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SUMMARY:Self-assembled active actomyosin gels spontaneously curve and wrin
 kle similar to biological cells and tissues -  Prof. Anne Bernheim\, Ben-G
 urion University of the Negev
DTSTART:20240503T130000Z
DTEND:20240503T140000Z
UID:TALK215857@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:46601
DESCRIPTION:Living systems adopt a diversity of curved and highly dynamic 
 shapes. These diverse morphologies appear on many length-scales\, from cel
 ls to tissues and organismal scales. The\ncommon driving force for these d
 ynamic shape changes are contractile stresses generated by myosin motors i
 n the cell cytoskeleton\, that converts chemical energy into mechanical wo
 rk. A good understanding of how contractile stresses in the cytoskeleton a
 rise into different 3D shapes and what are the shape selection rules that 
 determine their final configurations is still lacking. To obtain insight i
 nto the \nrelevant physical mechanisms\, we recreate the actomyosin\ncytos
 keleton in-vitro\, with precisely controlled composition and initial geome
 try. A set of actomyosin gel discs\, intrinsically identical but of variab
 le initial geometry\, dynamically selforganize into a family of 3D shapes\
 , such as domes and wrinkled shapes\, without the need for\nspecific pre-p
 rogramming or additional regulation. Shape deformation is driven by the sp
 ontaneous emergence of stress gradients driven by myosin and is encoded in
  the initial disc\nradius to thickness aspect ratio\, which may indicate s
 haping scalability. Our results suggest that\, while the dynamical pathway
 s may depend on the detailed interactions between the different microscopi
 c components within the gel\, the final selected shapes obey the general t
 heory of elastic deformations of thin sheets. Altogether\, our results emp
 hasize the importance for the emergence of active stress gradients for buc
 kling driven shape deformations and provide novel insights on the mechanic
 ally induced spontaneous shape transitions in contractile active matter\, 
 revealing potential shared mechanisms with living systems across scales.
LOCATION:Oatley 1 Meeting Room\, Department of Engineering
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