Skill: statistical physics
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Defect-mediated spatiotemporal organization of endothelial cell tubes
The vascular system, a prominent example of an ordered system, is a dynamic network of vessels that are regularly generated via processes such as angiogenesis [1]. It is well-known that endothelial cell monolayers, which coat the inner surfaces of blood vessels, typically form ordered arrangements with mixed orientations. Misalignments in such endothelial cell monolayers, either…
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Self-organization of chemotactic cell assemblies
Understanding the self-organization of living systems is one of the biggest conceptual challenges of the present century. A generic mechanism that drives such organization is interaction among the individual elements — which may represent cells, bacteria, or even enzymes — via chemical signals. The ability of an individual cell to follow a gradient of chemicals…