Biophysical studies of the cytoskeleton

This Special Issue of the European Biophysics Journal contains articles dealing with topics associated with a variety of biophysical studies of the cytoskeleton. These original peer-reviewed contributions derive from authors who were invited contributors to a meeting on “Molecular Biophysics of the Cytoskeleton” organised in August 1997 in Banff, Alberta, by Jack Tuszynski of the University of Alberta, Edmonton. Dr Tuszynski and I have been joint editors for this issue. The organisation of the papers runs from structural studies of individual proteins, their interactions and assembly properties; motor proteins, kinesin and dynein, and general properties of mechanochemical motility; physical and mechanical properties of cytoskeletal polymers, including flexibility and elasticity of microtubules, and diffusion within microtubules; modelling of actin networks, deformation and cellular locomotion.