Mathematics Colloquium

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Self-Organization, Flows, and Transport in (and of) Living Cells

Speaker: Michael Shelley, New York University

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1302

Date: Monday, December 1, 2025, 3:45 p.m.

Synopsis:

Organisms organize their internal contents at the microscale through striking dynamical processes. In the nucleus, molecular cross-linkers and nuclear motors work to compartmentalize the genome at various scales. In female fruit-fly, self-organized intracellular flows transport materials across growing egg cells, establishing functional asymmetries essential for development. And in males, ultralong sperm - as long as the organism itself- are packed and stored in a remarkable state of ordered unrest.

I will describe our work aimed at understanding these phenomena by tightly interfacing multiscale modeling and simulation with quantitative experiment. The theoretical frameworks draw on fluid and nonlinear dynamics, coarse-graining, and active matter, and show how applied mathematics can illuminate the biophysical mechanisms that enable living systems to build, move, and organize themselves.