New preprint “Evolved interactions stabilize many coexisting phases in multicomponent liquids”

We assessed the formation of droplets in elastic gels using a new model in a recent publication in PNAS. In our study, we simulated how environmental factors such as temperature influence the size of oil droplets in elastic matrices. Our study will also help understanding droplet formation in biological cells, where biological molecules self-organize in condensates.

Our paper on modeling active droplets has been published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. In this work, we identify the minimal ingredients to control droplets via chemical reactions. Prime examples for such regulation are biomolecular condensates in cells.

This week, Soft Matter accepted two of our manuscripts for publication. Both papers investigate how an elastic environment affects the dynamics of many droplets. In particular, they reveal details about elastic ripening, which is the coarsening process driving droplets towards soft regions.

We published our first pure software paper in the Journal of Open Source Science. In this paper, we describe our Python package py-pde, which helps with solving partial differential equations (PDEs).

In a new manuscript available on arXiv, Estefania presents a detailed theoretical description of droplet dynamics in elastic media.

In a brand-new paper that appeared in Nature Physics, a collaboration of the group of David Zwicker at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen and the group of Eric Dufresne at ETH Zürich demonstrate some surprising effects of polymer networks on droplet growth.

We published a manuscript on the ripening dynamics of droplets embedded in an elastic environment on arxiv in collaboration with Eric Dufresne’s group at ETH Zürich.

We wrote a perspective article that proposes two fundamental mechanisms how cells can regulate biomolecular condensates using post-translational modifications.

Our review on droplet dynamics in non-equilibrium systems was published by Reports on Progress in Physics.