A5000913879- Micro and Nano Robotics
- Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization
- Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
- Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence
- Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior
- Cellular transport and secretion
- Slime Mold and Myxomycetes Research
- Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation
- Photoreceptor and optogenetics research
- Liquid Crystal Research Advancements
- Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation
- Microfluidic and Capillary Electrophoresis Applications
- Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
- Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies
- Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Origins and Evolution of Life
- Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
- RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Surfactants and Colloidal Systems
- Erythrocyte Function and Pathophysiology
- Magnetic and Electromagnetic Effects
- Molecular Communication and Nanonetworks
- Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies
- Diffusion and Search Dynamics
National Centre for Biological Sciences
2018-2025
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
2018-2025
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
2018-2025
Princeton University
2013-2018
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization
2010-2014
Princeton Public Schools
2014
Max Planck Society
2012-2013
The synchronization of coupled oscillators is a fascinating manifestation self-organization that nature uses to orchestrate essential processes life, such as the beating heart. Although it was long thought synchrony and disorder were mutually exclusive steady states for network identical oscillators, numerous theoretical studies in recent years have revealed intriguing possibility “chimera states,” which symmetry oscillator population broken into synchronous part an asynchronous part....
We have studied experimentally the collective behavior of self-propelling liquid droplets, which closely mimic locomotion some protozoal organisms, so-called squirmers. For sake simplicity, we concentrate on quasi-two-dimensional (2D) settings, although our swimmers provide a fully 3D propulsion scheme. At an areal density 0.46, find strong polar correlation velocities neighboring decays over less than one droplet diameter. When is increased to 0.78, distinct peaks show up in angular...
Active emulsions,<italic>i.e.</italic>, emulsions whose droplets perform self-propelled motion, are of tremendous interest for mimicking collective phenomena in biological populations such as phytoplankton and bacterial colonies, but also experimentally studying rheology, pattern formation, phase transitions systems far from thermal equilibrium.
Active particles, including swimming microorganisms, autophoretic colloids, and droplets, are known to self-organize into ordered structures at fluid-solid boundaries. The entrainment of particles in the attractive parts their spontaneous flows has been postulated as a possible mechanism underlying this phenomenon. Here, combining experiments, theory, numerical simulations, we demonstrate validity flow-induced ordering suspension active emulsion droplets. We show that can be controlled, with...
Cells are the basic units of all living matter which harness flow energy to drive processes life. While biochemical networks involved in transduction well-characterized, energetic costs and constraints for specific cellular remain largely unknown. In particular, what budgets cells? What limits flows impose on processes? Do cells operate near these limits, if so how do impact functions? Physics has provided many tools study nonequilibrium systems define physical but applying cell biology...
Two symmetrically coupled populations of $N$ oscillators with inertia $m$ display chaotic solutions broken symmetry similar to experimental observations mechanical pendulums. In particular, we report evidence intermittent chimeras, where one population is synchronized and the other jumps erratically between laminar turbulent phases. These states have finite lifetimes diverging as a power law $m$. Lyapunov analyses reveal properties in quantitative agreement theoretical predictions for...
Combining high-resolution single cell tracking experiments with numerical simulations, we show that starvation-induced fruiting body (FB) formation in Myxococcus xanthus is a phase separation driven by cells tune their motility over time. The can be understood terms of density and dimensionless Peclet number captures through speed reversal frequency. Our work suggests M. take advantage self-driven non-equilibrium transition controlled at the level.
We study the micellar solubilization of three thermotropic liquid crystal compounds by immersing single drops in aqueous solutions ionic surfactant tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide. For both nematic and isotropic drops, we observe a linear decrease drop size with time as well convective flows self-propelled motions. The is accompanied appearance small droplets within or drop. At low temperatures, expell into environment. Smectic show spontaneous formation filament-like structures which...
The inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM), housing components of the electron transport chain (ETC), is site for respiration. ETC relies on mobile carriers; therefore, it has long been argued that fluidity densely packed IMM can potentially influence flux and cell physiology. However, unclear if cells temporally modulate upon metabolic or other stimulation. Using a photostable, red-shifted, cell-permeable molecular-rotor, Mitorotor-1, we present multiplexed approach quantitatively mapping in...
Abstract The field of synthetic active matter has, thus far, been led by efforts to create point-like, isolated (yet interacting) self-propelled objects (e.g. colloids, droplets, microrobots) and understanding their collective dynamics. design flexible, freely jointed assemblies from autonomously powered sub-components remains a challenge. Here, we report freely-jointed polymers created using droplets as monomeric units. Our experiments reveal that the self-shaping chemo-hydrodynamic...
The formation of a collectively moving group benefits individuals within population in variety ways. surface-dwelling bacterium Myxococcus xanthus forms dynamic collective groups both to feed on prey and aggregate during times starvation. latter behaviour, termed fruiting-body formation, involves complex, coordinated series density changes that ultimately lead three-dimensional aggregates comprising hundreds thousands cells spores. How loose, two-dimensional sheet motile produces fixed has...
We outline a concept of self-assembled soft matter devices based on micro-fluidics, which use surfactant bilayer membranes as their main building blocks, arrested in geometric structures provided by top-down lithography. Membranes form spontaneously when suitable water-in-oil emulsions are forced into micro-fluidic channels at high dispersed-phase volume fractions. They turn out to be remarkably stable even pumped through the channel system. Their arrangement is self-assembling, driven...
We demonstrate a new class of soft matter optical fibers, which are self-assembled in form smectic-A liquid crystal microtubes grown an aqueous surfactant dispersion crystal. The diameter the fibers is highly uniform and birefringent. They characterized by line topological defect core fiber with axis pointing from towards surface. guiding light along Whispering Gallery Mode (WGM) lasing plane perpendicular to fiber. as well threshold significantly dependent on polarization excitation beam....
Robust localization of self-reproducing autocatalytic chemistries is a key step in the realization heritable and evolvable chemical systems. While reaction networks already possess attributes such as self-reproduction evolvability, localizing functional multispecies within complex primitive phases, coacervates, has remained unexplored. Here, we show Azoarcus ribozyme system charge-rich coacervates where catalytic ribozymes are produced by assembly constituent smaller RNA fragments. We...
Eukaryotic cells utilize an arsenal of processive transport systems to deliver macromolecules specific subcellular sites. In prokaryotes, such mechanisms have only been shown mediate gliding motility, a form microbial surface translocation. Here, we show that the motility function Myxococcus xanthus Agl-Glt machinery results from recent specialization versatile class bacterial transporters. Specifically, demonstrate Agl motor is modular and dissociates rest (the Glt complex) bind newly...
A dilute suspension of active Brownian particles in a dense compressible viscoelastic fluid, forms natural setting to study the emergence nonreciprocity during dynamical phase transition. At these densities, transport is strongly influenced by passive medium and shows jamming transition as function activity density. In process, actively churned up - for low activity, particle gets self-trapped cavity its own making, while large ploughs through medium, either accompanied moving anisotropic...
Abstract ATPases are a group of enzymes that can cyclically convert the free energy ATP hydrolysis into mechanical work. GTPases another class predominantly associated with signal transduction processes, but their role in mechanotransduction is less established. It was previously shown binding GTPase Rab5 to tethering protein EEA1 induces large conformational change from rigid, extended flexible, collapsed state. This entropic collapse gives rise an effective force pull tethered membranes...
Significance The population dynamics of species arise from individual-level inter- and intraspecies interactions, driven by genetic neurobehavioral factors. However, linking ecological evolutionary to underlying mechanisms represents a major challenge, largely due experimental intractability. Here, we study the predator–prey system comprising nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans bacteria Escherichia coli . We find that worms engage in form primitive agriculture, their foraging behavior,...
How do worms navigate their complex natural surroundings? Undulatory microswimmers such as nematodes typically inhabit environments soil, vegetable matter, and host tissues. While the habitats of are often three-dimensional granular niches with spatiotemporally varying visco-elasto-plastic material properties that impose physical constraints on motion, current knowledge about nematode motility patterns broadly comes from investigating model organisms Caenorhabditis elegans either inside...
We report on a switchable emulsion droplet microswimmer by utilizing temperature-dependent transition of the phase.