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Coupled Electro-mechanical Behavior of Microtubules

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Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering (IWBBIO 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNBI,volume 12108))

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Abstract

In this contribution, the coupled electro-mechanical behavior of the microtubules has been systematically investigated utilizing a continuum-based finite element framework. A three-dimensional computational model of a microtubule has been developed for predicting the electro-elastic response of the microtubule subjected to external forces. The effects of the magnitude and direction of the applied forces on the mechanics of microtubule have been evaluated. In addition, the effects of variation of microtubule lengths on the electro-elastic response subjected to external forces have also been quantified. The results of numerical simulation suggest that the electro-elastic response of microtubule is significantly dependent on both the magnitude and direction of the applied forces. It has been found that the application of shear force results in the attainment of higher displacement and electric potential as compared to the compressive force of the same magnitude. It has been further observed that the output potential is linearly proportional to the predicted displacement and the electric potential within the microtubule. The increase in the length of microtubule significantly enhances the predicted piezoelectric potential under the application of different forces considered in the present study. It is expected that the reported findings would be useful in different avenues of biomedical engineering, such as biocompatible nano-biosensors for health monitoring, drug delivery, noninvasive diagnosis and treatments.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to the NSERC and the CRC Program for their support. RM is also acknowledging the support of the BERC 2018-2021 program and Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) BCAM Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0718. Authors are also grateful to Prof. Jack Tuszynski as well as to Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy for useful discussions, valuable suggestions, and a number of important references.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MS2Discovery Interdisciplinary Research Institute, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5, Canada

    Sundeep Singh & Roderick Melnik

  2. BCAM - Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Alameda de Mazarredo 14, 48009, Bilbao, Spain

    Roderick Melnik

Authors
  1. Sundeep Singh
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  2. Roderick Melnik
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Correspondence to Roderick Melnik .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Ignacio Rojas

  2. University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Olga Valenzuela

  3. University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Fernando Rojas

  4. University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Luis Javier Herrera

  5. University of Chicago and Fundacion Progreso y Salud, Granada, Spain

    Francisco Ortuño

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Singh, S., Melnik, R. (2020). Coupled Electro-mechanical Behavior of Microtubules. In: Rojas, I., Valenzuela, O., Rojas, F., Herrera, L., Ortuño, F. (eds) Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering. IWBBIO 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12108. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45385-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45385-5_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-45384-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-45385-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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