npj Biological Physics and Mechanics - Experimental strategies to quantify biomolecular affinity and kinetics: the SARS‑CoV‑2 spike–ACE2 interaction as a benchmark

Stem cell differentiation is controlled by manipulating RNA condensates.

Conventional oral cancer diagnosis relies on white light imaging and tissue biopsy that fail to capture critical microstructural and biomolecular information, thereby limiting early detection of preca

Proteins populate conformational ensembles, yet structure-based biomolecular design typically optimizes candidates against a single target conformation. Consequently, a candidate that fits one state can lose favorable interactions or develop steric clashes when the target adopts another. We introdu…

For decades, the foundation of cellular biology was firmly anchored in the sequence-structure-function paradigm. This classical framework operated on the deterministic premise that a rigid, precisely folded, energy-minimized three-dimensional architecture is the absolute prerequisite for dictating a macromolecule’s biological activity. A major conceptual leap occurred at the turn of the century when the histone code hypothesis elegantly revealed that biological information is not strictly linear; rather, it exists as a spatial, highly context-dependent language capable of dynamically rewriting local chromatin accessibility1. Today, molecular and cellular biophysics is undergoing a parallel and equally revolutionary transformation: the intracellular space, once conventionally modeled as a dilute, well-mixed aqueous solvent containing discrete stoichiometric machines, is now unequivocally recognized as a highly compartmentalized, non-equilibrium multiphase viscoelastic fluid2. The historical foundation for viewing the cell through this material-state lens emerged independently from two pioneering physical models. The first originated from the biophysical interrogation of the nuclear pore complex (NPC). For years, the mechanism by which the NPC achieved extremely rapid, bidirectional nucleocytoplasmic transport while maintaining exquisite size-exclusion selectivity remained a paradox. The breakthrough came with the realization that intrinsically disordered nucleoporins containing repetitive phenylalanine-glycine (FG) motifs spontaneously self-assemble into a “selective phase.” Rather than functioning as...

Raman hyperspectral imaging combined with spectral phasor analysis enables a label-free quantification of proteins, polymers and water density within individual biomolecular condensates. By transform...

Gregorio, N. E., Haas, C. M., King, N. P. & DeForest, C. A. Engineering complexity into protein-based biomaterials for biomedical applications. Nat. Rev. Mater. 11, 328–342 (2026). Chu, A. E., Lu, T. & Huang, P.-S. Sparks of function by de novo protein design. Nat. Biotechnol. 42, 203–215 (2024). Zhu, Q. et al. Biomolecular condensates as emerging biomaterials: functional mechanisms and advances in computational and experimental approaches. Adv. Mater. 37, e10115 (2025). Walter, N. G., Huang, C.-Y., Manzo, A. J. & Sobhy, M. A. Do-it-yourself guide: how to use the modern single-molecule toolkit. Nat. Methods 5, 475–489 (2008). Wen, C. & Zhang, S.-L. Fundamentals and potentials of solid-state nanopores: a review. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 54, 023001 (2021). Brauburger, S. & Keyser, U. F. A biophysicist’s guide to translocation of double-stranded nucleic acids through solid-state nanopores. Phys. Life Rev. 57, 85–131 (2026). Xue, L. et al. Solid-state nanopore sensors. Nat. Rev. Mater. 5, 931–951 (2020). An essential review on the current state-of-the-art for solid-state nanopore fabrication and nanopore-based sensing strategies. Lee, K. et al. Recent progress in solid-state nanopores. Adv. Mater. 30, 1704680 (2018). Waduge, P. et al. Nanopore-based measurements of protein size, fluctuations, and conformational changes. ACS Nano 11,...

What Happened Recent industry updates show vendors and platform providers pushing for tighter hardware-software integration to increase concurrency, throughput and sovereign control for AI workloads. Key developments include: Production-serving optimizations…

Looking for News or Events?