Hydrodynamic self-assembly of living chiral crystals

ORAL

Abstract


Living matter exhibits complex non-equilibrium behavior. Here, we report on the formation of chiral crystals of starfish embryos which undergo autonomous order-disorder transitions. During the gastrula stage, individual swimming embryos frequently enter a bound state at the air-water interface. At sufficiently high embryo densities, the near field interactions between rotating embryos lead to the formation of stable 2D crystals with hexagonal order. By measuring the flow field around surface bound embryos, we show their negative buoyancy gives rise to Stokeselet flows that generate a hydrodynamic attraction and consequently lead to the formation of crystals. Our system and hydrodynamic model offer a framework to further investigate the role of chiral interactions in active matter systems.

*This work was supported by the NSF-Simons Center for Mathematical and Statistical Analysis of Biology at Harvard (award number #1764269), the Harvard Quantitative Biology Initiative and NSF CAREER Award (#1848247).

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Presenters

  • Hugh Higinbotham

    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Authors

  • Hugh Higinbotham

    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Tzer Han Tan

    • Quantitative Biology Initiative, Harvard University

  • Alexander Mietke

    • MIT
    • Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Yuchao Chen

    • Physics, Cornell University
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Cornell University

  • Peter Foster

    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Shreyas Gokhale

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Jorn Dunkel

    • Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Mathematics, MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Nikta Fakhri

    • Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology