Regensburg 2025 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 17: Poster Session II

BP 17.68: Poster

Dienstag, 18. März 2025, 18:00–20:30, P4

Active Soft Glassy Rheology as a model for cytoskeletal mechanics — •Raffaele Mendozza and Peter Sollich — University of Goettingen, Institute for Theoretical Physics

The cytoskeleton plays a vital role in cellular processes like growth, migration, and division, owing to its unique mechanical properties [1]. Advanced microrheology techniques have revealed a complex power-law viscoelastic spectrum in this and other biopolymer networks, reflecting the presence of a broad distribution of relaxation timescales [2]. Coarse-grained trap models capture this phenomenology, suggesting a connection between cytoskeletal and soft glassy rheology (SGR) [3,4,5]; however, the original SGR model lacks explicit consideration of active processes, ubiquitous in living cells. We therefore explore how activity influences the rheological response of a soft glassy material, based on different working hypotheses. By introducing an activity-dependent effective temperature, the characteristic SGR viscoelastic spectrum is recovered, while modelling activity as an effective strain rate introduces a competing timescale that modifies the response. The resulting active SGR model provides insights into the mechanical behavior of cells independent of biochemical intricacies, serving as a foundation for future models incorporating more detailed structural information.

[1] P. Kollmannsberger and B. Fabry, 2011

[2] B. Fabry et al., 2001

[3] B. D. Hoffman1 and J. C. Crocker, 2009

[4] K. K. Mandadapu et al, 2008

[5] P. Sollich et al, 1997

Keywords: rheology; activity; statistical physics; model; SGR