Biophysics Seminar- “Adventures in soft matter: crowding, confinement, and self-assembly” with Mehdi Aporvari, PhD
Biophysics Seminar
September 8, 2023
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Location
SES 2214
Calendar
Download iCal FileMehdi Aporvari, PhD
Spille Lab, UIC Department of Physics
Spille Lab, UIC Department of Physics
The field of soft matter deals with a diverse range of materials and phenomena, from polymers and colloids to biological systems. In this presentation, we will explore crowding, confinement, and self-assembly within select soft mater systems. First, we investigate the dynamics of large DNA molecules in crowded and confined environments inspired by the intracellular environment. We show that the effective diffusion coefficients of DNA in concentrated dextran solutions decrease by nearly two orders of magnitude when the radius of the confining droplet decreases. Next, we explore DNA dynamics in more complex environment by incorporating motor-driven cytoskeleton composites into this platform. We elucidate how anomalous subdiffusion due to caging interactions competes with superdiffusive advection due to motor activity and how the dynamics depend on confinement size. Next, we shift our focus to chain-like or filamentous objects. We experimentally investigate the dynamics of isolated chains assembled from magnetic microparticles at a liquid–air interface and moving in an active bath consisting of motile E. coli bacteria. We show anomalous, non-monotonic size dependence of the diffusion coefficient. Finally, we investigate the dynamics of sedimented particles on different liquid-solid and liquid-air interfaces. Notably, we show that the particle dynamics at the interface between a polymer solution and air becomes more similar to those at no-slip boundary conditions.
Zoom link: https://uic.zoom.us/j/89225155840?pwd=TVFQOEZpRm9wVnhrejdlVisrNWdQZz09
Contact: Jan Spille, jhspille@uic.edu
Contact: Jan Spille, jhspille@uic.edu
Date posted
Sep 8, 2023
Date updated
Sep 8, 2023