Publications by Alexander Verkhovskiy

Traction Forces Control Cell-Edge Dynamics and Mediate Distance Sensitivity during Cell Polarization

Alexander Verkhovskiy, Franck Claude Raynaud, Alicia Carine Bornert, Zeno Messi

Traction forces are generated by cellular actin-myosin system and transmitted to the environment through adhesions. They are believed to drive cell motion, shape changes, and extracellular matrix remodeling [1 -3] . However, most of the traction force anal ...

2020

Traction forces mediate distance-sensitivity to control cell-edge activity during cell polarization

Alexander Verkhovskiy, Franck Claude Raynaud, Alicia Carine Bornert, Zeno Messi

AMER SOC CELL BIOLOGY2018

Minimal model for spontaneous cell polarization and edge activity in oscillating, rotating and migrating cells

Jean-Jacques Meister, Chiara Gabella, Alexander Verkhovskiy, Franck Claude Raynaud, Alicia Carine Bornert, Mark Etienne Ambühl

How cells break symmetry and organize activity at their edges to move directionally is a fundamental question in cell biology. Physical models of cell motility commonly incorporate gradients of regulatory proteins and/or feedback from the motion itself to ...

Nature Publishing Group2016

Microsurgery-aided in-situ force probing reveals extensibility and viscoelastic properties of individual stress fibers

Jean-Jacques Meister, Chiara Gabella, Alexander Verkhovskiy, Benoît Vianay, Céline Jeanne Labouesse

Actin-myosin filament bundles (stress fibers) are critical for tension generation and cell shape, but their mechanical properties are difficult to access. Here we propose a novel approach to probe individual peripheral stress fibers in living cells through ...

Nature Research2016

Cell Shape Dynamics Reveal Balance of Elasticity and Contractility in Peripheral Arcs

Jean-Jacques Meister, Chiara Gabella, Alexander Verkhovskiy, Benoît Vianay, Céline Jeanne Labouesse

The mechanical interaction between adherent cells and their substrate relies on the formation of adhesion sites and on the stabilization of contractile acto-myosin bundles, or stress fibers. The shape of the cell and the orientation of these fibers can be ...

Cell Press2015

Three-Dimensional Forces for Two-Dimensional Motion

Alexander Verkhovskiy

Elsevier2015

The mechanisms of spatial and temporal patterning of cell-edge dynamics

Alexander Verkhovskiy

Adherent cells migrate and change their shape by means of protrusion and retraction at their edges. When and where these activities occur defines the shape of the cell and the way it moves. Despite a great deal of knowledge about the structural organizatio ...

Elsevier2015

Ultra-soft cantilevers and 3-D micro-patterned substrates for contractile bundle tension measurement in living cells

Jean-Jacques Meister, Niccolo Piacentini, Chiara Gabella, Alexander Verkhovskiy, Benoît Vianay

Actin-myosin microfilament bundles or stress-fibers are the principal tension-generating structures in the cell. Their mechanical properties are critical for cell shape, motion, and interaction with other cells and extracellular matrix, but were so far dif ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2014

Contact Angle at the Leading Edge Controls Cell Protrusion Rate

László Forró, Jean-Jacques Meister, Niccolo Piacentini, Chiara Gabella, Alexander Verkhovskiy, Sylvia Jeney, Elena Bertseva, Alicia Carine Bornert

Plasma membrane tension and the pressure generated by actin polymerization are two antagonistic forces believed to define the protrusion rate at the leading edge of migrating cells [1-5]. Quantitatively, resistance to actin protrusion is a product of membr ...

Elsevier2014

Cell Polarization: Mechanical Switch for a Chemical Reaction

Alexander Verkhovskiy

Anterior-posterior polarity in the Caenorhabditis elegans zygote depends on two groups of PAR proteins, as well as on cortical flow. Recent work now demonstrates that this polarization results from a transition in a bistable reaction-diffusion system of PA ...

Elsevier2012