388 papers
Biophysics sits at the fascinating intersection where the laws of physics meet the complexity of living systems. This field uses tools like light, electricity, and mechanical forces to decode how cells move, how proteins fold, and how our senses translate the world around us. Rather than just observing biology, biophysicists measure and model life to understand the fundamental machinery that powers every organism.
On Gist.Science, we make these discoveries accessible by curating the latest preprints directly from bioRxiv. Our team processes every new submission in this category, providing both clear, plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries so readers of all backgrounds can grasp the cutting-edge science. Below are the most recent biophysics papers from bioRxiv, ready for you to explore.
This study demonstrates that the ionic strength of the environment acts as a conformational rheostat for the marginally disordered Phd transcription factor, modulating its transition from a fully disordered state to a partially ordered monomer and finally to a structured dimer, thereby regulating its function through a spectrum of disorder-to-order states.
This study establishes the mammalian heart as a chiral nematic topological material, demonstrating that organized myocardial fibre chirality and specific topological defects are essential for generating efficient torsional contraction, independent of systemic left-right anatomical patterning.
This study elucidates the rotational mechanism of the *Campylobacter jejuni* flagellar motor by demonstrating that asymmetric hydration and alternating protonation switching of dual D22 residues, coupled with plug removal and sidechain conformational changes, are essential for converting ion gradients into mechanical force.
This study reveals that protein misfolding caused by entanglement errors significantly increases the likelihood of ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation in human cells, while approximately one-third of such misfolded proteins evade degradation by adopting near-native states.
Using long-timescale molecular dynamics simulations and AI/ML methods, this study elucidates the atomistic mechanism by which the flexible nsp10 protein activates SARS-CoV-2 nsp16 via a hydrophobic latch, inducing conformational changes that open the RNA binding site and regulate SAM/SAH exchange to enable viral immune evasion.
This study utilizes all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to demonstrate that increasing lipomannan and lipoarabinomannan concentrations in mycobacterial inner membranes induces a transition to a compact brush-like state that reduces solvent accessibility and slows lipid diffusion across the bilayer, thereby establishing a molecular framework for understanding the membrane's role as a regulated physical barrier and virulence platform.
Using single-molecule imaging, this study reveals that the mobility of heterotrimeric G proteins in live cells is subtype-specific and primarily determined by the Gα subunit, with G12/13-containing heterotrimers exhibiting significantly reduced lateral movement compared to those containing Gi/o, Gs, or Gq subunits.
Inspired by biological systems, this paper introduces an enzyme-free DNA strand displacement network that uses single-stranded DNA templates to catalytically and autonomously assemble specific, long-lived non-covalent multimers from a monomer pool under isothermal conditions, effectively bypassing product inhibition to create far-from-equilibrium ensembles.
The authors present VULCROM, a vacuum-free, ultra-stable cryogenic optical microscope that enables routine super-resolution correlative light and electron microscopy (cryo-SR-CLEM) on vitrified biological specimens, successfully resolving nanoscale cellular architectures in both mammalian and plant tissues for cryo-electron tomography.
By integrating cryo-EM and solid-state NMR, this study elucidates the structural basis and dynamic gating mechanisms of the *E. coli* MscL channel, revealing how lipid-protein interactions and conformational heterogeneity drive the transition from closed to open states.