329 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 reveals that Yoda molecules, previously thought to selectively activate PIEZO1, also effectively agonize PIEZO2 by increasing its open probability and slowing inactivation, with Yoda2's enhanced potency attributed to a specific salt bridge interaction, thereby necessitating a reevaluation of their use in distinguishing PIEZO channel functions.
This study develops a novel kinetic framework combining Lagrangian dynamics and Hill muscle equations to demonstrate that bipedal take-off mechanics scale efficiently across diverse body masses, confirming that *Tyrannosaurus rex* was capable of jumping while providing a new methodology for designing scalable bio-inspired robots.
The authors developed triplet tumbling microscopy (TTM), a versatile imaging technique that leverages infrared-triggerable triplet states to measure rotational diffusion in living cells, thereby enabling the real-time, in situ quantification of protein complex assembly, size, and dynamics without requiring prior knowledge of interacting partners.
Using single-molecule imaging and force spectroscopy, this study reveals that the checkpoint mediator Dpb11 facilitates the colocalization of the Mec1-Ddc2 kinase complex with its activators on gapped DNA by directly recruiting Mec1-Ddc2 to ss-dsDNA junctions and bridging ssDNA to reduce the effective gap length.
This study demonstrates that while most dimensionality reduction strategies cause quantum kernel SVMs to underperform classical baselines in trabecular bone classification, UMAP is the sole method that allows quantum kernels to remain competitive, though the observed advantage is statistically insignificant and likely inflated by fold dependence, alongside findings that ZZ quantum kernels fail to capture smooth metric structures for regression tasks.
This paper introduces Deep Learning-Enhanced TopoStats, an open-source Python package that automates the quantitative analysis of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) data for DNA and complex biomolecules, thereby transforming AFM from a qualitative visualization tool into a robust, high-throughput analytical framework capable of distinguishing subtle structural differences.
This paper introduces a minimal, two-dimensional computational model demonstrating that mesenchymal cell migration, characterized by persistent random walks and diverse morphologies, can emerge solely from the mechanical interplay of intracellular traction forces and dynamic adhesion cycles without requiring imposed polarization or directional bias.
This study introduces CAAMO, an integrated computational and experimental framework that successfully optimized a SARS-CoV-2 RNA aptamer to achieve binding affinity comparable to neutralizing antibodies, demonstrating a robust pathway for developing high-affinity aptamer-based therapeutics and diagnostics.
This study demonstrates that liquid-liquid phase-separated condensates of zyxin and VASP enable persistent, treadmilling-like movement of actin bundles by balancing polymerization and cofilin-driven disassembly through an intermediate range of self-affinity, a mechanism validated by both in vitro reconstitution and agent-based simulations.
This study demonstrates that cationic and anionic polyelectrolyte coatings modulate *E. coli* biofilm macroscopic properties by inducing a trade-off between the quantity and structural quality of curli amyloid fibers within the extracellular matrix.