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Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Force-Clamp Rheometry for Characterizing Protein-based Hydrogels
Published on: August 21, 2018
Nonlinearities of biopolymer gels increase the range of force transmission
1Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Abstract:
We present a model of biopolymer gels that includes two types of elastic nonlinearities, stiffening under extension and softening (due to buckling) under compression, to predict the elastic anisotropy induced by both external as well as internal (e.g., due to cell contractility) stresses in biopolymer gels. We show how the stretch-induced anisotropy and the strain-stiffening nonlinearity increase both the amplitude and power-law range of transmission of internal, contractile, cellular forces, and relate this to recent experiments.
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