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SUMMARY:Biological and bio-inspired locomotion at small scales. - Professo
 r Antonio DeSimone - SISSA International School for Advanced Studies\, Tri
 este\, Italy
DTSTART:20170911T140000Z
DTEND:20170911T150000Z
UID:TALK78131@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:June Rix
DESCRIPTION:Locomotion at the micron scale is at the root of many fundamen
 tal processes in Biology. These include the immune system response\, the m
 igration of metastatic tumour cells\, and sperm cells successfully swimmin
 g their way by beating a flagellum until they reach and fertilise an egg c
 ell. Besides their biological interest\, motile cells provide a template f
 or the bio-inspired design of micro-meter-scale\, self-sufficient machines
  capable of executing controlled motion.\nWe will report on some of our re
 cent studies on swimming micro-motility by shape control\, discussing gene
 ral principles first\, and then a concrete case study. \nGeneral principle
 s are obtained by regarding locomotion as a control problem: we will highl
 ight some conceptual principles that may inspire the design of engineered 
 bio-inspired devices.\nThe case study concerns the protist Euglena gracili
 s\, which is capable of moving either by beating a flagellum\, or by execu
 ting dramatic shape changes. These are accomplished thanks to a complex st
 ructure (pellicle) underlying the plasma membrane\, made of interlocking p
 roteinaceous strips\, microtubules\, and molecular motors. We study the me
 chanisms by which the sliding of pellicle strips leads to shape control an
 d locomotion\, by means of both theory and experiments. A new concept of s
 urface with programmable shape emerges from these studies.\n\n
LOCATION:MR3\,  Centre for Mathematical Sciences\, Wilberforce Road\, Camb
 ridge
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