Interactive Active Matter: crosstalk and interfaces between distinct active systems
- Submission status
- Open
- Submission deadline
Sperms, bacteria, and biological tissues all work as engines, taking energy from their environment and converting it into motion. These active materials are capable of collective self-organization, self-pumping, self-healing and adaptation. As such, active materials perform a very crucial role in biological processes, ranging from formation of bacterial biofilms to organ development/differentiation, and tumor progression.
While major progress has been made in understanding the interaction of active matter with passive, inanimate microenvironments, e.g. extracellular matrices, the study of the cross-talk between living matter and a surrounding environment that itself can be active is still in its infancy. Such a cross-talk between different types of active material is central to a wide range of biological processes. Striking examples include host-pathogen interactions, where bacteria actively infiltrate the host tissue, the early stages of tumor progression; co-existence of epithelial and mesenchymal cells, phase segregation of embryonic stem cells at the early stages of embryo development, and collective migration of sperm cells within the male organ’s active epithelial tubes.
In this focus issue, we bring together interdisciplinary research at the interface of physics, microbiology, stem cell biology, and mechanobiology, to present the most recent advances, outstanding challenges, and future directions in studying interacting active materials.
Editors
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Amin Doostmohammadi
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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Anupam Sengupta
Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
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Evelyn Tang
Department of Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas, US
This Collection will publish original research Articles, but other content types (e.g. Reviews, Comments, etc.) can be considered by discussing with the editors - full details on content types can be found here. Accepted papers will be published in Communications Physics on a rolling basis and listed on the Collection homepage.
Contribution to the collection is by invitation only. However, authors who have an interest in contributing to the collection are welcome to enquire about their paper with the editors prior to submission, on the condition that the manuscript falls within the scope of the Collection, and of Communications Physics more generally. See our editorial process page for more details.
All submissions are subject to the same peer review process and editorial standards as regular Communications Physics articles, including the journal’s policy on competing interests. The Guest Editor(s), in collaborations with the editorial team, will have oversight of the peer review process of all the papers in the collection for which no competing interests apply. The Guest Editor(s) are not involved in the editorial review of, or the decision to publish any submission for which they have competing interests. These submissions are handled by another member of the editorial team or the Editorial Board who has no competing interests. See our Collections guidelines for more details.
This Collection is not supported by sponsorship.
