Agenda

March 29, 2024

All times in Eastern-Standard Time

Meeting will take place in the Syracuse University Physics Building in Room 202/204 

Invited Talk: Narayanan Menon - Professor of Physics - UMass, Amherst

Title: Peeling sheets off fluid surfaces

Abstract: We are interested in the kinetics of attachment of thin elastic sheets to fluid-fluid interfaces.  To better understand these dynamics, we have carried out experiments in which a polymer sheet is peeled off a liquid surface or draped onto it at a controlled rate.  In the static situation, where the sheet is just held fixed on the liquid, our measurements clear up a confusing issue regarding the stress in a floating sheet and reveal a new class of boundary condition at the edge of the sheet.  When the sheet is being peeled off slowly, we show that the measured forces of peeling provide a new and precise way to obtain contact angles.  With this technique, we are able to access a rich phenomenology of wetting and dewetting hysteresis, including repeatable noise in the motion of a front, and the analogue of pulse duration memory in other depinning systems.  

This work was largely done with Nuoya Zhou, Deepak Kumar and Benny Davidovitch.

Two Syracuse Physics Department Highlight Talks (12 minutes each) followed by Lightning Talks (32 minutes)

Alison Patteson -- Role of vimentin in cellular force sensing 

Mirna Mihovilovic Skanata --  Quenching behavioral variability with multi-sensory information

1. Jenny Ross, Enzymes as nanoscale active matter

2. Sangwoo Shin, Diffusiophoresis in soft living matter

3. Itay Griniasty, Emergent complex function in multiparameter machines

4. Prashali Chauhan, Self organization of Microtubules with active and passive crosslinkers

5. Sourav Roy, Continuum Elasticity of Mechanical Metamaterials

6. Emiliano Brini, MELD: Integrating MD and Information for Predicting Protein Structures and Binding Affinities

7. Takumi Matsuzawa, Programming Phase-Separated Droplets with Enzymes

8. Michael Grant, Helical Chain Shape Impact on ODT Shifts in Chiral Block Copolymers

9. Teagan Bate, Client competition regulates interface and bulk partitioning in model ribonucleoprotein droplets

10. Francisco Augusto Goncalves De Lira, Curvature effects in the electronic charge transport properties in a two-dimensional quantum ring

11. Somiealo Azote epse Hassikpezi, 3D Vertex Model predicts the biomechanical determinants of cell delamitation in stratified epithelia

12. Kevin Ching, A Background Enzymatic Active Bath Affects Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation (LLPS) of Proteins

13. Laura Galeano Tirado, Multifunctional colloids via micellar design

14. Lucia Carichino, Mathematical Modeling of Contact Lenses and the Eye 

15. Nimisha, Effects of mesh size and microtubule dynamics on cargo transport

16. Julia Bordeau, Effects of Different PRC1 Constructs on Microtubule Assembly and Self-Organization

Invited Talk: Stephen Levy- Professor of Physics- Binghamton University

Title: Dynamic properties of confined DNA molecules

Abstract: DNA molecules can be used as a model system for studying polymer physics. By manipulating and observing individual DNA molecules we can test theories that describe the dynamics of polymers that have been under investigation for decades, like the so-called coil-stretch transition. Several physical properties are significantly altered based on the degree of confinement of the polymer. Understanding the effect of confinement may be relevant for biological processes that occur within the nucleus of a cell where DNA is tightly packed. We hope that a better understanding of these properties will enable us to build useful devices to manipulate and analyze DNA. I will describe single molecule experiments where we (1) stretch and relax DNA molecules in a quasi-two-dimensional nanoslit with an extensional electric field, and (2) measure the nonlinear electrophoretic transport of DNA molecules in confinement.

Invited Talk: Lishibanya Mohapatra - Assistant Professor of Physics - Rochester Institute of Technology 

Title: Design principles employed by cells to control the size of their organelles

Abstract: Living cells contain a number of micron-scale structures whose physiological functions are related to their size. Examples include cytoskeletal structures like mitotic spindle and microvilli, and organelles like nucleolus. These structures are composed of molecular building blocks that diffuse in the cytoplasm and are characterized by a narrow size distribution. This prompts a question: How do these structures assemble and maintain their size amid constant turnover of their molecular components? Years of biochemical experiments have revealed a plethora of proteins involved with these structures, yet how they all work together to create properly-sized organelles is still not well understood. Using examples from various cell types, I will demonstrate how mathematical models and simulations can be used in conjunction with experiments, to uncover design principles employed by the cells to assemble and control the size of their organelles.

Two 12 minutes/  42 minutes of Lightning Talks/ 2 minute of jogging in place

Nidhi Pashine -- Stiffness and Geometry of Inflating Balloons

Colm Kelleher -- Long-Range Repulsion Between Chromosomes in Living Oocyte Spindles

17. Gable Wadsworth, Phase Separation and Percolation Transitions in RNA Condensates

18. Ritika Gupta, Tunable single-molecule DNA mechanics determines the viscoelasticity of chromatin condensates

19. Renita Saldanha, Impacts of vimentin on cell polarization 

20. Vidyesh Rao Anisetti, On physical processes that work like learning algorithms 

21. Samay Hulikal, Angular Threshold in Breaking Liquid Bridges

22. Joseph Paulsen, Wet-a-materials

23. Soumik Mitra, Mechanics of wound resilience in single-celled organism Stentor coeruleus

24. Zexi Liang, Magnetic Decoupling in Microscopic Self-Assembly: Enhancing Yield by Overcoming Kinetic Traps

25. Kaarthik Varma, Structure near critical points

26. Calvin Smith, Programming the Cell: Phase Separation and Biological Computation

27. Carlos Moguel-Lehmer, Chemotaxis in the face of noise-induced transitions

28. Gentian Muhaxheri, Bifurcations of inflating balloons and interacting hysterons

29. Alexia Chatzitheodorou, Shape Morphing of Twisted Nematic Elastomer Shells

30. David Hathcock, Signatures of energy dissipation in bacterial chemotaxis signaling pathways

31. Anurag Singh, Distinctive Roles of Chain Length and Sticker Strength on Material Properties of Biomolecular Condensates

32. Jonathan Michel, Simulations to Support the Design of Biotic-Abiotic Soft Actuators

33. Poornima Padmanabhan, Particle-based models for studying chirality phenomena

34. Shabeeb Ameen, Enhanced extracellular matrix remodeling due to embedded spheroid fluidization

35. Md Sorique Aziz Momin, Severing as a size control mechanism for cytoskeletal structures

36. Nan Zue, Elastomers fails from the edge

37. Timothy Niper, Harnessing Entropy for Colloidal Lattice Oscillations

38. Will Braun, Impact of media heterogeneity on reactive transport in porous media