| 06/2025 Active viscoelastic condensates provide controllable mechanical anchor points Oliver W. Paulin et al. Many biological materials must couple mechanical strength with the ability to rapidly self-assemble at a specific location. In particular, biomolecular condensates readily self-assemble via phase separation, but may also need to resist external forces to fulfil their function. Spatial localisation of condensate formation can be controlled by active cores that preferentially drive the production of … |
| 06/2025 Prediction and control of geometry-induced nematic order in growing multicellular systems Lukas Hupe et al. In densely-packed two-dimensional systems of growing cells, such as rod-shaped bacteria, a number of experimental and numerical studies report distinct patterns of nematic orientational order in the presence of confinement. So far, these effects have been explained using variations of growing active nematic continuum theories, which incorporate feedback between growth-induced active stresses, the … |
| 06/2025 Scaling the glassy dynamics of active particles: Tunable fragility and reentrance Puneet Pareek et al. Understanding the influence of activity on dense amorphous assemblies is crucial for biological processes such as wound healing, embryogenesis, or cancer progression. Here, we study the effect of self-propulsion forces of amplitude $f_0$ and persistence time $\tau_p$ in dense assemblies of soft repulsive particles, a model system that interpolates between particulate active matter and biological t … |
| 06/2025 Continuous-time multifarious systems — Part II: non-reciprocal multifarious self-organization Jakob Metson et al. In the context of self-assembly, where complex structures can be assembled from smaller units, it is desirable to devise strategies towards disassembly and reassembly processes that reuse the constituent parts. A non-reciprocal multifarious self-organization strategy has been recently introduced, and shown to have the capacity to exhibit this complex property. In this work, we study the model usin … |
| 06/2025 Continuous-time multifarious systems — Part I: equilibrium multifarious self-assembly Jakob Metson et al. Multifarious assembly models consider multiple structures assembled from a shared set of components, reflecting the efficient usage of components in biological self-assembly. These models are subject to a high-dimensional parameter space, with only a finite region of parameter space giving reliable self-assembly. Here we use a continuous-time Gillespie simulation method to study multifarious self- … |
| 06/2025 Phase separation in a mixture of proliferating and motile active matter Lukas Hupe et al. Proliferation and motility are ubiquitous drivers of activity in biological systems. Here, we study a dense binary mixture of motile and proliferating particles with exclusively repulsive interactions, where homeostasis in the proliferating subpopulation is maintained by pressure-induced removal. Using computer simulations, we show that phase separation emerges naturally in this system at high den … |
| 06/2025 Static vs dynamic rough energy landscapes: Where is diffusion faster? Dmitrii E. Makarov et al. Molecules in dense environments, such as biological cells, are subjected to forces that fluctuate both in time and in space. While spatial fluctuations are captured by Lifson-Jackson-Zwanzig's model of "diffusion in a rough potential", and temporal fluctuations are often viewed as leading to additional friction effects, a unified view where the environment fluctuates both in time an … |
| 05/2025 Testing Paradox May Explain Increased Observed Prevalence of Bacterial STIs among MSM on HIV PrEP: A Modeling Study Laura Müller et al. HIV pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) has become essential for global HIV control, but its implementation coincides with rising bacterial STI rates among men who have sex with men (MSM). While risk-compensation behavioral changes like reduced condom use are frequently reported, we examine whether intensified asymptomatic screening in PrEP programs creates surveillance artifacts that could be misinte … |
| 05/2025 Coarse grained descriptions of the dynamics of yielding of amorphous solids under cyclic shear Debargha Sarkar et al. Recent computer simulations reveal several intriguing features in the evolution of properties of amorphous solids subjected to repeated cyclic shear deformation. These include the divergence of the number of cycles to reach steady states as the yielding point is approached, a non-monotonic change of properties with cycles, and the possibility of a spectrum of frozen states. Theoretical attempts to … |
| 05/2025 Chemically active droplets in crowded environments Jacques Fries et al. Biomolecular condensates are essential for cellular organization and result from phase separation in systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Among various models, chemically active droplets play a significant role, consisting of proteins that switch between attractive and repulsive states via nonequilibrium chemical reactions. While field-based simulations have provided insights into their beh … |