Imperial College Network of Excellence in Physics of Life
Biological Physics Journal Club (2022)


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: Luca Cocconi
Time: Fridays 2-3pm [Unless indicated otherwise]
Venue: Due to the closure of the College, our meetings will be on Microsoft Team accessible by members

Click here for the current schedule

Jan 13Presenter: Andrew Killeen
Paper: C. Bonnet et al. (2021)
Multistage hematopoietic stem cell regulation in the mouse: A combined biological and mathematical approach
iScience 24, 103399
Jan 21Presenter: Chiu Fan Lee
J Mayer, K Khairy and J Howard (2010)
Drawing an elephant with four complex parameters
American Journal of Physics 78, 648
Jan 28Presenter: Sulaimaan Lim
Paper: PG Layague Sanchez et al. (2022)
Arnold tongue entrainment reveals dynamical principles of the embryonic segmentation clock
bioRxiv 2021.10.20.465101
Feb 4Presenter: Charlotte Manswer
Paper: Sangwoo Kim, Marie Pochitaloff, Georgina A. Stooke-Vaughan, and Otger Campàs (2021)
Embryonic tissues as active foams
Nature Physics 17, 859–866
Feb 11Presenter: Gunnar Pruessner
Paper: Thomas Speck (2022)
Efficiency of isothermal active matter engines: Strong driving beats weak driving
Phys. Rev. E 105, L012601
Feb 18Presenter: Thibault Bertrand
Paper: P. Guillamat et al. (2022)
Integer topological defects organize stresses driving morphogenesis
Nat. Mater.
Feb 25Presenter: Henry Alston
Paper: H. Sanhedrai et al. (2022)
Reviving a failed network through microscopic interventions
Nature Physics
Mar 4Presenter: Shalabh Anand
Paper: A. Zampetaki et al. (2021)
Collective self-optimization of communicating active particles
PNAS 118, e2111142118
Mar 11Presenter: Chiu Fan Lee
Paper: Vignes, et al. (2022)
Extracellular mechanical forces drive endocardial cell volume decrease during zebrafish cardiac valve morphogenesis
Developmental Cell 57, 1–12
Mar 25Physics of Life Network seminar series
Caren Norden (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal)
Retinal neurogenesis and lamination: What to become, where to become it and how to move from there!
Time: 3-4pm
Apr 1Presenter: Luca Cocconi
Paper: C. W. Lynn et al.
Decomposing the local arrow of time in interacting systems
Arxiv:2112.14721
Apr 8Presenter: Jacob Knight
Paper: R. Henshaw et al. (2019)
Phototaxis of the dominant marine pico-eukaryote Micromonas sp.: from population to single cell
bioRxiv 740571; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/740571
Apr 29Physics of Life Network seminar series
David Lacoste (ESPCI, France)
Emergence of homochirality in large molecular systems
Time: 3-4pm
May 6Presenter: Robert Endres
Paper: J.A. Owen and J.M. Horowitz (2021)
Size limits sensitivity in all kinetic schemes
Arxiv:2112.07777
May 13Presenter: John-Antonio Argyriadis
Paper: T.S. Harmon and F. Jülicher (2022)
Molecular Assembly Lines in Active Droplets
Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 108102
May 20Presenter: Sam Whitby
Paper: D.F. Tracey at al. (2019)
Programming patchy particles to form complex periodic structures
J. Chem. Phys. 151, 224506
May 27Presenter: Ruben Perez-Carrasco
Paper: McGuirl at al. (2020)
Topological data analysis of zebrafish patterns
PNAS 117, 5113
May 31Physics of Life Network seminar series
Hugues Chaté (CEA-Saclay, France, and Beijing Computatkonal Science Research Center, China)
Bacterial Active Nematics
Time: 3-4pm; Venue: Flowers Building G47A
Jun 10Presenter: Andrew Killeen
Paper: D. Boocock at al. (2021)
Theory of mechanochemical patterning and optimal migration in cell monolayers
Nature Physics 17, 267
Jun 24Presenter: Keith Willison
Paper: A.M. Reynolds (2021)
Weierstrassian Lévy walks are a by-product of crawling
Eur. Phys. J. E 44, 96
Jul 1Presenter: Patrick Jentsch
Paper: R. Bebon and U.S. Schwarz (2022)
First-passage times in complex energy landscapes: a case study with nonmuscle myosin II assembly
New J. Phys. 24 063034
Jul 15Presenter: Antonio Matas Gil
Paper: W. Młynarski et al. (2021)
Statistical analysis and optimality of neural systems
Neuron 109, 1077
Jul 15Presenter: Sulaimaan Lim
Paper: Kramar and Alim (2021)
Encoding memory in tube diameter hierarchy of livingflow network
PNAS 118, e2007815118
Jul 28Presenter: Luca Cocconi
Paper: J I Arroyo et al. (2022)
A general theory for temperature dependence in biology
PNAS 119, e2119872119
Sept 9Presenter: Andy Killeen
Paper: A. Palamidessi et al. (2019)
Unjamming overcomes kinetic and proliferation arrest in terminally differentiated cells and promotes collective motility of carcinoma
Nature Materials 18, 1252
Sept 16Presenter: Robert Endres
Paper: Thomas W. Murphy Jr (2022)
Limits to economic growth
Nature Physics 18, 844
Sept 30 Physics of Life Network seminar series
Andrew Krause (Durham)
Relaxing Turing’s Idealization: Heterogeneous and Evolving Domains in Reaction-Diffusion Pattern Formation
Time: 2-3pm; Venue: LINK lecture theatre on 2nd floor in Sir Ernst Chain building
Oct 14Presenter: Jacob Knight
Papers: (1) Y Guo et al. (2022)
Chromatin jets define the properties of cohesin-driven in vivo loop extrusion
Molecular Cell 82, 1–12
(2) D Michieletto (2016)
On the tree-like structure of rings in dense solutions
Soft Matter 12, 9485
Oct 21Presenter: Keith Willison
Papers: (1) K Mogi (1994)
On the Absolute Meaning of the Energy Scale ∼ kT in the Thermal Interference Involved in Enzyme-Coupled Reactions
Proceedings: Mathematical and Physical Sciences 445, 529-541
(2) F Oosawa (2018)
My various thoughts on actin
Biophysics and Physicobiology 15, 151–158
Oct 28Presenter: Sam Whitby
Paper: N.M. Mangan et al. (2016)
pH determines the energetic efficiency of the cyanobacterial CO2 concentrating mechanism
PNAS 113, E5354
Nov 11Presenter: Antonio Matas Gil
Paper: Z J Wang et al. (2022)
Localization of signaling receptors maximizes cellular information acquisition in spatially structured natural environments
Cell Systems 13, 511-513
Nov 18Physics of Life Network seminar series
Diana Fusco (Cambridge)
The role and evolution of stochasticity in phage-bacteria interactions
Time: 2-3pm; Venue: Royal School Of Mines, Rm: 301-C, South Kensington Campus
Nov 25Presenter: Gunnar Pruessner
Paper: E Hannezo and B D Simons (2018)
Statistical theory of branching morphogenesis
Dev Growth Differ 60, 512–521
Dec 2Presenter: Henry Alston
Paper: Sangwoo Kim, Rana Amini, and Otger Campàs (2022)
A nuclear jamming transition in vertebrate organogenesis
bioRxiv 2022.07.31.502244
Dec 9Presenter: Patrick Jentsch
Paper: X. Tang and JV Selinger (2019)
Theory of defect motion in 2D passive and active nematic liquid crystals
Soft Matter 15, 587-601
Dec 16Imperial Physics of Life - Early Career Researchers Symposium 2022
Time: 2-5pm