A PDRA position is open in the group to work on a Leverhulme Trust-funded project on the link between light, motility and photosynthesis in microalgae. Apply here if interested, and/or contact Marco to know more!
Author: mpolin
Mixing microbial suspensions with a little bit of light
Many swimming microorganisms respond to light stimuli. Can we then use light to change the behaviour of a whole population and “order” the suspension to mix itself? Discover it in our new work, just accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. A collaboration with our friends at IMEDEA (Link to be added asap. In the meantime you can access the Arxiv version).
Dr. Henshaw!
Great news! On Friday Richard has successfully defended his PhD thesis 🙂 We were all very happy and wish Richard all the best in his future postdoc at Tufts! A couple of papers from his thesis work on micromonas will be submitted later this year 🙂
PhD and PDRA opening for biophysics of phototaxis
Currently seeking a PhD student  (UK/EU) and a PDRA (any nationality) to work on an exciting new international and interdisciplinary project exploring the link between light-induced motility and photosynthesis in microalgae.
The project is generously funded by The Leverhulme Trust, and is a collaboration with Idan Tuval (IMEDEA, Mallorca Spain) and Dimitris Petroutsos (CEA, Grenoble France). It will involve extensive travelling between the partners (all costs covered)!
Apply here or here for the PhD, and here for the PDRA. Starting date Sept 2019 (potentially flexibility). Project duration 3.5y.
For more informations, feel free to contact Marco.
Richard lands US postdoc!
Great news! Richard has been offered a postdoctoral position by Jeff Guasto at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tufts University! Well done Richard!
In Phase or Out of Phase, that is the question
How do cilia synchronise? Through hydrodynamics? Elasticity? Intracellular coupling? The mechanism seems to depend on whether these oscillators belong to same cell or not. In the latter case, we have shown that hydrodynamic interactions suffice; in the former, however, direct intracellular coupling between the flagella is necessary (see here, here, and here). How is this coupling acting? How can it promote opposite types of synchronisation? Our idea is that synchronisation states depend on the cell actively stiffening/relaxing the internal fibres joining the ciliary basal bodies. We explore this hypothesis in our new paper, recently accepted in J. Roy. Soc. Interface, looking at a  minimal model of “cilia coupled by intracellular connections”. (ArXiv preprint. Full version and Supplementary Informations including animations). A big Thank to U. Melbourne and its Department of Mathematics and Statistics for hosting Marco during the final developments of this work!!
Fluids CDT Summer School @ Imperial
Last week I gave a couple of lectures at the Fluids CDT Summer School, organised by Eric Keaveny and Chiu Fan Lee. It was great fun (for me, at least), and I would have liked to be able to stay more than just one day… In any event, if you’re interested, you can find a PDF of my presentation on bacterial and eukaryotic motility (…as in swimming) here and here. Enjoy! …and please let me know your thoughts/comments!
Cheltenham Science Festival
Great day last Saturday! Our little contingent from Warwick Physics (Maria Chiara Roffin, Max Meissner, and myself) helped manning the WISB stand at the Cheltenham Science Festival. It was great fun, and a good chance to promote science to the general public!
URSS funding for Javiera
Javiera Leemhuis, 3rd year undergraduate in Physics at Warwick, was awarded a £1000 URSS bursary for a 10-weeks URSS project this summer in collaboration with me and Kela Lushi, looking at the behaviour of microswimmers in complex confinement. Well done Javiera!
Pilot Project from Network Plus
We’re delighted to share the news that we have received travel funds from the EPSRC Network Plus Emergence and Physics Far From Equilibrium to kickstart a collaboration with the groups of Dr. Giorgio Volpe (UCL, UK), Dr. Nuno Araújo (U. Lisbon, Portugal) and Dr. Idan Tuval (IMEDEA-UIB, Spain). The project, which will start later this year, focusses on understanding and controlling transport properties of binary suspensions where microscopic active particles interact with passive ones (cargoes).
Polin Lab 