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SUMMARY:Active Gel Theory in Practice: Decoding Dynamics of Actomyosin Sys
 tems - Yuting Irene Li (Institute of Science and Technology (IST Austria))
DTSTART:20250912T093500Z
DTEND:20250912T101500Z
UID:TALK233380@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:Active gel theory offers elegant\, minimal models for active m
 atter systems built from symmetry and conservation principles. Yet\, biolo
 gy rarely cooperates with our theoretical ideals. Using the actomyosin dyn
 amics of the zebrafish embryo as a case study\,&nbsp\;a system that underg
 oes partial division in contrast to traditional complete cytokinesis model
 s\,&nbsp\;I will demonstrate how systematic\, biologically-motivated exten
 sions to the canonical active gel models reveal the hidden complexity of c
 ytoskeletal systems. While simple isotropic contractility fails to explain
  the observed density and velocity profiles\, incorporating nematic contra
 ctility and nematic order stabilization predicts the formation of contract
 ile actin cables and mechanically-uncoupled depletion zones observed exper
 imentally. We then distill these insights from the mesoscale into&nbsp\;a 
 higher-level abstraction by treating the cable and cortex as coupled mecha
 nical components\, which yields remarkably accurate predictions of embryo 
 shape deformations. Overall\, the&nbsp\;hierarchical modelling approach ca
 ptures the essential physics of the zebrafish cleavage\, illustrating an e
 xample of turning active matter theories into tractable frameworks for bio
 logy.&nbsp\;
LOCATION:External
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