Physical principles at bio-nano interfaces with active matter

Abstract

Active matter is characterized by out-of-equilibrium behaviors, offering an attractive, alternative route for revolutionizing disease diagnostics and therapy. A better understanding of how active matter interacts with cell membranes is critical to elucidating the underlying physical mechanisms and broadening the potential biomedical applications. This review provides a conceptual framework on the physiochemical mechanisms underlying active matter-biomembrane interactions. We briefly introduce the physical models of active matter and lipid membranes, and summarize the typical phenomena emerging from various active matter, including artificial active particles, cellular cytoskeletons, bacteria, and membrane proteins. Moreover, the remaining challenges and future perspectives of such non-equilibrium systems in living organisms are discussed. The findings and fundamental principles discussed in this review shed light on the rational design of activity-mediated cellular interaction, and could trigger better strategies to design and develop novel functional systems and materials toward advantageous biomedical applications.

Keywords

• active matter
• cell membrane
• bio-nano interfaces
• nonequilibrium physics
• transmembrane transport