4 papers
Biopolymers: life's mechanical scaffolds
Federica Burla, Yuval Mulla, Bart E. Vos +2
The cells and tissues that make up our body juggle contradictory mechanical demands. It is crucial for their survival to be able to withstand large mechanical loads, but it is equa…
Origin of slow stress relaxation in the cytoskeleton
Yuval Mulla, F. C. MacKintosh, Gijsje H. Koenderink
Dynamically crosslinked semiflexible biopolymers such as the actin cytoskeleton govern the mechanical behavior of living cells. Semiflexible biopolymers nonlinearly stiffen in resp…
Crosslinker mobility weakens transient polymer networks
Yuval Mulla, Gijsje H. Koenderink
Transient networks comprised of polymers connected by short-lived bonds are a common design theme for both biological and synthetic materials. Transient bonds can provide mechanica…
Crack initiation in viscoelastic materials
Yuval Mulla, Giorgio Oliveri, Johannes T. B. Overvelde +1
In viscoelastic materials, individually short-lived bonds collectively result in a mechanical resistance which is long-lived but finite, as ultimately cracks appear. Here we provid…