Visualizing Endocytosis of Sialylated Glycoproteins in Live Cells The cover image of the April 21 issue of Biophysical Journal, which appears as a constellation of bright puncta scattered across the surface of living cells, captures a highly dynamic and essential pr...

Read about the cover art for the newly released issue of Biophysical Journal on the BPS Blog: www.biophysics.org/blog/visuali...

Continuum and discrete modeling of binding-site distribution-mediated reactions on lipid surfaces Cell surface-dependent biochemical reactions play a critical role in many biological processes. These include interactions between macromolecules in a three-dimensional bulk solution, macromolecules…

#OPENACCESS: Continuum and discrete modeling of binding-site distribution-mediated reactions on lipid surfaces. Han Cao, Anirban Sen Gupta, and Karin Leiderman.

Mechanisms of thrombin inhibition by protein S and the TFPIα-fVshort-protein S complex Protein S (PS) is an important anticoagulant implicated in both bleeding and thrombotic disorders, making it a promising drug target. The anticoagulant function of PS arises in part because PS…

#OPENACCESS: Mechanisms of thrombin inhibition by protein S and the TFPIα-fVshort-protein S complex. Alexander G. Ginsberg, Josefin Ahnström, James T.B. Crawley, Karin Leiderman, Dougald M. Monroe, Keith B. Neeves, Suzanne F. Sindi, and Aaron L. Fogelson.

A tunable, ultrasensitive threshold in enzymatic activity governs the DNA methylation landscape DNA methylation is a widely studied epigenetic mark, affecting gene expression and cellular function at multiple levels. DNA methylation in the mammalian genome occurs primarily at…

#OPENACCESS: A tunable, ultrasensitive threshold in enzymatic activity governs the DNA methylation landscape. Kwadwo A. Bonsu, Nandor Laszik, Annie Trinh, Timothy L. Downing, and Elizabeth L. Read.

Quantifying the effect of magnesium ions on nucleosome stability in chromatin fibers Chromatin structure governs DNA accessibility and thereby a wide range of DNA-mediated processes. Magnesium ions are known to influence chromatin structure across organizational scales, but a…

#OPENACCESS: Quantifying the effect of magnesium ions on nucleosome stability in chromatin fibers. Luuk J.C. Daris, Lieke A. Lamers, Kes van Blitterswijk, Camila Delgado Zuvanic, and Jorine M. Eeftens.

Special issue call for papers: Genome Organization: Integrating Mathematics, Physics, and Computation for Advances in Biology and Medicine.

Chlorpromazine inhibits EAG1 channels by altering the interdomain coupling EAG1 depolarization-activated potassium selective channels are important targets for treatment of cancer and neurological disorders. EAG1 channels are formed by a tetrameric subunit assembly with…

#OPENACCESS: Chlorpromazine inhibits EAG1 channels by altering the interdomain coupling. Kyle Kihn, Ze-Jun Wang, Xi Chen, Mahdi Ghorbani, Purushottam B. Tiwari, Jeffery B. Klauda, and Tinatin I. Brelidze.

Spatial triple-correlation spectroscopy reveals heterotrimer dynamics in live cells Heterotrimeric protein complexes are central regulators of intracellular signaling, yet their dynamic assembly and transport in living cells remain difficult to resolve. Here, we present spatial…

#OPENACCESS: Spatial triple-correlation spectroscopy reveals heterotrimer dynamics in live cells. Julissa Sanchez-Velasquez, Tao Sun, Xiaomeng Zhang, and Elizabeth Hinde.

Protonation-dependent substrate release in a bacterial homolog of vesicular glutamate The SLC17 family contains diverse organic anion transporters with various stoichiometries and ion coupling mechanisms. A bacterial protein of this family, the D-galactonate transporter DgoT,…

#OPENACCESS: Protonation-dependent substrate release in a bacterial homolog of vesicular glutamate. Charles Plate, Natalia Dmitrieva, Samira Gholami, Mercedes Alfonso-Prieto, Sanket A. Deshmukh, Davide Mandelli, Paolo Carloni, and Christoph Fahlke. buff.ly/kYylVyX

HaloTag-based approach to quantify subcellular localization of TRPV3 channels The TRPV3 channel is crucial for skin barrier formation and hair growth, and its dysregulation is linked to itch, atopic dermatitis, rosacea, and genetic disorders like Olmsted syndrome. Heat and…

#OPENACCESS: HaloTag-based approach to quantify subcellular localization of TRPV3 channels. Alexander Holloway, Joshua Chiang, Afroza Khan, Eric N. Senning, and Andrés Jara-Oseguera.

Adhesion differentials control the rheology of biomimetic emulsions Animal morphogenesis involves complex tissue deformation processes, which require tight control over tissue rheology. Yet, it remains insufficiently understood how tissue rheology results from the…

#OPENACCESS: Biomimetic emulsions behave like a crowd at a party—some guests cling, others drift. Quentin Guigue et al. (2026) show how these adhesion vibes tune the flow, turning mixtures from chill to jam-packed dance floors.

Distributional invariance and proportional scaling in axonal conduction Conduction velocity along axons reflects geometric and biophysical influences whose joint statistical organization remains largely uncharacterized. Using high-resolution time-of-arrival measurements…

#OPENACCESS: Distributional invariance and proportional scaling in axonal conduction. Laurie D. Cohen and Shimon Marom.

Backbone rigidity of disordered protein linkers from NMR experiments and MD simulations Disordered protein linkers are essential for multidomain protein function and engineering, but quantitative methods for their biophysical characterization remain limited. We combined NMR experiments…

#OPENACCESS: The authors develop an integrated approach combining NMR spin relaxation measurements with MD simulations to quantify backbone rigidity in short, disordered peptides, the study helped correlate the sequence effects on the linker properties.

Special issue call for papers: Single-Molecule Approaches to Reveal Structural and Mechanistic Properties of the Genome.

Mechanism of MEK1 activation by phosphorylation Phosphorylation is the most common posttranslational protein modification, often acting as the activator of protein function. In the case of MEK1, a member of the MAP kinase family, phosphorylation…

#OPENACCESS: Mechanism of MEK1 activation by phosphorylation. Everett Jin, Levent Sari, and Milo M. Lin.

Leveraging experimental vasculature data for high-resolution brain tumor simulations Cancer remains a leading cause of mortality. Multidisciplinary studies probe its complex pathology to increase treatment options. Computational modeling of tumor growth on high-performance computing…

#OPENACCESS: What if brain vasculature could predict tumor growth? This new study combines high-performance computing with a complete capillary-scale map of mouse brain vasculature, revealing that vessel density is the primary determinant of tumor proliferation.

Decoding the mechanical manifold: From spatial patterns to mechanomic state spaces In biophysics, we frequently ask where structures are located and how they are organized. Early researchers used immunofluorescence to reveal the architecture of focal adhesions. Likewise, traction…

In the New and Notable "Decoding the mechanical manifold: From spatial patterns to mechanomic state spaces," Yizeng Li highlights the paper "Spatial relationships between vinculin tension and actin at cell adhesions define cell colony positioning and identity."

Spatial relationships between vinculin tension and actin at cell adhesions define cell colony positioning and identity The protein vinculin mediates actin-myosin-dependent adhesion strength to regulate force transmission at cellular adhesions. The precise distribution of forces sensed by vinculin that regulates…

#OPENACCESS: Nagle and colleagues use a FRET-based knock-in stem cell line for spatial mapping of vinculin tension, revealing mechanical profiles that distinguish cell types and differentially correlate with cell morphology and lineage fate.

Special issue call for papers: Foundations of Membrane Biophysics: Dedicated to Wolfgang Helfrich.

Viscoelasticity analysis of coarse-grained cytoskeletal simulations with Cytosim and Cytocalc Computational modeling has emerged as a powerful approach to studying cytoskeletal dynamics. The simulation software Cytosim provides intuitive yet flexible simulations of filament polymerization,…

#OPENACCESS: Viscoelasticity analysis of coarse-grained cytoskeletal simulations with Cytosim and Cytocalc. Krishna Iyer V.S., Komal Bhattacharyya, Raffaele Mendozza, Peter K. Sollich, Stefan Klumpp, and Yoav G. Pollack.

Vesicle dynamics in synapsin-induced condensates by passive X-ray microrheology The collective dynamics of subcellular biological processes is often difficult to assess experimentally due to the challenges associated with spatial and temporal resolution, labeling, or multiple…

#OPENACCESS: Colloid-supported lipid bilayers are introduced as high-contrast probes for X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy, helped probe the collective dynamics in protein-vesicle condensates.

Mechanochemical coupling in topological defect dynamics Dynamics of active matter follows nonequilibrium statistical physics laws and is manifested in fascinating self-organization phenomena (1), such as collective oscillations (2), formation of active…

In the New and Notable "Mechanochemical coupling in topological defect dynamics," Bartosz Różycki highlights the paper "Mechanochemical Coupling Regulates Defect Dynamics in Active Nematics."

Mechanochemical coupling regulates defect dynamics in active nematics Active nematics offer a versatile continuum framework for nonequilibrium collective phenomena, such as collective cell migration and tissue morphogenesis. However, the dynamic evolution of active…

New study on topological defects develops a mechanochemical model integrating morphogen concentration and hydrodynamic flow, reproducing experimental collective motility and revealing viscosity, activity, and alignment strength as key factors governing defect-mediated transport.

Atomistic Simulation of D-Galactonate Release Our illustration of D-galactonate release, selected as the cover art for the April 7 issue of Biophysical Journal, illuminates a wonderful microscopic world hidden to the naked eye. In the image, we c...

Read about the cover art for the newly released issue of Biophysical Journal on the BPS Blog: www.biophysics.org/blog/atomist...

Special issue call for papers: Physical Properties of Cells: From Measurement to Medicine, A Tribute to Jochen Guck.

Thermally activated history-dependent homogenization of G-quadruplexes in an ALS/FTD-associated gene A significant proportion of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia cases exhibit a substantial copy number expansion of the hexanucleotide GGGGCC/GGCCCC sequence in the…

#OPENACCESS: Thermally activated history-dependent homogenization of G-quadruplexes in an ALS/FTD-associated gene. Daniel Ross, Olivia Lewis, Olivia McLean, Sundeep Bhanot, Shane Donahue, Rachael Baker, Randi Dias, David Eagerton, Vaibhav Mohanty, and Bidyut K. Mohanty.

Special issue call for papers: Single-Molecule Approaches to Reveal Structural and Mechanistic Properties of the Genome.

Single-molecule fluorescence and cross-linking reveal ligand-gated Toc34 oligomerization dynamics Researchers have characterized the structural framework of the chloroplast TOC (translocon at the outer envelope membrane of chloroplasts) complex, but how this machinery orchestrates preprotein…

#OPENACCESS: Conformational changes driven by nucleotide state and precursor binding in Toc34, a membrane-anchored GTPase receptor, acts as a molecular switch that modulates TOC complex activity during chloroplast protein import. buff.ly/vkbbmN4

Special issue call for papers: Physical Properties of Cells: From Measurement to Medicine, A Tribute to Jochen Guck.

Cancer mutations rewire linker histone interaction network and compromise chromatosome stability Histone H1 is essential for higher-order chromatin organization, stabilizing linker DNA and bridging adjacent nucleosomes. To elucidate how cancer-associated mutations perturb this architectural hub,…

Cancer mutations are like mischievous party crashers: they sneak in, rearrange the seating chart, and suddenly the whole vibe collapses. Gege Liu et al. show how these changes disrupt linker histone networks, destabilizing chromatosomes at their core.