Meadowcroft, Billie;
(2025)
The physics behind cellular remodelling: from the cytoplasm and membranes to the extracellular-matrix.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The unit of life is the cell. All of life is either made up of a single cell (unicellular life) or a collection of cells which interact to perform a higher function (multicellular life). The scale at which the most fundamental of life's processes happen, therefore, is not at the scale at which we live (millimeter to meter scale) but at the scale at which cells live, the micron scale. The physics at this scale is unique in two significant ways. One is that thermal fluctuations drive molecules and proteins to be constantly diffusing and well-mixed and the other is that cells consume energy to locally drive these micro-systems out of equilibrium. The result is that cells and tissues undergo drastic dynamic remodelling over timescales which are much shorter than their lifetime. Remodelling refers to shape changes, assembly and disassembly as well as changes in mechanical properties. This remodelling equips cells and tissues to perform vital functions as well as be adaptive to changing environments. This thesis aims at shedding light on the physics behind a handful of these dramatic remodelling processes. The first three chapters focus on the remodelling of membranes, both passive and by the forces produced by active filaments. The last two chapters examine the remodelling of networks, firstly on extracellular networks during tissue development and secondly microtubule networks during embryonic cell divisions. The modelling techniques used in this work vary from kinetic lattice-based modelling, to analytical theory and coarse-grained agent based modelling. Each technique is chosen to take into consideration: i) the best suited model to describe the specific system and ii) so that model results can be readily compared with the available experimental data. Overall the work illuminates many non-intuitive physical mechanisms of remodelling in cell biology and hints at how these mechanisms might have evolved to be robust and adaptable.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The physics behind cellular remodelling: from the cytoplasm and membranes to the extracellular-matrix |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205551 |
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