Theoretical physics of living matter

Our group investigates the physical principles that underlie living matter, i.e. biological soft matter, which is inherently out-of-equilibrium. With tools from soft and active matter theory, we investigate the shape generation and pattern formation in biological systems, from cellular to tissue scales. We want to understand how living matter leverages mechano-chemical feedback loops  and geometrical/topological constraints to achieve its complex and robust spatio-temporal organisation.

One research area of the group is the development of active surfaces and active shell models for biological interfaces, such as the cellular cortex or epithelial (two-dimensional) tissues. The aim is to understand the morphodynamics of fundamental biological processes, such as cell division, and to learn how to control such behaviours also in the synthetic context, for example through optogenetic manipulation of “minimal” cells and organoids.  

Spontaneous division of an active shell with anisotropic (nematic) tension field (see Ref. 2)
© D. Khoromskaia
  1. Cross-Species Biomechanical Determinants of Shape Diversity
    Bailleul R, Cuny N, Khoromskaia D, Basu S, Bergamini G, Cucurachi P, Rupp S, Guse A, Curantz C, Swinhoe N, Cleves P, Craggs J, Fujita S, Nakajima Y, Steenbergen PJ, Diz-Muñoz A, Salbreux G, Ikmi A. Preprint https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.07.637025v1
  2. Active morphogenesis of patterned epithelial shells
    Khoromskaia D, Salbreux G. eLife 11:e75878 (2023)
  3. A three-dimensional numerical model of an active cell cortex in the viscous limit
    Bächer C, Khoromskaia D, Salbreux G, Gekle S. Front. Phys. 9:753230 (2021)
  4. Vortex formation and dynamics of defects in active nematic shells
    Khoromskaia D, Alexander GP. New J. Phys. 19 103043 (2017)