Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Soft Matter Emerging Investigator – Lihua Jin

Lihua Jin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Before joining UCLA in 2016, she was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University. In 2014, she obtained her PhD degree in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University. Prior to that, she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Fudan University. Lihua conducts research on mechanics of soft materials, stimuli-responsive materials, instability and fracture, soft robotics, and biomechanics. She was the winner of the Haythornthwaite Research Initiative Grant, Extreme Mechanics Letters Young Investigator Award, Hellman Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, ACS PMSE Early Investigator Award, and Sia Nemat-Nasser Early Career Award.

Find more about Lihua’s work via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lihua-jin-58959323/

@lihuajin2014

Read Lihua’s Emerging Investigator article http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM00770G 

 

How do you feel about Soft Matter as a place to publish research on this topic?
Soft Matter has a broad audience, and is a go-to journal for many of our works. It’s a perfect place for this topic.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are elastomers with liquid crystal mesogens on the polymer networks. They exhibit significant viscoelasticity. Prior works have mainly characterized the macroscopic rate-dependent behavior of LCEs. In our work, we systematically measure the macroscopic rate-dependent stress and microscopic rate-dependent mesogen reorientation as functions of external strain, and further predict the viscoelastic behavior of LCEs by an analytical model, which connects the macroscopic and microscopic parameters, and shows good agreement with the experimental results.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

New themed collection: Soft Matter Aspects of Cancer

We are very pleased to announce a themed collection in Soft Matter on the Soft matter aspects of cancer.

 

This special issue presents important developments in cancer cell mechanics, mechanobiology, tissue mechanics and bioengineered models of cancer, in addition to emerging technologies in the field. The Guest Editors for this collection are:

  • Professor Tanmay Lele (Texas A&M University, USA)
  • Professor Anna Taubenberger (Technische Universität Dresden, Germany)

In their Editorial, Guest Editors Tanmay and Anna discuss the importance of understanding the biophysical changes in cancers and how these can be studied through the lens of soft matter research.

The full collection can be found here and we have also highlighted a selection of articles below. We hope you enjoy these, and the rest of the articles included in the collection.

 

Materials-driven approaches to understand extrinsic drug resistance in cancer
Justin R. Pritchard, Michael J. Lee and Shelly Peyton

Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 3465-3472

 

Towards an integrative understanding of cancer mechanobiology: calcium, YAP, and microRNA under biophysical forces
Chenyu Liang, Miao Huang, Tianqi Li, Lu Li, Hayley Sussman, Yao Dai, Dietmar W. Siemann, Mingyi Xie and Xin Tang
Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 1112-1148

 

On the origins of order
Jeffrey J. Fredberg

Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 2346-2353

 

Cell adhesion strength and tractions are mechano-diagnostic features of cellular invasiveness
Neha Paddillaya, Kalyani Ingale, Chaitanya Gaikwad, Deepak Kumar Saini, Pramod Pullarkat, Paturu Kondaiah, Gautam I. Menon and Namrata Gundiah

Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 4378-4388

 

Skin epithelial cells change their mechanics and proliferation upon snail-mediated EMT signalling
Kamran Hosseini, Palina Trus, Annika Frenzel, Carsten Werner and Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich
Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 2585-2596

 

All the articles in the collection are currently FREE to read until 31 March 2023!

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Hot article: How a water drop removes a particle from a hydrophobic surface

Have you ever wished for windows that clean themselves? One of the approaches to design such windows is to make them hydrophobic. On a hydrophobic surface, rain droplets will be more likely to roll over – taking the dirt particles with them. However, this process is not fully understood yet. Questions such as what happens when dirt and droplet collide, and what are the forces involved do not have a complete answer yet. Addressing such problems is of high importance both from a fundamental and applied point of view.

In this publication, the authors used an inverted confocal microscope to study the removal of dirt particles by a water drop deposited on a hydrophobic surface. The drop was held at a fixed position by a blade, while a dirt particle was moved at constant speed towards the drop. This setup allowed them to visualise the drop-particle collision, and measure the force acting on the drop during the collision, enabling the authors to assess the validity of existing models. The insights presented in the article contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved, paving the way towards a future enhancement of self-cleaning surfaces.

Comments from the authors:

  • When a drop collides with a particle on a surface, the drop successfully displaces the particle when the speed of the collision is low. Beyond a certain speed, the particle moves through the drop and leaves at its rear side.
  • The force responsible for displacing the particle is the surface tension (or capillary force), which acts when the particle is at the drop’s interface. Particles experience a negligible viscous force when inside a water drop, because of the low viscosity of water. That is, the force due to the flow inside the drop is insufficient to displace the particle.
  • The particle is displaced by the drop if the maximum capillary force that the drop can exert on the particle exceeds the resistive force that needs to be overcome to displace the particle over the surface.
  • The maximum capillary force depends on the material properties of the liquid and of the particle, as well as how the particle moves (whether it rolls or slides).
  • We developed a model which predicts that a rolling particle experiences a lower maximum capillary force than a sliding one.
  • We observed that the particle rolled when it was pulled by the drop. There are two main contributions to the resistive force experienced by a rolling particle: one from the surface and the other from the drop. The first contribution is due to viscoelastic dissipation in the PDMS surface and due to intermolecular forces between the particle and the surface. The second contribution is due to contact angle hysteresis as the particle rolls at the drop-air interface.
  • To maximise the chance of removing a particle from a surface using water drops, the resistive force experienced by the particle should be minimised. This can be achieved by lubricating the surface, or by coating it with a superhydrophobic material.

Citation to the paper: How a water drop removes a particle from a hydrophobic surface, Abhinav Naga, Anke Kaltbeitzel, William S. Y. Wong, Lukas Hauer, Hans-Jurgen Butt and Doris Vollmer. Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 1746. DOI: 10.1039/d0sm01925a.

To read the full article click here!

About the web writer

Dr Nacho Martin-Fabiani (@FabianiNacho) is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Materials Science at Loughborough University, UK.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Hot article: Holographic immunoassays – direct detection of antibodies binding to colloidal spheres

Although probably not for the right reasons, in 2020 we have become fully familiarized with the detection of virus antibodies. One of the most widespread methods is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which generates billions of copies of any virus RNA present in the sample to reach enough antibody concentration to be detected. However, tests such as PCR require the use of reagents which are not necessarily cheap and an extra step to increase the concentration of the analyte to be able to detect it.

Image describing the work

In this publication, the authors propose an antibody detection method that does not require reagents and reduces the testing time. They calculate the concentration of antibodies by measuring very precisely the size of micrometric particles in the sample through the analysis of their holograms.  The change in size with respect to the original particle is attributed to the binding of antibodies to them. In addition to providing information on the antibody concentration, this technique can also provide insights into their binding mechanism to the surface of the particles – which are treated with proteins beforehand. Therefore, the replacement of these proteins for others could make these holographic assays targeted for specific diseases.

Comments from the authors:

  • Holographic immunoassays detect antibodies by watching them bind to the surfaces of specially functionalized colloidal spheres using holographic video microscopy.
  • A hologram of a micrometer-scale colloidal sphere can be analyzed with the Lorenz-Mie theory of light scattering to measure the sphere’s diameter with nanometer precision.
  • Comparing populations of spheres before and after incubating with a sample reveals a shift in the mean diameter that can be used to measure the concentration of the target analyte.
  • Direct detection through holographic analysis eliminates reagents and processing required for standard bead-based assays, and therefore reduces the cost, complexity and time for each test.
  • 20 minute measurements can detect the antibody IgG at concentrations as low as 10 μg/mL and IgM as low as 1 μg/mL.
  • Specialized tests for antibodies and virus particles can be programmed rapidly and cheaply by suitably functionalizing the colloidal test beads.

Citation to the paper: Holographic immunoassays – direct detection of antibodies binding to colloidal spheres, Kaitlynn Snyder, Rushna Quddus, Andrew D. Hollingsworth, Kent Kirshenbaumb and David G. Grier. Soft Matter, 2020. DOI: 10.1039/d0sm01351j.

To read the full article click here!

About the web writer

Dr Nacho Martin-Fabiani (@FabianiNacho) is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Materials Science at Loughborough University, UK.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

University of Vienna announces new Full Professorship in Experimental Soft Matter Physics

The University of Vienna are looking for an outstanding researcher with an internationally established record and reputation in the broad area of experimental soft condensed matter physics, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, or biological physics.

The research topics of interest include, without being limited to these: self-assembly behavior of soft matter in- and out-of equilibrium; phase transformations; novel soft and hybrid and composite materials; active systems; stochastic thermodynamics; rheology; and physics-oriented approach to biological systems. 

Applicants are expected to strengthen the existing research focus of the Faculty of Physics on soft matter, statistical mechanics and soft materials by conducting world-class research, by attracting competitive funding and by actively promoting collaboration with theoretical/computational soft matter groups of the Faculty of Physics.

For more details click here

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Congratulations to Soft Matter Award Winners at ICBZM2017

Soft Matter was proud to sponsor ICBZM2017, which took place this year in Tokyo, from the 18th to the 20th October. During the conference two Soft Matter Poster prizes were awarded.

Winners of the Soft Matter poster prize were;

 

Bowen Li (University of Washington), for his poster presentation on ‘Zwitterionic nanocages improve the safety and efficacy of biologic drugs’.

Bowen Li

Bowen Li with Prof. Shaoyi Jiang

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary O’Kelly (University of Washington) for her poster presentation on ‘Self-healing ZI micro gels as a versatile platform material for malleable constructs and injectable therapies’.

 

Mary O'Kelly

Mary O’Kelly with Prof. Shaoyi Jiang

 

Congratulations to both Bowen and Mary!

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

5th International Conference on Self-Healing Materials 2015 Oral Presentation Prize winner

Soft Matter oral presentation prize icshm2015

A huge congratulations to Arn Mignon who was awarded the Soft Matter Oral Presentation Prize at the 5th International Conference on Self-Healing Materials (ICSHM2015). The conference took place on the 22 – 24 June 2015 in Durham, USA and was sponsored by Soft Matter.

Arn Mignon is from Ghent University and won the Soft Matter Oral Presentation Prize with his talk titled “Smart super absorbent polymers for self-healing of motar.”

ICSHM2015 focussed on the newly emerging field of self-healing biomaterials, encompassing all classes of self-healing materials including polymers, ceramics, metals, and composites, as well as biomedical implants. Further details about the conference can be found by taking a look at their website.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Soft Matter’s 2014 Impact Factor is 4.029

Soft Matter is delighted to announce its 2014 Impact Factor is 4.029.

Soft Matter has been dedicated to fundamental soft matter research at the interface of physics, chemistry and biology for the last 10 years. Its impressive Impact Factor of 4.029 is a strong assurance that Soft Matter is a leading journal within the soft matter field.

Our celebratory 10 year Anniversary collection exemplifies the kind of high impact, multidisciplinary soft matter science that Soft Matter aims to publish.

Our fast times to publication ensure that your research is reviewed and announced to the community rapidly.

From receipt, youresearch papers will be published in 63 days. (Data taken from average manuscript handling times between January – April 2015)

Publishing your research in Soft Matter means that your article will be read and cited by your colleagues.

Our unique combination of high quality articles, outstanding Editorial and Advisory Board, free colour and flexible manuscript format make it clear to see why Soft Matter is the leading journal within the soft matter field.

Our articles encompass a wide range of soft matter research and this is highlighted in these recent Soft Matter articles:

Stretching self-entangled DNA molecules in elongational fields
C. Benjamin Renner and Patrick S. Doyle
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 3105-3114

A dynamic and self-crosslinked polysaccharide hydrogel with autonomous self-healing ability
Fuyuan Ding, Shuping Wu, Shishuai Wang, Yuan Xiong, Yan Li, Bin Li, Hongbing Deng, Yumin Du, Ling Xiao and Xiaowen Shi
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 3971-3976

Domain walls and anchoring transitions mimicking nematic biaxiality in the oxadiazole bent-core liquid crystal C7
Young-Ki Kim, Greta Cukrov, Jie Xiang, Sung-Tae Shin and Oleg D. Lavrentovich
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 3963-3970

Anisotropic colloidal transport and periodic stick-slip motion in cholesteric finger textures
Kui Chen, Linnea P. Metcalf, David P. Rivas, Daniel H. Reich and Robert L. Leheny
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 4189-4196

Phase separation in ternary fluid mixtures: a molecular dynamics study
Awaneesh Singh and Sanjay Puri
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 2213-2219

Self-assembly of Janus particles under shear
Emanuela Bianchi, Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos and Arash Nikoubashman
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 3767-3771

So join the many leading scientists that have already chosen to publish in Soft Matter and submit today!

Submit your research
Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Recent Appointees in Materials Science 2015 Conference (RAMS2015)

Recent Appointees in Materials Science 2015 Conference RAMS

We are delighted to announce that the Recent Appointees in Materials Science 2015 Conference (RAMS2015) will be held at the University of Warwick on 16-17th September 2015.

Deadlines and dates

Registration will open shortly so be sure to sign up to this essential meeting before 1st September 2015! The cost of registration is £125 for accommodation and meals, including the conference banquet at Warwick Castle. A reduced rate of £70 is offered for those not requiring accommodation.

Abstract submissions are now being accepted for oral and poster presentation but make sure you submit your abstracts by the deadline on 30th June 2015.

Bursaries

A small number of bursaries are available for those with limited travel budgets and will be assessed on an individual basis. Enquire about bursaries here.

Keynote speakers

Biomaterials Science Advisory Board member Andrew Dove (University of Warwick) will be speaking along with other keynote speakers Aron Walsh (University of Bath) and Mary Ryan (Imperial College London). View the full list of invited speakers here.

For full details visit the RAMS2015 website. We hope you can join the materials science community for this fantastic event.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

2015 Soft Matter Lectureship is awarded to Lucio Isa

We are delighted to announce Professor Lucio Isa (ETH Zurich) as the 2015 Soft Matter Lectureship winner.

The Soft Matter Lectureship is an annual award that honours an early-stage career researcher for their significant contribution to the soft matter field. The recipient is selected by the Soft Matter Editorial Board from a list of candidates nominated by the community.

Read on to find out more about Lucio…

Lucio was presented with his 2015 Soft Matter Lectureship award at the end of his talk at the SoftComp Topical Workshop – Dense Suspension Flow held at the University of Edinburgh on 1-3 June 2015 by Soft Matter Associate Editor Dimitris Vlassopoulos.

Professor Dr Lucio Isa was born in Milan (Italy) in 1979. In 2004 he completed his university studies in Nuclear Engineering with a Mathematics and Physics specialisation at the Milan Polytechnic, obtaining a Master’s degree with honors (100/100 cum laude) with a research project on thermal diffusion of colloidal suspensions with Professor Roberto Piazza. He then moved on to obtain a PhD in Soft Matter Physics at the University of Edinburgh in 2008 (Professor Wilson Poon) where he worked on flow and deformation of dense colloidal glasses. His PhD work was awarded on two occasions (Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher 2007 Award and the British Society of Rheology 2008 Vernon Harrison Award for the most outstanding UK PhD rheology thesis in the academic year 2007/2008). After a short postdoctoral spell in Edinburgh, he moved to the Materials Department of ETH Zurich at the end of 2008 to work on self-assembled materials in the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology (Professors Nicholas D. Spencer and Marcus Textor). During his time at ETH Zurich he was awarded a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, an SNSF travel grant as visiting scientist to the University of California Santa Barbara (Professor Todd Squires) and an SNSF Ambizione Fellowship aimed at studying various aspects of micro and nanoparticle self-assembly at liquid interfaces.

Since 1st September 2013 he has been head of the Laboratory for Interfaces, Soft matter and Assembly in the Department of Materials at ETH Zurich as SNSF Assistant Professor. His current interests revolve around the basic understanding of soft materials in terms of their structural, dynamical and mechanical properties, with a specific focus on single-particle wetting and on the rheology of colloidal monolayers and dense pastes. This basic understanding is then applied to the engineering of new materials and processes, including multifunctional colloids, optically active materials and surface nanopatterning.

Professor Isa is a co-founder of Swiss Soft Days, an initiative aimed at creating a national network of scientists working in Soft Matter in Switzerland. He has published 45 peer-reviewed articles in international scientific journals to date and he is the 2015 recipient of the Soft Matter Lectureship award.

Lucio’s most recent Soft Matter articles include:

A multiscale approach to the adsorption of core–shell nanoparticles at fluid interfaces
Adrienne Nelson, Dapeng Wang, Kaloian Koynov and Lucio Isa
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 118-129

Highly ordered 2D microgel arrays: compression versus self-assembly
Karen Geisel, Walter Richtering and Lucio Isa
Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 7968-7976

Keep your eyes peeled for Lucio’s upcoming Soft Matter article in honour of the Lectureship award.

We would like to thank everybody who nominated a candidate for the Lectureship; we received many excellent nominations, and the Editorial Board had a difficult task in choosing between some outstanding candidates.

Please join us in congratulating Lucio in his fantastic achievements by adding your comments below.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)