Soft matter and Biophysics laboratory

Dept. of Physics, Faculty of Science, Tohoku University

Soft matter and Biophysics laboratory

Dept. of Physics, Faculty of Science, Tohoku University





Welcome to soft matter and biophysics laboratory!

To understand the essence of cellular life from material science point of view is one of the most fascinating challenges in physics. It is well known that the cell is composed of amphiphilic molecules, macromolecules, liquid crystals, colloids and so on, the so-called soft matter, but nobody know how to assemble these materials into the cellular life. A key to understand the evolution from the soft matter to the cellular life is the cooperative nonlinear responses of soft matter assemblies against various external stimuli. The aim of this laboratory is to understand the physical origin of the essence of the cellular life. For this aim we have employed two approaches, a non-equilibrium soft matter route and a biophysics route. In the soft matter route, we construct simple cell models in the framework of soft matter and reveal the origin of the cellular life. In the biophysics route, we reveal mechanisms of cellular life functionalities using living cells. We believe that these approaches shed light on the missing link between the material science and the life science.

Past events

International conference "From Soft Matter to Protocell"