Communications Physics (Jan 2021)

Inert-living matter, when cells and beads play together

  • Usharani Nagarajan,
  • Grégory Beaune,
  • Andy Y. W. Lam,
  • David Gonzalez-Rodriguez,
  • Françoise M. Winnik,
  • Françoise Brochard-Wyart

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-020-00506-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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Interaction of active matter with geometrical and topological constraints is a topic of intense research in the recent few years due to its potential for design and control of active flow patterns. Here, the authors experimentally study the growth and expansion of cell aggregates interleaved by passive colloidal particles, showing that inert particles can reshape the collective pattern formation in cellular aggregates.