Descripción del proyecto
Un estudio de las propiedades fascinantes de la materia activa viva
La reología es una rama de la física que explica la deformación y el flujo de la materia y que tiene aplicación en estudios biológicos sobre la materia activa viva destinados a conocer y controlar procesos como la sanación o la metástasis del cáncer. No obstante, para controlarla es necesario antes definir las propiedades de los sistemas densos activos. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos RMAG ejecutará estudios sinergéticos sobre estos fenómenos biológicos mediante el empleo de instrumentos pertenecientes a la física estadística de los vidrios. Se explicará así la deformación y el flujo de los sistemas vidriosos vivos mediante un estudio de la materia activa en células vivas y sistemas reconstruidos compuestos a partir de componentes básicos bioquímicos. Es más, este proyecto generará información inédita sobre biología celular y ciencia de los materiales y ofrecerá la posibilidad de diseñar materiales nuevos con capacidades fascinantes.
Objetivo
The mechanics and flow behaviour of living or active matter is key to biological processes like wound healing or cancer metastasis, but today there is very limited understanding of what governs the mechanical properties of such dense active systems. The proposed project will harness tools from the Statistical Physics of Glasses to provide new fundamental insights into Active Matter mechanics and rheology. This will not only help understand the deformation and flow of living glassy systems but also pave the way to the creation of designer active materials. The project will use particle-based simulations of model active glasses to construct a detailed phenomenology of their behaviour for a broad range of deformation scenarios including steady shear, shear startup and oscillatory shear. The insights from this will be condensed into a mesoscopic model that extends and builds on the very successful Soft Glassy Rheology (SGR) model, by incorporating essential biophysical ingredients and in particular the driving by active processes. This mesoscopic approach will allow scaling up to realistic system sizes and will identify the key parameters that need to be tuned in the design of new active materials. The insights gained on a wide range of systems from the cytoplasm and cellular aggregates to synthetic active matter will have a strong impact both on the academic and, in the medium term, non-academic sectors. They will reach across traditional boundaries to researchers in physics, biology and chemistry and strengthen an important interdisciplinary field within the European Research Area. The outreach opportunities provided by the fascinating behaviour of active glassy materials will be exploited with dedicated dissemination and communication activities targeted at a broad range of audiences.
Ámbito científico
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
37073 Gottingen
Alemania