2009-10-28
10:15 at HCI J 574

Soft active matter - from microscopics to hydrodynamics

Tanniemola Liverpool

University of Bristol

The cytoskeleton provides eukaryotic cells with mechanical support and helps them perform their biological functions. It is a network of semiflexible polar protein filaments and many accessory proteins that bind to these filaments, regulate their assembly, link them to organelles and continuously remodel the network. We review recent theoretical work that aims to describe the cytoskeleton as a polar continuum driven out of equilibrium by internal chemical reactions. We show how this leads to the formulation of a general framework for the description of the structure and rheology of active suspension of polar filaments.