4 research outputs found
Large and stable: actin aster networks formed via entropic forces
Biopolymer networks play a major role as part of the cytoskeleton. They provide
stable structures and act as a medium for signal transport. These features
encourage the application of such networks as organic computation devices.
While research on this topic is not advanced yet, previous results are very
promising. The protein actin in particular appears advantageous. It can be
arranged to various stable structures and transmit several signals. In this
study aster shaped networks were self-assembled via entropic forces by the
crowding agent methyl cellulose. These networks are characterised by a regular
and uniquely thick bundle structure, but have so far only been accounted in
droplets of 100 ÎŒm diameter. We report now regular asters in an area of a few
mm2 that could be observed even after months. Such stability outside of an
organism is striking and underlines the great potential actin aster networks
display
Actin droplet machine
The actin droplet machine is a computer model of a three-dimensional network of actin bundles developed in a droplet of a physiological solution, which implements mappings of sets of binary strings. The actin bundle network is conductive to travelling excitations, i.e. impulses. The machine is interfaced with an arbitrary selected set of k electrodes through which stimuli, binary strings of length k represented by impulses generated on the electrodes, are applied and responses are recorded. The responses are recorded in a form of impulses and then converted to binary strings. The machineâs state is a binary string of length k: if there is an impulse recorded on the ith electrode, there is a â1â in the ith position of the string, and â0â otherwise. We present a design of the machine and analyse its state transition graphs. We envisage that actin droplet machines could form an elementary processor of future massive parallel computers made from biopolymers