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We study the micromechanics of collagen-I gel with the goal of bridging the gap between theory and experiment in the study of biopolymer networks. Three-dimensional images of fluorescently labeled collagen are obtained by confocal…
We engineered a microfluidic platform to study the effects of bioactive glass nanoparticles (BGNs) on cell viability under static culture. We incorporated different concentrations of BGNs (1%, 2%, and 3% w/v) in collagen hydrogel (with a…
Cytoplasmic viscoelasticity is crucial for various intracellular processes. However, the dynamic shear modulus, $G(\omega)$, has been reported to vary considerably, often without consistent patterns or rules, even within the same cell.…
In this paper we study the elastic response of synthetic hydrogels to an applied shear stress. The hydrogels studied here have previously been shown to mimic the behaviour of biopolymer networks when they are sufficiently far above the gel…
Homogenization is a technique for the analysis of complex materials by replacing them with equivalent homogeneous materials that exhibit similar properties. By constructing a three-dimensional (3D) porous material model and employing…
Ferrogels and magnetic elastomers feature mechanical properties that can be reversibly tuned from outside through magnetic fields. Here we concentrate on the question how their dynamic response can be adjusted. The influence of three…
Numerical simulations of vesicle suspensions are performed in two dimensions to study their dynamical and rheological properties. An hybrid method is adopted, which combines a mesoscopic approach for the solvent with a curvature-elasticity…
The macroscopic mechanical properties of colloidal particle gels strongly depend on the local arrangement of the powder particles. Experiments have shown that more heterogeneous microstructures exhibit up to one order of magnitude higher…
We study the shearing rheology of dense suspensions of elastic capsules, taking aggregation-free red blood cells as a physiologically relevant example. Particles are non-Brownian and interact only via hydrodynamics and short-range repulsive…
Mechanical forces such as fluid shear have been shown to enhance cell growth and differentiation, but knowledge of their mechanistic effect on cells is limited because the local flow patterns and associated metrics are not precisely known.…
Cell-cell contacts in tissues are continuously subject to mechanical forces due to homeostatic pressure and active cytoskeleton dynamics. While much is known about the molecular pathways of adhesion, the role of mechanics is less well…
Obstructions influence the growth and expansion of bodies in a wide range of settings -- but isolating and understanding their impact can be difficult in complex environments. Here, we study obstructed growth/expansion in a model system…
Investigations of natural variation in cell mechanics within a cell population are essential to understand the stochastic nature of soft-network deformation. Striking commonalities have been found concerning the average values and…
We report on the frictional behaviour of thin poly(dimethylacrylamide) (PDMA) hydrogels films grafted on glass substrates in sliding contact with a glass spherical probe. Friction experiments are carried out at various velocities and…
Polymer gels have been shown to behave as viscoelastic materials but only a small amount of data is usually provided in the glassy transition. In this paper, the dynamic moduli G' and G" of polyacrylamide hydrogels are investigated using…
When submitted to a magnetic field, micron size wires with superparamagnetic properties behave as embedded rheometers and represent interesting sensors for micro-rheology. Here we use rotational magnetic spectroscopy to measure the shear…
The mechanical properties of tissues play an essential role for all tissue properties such as cell division, and differentiation or morphogenesis. Here, we study theoretically the rheology of 2-dimensional epithelial tissues described by a…
Deviations between macrorheological and particle-based microrheological measurements are often considered a nuisance and neglected. We study aqueous poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) hydrogels for varying PEO concentrations and chain lengths that…
In biological tissues, it is now well-understood that mechanical cues are a powerful mechanism for pattern regulation. While much work has focused on interactions between cells and external substrates, recent experiments suggest that cell…
Surface stress, also known as surface tension, is a fundamental material property of any interface. However, measurements of solid surface stress in traditional engineering materials, such as metals and oxides, have proven to be very…