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Secondment at The Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA), February 1st to April 30th, 2025.

Horacio recently completed a three-month research secondment at IMEDEA (Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies), working with the InFiBiO group (Physico-Biological Interactions in the Ocean) led by Prof. Marco Polin, a key collaborator of the BIOMICAR project. This stay proved to be a highly enriching step in Horacio’s scientific journey.

Under the close guidance of Dr. Sujeet Kumar Choudhary, a postdoctoral researcher in the group, Horacio was introduced to a range of experimental techniques widely used in biophysics and active matter research. These included cell culturing, surface modification, microfluidics, and advanced microscopy, as well as image analysis methods such as feature detection and particle tracking.

Together, Horacio and Sujeet developed a robust experimental protocol to study suspensions of active and passive particles confined within microfluidic chambers. Their experiments featured Chlamydomonas reinhardtii—a biflagellated microalga (~10 μm)—as active particles, and colloidal beads (~6 μm) as passive components. These experiments form the foundation of an upcoming research article focused on how the curvature of confined environments influences the swimming behavior of Chlamydomonas, and how this, in turn, enhances the transport of passive particles. The findings aim to inform new strategies for sorting active-passive mixtures and for targeted cargo delivery at the microscale.

In addition, Horacio presented BIOMICAR’s ongoing work during IMEDEA’s Internal Cycle of Seminars (ICS), fostering further discussion and knowledge exchange. The seminar is available in this link.

The secondment also led to a new collaborative project with InFiBiO, focused on modeling the escape dynamics of Parvilucifera, an endoparasite of dinoflagellates. Horacio contributed to this effort through numerical simulations, opening a new avenue for interdisciplinary research on microbial interactions and dynamics.

Short stay in the Nonlinear Physical Chemistry Unit led by Professor Anne De Wit, Université libre de Bruxelles, May 28th-June 2nd, Brussels, Belgium

Horacio recently visited the Nonlinear Physical Chemistry Unit led by Prof. Anne De Wit at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) invited by Dr. Dario Martin Escala, postdoct in her group. During his stay, he engaged in insightful discussions with Prof. De Wit and her team, exploring opportunities for collaboration on spatio-temporal self-organization in out-of-equilibrium systems—from physico-chemical instabilities to ensembles of biological microswimmers as studied in the BIOMICAR project. Horacio was also an invited speaker in Anne's group seminar sharing the latest results of the project, fostering stimulating scientific exchange and potential future synergies.

PHYMOT: Motile Active Matter Conference, November 18th-21st, 2024, Bonn, Germany

Horacio recently attended the Motile Active Matter 2024 conference in Bonn, Germany, where he delivered a talk titled "Effects of Gravitational Fields and Confinement on the Collective Behavior of Biological Microswimmers." In his presentation, he shared the latest findings from the BIOMICAR project, sparking interest among attendees. The event provided a valuable opportunity to engage with influential scientists in the active matter community, fostering inspiring discussions that could shape future collaborations and advancements in the field.

Semana de la Ciencia Complutense, November 11th to 14th, 2024, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Horacio was the coordinator of the seminar "Animando lo inanimado" in the Semana de la Ciencia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2024. Secondary and high school kids attended the seminar and were introduced to soft matter and active matter physics through simple experiments with toys and daily life stuff, like corn starch, ink, oil, and hexbugs

12th Liquid Matter Conference, September 22nd-27th, 2024, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research Germany.

Horacio attended the 12th LMC in Mainz, Germany. He presented a poster with recent results of BIOMICAR and had the opportunity to discuss with experts in different fields of liquid matter physics. Besides that, the lectures of the Active Matter Session were not only of the highest level but inspiring for the project.

CECAM Flagship Workshop: Exploring bio-inspired systems: a synergy between multiscale experimental and computational approaches, September 4th-7th 2024, Vienna, Austria

Horacio presented the current results of BIOMICAR in a 30-minutes talk in front of an specialized audience. The workshop was held in the main building of the UT-Wien. Among the participants, there were Chantal's colalborators that Horacio met and chatted with about the possibility of joining forces in some interesting projects that would benefit BIOMICAR. The objective of the workshop was to gather experts on modelling, simulation and experiments of systems at the nanoscale, aiming to design new functionalized materials or to explore novel properties of existing nanosystems. The discussion was centered on bio-inspired models of nanomachines, including proteins, antibodies and nucleic acids, which can be exploited to both realise smart nanomaterials and inspire the design of novel functionalized nanoparticles. Moreover, the study of the physical properties of biological nanoparticles and nanostructures could be paramount for understanding and treating many diseases, such as cancer and degenerative pathologies.

XII GEFENOL Summer School on Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, July 1st-12th 2024, Madrid-Spain

Chantal and Horacio participated in the XII GEFENOL School, held at Vicalvaro's Campus of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Apart from attending very interesting courses on different approaches to study complex systems, Horacio gave a short talk showing BIOMICAR's results. Chantal was invited to give a seminar about Active Matter and Machine Learning techniques to unravel the interactions in active systems. The seminar turned out to be very inspirational for some of the youngest in the audience (undergraduate students) that later come to her to discuss. For more information, please visit the GEFENOL School webpage

IX Workshop de la Red de Simulacion Molecular, June 16th -18th 2024, Baiona, Galicia-Spain

Horacio gave a talk and shared the last results of BIOMICAR on microswimmers in the presence of gravitational fields. The workshop gathered PhD students, Postdocs and PI from all corners of Spain. The atmosphere was friendly and conducive to discuss about science. Through all its activities, the Red is a platform to exchange ideas about classic and new molecular simulations techniques aiming to promote collaborations. The Red is involved not only in high level research and scientific events but also in education through the Master in Molecular Simualtion they offer.

Take a look at the Red's website for more information on everything they do.

Collective motions of animals and robots, May 27th-May 31st 2024, Cargese, Corsica - France

Horacio attended this interdisciplinary workshop where physics, mathematics, biology and robotics converge to improve our understanding of collective motion at different time and length scales. The workshop was held in the Institut d’Études Scientifiques de Cargèse in Corsica. Horacio also presented the first results of BIOMICAR project on suspensions of squirmer-like microorganisms under the influence of gravitational fields at the poster session. The beautiful location definitely created an inspiring atmosphere to talk about science.

Visit the workshop's webpage for more information.

BarMad workshop, May 22nd 2024

Chantal served as co-organizer (jointly with Prof Daniel Matoz) of the BARMAD workshop held at Universidad Complutense. BarMad brought together senior and young researchers in the field of active and actuated matter from Madrid and Barcelona. The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the existing collaboration network between Madrid and Barcelona and also to promote new collaborations, especially those involving young researchers. The project BIOMICAR will benefit of the collaborations that started at the BarMad workshop.

Visit BarMad website for more information

Visit to IMEDEA, Mallorca. April 12th 2024

Chantal and Horacio visited Marco at IMEDEA in Mallorca. During the visit, they ran some short experiments at Marco's Lab and discussed about the project BIOMICAR

Jornada de la Mujer y la Niña en la Ciencia, February 16th 2024

Chantal talked about the role of women in science, especially in soft and active matter, during the sessions commemorating the Day of the Women in Science held in the Liceo Scientifico "Enrico Fermi" in Madrid. The event was co-organized by the Italian Embassy in Spain. Chantal spoke in front of an audience mainly composed of high-school students of the Liceo and described, at an informative level, the project BIOMICAR.

XX GISC Workshop, January 19th 2024

Horacio presented the objectives and goals of BIOMICAR in the XX GISC workshop held at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) in Madrid.

BIOMICAR started!, January 1st 2024

Horacio joined Chantal's group at the Physics Faculty of Complutense University of Madrid.

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