Despite the astonishing diversity and complexity of living systems, they all share five
common hallmarks: compartmentalization, growth and division, information processing …

The cytoskeleton of a cell controls all the aspects of cell shape changes and motility from its
physiological functions for survival to reproduction to death. The structure and dynamics of …

Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) are often used to mimic biological membranes in
reconstitution experiments. They are also widely used in research on synthetic cells, as they …

One of the major challenges of bottom-up synthetic biology is rebuilding a minimal cell
division machinery. From a reconstitution perspective, the animal cell division apparatus is …

The cell-free molecular synthesis of biochemical systems is a rapidly growing field of
research. Advances in the Human Genome Project, DNA synthesis, and other technologies …

The architecture of the actin cortex determines the generation and transmission of stresses,
during key events from cell division to migration. However, its impact on myosin-induced cell …

Cell shape changes from locomotion to cytokinesis are, to a large extent, driven by myosin-
driven remodeling of cortical actin patterns. Passive crosslinkers such as α-actinin and …

In metazoans, living cells achieve capabilities beyond individual cell functionality by
assembling into multicellular tissue structures. These higher-order structures represent …

The accumulation and transmission of mechanical stresses in the cell cortex and membrane
determines the mechanics of cell shape and coordinates essential physical behaviors, from …

Recent research in artificial cell production holds promise for the development of delivery
agents with therapeutic effects akin to real cells. To succeed in these applications, these …