One of the core foci of current research in biophysics and systems biology is the behaviour of large assemblies, ranging from cellular scales (cells that form tissues, bacteria that aggregate into colonies) up to macroscopic phenomena in flocks and swarms on the one hand, and down to the molecular scale on the other where self-organization can lead to the formation of organelle-like structures within cells even without biological membranes.
A theoretical understanding of these systems is crucial for progress, with potential impacts both on fundamental research questions and on global challenges including the Sustainable Development Goals such as Health and Wellbeing, via applications in wound healing and cancer metastasis. But such progress is often impeded by the complexity of the systems, in particular the emergence of collective behaviour that cannot be deduced straightforwardly from the properties of the constituents (cells, bacteria etc).
Statistical mechanics offers an ideal set of tools for dealing with this challenge. Originally developed to understand physical systems, it provides concepts that lend themselves naturally to understanding emergence and a modelling perspective that is based on useful abstractions such as active particles as elementary constituents, combined with techniques of analysis that are designed precisely to understand collective behaviour.
Research fields
The behaviour of active particles
Systems of active particles – particles that can move on their own – are ubiquitous in nature. Bacterial colonies and biofilms, swimming microorganisms, tissues, and cancerous tumours are some prominent examples. We use abstract, idealized models of these systems to investigate how phenomena such as non-equilibrium phase transitions, collective motion, and long-range order arise from simple constituents: intrinsic motility, growth (non-conservation of mass and particle number), and excluded volume.
The interaction of gene regulation or evolution with physical motion
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Phase separation with active processes
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