules and chromosomes.

The Frank–Starling law of the heart and its underlying mechanism of length-dependent activation involve distinctive structural changes in both the thin and thick filaments of cardiac muscle cells.