August 2008
Work by Bioengineering Assistant Professor Mohammad Mofrad was on the cover of Biophysical Journal in August 2008.
Mofrad and co-author graduate student Chris Wolf explore the potential biomechanical reasons for the eightfold symmetry of the nuclear pore complex (NPC), which is conserved across almost all organisms from yeast to humans. Their analysis shows that the symmetry maximizes the bending stiffness of each of the eight NPC spokes, and explores further issues of deformation and kinetic energies. This work holds promise for a better understanding of nucleocytoplasmic transport, which has a central importance in cell biology.
Read more at the Biophysical Journal.