The Actomyosin Cortex of Cells: A Thin Film of Active Matter

Active viscoelastic models for cell and tissue mechanics

“…Active matter theory is another continuumbased model used to describe the dynamics of cell cytoskeleton and cell monolayers (reviewed in [9,[24][25][26]). This type of model is based on the theory of liquid crystals and can be employed to describe the mechanics of the actomyosin cortex for time scales longer than the turnover time of actin filaments [27]. However, these models rarely capture the way such materials respond to external deformations or stresses; it remains challenging to capture, both experimentally and theoretically, the impact of active processes on the mechanical state of living matter.…”

A thin-film equation for a viscoelastic fluid, and its application to the Landau-Levich problem

“…Many flows of industrial and biological importance can be characterised as thin-film flows [20,30]. The fluid in a typical free-surface thin-film (see figure 1) is bounded on one side by a no-slip rigid surface while the opposite surface is free of shear stress; the characteristic length scale in the direction perpendicular to the rigid surface is significantly smaller than along it.…”

Wetting flows of viscoelastic fluids

“…We now turn to the subject of the thesis, which is to understand the influence of normal stress on wetting flows. Wetting flows are important in many industrial and biological applications (Bonn et al, 2009;de Gennes et al, 2004;Kumar, 2021;Quéré, 1999;. Two prototypical examples of wetting flows are sketched in figure 5.…”

“…Many flows of industrial and biological importance can be characterised as thin-film flows (Kumar, 2021;Quéré, 1999). The fluid in a typical free-surface thin-film (see figure 1.1) is bounded on one side by a no-slip rigid surface while the opposite surface is free of shear stress; the characteristic length scale in the direction perpendicular to the rigid surface is significantly smaller than along it.…”