On the Mechanical Response of Cytoskeletal Networks
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Date: 02-20-2006
Start Time:
10:00am
End Time: 11:00am
Speaker: Erik van der Giessen
From:
University of Groningen
Location: 214 Mudd
Hosted by:
Center for Integrated Science
Abstract:
The cytoskeleton inside cells provides the necessary mechanical stability of a cell and is essential in the mechanotransduction between cell nucleus and membrane. It comprises an interpenetrated network of three types of filamentous networks. Several of these filamentous networks, such as F-actin, exhibit strain stiffening: the stiffness increases with deformation. Until recently, the leading explanation was that stiffening is an entropic effect related to stretching-out of individual thermally-undulating filaments. I will present numerical simulations of networks, however, that demonstrate the limited validity of the assumptions involved. In effect, our calculations indicate that strain stiffening is a consequence of the network structure rather than the response of filaments.