Murrell Lab

Laboratory of Living Matter. Studying cellular mechanics and force generation in every way we can.

[Nature Physics @NaturePhysics]

Self-organized criticality can occur in cellular systems, but its origins remain unclear. Now it is shown that cytoskeletal criticality is influenced by the F-actin architecture and myosin active stress.
https://t.co/C2qkhWRmZL

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

This piece of work cannot be done without the collaborative efforts with the @GareginPapoian lab at @UMD_CollegePark . We show both in vitro and in silico that actomyosin cortex exhibits criticality which can be tuned via mutual feedback between architecture and active stress.

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

Our latest paper in Nature Physics shows the actomyosin cortex self-organizes to a critical state via mutual feedback between dynamical F-actin structural remodeling and active stress. This further links cytoskeletal criticality to Anderson Localization. https://t.co/Vb0TVDLjqk

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

Congratulations to Dr. Sun🥳! Onto the next chapter.

[Yale Program in Physical and Engineering Biology @PEB_Yale]

🎓Congratulations to Dr. Zachary Gao Sun! He earned his PhD in Physics @yalephysics in the @murrell_lab researching mechanics of the cell cytoskeleton.

[Yale West Campus @YaleWestCampus]

Congratulations to the Yale Systems Biology Institute’s Michael Murrell, who has received support from @HFSP for an has intercontinental project spanning the US, UK and South Africa to uncover the driving force in cyanobacteria https://t.co/x4c7HFuCUM

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

Get your hands into oobleck - a material that feels as hard as a block of cement when you slap its surface, yet is too liquid to hold in your hand! Soft matter physics and Biophysics can be so much fun!

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

Have you ever heard of the addition of connectivity without the penalty of an increase in rigidity of the network?

The work piece of our latest rheological study on in vitro cytoskeletal materials by our PhD student, Zachary Sun, is finally out today!

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

Check out our latest in vitro actomyosin cortex liposome work by Dr. Ryota Sakamoto! First paper to quantify and characterize the mechanical power and chemical energy consumption during cell division-like processes! On Nature Communications: https://t.co/8sXIfwqNhL

[Cell Biology J-Club @cell_club]

Mechanical power is maximized during contractile ring-like formation in a biomimetic dividing cell model
https://t.co/FNbD15PlSr

[Diz-Muñoz Lab @diz_lab]

New Preprint! How can cells polarize in the absence of a stimulus? We suggest a surprising biophysical mechanism, protein caging!

We reveal how the complex mechanical interactions at the cell surface lead to symmetry breaking.

https://t.co/BOwbtxlago

[Yale West Campus @YaleWestCampus]

West Campus scientists at the Systems Biology Institute have discovered the thermodynamic principles underpinning energy use in our cells - and a potential pathway to tackle diseases like cancer https://t.co/xql7cHHq2a @murrell_lab @NaturePhysics

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

Happy new year from LLM!

Our latest article on in vitro reconstituted systems: 'Cofilin-mediated actin filament network flexibility facilitates 2D to 3D actomyosin shape change' in EJCB special issue 'In vitro reconstitution of cytoskeletal processes'
https://t.co/Dy19xjXO8k

[Communications Biology @CommsBio]

Visualization of f-actin within liposomes during their adhesion, spreading and rupture reveals mechanical interactions of membrane and cytoskeleton can lead to complex cellular assembly in absence of cellular biochemical regulation. @murrell_lab
https://t.co/5tJh1gFpUv

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

If you happen to be at the APS March Meeting 2023, please feel free to stop by our talks! #apsmarch @APSMeetings

[Shiladitya Banerjee @ShilaBanerji]

Very proud of this collaboration with @murrell_lab and the perseverance of the authors through a long and exhausting peer review process.

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

A long but rigorous and constructive review at @PhysRevX finally resulted in our latest manuscript, where we demonstrate a novel pressure-driven flow of cells out of a cell aggregate.

[Physical Review X @PhysRevX]

Observations of pressure-driven motion of cells reveal a novel type of cell migration and cooperation between cellular- and tissue-level forces, with implications for cancer cell movement and early organism development. Read https://t.co/rjTLd4g47E #PRXjustpublished #openaccess

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

Yale News covered our recent work on pressure-driven flows in cell aggregates that appeared recently in @PhysRevX. We thank @YaleWestCampus for their support and Jon Atherton for condensing 3 papers into this great story.

[Yale West Campus @YaleWestCampus]

The @murrell_lab has taken a fresh look at how cells move, revealing similarities between the behavior of #cancer cell tissue and the simplest water droplets https://t.co/elOYsUSCc2 @PhysRevX @YaleSEAS

[Physical Review Fluids @PhysRevFluids]

PRFluids Letter: Gradients in solid surface tension drive Marangoni-like motions in cell aggregates

Vikrant Yadav, et al.
Letter: https://t.co/GvY7YrjBMv

Laser ablation of cell aggregates shows how surface tension can induce rapid deformations in tissue shape maintenance

[Murrell Lab @murrell_lab]

Check our latest paper in the journal Physical Review Fluids. Here we report motion in tissues that resemble Marangoni-like flows in fluids, except that it is being driven by solid-like surface tension.
https://t.co/zylW8wQ75t