Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2024
Monday–Friday, March 4–8, 2024; Minneapolis & Virtual
Session S40: DFD VII
8:00 AM–10:12 AM,
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Room: 103F
Sponsoring
Unit:
DFD
Chair: Sangwoo Shin, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Abstract: S40.00001 : Flocking in Polymerization-Driven Active Matter*
8:00 AM–8:12 AM
Presenter:
Benjamin A Strain
(Brandeis University)
Authors:
Benjamin A Strain
(Brandeis University)
Joseph Lopes
(Brandeis University)
Amélie Chardac
(Brandeis University)
Gess Kelly
(Brandeis University)
Izaiah Alvarado
(Brandeis University)
Michael Norton
(Brandeis.edu)
Bruce L Goode
(Brandeis University)
Thomas G Fai
(Brandeis University)
Guillaume Duclos
(Brandeis University)
Active materials are dense systems composed of motile building blocks that consume energy on a small system scale, often leading to emergent pattern formation on a larger scale. Cells are active, out-of-equilibrium environments that have served as inspiration for the design of various model active systems. While most in vitro reconstituted system use molecular motors as force producers, cells also polymerize biopolymers to generate forces needed to move and divide. Here, we utilize the force-generating capabilities of actin networks to construct a polymerization-driven active material that exhibits rich emergent phenomenology. We mimic the behavior of Listeria – a pathogen that hijacks the cytoskeletal actin of a host cell – to produce the motility of polystyrene microspheres using a set of purified proteins. Beads propel themselves through solution and interact with one another, giving rise to persistent flocks of many beads. We provide evidence that interactions are mediated by the reaction-diffusion dynamics of biochemical components in the system through a combination of experimental techniques and theoretical simulations. From studying these phenomena we glean insight into the link between reaction-diffusion and collective behavior as well as the reorganization and dynamics of branched actin networks.
*I acknowledge the Brandeis BioInspired MRSEC DMR-2011846 and the NSF for the funding for this project.
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