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SUMMARY:Active biological flows - Prof. Eric Lauda (DAMTP)
DTSTART:20220527T113000Z
DTEND:20220527T123000Z
UID:TALK173015@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:99736
DESCRIPTION:Biology is dominated by transport problems involving fluid flo
 ws\, from the diffusion of nutrients and locomotion to flows around plants
  and the circulatory system of animals. In this talk\, I will discuss thre
 e instances of biological flows arising on small scales\, and our efforts 
 to understand them. \n\nFirst I will present our work modelling active flo
 ws in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The ER is a cellular organelle takin
 g the form of a network of fluid-filled tubules and sheets that performs e
 ssential cellular functions such as protein synthesis and transport. Singl
 e particle tracking in ER networks has revealed active transport\, signifi
 cantly enhanced relative to pure diffusion. In this work\, we build a mode
 l to test a recent hypothesis for the origin of this active flow quantitat
 ively. \n\nNext\, I will discuss our work on artificial cytoplasmic stream
 ing. Recent experiments in cell biology have generate artificially induced
  intracellular flows using focused light localised in a small region of th
 e cell to create a thermo-viscous flow globally inside the cell. I will pr
 esent a theoretical model of the fluid flow induced by the focused light w
 hich shows excellent agreement with experimental results. \n\nFinally I wi
 ll discuss active flows that are generated in suspensions of swimming micr
 oorganisms. Recent experiment have shown that magnetotactic bacteria in sp
 herical confinement self-organise in a global vortex provided that their c
 oncentration (or the external magnetic field) is large enough. We build a 
 theoretical model of this phenomenon\, showing in particular the relations
 hip between the local flows generated by the swimmers and their ability to
  induce long-range self-organisation. 
LOCATION:CUED\, LT6
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