Luca Giomi Group - Soft and Bio Mechanics
We are interested in understanding the mechanics of soft materials, of which biological materials are prominent examples.
Soft materials are those that can be easily deformed by external stress, electromagnetic fields or just thermal fluctuations: in other words everything that is wet, squishy or floppy. To pursue this, we use a combination of analytical techniques, numerical simulations and, from time to time, some simple experiment.
News
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New professor Luca Giomi creates his own physics of living systems -
From forming embryo to cancer metastasis: the significance of collective cell movement -
Rubicon grant for Leiden physicist: why do leaves of a tree always grow in the same shape? -
The Mystery of the Pointy Droplets -
Understanding metastasis: Science Groot grant for Erik Danen -
Science Groot funding for Leiden scientists -
Luca Giomi wins ERC Consolidator Grant for flowing cells
Key papers
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Giomi, L. (2015). Geometry and topology of turbulence in active nematics. Physical Review X, 5(3), 031003.
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Keber, Felix C., Etienne Loiseau, Tim Sanchez, Stephen J. DeCamp, Luca Giomi, Mark J. Bowick, M. Cristina Marchetti, Zvonimir Dogic, and Andreas R. Bausch. "Topology and dynamics of active nematic vesicles." Science 345, no. 6201 (2014): 1135-1139.
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García-Aguilar, I., Fonda, P., Sloutskin, E., & Giomi, L. (2021). Faceting and flattening of emulsion droplets: A mechanical model. Physical Review Letters, 126(3), 038001.
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Pomp, Wim, Koen Schakenraad, Hayri E. Balcıoğlu, Hedde Van Hoorn, Erik HJ Danen, Roeland MH Merks, Thomas Schmidt, and Luca Giomi. "Cytoskeletal anisotropy controls geometry and forces of adherent cells." Physical review letters 121, no. 17 (2018): 178101.
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Ellis, P. W., Pearce, D. J., Chang, Y. W., Goldsztein, G., Giomi, L., & Fernandez-Nieves, A. (2018). Curvature-induced defect unbinding and dynamics in active nematic toroids. Nature Physics, 14(1), 85-90.