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SUMMARY:Understanding Adhesion in Living Materials
DTSTART:20251210T100000
DTEND:20251210T110000
DTSTAMP:20260601T011631Z
UID:c64f77c4abd7373f4d3468af15440bac47a4f913ebc2bc12b4bcbedb
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Maja Vuckovac\, Ph.D.\, Aalto University\, Espoo (SF)\n2-DAY B
 IOE MINI-SYMPOSIUM on Measurement Technologies\n(DAY ONE:  talk two / pr
 evious talk / next talk)\n\nAbstract:\nMy research tackles a central probl
 em in bioengineering: we cannot predict how soft\, wet\, living materials 
 adhere. This is because the physics at the mesoscale\, where mechanics\, f
 luid flow\, and electrostatics couple\, remains invisible to existing tool
 s. I address this with a physics-first strategy: I build simplified model 
 systems to isolate fundamental interactions and design the instruments to 
 quantify them. By progressively introducing biological complexity\, we dec
 ode the physical principles of living adhesion. I will present this journe
 y from the Scanning Droplet Adhesion Microscope for surface heterogeneity\
 , to the Soft Matter Adhesion Microscope (SMAM) for hydrated gels\, and to
 ward the ERC-funded Electro-Adhesion Microscope to map forces and charge s
 imultaneously. This approach provides the foundational principles for engi
 neering tissue fusion\, organoid assembly\, and biointegrated devices.\n\n
 Bio:\nDr. Maja Vuckovac is an Academy Research Fellow and Group Leader at 
 Aalto University\, where she directs the Soft Adhesion and Interfaces Lab.
  She holds a D.Sc. in Engineering Physics from Aalto University. Her resea
 rch program focuses on developing novel measurement technologies to decode
  the physical principles of soft and biological matter. She is internation
 ally recognised for inventing new classes of measurement instruments. Her 
 foundational work includes the Scanning Droplet Adhesion Microscope (SDAM)
 \, an award-winning tool that introduced force-based wetting maps and resh
 aped methodologies in surface science. She subsequently created a platform
  of high-precision cantilever-based force sensors\, for which she received
  the Aalto University Innovation Award (2025) and is now advancing toward 
 commercialisation. She is currently developing the multimodal Soft Matter 
 Adhesion Microscope (SMAM) for probing adhesion in hydrated soft systems. 
 Most recently\, she was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting
  Grant for her project STICKY\, which aims to construct the world’s firs
 t Electro-Adhesion Microscope to elucidate how charge and mechanical force
 s couple at soft and living interfaces. Her research integrates physics\, 
 engineering\, and biology to translate invisible interfacial phenomena int
 o quantifiable signals.\n\n\nZoom link for attending remotely\, if needed:
  https://epfl.zoom.us/j/66947851573
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/66947851573
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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