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SUMMARY:MechE Seminar: Studying Multicellular Biological Systems as Soft M
 atter
DTSTART:20230208T151500
DTEND:20230208T161500
DTSTAMP:20260510T063108Z
UID:f7332f6fa5142ecf5ce76f3c7c1ded40e51f8ec76c7edf514f9b0ebb
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Haicen Yue\, Department of Physics\, Emory University\nAbs
 tract: In complex living organisms\, most biological functions are realize
 d at the multicellular level\, such as tissues and organs\, which are comp
 osed of many interacting cells. Collective organizations and emergent phen
 omena pose new challenges in the study of these multicellular systems beyo
 nd the knowledge of single cell behavior. The study of soft matter\, such 
 as liquids and soft solids\, with established theoretical and numerical to
 ols\, as well as the way of thinking in connecting microscopic elements an
 d macroscopic properties\, will certainly contribute to our understanding 
 of multicellular systems. In this talk\, I will use a specific research on
  the fusion of spherical multicellular systems\, analogous to the coalesce
 nce of liquid drops\, to show the potency of this direction. In this work\
 , we used numerical simulations and theoretical arguments to study how dis
 sipative coupling to the background\, which is a feature that distinguishe
 s multicellular systems (as well as some non-living systems) from simple l
 iquids\, affects the coalescence dynamics. We find that the dissipative dy
 namics alone leads to a novel class of coalescence universality\, with dif
 ferent overall shape evolution\, as well as new scaling laws. We demonstra
 te these effects via particle-based simulations and with both continuum an
 d boundary-integral solutions of the hydrodynamics equations\, and then un
 derstand them in the context of a generalized Navier-Stokes-like equation.
  Our results provide a basis for better interpretation of results from man
 y areas of study\, including the fusion of cellular and macromolecular agg
 regates\, which is ubiquitous in living systems\, as well as the coalescen
 ce of complex liquid droplets\, which has wide applications in industry. I
 n addition\, this work will be the basis for a series of future researches
  on the fusion of multicellular aggregates\, taking into account more spec
 ific features for living matter\, such as out-of-equilibrium\, special int
 eractions\, etc.\n\nBiography: Haicen Yue is currently a postdoctoral rese
 archer in the Department of Physics at Emory University. She is working in
  Daniel Sussman's group on the fusion of multicellular aggregates from the
  perspective of soft matter and statistical physics. She received her Ph.D
 . in physics in 2018 from the University of California San Diego\, where s
 he mainly studied the signaling networks that control cell movement in Wou
 ter-Jan Rappel's group. She then spent two years at the Courant Institute 
 of Mathematical Sciences at New York University\, where she studied mechan
 ical forces and interactions in cell migration in Alex Mogilner's group. D
 uring this research experience\, she developed a strong interest in connec
 ting the signaling or mechanical mechanisms she was studying at the cellul
 ar level with properties and phenomena at the much larger length scale. In
  the future\, her group will focus on questions of fusion\, organization\,
  and interfacial instabilities of multicellular systems from a soft matter
  perspective\, using theoretical and computational tools in combination wi
 th experimental collaborations to understand important biological and bioe
 ngineering processes such as development\, tissue engineering\, and tumor 
 invasion.
LOCATION:BM 5202 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BM%205202 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/66862321704
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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