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The extracellular matrix of biofilms presents a dense and intricate architecture. Numerous biophysical properties of the matrix surrounding microbial cells contribute to the heterogeneity of biofilms and their functions at the microscale.…
In equilibrium, the physical properties of matter are set by the interactions between the constituents. In contrast, the energy input of the individual components controls the behavior of synthetic or living active matter. Great progress…
The ability of detecting and separating CTCs can play a key role in early cancer detection and treatment. In recent years, there has been growing interest in using deformability-based CTC separation microfilters due to their simplicity and…
We use optical trapping to continuously bend an isolated microtubule while simultaneously measuring the applied force and the resulting filament strain, thus allowing us to determine its elastic properties over a wide range of applied…
We study avenues to shape multistability and shape-morphing in flexible crystalline membranes of cylindrical topology, enabled by glide mobility of dislocations. Using computational modeling, we obtain states of mechanical equilibrium…
The transport and deformation of confined droplets and flexible capsules are central to diverse phenomena and applications, from biological flows in microcapillaries to industrial processes in porous media. Inspired by experiments, we…
It is well known that the classical energetically consistent micropolar model has limits in simulating the frequency band structure of packed granular materials (see Merkel et al., 2011). It is here shown that if a standard continualization…
Thin-shell structures, found in biological systems such as beetle carapaces and widely used in aerospace, civil, and mechanical engineering, achieve remarkable strength-to-mass ratio given their slenderness and curved geometries. However,…
With the increasing demand for personalized health monitoring, wearable sensors have gained attention in medical diagnostics and physiological tracking. Hydrogels, known for their mechanical properties and similarity to biological tissues,…
We propose a hardware and software pipeline to fabricate flexible wearable sensors and use them to capture deformations without line of sight. Our first contribution is a low-cost fabrication pipeline to embed multiple aligned conductive…
Micron-sized hard core-soft shell hybrid microgels are promising model systems for studies of soft matter as they enable in-situ optical investigations and their structures/morphologies can be engineered with a great variety. Yet, protocols…
Extreme deformation of soft matter is central to our understanding of the effects of shock, fracture, and phase change in a variety of systems. Yet, despite, the increasing interest in this area, far-from-equilibrium behaviours of soft…
By means of computer simulations, this work addresses adhesion of a deformable spherical capsule to a micro-rough surface consisting of a periodic array of pillars. Depending on the micro-relief topography, three different adhesion regimes…
Macrocellular silicone polymers are obtained after solidification of the continuous phase of a PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) emulsion, which contains PEG (polyethylene glycol) drops of sub-millimetric dimensions. Coalescence of the liquid…
Biocompatible microencapsulation is of widespread interest for the targeted delivery of active species in fields such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and agro-chemistry. Capsules obtained by the self-assembly of polymers at interfaces enable…
We present an experimental protocol for the fabrication and characterization of scalable microarchitected elastic waveguides. Using silicon microfabrication techniques, we develop free-standing 2D truss-based architected waveguides with a…
Soft nanoparticles hold promise as smart emulsifiers due to their high degree of deformability, permeability and stimuli responsive properties. By means of large-scale simulations we investigate the structural properties of nanogels at…
Shape transformation is crucial for the survival, adaptation, predation, defense, and reproduction of organisms in complex environments. It also serves as a key mechanism for the development of various applications, including soft robotics,…
Ultrasound-guided drug and gene delivery (usdg) enables controlled and spatially precise delivery of drugs and macromolecules, encapsulated in microbubbles (embs) and submicron gas vesicles (gvs), to target areas such as cancer tumors. It…
Microgels are soft colloidal particles constituted by cross-linked polymer networks with a high potential for applications. In particular, after adsorption at a fluid interface, interfacial tension provides two-dimensional (2D) confinement…