Photo: Cell Islands on a PA gel for Force-Dynamics study
Physics of Living Cell Monolayers
Cell storage, culture, polymer substrate preparation, and cell seeding on substrates
Live and fixed cell imaging to quantify force production and cell dynamics (confocal and epi-fluorescence microscopy)
Image analysis using ImageJ, Cellpose (AI), and MATLAB (DIC, PIV)
References:
PK Bera, AQ Nguyen, M McCord, D Bi, and J Notbohm, arXiv, (2026).
Photo: Rod-like Active particles on a vertically shaken plate
Collective Dynamics of Granular Active Matter
A custom setup with high-speed imaging of active granular particles on a vibrating table
Image analysis to quantify collective dynamics mimicking living systems (ImageJ, Cellpose [AI], MATLAB – DIC, PIV)
References:
Photo: Cartoon of r-FCM setup & its working principle
Rotational Fluorescence Correlation Microscopy
r-FCM is our custom setup for measuring the rotational time scale of dye molecules in a deforming sample
Fully motorized and LabVIEW-controlled to minimize human error
References:
PK Bera, GA Medvedev, JM Crauthers and MD Ediger, PRL, (2024).
Photo: In-situ Rheo-GIXD & Rheo-SAXS setups
In-situ XRD and Light Scattering during Rheology
Synchrotron X-rays are directed at a deforming sample to perform grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS).
Small-angle light scattering and boundary microscopy are carried out in our lab setup.
References:
PK Bera, AK Kandar, R Krishnaswamy and AK Sood, JPCM, (2019).
PK Bera, et al., Nat. Commun, (2020).
PK Bera, et al., ACS Omega, (2020).
PK Bera, V Rathee, R Krishnaswamy and AK Sood, Langmuir, (2021).
A Ghadai, PK Bera and S Majumdar, Phys. Fluids, (2023).
