Soft Matter and Complex Systems Seminar

For decades, biologists have sought to understand the development of an embryo in terms of genes, proteins and biochemistry. Recently however there has been a revolution in the field with the introduction of physical ideas. In this seminar I will talk about the early bird embryo, how we can use a mechanical model to understand how it performs reliably the developmental stage of gastrulation, how we measure its rheological properties as a soft matter system, and how we can manipulate it to further understand the impact of mechanics on genetic expression and cell fate.