Colloquium Series: Jennifer Ross (UMass Amherst)

Join us for another event in the 2018-2019 Colloquium Series as APS welcomes Jennifer Ross, Ph.D. to present on her recent research. Dr. Ross is currently an associate professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her group “focuses on biological systems in order to learn fundamental physics principles of how they are able to act autonomously, specifically we have focused on the cytoskeleton.”

Self-Assembly and Self-Propulsion of Biological Elements

Abstract: The cell is a complex autonomous machine taking in information, performing computations, and responding to the environment. Many of the internal structures and architecture is transient and created through active processes. Recent advances in active matter physics with biological elements are opening new insights into the physics behind how cellular organizations are generated, maintained, and destroyed. I will present two new stories on two different topics at the interface between biological and soft matter physics. The first will discuss self-organization of microtubules in the presence of “weakly interacting” crosslinkers. The second will discuss possible mechanisms for the cell to mix itself using self-propelled single molecule enzymes. These works illustrate the importance of the fundamental physics to build structures and propel matter inside living cells while informing on new physics we can learn from biological elements and materials.