While most of physics deals with systems at equilibrium, in biology, equilibrium (usually) means death. Living matter uses energy to do something. This constant energy consumption gives biology a zoology of dynamically active materials and networks with which to exert forces, perform computations, and self-replicate. All of this is done amazing precisely while immersed in noisy, constantly fluctuating environments.
I use non-equilibrium statistical mechanics to quantify energy consumption in cells and proteins, and try to understand how that consumption gives rise to interesting biological phenomena. I develop analytic and computational tools to answer these questions. Currently, I do this as a Kadanoff-Rice Fellow in group of Vincenzo Vitelli. I am also a writer and managing editor at SoftBites, a blog that writes summaries of current and classic papers in soft matter and biophysics. You can read my posts here
Eukaryotes exert forces on their environment and themselves through, for example, migration and cell division. These forces originate from the actin cortex, a network of biological polymers (actin) that are activated by molecular motors (myosin). By analyzing dynamics of actomyosin, we have elucidated how this activity not only plays a role in shape change, but also confers dynamic stability in vitro and conserves the rate of energy use in cell monolayers in vivo.
The formation of dynamic patterns are ubiquitous across biology, from waves seen in the cortex of an embryo to cAMP signalling in Dictyostelium colonies to murmurations seen in flocks of starlings. In order to study the role of dissipation in pattern forming systems, we introduce a novel measure of irreversibility that directly quantifies the breaking of time-reversal symmetry of interacting fields. This greatly extends our ability to study non-equilibrium properties of spatially extended systems.