Physics of Living Systems

Physics of Living Systems

eLife reviews research in which approaches from the physical sciences are used to provide insights into the properties of biological systems and processes. Learn more about what we review and sign up for the latest research.
Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Latest articles

    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Stability vs flexibility: reshaping archaeal membranes in silico

    Miguel Amaral, Felix Frey ... Anđela Šarić
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    • Fundamental
    • Compelling
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    The zoo of the gene networks capable of pattern formation by extracellular signaling

    Kevin Martinez-Anhom, Isaac Salazar-Ciudad
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    • Valuable
    • Incomplete
    1. Computational and Systems Biology
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    Exploiting fluctuations in gene expression to detect causal interactions between genes

    Euan Joly-Smith, Mir Mikdad Talpur ... Andreas Hilfinger
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v3
    Updated
    • Important
    • Solid
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Impacts of structural properties of myosin II filaments on force generation

    Shihang Ding, Pei-En Chou ... Taeyoon Kim
    Forces generated by the actin cytoskeleton are highly dependent on the structural properties of molecular motors called myosin.
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Quantifying the shape of cells - from Minkowski tensors to p-atic orders

    Lea Happel, Griseldis Oberschelp ... Axel Voigt
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    • Important
    • Solid
    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    An Hfq-dependent post-transcriptional mechanism fine tunes RecB expression in Escherichia coli

    Irina Kalita, Ira Alexandra Iosub ... Meriem El Karoui
    Single-molecule mRNA and protein quantification, combined with stochastic modelling, uncover a post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism that controls the expression of the extremely low-abundance DNA double-strand break repair enzyme RecBCD.
    1. Physics of Living Systems
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Adaptations in wing morphology rather than wingbeat kinematics enable flight in small hoverfly species

    Camille Le Roy, Nina Tervelde ... Florian T Muijres
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v3
    Updated
    • Important
    • Convincing
    1. Ecology
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    Colony demographics shape nest construction in Camponotus fellah ants

    Harikrishnan Rajendran, Roi Weinberger ... Ofer Feinerman
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    • Important
    • Solid
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Non-equilibrium strategies for ligand specificity in signaling networks

    Andrew Goetz, Jeremy Barrios ... Purushottam Dixit
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    • Valuable
    • Convincing
    1. Computational and Systems Biology
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    Atypical collective oscillatory activity in cardiac tissue uncovered by optogenetics

    Alexander S Teplenin, Nina N Kudryashova ... Tim De Coster
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    • Important
    • Convincing
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Highlights

    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Flagella: A new kind of beat

    Kirsty Y Wan
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Cancer: Cells under pressure

    Dhiraj Indana, Ovijit Chaudhuri
    1. Physics of Living Systems
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Modelling biomolecular condensates

    Furqan Dar, Rohit Pappu

Senior editors

  1. Felix Campelo
    Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
  2. Aleksandra Walczak
    Ecole Normale Superieure, France
  3. See more editors