Mechanics of soft and living interfaces

Biological interfaces across scales, including biomembranes, the cell cortex, or epithelial sheets, are unique multifunctional materials that control key structural and mechanical functions of cells and tissues, including their shape, mechanical properties, and locomotion. At scales below 10s of microns, elasticity, hydrodynamics and chemistry become intertwined and these systems are permanently driven out of equilibrium by biological activity. Furthermore, large geometric transformations and molecular crowding lead to strong nonlinearity. Our goal is to develop theoretical models and computational methods to quantitatively understand the mechanobiology of these interfaces, in tight interaction with experiments. We hope to answer fundamental scientific questions and to transpose the underlying engineering principles of these biological interfaces into to new artificial materials.