Does soft matter in materials science, why and what for?

We actuate various biological and synthetic systems (DNA, proteins, colloids, fluids, drops) by exploiting their intrinsic soft matter properties, either to perform useful processes in a novel and simpler way or to study curious/unexpected phenomena. In this talk, I will show that this approach allows us to provide materials with unique properties, such as reconfigurability and stimulus-responsivity, or to achieve useful operations like autonomous microfluidics and low-cost diagnostics. I will first show that using DNA as a soft material allows us to build functional artificial cell systems, optically control gene expression or create soft reconfigurable DNA nanomachines (soft DNA nanotechnology) [1]. I will then describe our efforts to identify new actuation principles to make microfluidics better, easier and cheaper (metafluidics), showing how simple LEDs or cost-effective magnets can be used to control a broad variety of fluidic operations, ranging from drop and liquid marble transport to flow control and dynamic mixing [2,3]. I will finally describe how new ways to harness the so-called “coffee-ring effect” allow us to convert it into a powerful tool, with applications ranging from ubiquitous particle patterning to low-cost medical diagnostics [4].
 
References
[1] A. Estévez-Torres, C. Crozatier, A. Diguet, T. Hara, H. Saito, K. Yoshikawa, D. Baigl, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2009, 106, 12219
[2] A. Diguet, R.-M. Guillermic, N. Magome, A. Saint-Jalmes, Y. Chen, K. Yoshikawa, D. Baigl, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 9281
[3] J. Vialetto, M. Hayakawa, N. Kavokine, M. Takinoue, S. N. Varanakkottu, S. Rudiuk, M. Anyfantakis, M. Morel, D. Baigl, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 16565
[4] S. Devineau, M. Anyfantakis, L. Marichal, L. Kiger, M. Morel, S. Rudiuk, D. Baigl, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 11623

Bio: Damien Baigl is currently exceptional class professor of chemistry at Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris (France). Damien did a PhD on soft matter physics with Claudine Williams in the laboratory of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes at College de France in Paris before a post-doc in biophysics at Kyoto University with Kenichi Yoshikawa. Since 2005, he has been working at the UMR PASTEUR (ENS/CNRS/UPMC) laboratory located at the Department of Chemistry of Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS, PSL University). He was appointed ENS assistant professor in 2005 before becoming full professor (2nd class) at University Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC, Sorbonne Universités) in 2010, 1^st class professor at UPMC in 2013. He became 1^st class professor of chemistry at ENS in 2016, before being promoted to exceptional class in 2018. Former member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF, 2009-2014), he got an ERC starting grant in 2010 (project conducted in 2011-2015). In 2016, he was awarded the Soft Matter Lectureship from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) for “numerous, interdisciplinary and highly original contributions to the soft matter field in topics ranging from DNA compaction, gene expression photocontrol, synthetic biology and artificial cell systems to evaporative assembly, coffee-ring effect manipulations and light-driven microfluidics.” He recently got the rare and prestigious Mergier-Bourdeix award (only one award every four years in chemistry, biology or medecine) from the French academy of science, for the “exceptional originality and diversity of his works”. His current research interests include metafluidics, coffee-ring diagnostics, dynamic DNA nanotechnologies and soft synthetic biology.