Related papers: Softness and Hydrodynamic Interactions Regulate Li…
In this work we study the self-diffusion properties of a liquid of hollow spherical particles (shells)bearing a smaller solid sphere in their interior (yolks). We model this system using purely repulsive hard-body interactions between all…
The flow-driven transport of interacting micron-sized particles occurs in many soft matter systems spanning from the translocation of proteins to moving emulsions in microfluidic devices. Here we combine experiments and theory to…
Understanding protein motion within the cell is crucial for predicting reaction rates and macromolecular transport in the cytoplasm. A key question is how crowded environments affect protein dynamics through hydrodynamic and direct…
The cytoplasm and biomembranes in biological cells contain large numbers of proteins that cyclically change their shapes. They are molecular machines that can function as molecular motors or carry out many other tasks in the cell. We…
Colloidal gels are elasto-plastic materials composed of an out-of-equilibrium, self-assembled network of micron-sized (solid) particles suspended in a fluid. Recent work has shown that far-field hydrodynamic interactions do not change gel…
Under partial confinement, the motion of colloidal particles is restricted to a plane but their dynamics is influenced by hydrodynamic interactions mediated by the unconfined, three--dimensional flow of the embedding fluid. We demonstrate…
In this paper we develop statistical mechanical tools to describe the intermediate- and long-time collective- and self-diffusion properties of a liquid of strongly-interacting hollow spherical particles (shells), each bearing a smaller…
Diffusive transport of small molecules within the internal structures of biological and synthetic material systems is complex because the crowded environment presents chemical and physical barriers to mobility. We explored this mobility…
The diffusion of active microscopic organisms in complex environments plays an important role in a wide range of biological phenomena from cell colony growth to single organism transport. Here, we investigate theoretically and…
Crowded environments modify the diffusion of macromolecules, generally slowing their movement and inducing transient anomalous subdiffusion. The presence of obstacles also modifies the kinetics and equilibrium behavior of tracers. While…
The relationship between the microscopic arrangement of molecules in a supercooled liquid and its slow dynamics at low temperature near glass transition is studied by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. A Lennard-Jones liquid with…
Diverse processes -- e.g., environmental pollution, groundwater remediation, oil recovery, filtration, and drug delivery -- involve the transport of colloidal particles in porous media. Using confocal microscopy, we directly visualize this…
Molecular dynamics simulations of interacting soft disks confined in a heterogeneous quenched matrix of soft obstacles show dynamics which is fundamentally different from that of hard disks. The interactions between the disks can enhance…
Ultra-low-crosslinked (ULC) microgels are among the softest colloidal particles nowadays routinely synthesized experimentally. Despite a growing literature of experimental results, their microscopic behavior under crowded conditions is yet…
We measure hydrodynamic interactions between colloidal particles confined in a thin sheet of fluid. The reduced dimensionality, compared to a bulk fluid, increases dramatically the range of couplings. Using optical tweezers we force a two…
Crystallization is often assumed to be a quasi-static process that is unaffected by details of particle transport other than the bulk diffusion coefficient. Therefore colloidal suspensions are frequently argued to be an ideal toy model for…
Hydrodynamic interactions are important for diverse fluids especially those with low Reynold's number such as microbial and particle-laden suspensions, and proteins diffusing in membranes. Unfortunately, while far-field (asymptotic)…
Soft pair potentials predict a reentrant liquid phase for high concentrations, a behavior not observed experimentally. Here, very soft microgels confined at an oil-water interface are used as a model system of particles interacting via a…
The mechanism of hydrodynamics-induced pairing of soft particles, namely closed bilayer membranes (vesicles, a model system for red blood cells) and drops, is studied numerically with a special attention paid to the role of the confinement…
Hyaluronic acid is an abundant polyelectrolyte in the human body that forms extracellular hydrogels in connective tissues. It is essential for regulating tissue biomechanics and cell-cell communication, yet hyaluronan overexpression is…