The structure of pollen grains, which is typically characterized by soft apertures in an otherwise stiff exine shell, guides their response to changes in the humidity of the environment. These changes can lead to the desiccation of the grain and … Read More

Packing problems are abundant in nature and are thoroughly researched both experimentally and in numerical models. In particular, packings of anisotropic, elliptical particles emerge in models of liquid crystals, colloids, as well as granular and jammed matter. While most of … Read More

I will describe the basic molecular processes associated with disruption of homeostasis in a nerve cell and leading to neurodegeneration. We are mainly engaged in research into the causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. We look at the … Read More

Molecular modeling has become a cornerstone of many disciplines, including soft matter physics. However, the quality of predictions critically depends on the employed model that defines particle interactions. A class of models with tremendous success in recent years are neural … Read More

Line tension is the tension generated at the three-phase contact line by the interaction between the phases, and is usually negligible at large sizes while becoming important at smaller scales. In this talk I will introduce the concept and show … Read More

Lipids are amphiphilic molecules and tend to self-assemble into various supramolecular formations. The most eminent among them is the lipid bilayer - also a continuous barrier around all cells. Some surfaces have the ability to unfold the bilayer and "coat" … Read More

Binary or ternary mixtures of lipids and cholesterol featuring liquid-ordered (Lo) domains serve as model systems for studying the formation of lipid rafts in complex biological membranes. In the talk, I will present a new lattice model of a binary mixture of saturated DPPC … Read More

Active cell-junction remodeling is important for tissue morphogenesis, yet its underlying physics is not understood. We study a mechanical model that describes junctions as dynamic active force dipoles. Their instability can trigger cell intercalations by a critical collapse. Nonlinearities in … Read More

Vesicle is a molecular assembly configuring lipid bilayer shell, and investigated as a model system of biological cell. Using both experimental observation and minimising the total energy, we study the morphology of lipid vesicle doublet and triplet. We demonstrate that … Read More