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2024
In this image captured by Alex Ritter, actin bundles light up like the cables of a living bridge.
This perfectly organized cytoskeleton produces the force needed to move cells while maintaining tissue cohesion.
Studying this dynamic architecture enables us to understand how cells elongate, migrate, align themselves, or perceive their mechanical environment.
But this cellular language can also go awry.
In Duchenne muscular dystrophy, defects in the cytoskeleton weaken muscle fibers until they degenerate.
In some cancers, the cytoskeleton is hijacked to allow cells to become invasive and mobile.
In developmental syndromes such as Baraitser-Winter, mutations in actin disrupt the shape of cells... and the brain.
Under this golden light, much more than simple filaments come into view: the fabric of effort, repair and, at times, drifting, takes shape.
