Cells are an example of active matter. As inanimate matter must burn fuel to move, like airplanes and cars, active matter is similarly animated by its consumption of energy. The basic molecule of cellular energy is adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which catalyzes chemical reactions that enable cellular machinery to work.

Caltech researchers have now developed a bioengineered coordinate system to observe the movement of cellular machinery. The research enables a better understanding of how cells create order out of chaos, such as during embryonic development or in the organized movements of chromosomes that are a prerequisite to faithful cell division.

The work was conducted in the laboratories of Rob Phillips, the Fred and Nancy Morris Professor of Biophysics, Biology, and Physics, and Matt Thomson, Professor of Computational Biology, Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator and affiliated affiliated faculty member with the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech.

Read the paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.