Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 30: Microswimmers I (Joint Session with DY)

BP 30.10: Talk

Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 12:15–12:30, H47

Sperm Cells in Structured Microchannels — •Sebastian Rode, Jens Elgeti, and Gerhard Gompper — Theoretical Soft Matter and Biophysics, Institute of Complex Systems (ICS-2) , Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany

At low Reynolds numbers and in confinement, the directed motion of a self-propelled microswimmer is strongly influenced by steric and hydrodynamic surface interactions [1-2]. Our mesoscale hydrodynamics simulation allow the study of various flagellated and ciliated microorganisms in this environment, ranging from a single flagellated sperm cell to multiciliated microswimmers. In particular, we have studied the motion of sperm in geometrically structured (zig-zag) microchannels. This is an interesting geometry for the manipulation and sorting of sperm cells. In general, sperm swim along the channel walls, but can be deflected from the wall at sharp bends. We found that the effective adhesion of a sperm cell to a curved surface depends both on the envelope of its sinusoidal beating shape and on the orientation of its beating plane. We present a heuristic argument explaining this dependence by an interplay of steric and hydrodynamic surface interactions. Our results are in qualitative agreement with recent microfluidic experiments and might provide a better insight in the mechanisms of sperm navigation under strong confinement.
[1] J. Elgeti et al., Rep. Prog. Phys. 78, 056601 (2015)
[2] J. Elgeti et al., Biophys. J. 99, 1018 (2010)