ArticleNature physics2025
Active membrane deformations of a minimal synthetic cell.
Article in Nature physics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- The multifaceted significance of phosphoinositides in endocytic trafficking.FEBS letters · 2026Review
- Spontaneous Curvature Sculpts Filament-Vesicle Morphogenesis.Nano letters · 2026Article
- Bacterial turbulence drives interfacial waves and shape dynamics in phase-separated droplets.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Quantifying 3D live-cell membrane dynamics using dynamic metal-induced energy transfer spectroscopy (dynaMIET).Science advances · 2026Article
- Life-like behavior emerging in active and flexible microstructures.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Membrane-Mediated Force Transduction Drives Stick-Slip Motion of Lipid Vesicles.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Interacting filaments drive vesicle morphogenesis.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Dynamic shape remodeling of vesicles by internal active filaments.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Tau-Driven Coordination of Microtubule-Actin Crosstalk in Cell-Sized Vesicles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Effects of Knotting on the Collapse of Active Ring Polymers.Macromolecules · 2025Article
- Endothelial Trauma Depends on Surface Charge and Extracellular Calcium Levels.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Collective behavior of "flexicles".Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Membrane bending energy selects for compact growth of protein assemblies.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Active membrane deformations of a minimal synthetic cell.Nature physics · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Living cells can adapt their shape in response to their environment, a process driven by the interaction between their flexible membrane and the activity of the underlying cytoskeleton. However, the precise physical mechanisms of this coupling remain unclear. Here we show how cytoskeletal forces acting on a biomimetic membrane affect its deformations. Using a minimal cell model that consists of an active network of microtubules and molecular motors encapsulated inside lipid vesicles, we observe large shape fluctuations and travelling membrane deformations. Quantitative analysis of membrane and microtubule dynamics demonstrates how active forces set the temporal scale of vesicle fluctuations, giving rise to fluctuation spectra that differ in both their spatial and temporal decays from their counterparts in thermal equilibrium. Using simulations, we extend the classical framework of membrane fluctuations to active cytoskeleton-driven vesicles, demonstrating how correlated activity governs membrane dynamics and the roles of confinement, membrane material properties and cytoskeletal forces. Our findings provide a quantitative foundation for understanding the shape-morphing abilities of living cells.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.