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SUMMARY:Active biological flows inside cells - Eric  Lauga (University of 
 Cambridge)
DTSTART:20231207T150000Z
DTEND:20231207T160000Z
UID:TALK209020@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:\nBiology is dominated by transport problems involving fluid f
 lows\, from the transport of nutrients and locomotion to flows around plan
 ts and the circulatory system of animals. In this talk\, I will discuss th
 ree instances of flows arising inside living cells.\n&nbsp\;\nFirst I will
  present our work modelling natural cytoplasmic streaming. The Drosophila 
 embryo\, an elongated multi-nucleated cell\, is a classical model system f
 or eukaryotic development and morphogenesis. We use mathematical modelling
  to characterise recent experiments showing that cytoplasmic flows\, drive
 n by cortical contractions along the walls of the embryo\, enable the unif
 orm spreading of nuclei along the anterior-posterior axis. By fitting the 
 cortical contractions in our model to measurements\, we reveal that experi
 mental cortical flows enable near-optimal axial spreading of nuclei (https
 ://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2023.0428).&nbsp\;\n&nbsp\;\nI will next discuss o
 ur work on artificial cytoplasmic streaming. Recent experiments have gener
 ated artificially induced intracellular flows using focused light localise
 d in a small region of the cell to create a thermo-viscous flow globally i
 nside the cell. I will present a theoretical model of the fluid flow induc
 ed by the focused light which shows excellent agreement with experimental 
 results (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.8.034202) .&nbsp\;\n&nbsp\;
 \nFinally\, I will address the recent controversial issue of convection fl
 ows inside cells. Recent computations have predicted that a temperature di
 fferential of ~1K between nucleus and cell membrane could be strong enough
  to drive significant intracellular material transport. Using numerical co
 mputations and theoretical calculations I will provide robust estimates fo
 r this cytoplasmic natural convection\, which will demonstrate that these 
 are much weaker than previously predicted and have a negligible contributi
 on toward enhancing the diffusion-dominated mass transfer of cellular mate
 rial.\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Newton Institute
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