To keep a cell alive, molecular motor proteins constantly transport building blocks and waste across the cell, along its biopolymer network. Because of the high density of these proteins, jamming effects are believed to affect this transport, just like traffic jams affect street traffic. However, not much is known about such crowding effects in cellular traffic. Researchers in the groups of Erwin Peterman and Peter Schall at the LaserLaB (VU) and the Institute of Physics (UvA) have now found a way to directly visualize and measure these jamming effects in cellular traffic. Their results, which have been published in Physical Review X this week, yield new insight into motor interactions in the crowded molecular motor transport. This project is receiving funding from NWO’s Complexity programme.