Dissociation of ionizable ligands immobilized on nanopaticles (NPs) depends on and can be regulated by the curvature of these particles as well as the size and the concentration of counterions. The apparent acid dissociation constant (pK(a)) of the NP-immobilized ligands lies between that of free ligands and ligands self-assembled on a flat surface. This phenomenon is explicitly rationalized by a theoretical model that accounts fully for the molecular details (size, shape, conformation, and charge distribution) of both the NPs and the counterions.

Catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles in a hydrosilylation reaction is controlled by irradiation with UV or visible light. When exposed to UV, the particles aggregate and the catalysis is effectively switched "off". When the particles are exposed to visible light, the particles redisperse and catalysis can proceed.

We present a reconstruction algorithm that resolves cellular tractions in diffraction-limited nascent adhesions (NAs). The enabling method is the introduction of sparsity regularization to the solution of the inverse problem, which suppresses noise without underestimating traction magnitude. We show that NAs transmit a distinguishable amount of traction and that NA maturation depends on traction growth rate. A software package implementing this numerical approach is provided.

Symmetry-breaking polarization enables functional plasticity of cells and tissues and is yet not well understood. Here we show that epithelial cells, hard-wired to maintain a static morphology and to preserve tissue organization, can spontaneously switch to a migratory polarized phenotype upon relaxation of the actomyosin cytoskeleton. We find that myosin-II engages actin in the formation of cortical actomyosin bundles and thus makes it unavailable for deployment in the process of dendritic growth normally driving cell motility. At low contractility regimes epithelial cells polarize in a front-back manner due to emergence of actin retrograde flows powered by dendritic polymerization of actin. Coupled to cell movement, the flows transport myosin-II from the front to the back of the cell, where the motor locally “locks” actin in contractile bundles. This polarization mechanism could be employed by embryonic and cancer epithelial cells in microenvironments where high contractility-driven cell motion is inefficient.