Promotor: J. Zaanen

It has been a long-standing mystery how complex biological structures emerge from such seemingly uncoordinated building blocks as cells and tissues, in the presence of only minimal environmental guidance.

Mechanical forces are known to play an important role in bacterial colonies. In this dissertation, we study the self-organization at various stages of growing bacterial colonies, and focus on the mechanical effects of cell growth.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M.L. van Hecke, Co-Promotor: V. Vitelli

This thesis investigates how cell shape and collective behavior influence the dynamics and structure of biological tissues, which are crucial for understanding processes like embryonic development, tissue regeneration, and metastasis.

The key characteristic of active matter is the motion of an emergent collection (such as a flock of birds), which is driven by the consumption of energy by its active components (i.e. individual birds).

The overarching goal of this thesis is to set the foundations, but also make the first essential steps towards establishing a comprehensive, mesoscopic, hydrodynamic theory of epithelial tissues. The stage is set by an exhaustive study of topological defects in passive p-atic liquid crystals, singularities…

We study the interplay of topology and geometry with chirality for several passive and active systems, employing both analytical and numerical methods.

Nematische vloeibare kristallen vormen de hoofdbestanddelen van de meeste televisies. De actieve variant van deze complexe vloeistoffen vormt een handig model voor natuurkundigen om de reactie te onderzoeken van actieve materie—zoals bacteriën of verkeersstromen—op mechanische en meetkundige signalen.…