Imperial College Network of Excellence in Physics of Life
Biological Physics Journal Club (2024)


Our weekly Physics of Life seminars and journal clubs at Imperial College covers a wide range of topics in biological and soft matter physics. It aims to provide a highly interactive platform to facilitate discussion between researchers from different departments. Anyone is welcome and you can subscribe to the mailing list here. Regular attendees of the BPJC are expected to present on a rotational basis at the BPJC.

BPJC organiser: Eloise Lardet (March onwards) / Patrick Jentsch (Jan - Mar)
Time: Fridays 2-3pm [Unless indicated otherwise]
Venue: Sir Ernst Chain Building Rm. 319, South Kensington Campus

Upcoming meetings
Nov 22 Presenter: Sam Whitby
Paper: Zhang, Z., and Lu, Z. (2024)
Single-molecule Automata: Harnessing Kinetic-Thermodynamic Discrepancy for Temporal Pattern Recognition
ArXiv preprint: arXiv:2409.19803
Nov 29 Presenter: Emir Sezik
Dec 5 Physics of Life Network seminar series
Alexander Mietke (Oxford)
Emergent morphologies of active surfaces
Venue: G47A Flowers
Dec 6 Presenter: Gunnar Pruessner
Dec 12 Physics of Life Summer ECR Symposium
Dec 13 Presenter: Robert Endres

Past meetings
Jan 5 Presenter: Sulaimaan Lim
Paper: Vasudha Srivastava et al. (2023)
Configurational entropy is an intrinsic driver of tissue structural heterogeneity
bioRxiv 2023.07.01.546933
Jan 12 Presenter: Smitha Maretvadakethope
Paper: Anupam Dey and Debashis Barik (2021)
Potential Landscapes, Bifurcations, and Robustness of Tristable Networks
ACS Synth. Biol. 10, 391–401
Jan 19 Physics of Life Network seminar series
Ard Louis (Oxford)
Does evolution have a built-in Occam’s razor?
Jan 26 Presenter: Robert Endres
Pape: Gautam Reddy, Boris I Shraiman, Massimo Vergassola (2022)
Sector search strategies for odor trail tracking
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 119(1): e2107431118
Feb 2 Presenter: Sam Whitby
Paper: Omer Karin and Uri Alon (2021)
Temporal fluctuations in chemotaxis gain implement a simulated-tempering strategy for efficient navigation in complex environments
iScience 24, 102796
Feb 9 Presenter: Eloise Lardet
Paper: Wesley J. M. Ridgway, Mohit P. Dalwadi, Philip Pearce, and S. Jonathan Chapman (2023)
Motility-Induced Phase Separation Mediated by Bacterial Quorum Sensing
Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 228302
Feb 16 Presenter: Gunnar Pruessner
Paper: Chul-Ung Woo, Heiko Rieger, Jae Dong Noh (2022)
Suppression of discontinuous phase transitions by particle diffusion
Phys Rev E 105 054144
Feb 23 Physics of Life Network seminar series
Kirsty Wan (Exeter)
Active motility and navigation strategies at the microscale
Venue: SECB 290
Mar 1 Presenter: Antonio Matas Gil
Paper: Barrio et al. (2021)
Routes to tripod gait movement in hexapods
Neurocomputing 461, 679-695
Mar 8 Presenter: Chiu Fan Lee
Paper: Liangyu Zhang, Weston Stauffer, David Zwicker, Abby F. Dernburg
Crossover patterning through kinase-regulated condensation and coarsening of recombination nodules
bioRxiv 2021.08.26.457865; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.26.457865
Mar 15 Physics of Life Network seminar series
Stefano Bo (KCL)
Single-molecule trajectories in chemically active condensates
Mar 22 Presenter: Patrick Jentsch
Paper: Maxx Miller, John Toner
Phase separation in ordered polar active fluids: A new Universality class
ArXiv:2401.05996
Apr 12 Presenter: Thibault Bertrand
Paper: I. Di Terlizzi et al. (2024)
Variance sum rule for entropy production
Science 383, 971-976
Apr 19 Presenter: Tina Jia
Paper: C Kurzthaler, et al. (2021)
A geometric criterion for the optimal spreading of active polymers in porous media
Nature communications 12 7088
Apr 26 Presenter: Ruben Perez-Carrasco
Papers: i) Isocost Lines Describe the Cellular Economy of Genetic Circuits. Gyorgy et al., Biophysical Journal 2015
ii) A Model for the Spatiotemporal Design of Gene Regulatory Circuits. Stoof et al., ACS Synthetic Biology 2019
iii) Reprogramming genetic circuits using space. Alejaldre et al., BioRxiv 2024
May 3 Presenter: Callum Britton
Paper: Y. Zhang, and É. Fodor (2023)
Pulsating active matter
Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 238302
May 10 Presenter: Daniel O'Hanlon
Paper: V. Bergen et al. (2020)
Generalizing RNA velocity to transient cell states through dynamical modeling
Nat Biotechnol 38, 1408–1414
May 17 Presenter: Alastar Phelan
Paper: Metz-Zumaran et al. (2024)
The population context is a driver of the heterogeneous response of epithelial cells to interferons
Molecular Systems Biology 20, 242 - 275
May 24 Physics of Life Network seminar series
Katelyn Spillane (Imperial)
The mechanics of B cell activation in the immune synapse
Venue: RSM 303
May 31 Presenter: Sulaimaan Lim
Paper: Brauns Fridtjof, Claussen Nikolas H., Wieschaus Eric F., Shraiman Boris I. (2024)
The Geometric Basis of Epithelial Convergent Extension
eLife 13:RP95521
Jun 7 Presenter: Smitha Maretvadakethope
Paper: Walton, T., Gui, M., Velkova, S. et al. (2023)
Axonemal structures reveal mechanoregulatory and disease mechanisms
Nature 618, 625–633
Jun 14 Presenter: Robert Endres
Paper: Julian Rode, Maja Novak, Benjamin M. Friedrich (2024)
Information theory of chemotactic agents using both spatial and temporal gradient-sensing
bioRxiv 2023.10.14.562229
Jun 21 Presenter: Sam Whitby
Paper: Reuveni, S., Ehrenberg, M. and Paulsson, J. (2017)
Ribosomes are optimized for autocatalytic production
Nature 547, 293–297
Jun 28 Presenter: Eloise Lardet
Paper: Koehler, Lara, Pierre Ronceray, and Martin Lenz (2023)
How do particles with complex interactions self-assemble?
Preprint: arXiv:2312.06350
Jul 5 Presenter: Chiu Fan Lee
Paper: Hugues Chaté and Alexandre Solon (2024)
Dynamic Scaling of Two-Dimensional Polar Flocks
Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 268302
Jul 12 Presenter: Emir Sezik
Paper: Hal Tasaki (2020)
Hohenberg-Mermin-Wagner-Type Theorems for Equilibrium Models of Flocking
Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 220601
Jul 19 Presenter: Gunnar Pruessner
Paper: Hal Tasaki (2020)
Hohenberg-Mermin-Wagner-Type Theorems for Equilibrium Models of Flocking
Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 220601
Jul 26 Physics of Life Summer ECR Symposium
Time: 1-5pm
Sep 27 Presenter: Eloise Lardet
Papers: Sabine H.L. Klapp and Kim L. Kreienkamp (2024)
Dynamical structures in phase-separating non-reciprocal polar active mixtures
arXiv:2404.06305v2
Non-reciprocal alignment induces asymmetric clustering in active mixtures
arXiv:2403.19291v2
Oct 4 Presenter: Smitha Maretvadakethope
Paper: Hubert, A., Tabuteau, H., Farasin, J. et al. (2024)
Fluid flow drives phenotypic heterogeneity in bacterial growth and adhesion on surfaces
Nat Commun 15, 6161
Oct 11 Presenter: Daniel O'Hanlon
Paper: Sandoval-Velasco, M. et al. (2024)
Three-dimensional genome architecture persists in a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth skin sample
Cell, 187(14), 3541-3562
Oct 18 Presenter: Alastar Phelan
Paper: Hallinen et al.
Community behaviours of bacteria in flow: Divergent roles for transport and collective morphology
bioRxiv 2023.11.22.568348.
Oct 24 Physics of Life Network seminar series
Rafael Tapia-Rojo (KCL)
Mechanochemical regulation of focal adhesion proteins
Venue: SECB 290 Link classroom
Oct 25 Presenter: Chiu Fan Lee
Paper: Ran Li, et al (2021)
E2 and gamma distributions in polygonal networks
Phys. Rev. Research 3, L042001
Nov 1 Presenter: Jacob Knight
Paper: Julius Degünther, Jann van der Meer, and Udo Seifert (2024)
General theory for localizing the where and when of entropy production meets single-molecule experiments
PNAS 121, e2405371121
Nov 8 Presenter: Tina Jia
Paper: Wu, Song, Jia-Xiang Li, and Qun-Li Lei (2022)
Facilitated dynamics of an active polymer in 2D crowded environments with obstacles
Soft Matter 18, 9263-9272
Nov 14 Physics of Life Network seminar series
Karina Pombo-Garcia (Oxford)
Membrane prewetting by condensates promotes tight-junction belt formation
Venue: RSM 131


BPJC in 2023
BPJC in 2022
BPJC in 2021
BPJC in 2020
BPJC in 2019
BPJC in 2018
BPJC in 2017
BPJC in 2016