Prof. Michael Murrell’s group (lead author Zachary Gao Sun, graduate student in physics) in collaboration with Prof. Garegin Papoian’s group from University of Maryland at College Park has found critical phenomena (Self-Organized Criticality) that are reminiscent of the earthquakes and avalanches inside the cell cytoskeleton through self-organization of purified protein components.
In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers have found that the cell’s cytoskeleton—the mechanical machinery of the cell—behaves much like the Earth’s crust, constantly regulating how it dissipates energy and transmits information. This self-regulating behavior enables cells to carry out complex processes such as migration and division with remarkable precision. Even more striking, the study draws parallels between the behavior of microscopic cellular structures and massive celestial bodies, suggesting that the principles of criticality—where systems naturally tune themselves to the brink of transformation—may be universal across vastly different scales of nature.The results also suggest a metal-to-insulator like transition in information and energy propagation can be tuned via autofeedback of geometry and active stress inside the cytoskeleton, reminiscent of a phenomenon called Anderson Localization, commonly seen in various condensed matter physics fields. This further indicates that the cell, as a living machinery, uses energetic and mechanical principles commonly seen in non-living systems to process information through self-tuning.
“Whether the cell as a machinery is being poised at a critical state, and further, how, have been the central topic for some biophysicisits in the past two decades. Here we have observed phenomenon in a well controlled experimental setting, and proposed the mechanism. Isn’t is amazing to see similarities across scale ob objects under the microscope to the telescope.” Sun commented.
Sun et al. have discovered that cells may regulate information and energy flow using a mechanism strikingly similar to a well-known physics phenomenon called Anderson Localization—a process typically observed in non-living systems like disordered metals and insulators. The research shows that the cytoskeleton, the cell’s internal scaffolding, can undergo a metal-to-insulator–like transition in how it transmits signals and energy. This transition appears to be finely tuned by the cell itself through feedback between its geometry and internal stress. The findings suggest that cells, like finely engineered machines, harness physical laws from condensed matter to adapt and process information—blurring the line between the living and the inanimate.
This work motivates scientists in different disciplines to wonder if a scale-free universal laws of criticality truly exists, and each cell is its own ‘universe’.
Published in Nature Physics.