Related papers: From jamming to collective cell migration through …
Self-organization, and transitions from reversible to irreversible behaviour, of interacting particle assemblies driven by externally imposed stresses or deformation is of interest in comprehending diverse phenomena in soft matter. They…
The motion of a eukaryotic cell presents a variety of interesting and challenging problems from both a modeling and a computational perspective. The processes span many spatial scales (from molecular to tissue) as well as disparate time…
Collective actuation in active solids - the spontaneous coherent excitation of a few vibrational modes - emerges from a feedback between structural deformations and the orientation of active forces. It is an excellent candidate as a basic…
We use computer simulations to analyse the yielding transition during large-amplitude oscillatory shear of a simple model for soft jammed solids. Simultaneous analysis of global mechanical response and particle-scale motion demonstrates…
Via computer simulations, we provide evidence that the shear rate induced red blood cell tumbling-to-tank-treading transition also occurs at quite high volume fractions, where collective effects are important. The transition takes place as…
The jamming transition characterizes athermal systems of particles interacting via finite range repulsive potentials, and occurs on increasing the density when particles cannot avoid making contacts with those of their first coordination…
Cell migration is a fundamental process involved in physiological phenomena such as the immune response and morphogenesis, but also in pathological processes, such as the development of tumor metastasis. These functions are effectively…
The mechanics of crawling cells on a substrate is investigated by using a minimal model that satisfies the force-free condition. A cell is described by two subcellular elements connected by a linear actuator that changes the length of the…
It is increasingly being realized that liquid-crystalline features can play an important role in the properties and dynamics of cell monolayers. Here, we present a cell-based model of cell layers, based on the phase-field formulation, that…
Understanding the way disordered particle packings transition between jammed (rigid) and unjammed (fluid) states is of both great practical importance and strong fundamental interest. The values of critical packing fraction (and other state…
We study theoretically the effects of confinement on active polar gels such as the actin network of eukaryotic cells. Using generalized hydrodynamics equations derived for active gels, we predict, in the case of quasi one-dimensional…
Cell migration is fundamental to development, tissue organization, immune response, and disease progression. Amoeboid motility is distinguished by rapid motion and strongly fluctuating cell shapes, reflecting the intrinsically nonlinear…
We present an overview of phase field modeling of active matter systems as a tool for capturing various aspects of complex and active interfaces. We first describe how interfaces between different phases are characterized in phase field…
There is now growing evidence of the emergence and biological functionality of liquid crystal features, including nematic order and topological defects, in cellular tissues. However, how such features that intrinsically rely on particle…
The phase transition kinetics in three phase systems was investigated using the numerically efficient cell dynamics method. A phasefield model with a simple analytical free energy and single order parameter was used to study the kinetics…
Via molecular dynamics simulations, we unveil the hysteretic nature of the jamming transition of soft repulsive frictionless spheres, as it occurs varying the volume fraction or the shear stress. In a given range of control parameters the…
Athermal disordered systems can exhibit a remarkable response to an applied oscillatory shear: after a relatively few shearing cycles, the system falls into a configuration that had already been visited in a previous cycle. After this point…
To maintain homeostasis, living cells process information with networks of interacting molecules. Traditional models for cellular information processing have focused on networks of chemical reactions between molecules. Here, we describe how…
Discrete numerical simulations are performed to study the evolution of the micro-structure and the response of a granular packing during successive loading-unloading cycles, consisting of quasi-static rotations in the gravity field between…
We use state-of-the-art molecular dynamics simulations to study hydrodynamic effects on aging during kinetics of phase separation in a fluid mixture. The domain growth law shows a crossover from a diffusive regime to a viscous hydrodynamic…