Computational Physics of Biological Matter : Research

Research

Our research focuses on the behavior of complex biological systems and fluids, including blood, polymeric solutions, and suspensions of soft and active particles. Such systems generally exhibit incredibly complex structures, interactions, and dynamics. In particular, we are interested in blood flow in health and disease (e.g. malaria), cell mechanics and adhesion, microfluidics, rheological properties of cellular and polymeric suspensions, and the behavior of active systems. Our research interests also include multiscale modeling and hybrid algorithms that bridge atomistic, mesoscopic, and continuum scales. We employ various numerical methods, computer simulations, and analytical theory to study the behavior of different complex biological systems and fluids.

Active vesicles

Simplified biomimetic systems can aid in understanding the principles which govern cell shape changes and the response of the cell membrane under strong deformations. One example is a vesicle enclosing self-propelled particles.

Blood flow

Blood flow in the microcirculation plays a fundamental role in a wide range of physiological processes and pathologies in the organism, including transport of molecules and cells, organism defense, haemostasis, and various diseases.

Cell mechanics

Mechanical properties of cells are tightly coupled with their biological functions. Therefore, cell mechanics significantly affects cellular behavior and determines mechanical properties of supra-cellular structures such as tissues.

Microfluidics

Microfluidic devices have a wide range of applications including the analysis of a micro-sample, the detection of rare solutes, cell sorting, etc. Our main focus is on microfluidic sorting of soft suspending particles based on their intrinsic properties.

Rheology

Rheology of soft-colloid suspensions plays an important role in a large range of applications. Soft colloids comprise a broad class of materials, ranging from linear polymers over polymeric assemblies, such as star polymers and dendrimers, to vesicles, capsules, and even cells.

Microswimmers

Microswimmers are small particles at the microscale which are able to self-propel in a fluid. There exist biological (e.g. sperm, bacteria) and artificial (e.g. active colloids) microswimmers which may propel by various driving mechanisms.

Hemostasis

Hemostasis is the process of blood clotting, which is required to stop bleeding at an injury site and initiate wound healing. It constitutes a fine-tuned cooperation of many blood components, including platelets, protein von Willebrand factor, and fibrinogen.

Drug delivery

The use of targeted micro- and nano-carriers for the delivery of imaging agents and drugs provides a promising strategy for early detection and treatment of various diseases such as cancer. However, their physical delivery to targeted sites is a very challenging task.

Malaria

Malaria is a disease caused by a Plasmodium parasite, which infects red blood cells and leads to significant changes in their mechanical properties and morphology. Furthermore, infected cells become adhesive, drastically altering normal blood circulation.

Cell adhesion

Cytoadhesion is a large research area in biophysics and biology, since it is often a crucial functionality of many cells. For instance, white blood cells and platelets need to adhere to vascular endothelium or a site of injury, when necessary, in order to perform their functions.

Particle margination

Particle margination is the migration of various suspended particles or cells toward walls in a multicomponent suspension under flow (e.g. blood flow). Particle margination is a pre-condition for particle-wall interactions and adhesion.

Mesoscopic methods

Modeling motion of complex and biological fluids is a difficult task due to a wide range of spatiotemporal scales involved. Mesoscopic methods bridge the gap between microscopic and macroscopic methods by coarsening many molecular details, but retaining some supra-molecular information.