Through billions of years of evolution, biological organisms developed unique microscopic machineries that out-compete any human-made artificial constructs. By the process of DNA transcription, these protein assemblies are produced en masse and as identical copies. We leverage these little machineries to construct model systems that drive matter out-of-equilibrium to produce non-linear and complex dynamics. We are also interested in how matter breaks and how its fracture processes relates to its microscopic structure.
Microtubule-based active matter
Microtubules are stiff tubular filaments that are microns in length and 25 nm in diameter. They are associated with kinesin motor proteins that step on a checkerboard track defined by the microtubule molecular structure. We combine microtubules and kinesins to find how matter flows, assembles and deforms when driven by microscopic energy sources.
Bacterial flagellar matter
Flagella are microns-long stiff helical filaments that bacteria use for swimming. They take a range of helical shapes defined by point mutations. Flagella also rapidly switch between helical shapes under external stress. We are curious about the flow and deformation of flagella ensembles, either as dense entangled meshes or open cross-linked networks.
Fracture and structure
Fracture is a fundamental problem in condensed matter physics. Cracks propagate by channeling energy to the smallest material length scale. The microscopic structure is directly related to how and when materials break. We learn how structure corresponds with fracture through experiments and analytical theory.