Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 17: Poster Session II

BP 17.32: Poster

Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 18:00–20:30, P4

Same, but different: Shared viscoelastic signature in hydrogels and cells — •Dorian Marx, Till M. Münker, Bart E. Vos, and Timo Betz — Third Institute of Physics - Biophysics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany

We report the discovery of a striking "mechanical fixed point" in the response of polyacrylamide-based hydrogels to shear strain. Characterized by a pronounced and invariant relationship of parameters of the mechanical model, this leads to a convergence of the complex shear moduli of all measurements at a frequency of approximately 5 kHz. Intriguingly, reviewing existing literature reveals that this phenomenon is not unique to our simple hydrogel. Rather, there are many qualitatively similar observations in the distinct realm of (intra-)cellular mechanics, as probed by diverse techniques including optical tweezers and atomic force microscopy using many different cell types. Despite the fundamentally different natures of these systems - one being passive and at equilibrium (hydrogel), the other active and out-of-equilibrium (cell) - they show this peculiar viscoelastic signature. The existence of the mechanical fixed point hints at an unresolved constraint governing the mechanics across vastly different biological and synthetic systems.

Keywords: Hydrogel Mechanics; Intracellular Mechanics; Viscoelasticity