Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 43: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems II (joint session BP/DY)

DY 43.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 15:30–15:45, ZEU 250

Control of droplet kinetics in active emulsions — •Jacqueline Janssen¹, Marta Tena-Solsona^2,3, Caren Wanzke², Fabian Schnitter², Hansol Park⁴, Benedikt Rieß², Julianne M. Gibbs⁴, Job Boekhoven^2,3, and Christoph A. Weber¹ — ¹Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems — ²Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Munich — ³Institute for Advanced Study, Technical University of Munich — ⁴Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta

Living cells host many membrane-less organelles which originate via liquid-liquid phase separation in both the cytoplasm and the nucleoplasm. Liquid phase separated droplets are crucial in living cells to spatially control chemical reactions. Recent experimental work revealed a new class of active emulsions where the lifetime and the rate of droplet growth can be controlled. This class of active emulsions involves fuel-driven chemical reactions from thermodynamically stable precursor molecules to metastable building blocks. At large enough concentration of building block material, the liquid droplets can form and undergo an anomalously fast ripening towards fewer droplets of larger size. Up to date, there is no theoretical model which would describe such anomalous ripening kinetics of active emulsions. We have derived a theoretical model which quantitively coincides with the experimental measurements conducted in the Boekhoven Laboratory. Our theory allows to understand how the metastable building blocks determine the lifetime and accelerate the droplet kinetics in this new class of phase separated, active systems.