Physical Mathematics Seminar
Tuesday, September 17, 2019 at 2:30pm to 3:30pm
Room 2-131 -- MIT - 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
SPEAKER: Benjamin M. Friedrich (Dresden University of Technology)
TITLE: A tale of swimming, steering, and synchronization
ABSTRACT:
Motile cilia and flagella represent a best-seller of nature: their regular
bending waves propel e.g. sperm cells; collections of cilia pump fluid in
our airways and our brain. Our group investigates the physical mechanisms
by which mechanical and chemical signals control the function of cilia and
flagella. They represent an ideal model system to address the general
question: what makes nonlinear feedback loops robust in the presence of
active biological noise?
In a first part, I will introduce the synchronization of biological
oscillators and show how mechanical self-stabilization leads to flagellar
synchronization in a swimming green alga [1]. By mapping flagellar bending
waves on a limit cycle, we can precisely measure how beating flagella
change the speed of their beat in response to mechanical forces [2]. This
turns out to be important also for the emergence of metachronal ‘Mexican’
waves in cilia carpets. A shorter second part will demonstrate how decision
making improves sperm chemotaxis in the presence of noise [3].
[1] Geyer et al. PNAS 110, 2013
[2] G.S. Klindt et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 2016
[3] J.A. Kromer et al. PLoS Comp. Biol. 14, 2018
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