ICTS

The cytoskeleton is a polymer network that imparts rigidity to the cell, generates forces and in turn, restructures in response to forces. Depending on the context and time scales, this active viscoelastic material can be described both as an elastic gel that transmits long-range shear deformations, or as an active fluid that undergoes long range flow in response to shear. Our recent research has been motivated by two questions of great interest in developmental biology: 1) size scaling of tissue that ensures proportioned organisms, and 2) chiral flows that lead to left-right symmetry breaking. I will show how physical descriptions of cellular mechanics in terms of elasticity and hydrodynamics contribute to answering these questions. In particular, I will show that mechanochemical coupling between diffusible biochemical signals and long-range elastic forces can induce tissue patterning that scales with tissue size. I will also discuss results from ongoing work that indicate that steady state edge flows seen in diverse rotationally driven model systems may be reinterpreted as robust topological edge states protected by dissipation.