Research

There is a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary problems where we are happy to provide our expertise in theoretical physics, simulations and data analysis. Below are some of our most recent active research areas.

Immunophysics
In our group, we study the immune system on different scales: from single cells such as macrophages to smaller tissue sections during psoriatic outbreaks to the scale of a whole organism when fighting parasites like Helminths. Physical interactions thereby not only play a key role in the ability of the immune cells to respond to […]
Read more about Immunophysics
Biofilms and physics of bacterial colonies
Biofilms are dense multicellular communities of bacteria that form on surfaces. Biofilms are widespread in nature and implicated in many acute medical and industrial problems. Previously we discovered that mature biofilms of B. subtilis bacteria grown on agar surfaces possess a network of interconnected channels which facilitate the transport of liquid within the biofilm. We […]
Read more about Biofilms and physics of bacterial colonies
Anomalous diffusion and random walks
Random walk models are excellent analytical tools for addressing a number of important questions of statistical physics: various transport processes including normal and anomalous diffusion, aging, memory effects, finite or random velocity of random walkers, and transport in active media. One of the most advanced models is the Lévy walk model, which we have recently reviewed (with Sergey Denisov, […]Random walk models are excellent analytical tools for addressing a number of important questions of statistical physics: various transport processes including normal and anomalous diffusion, aging, memory effects, finite or random velocity of random walkers, and transport in active media. One of the most advanced models is the Lévy walk model, which we have recently reviewed (with Sergey Denisov, […]
Read more about Anomalous diffusion and random walks
Chromatin as active microemulsion
In plants, animals, and humans at the very first early stages of embryo development the genome is transcriptionally inactive. Only after several cell division cycles genome gets activated and takes over the control over the development. Together with our experimental collaborators (group of Nadine Vastenhouw, MPI-CBG Dresden) we could show that the silencing of the […]
Read more about Chromatin as active microemulsion

Research

Immunophysics

Biofilms and physics of bacterial colonies

Anomalous diffusion and random walks

Chromatin as active microemulsion