The motion, deformation and eventual burst of capsules, vesicles and cells is challenging to study experimentally, owing to the fragility of the objects and their small size. They are also difficult to compute, since the particles are three-dimensional closed objects with an inner fluid core and a deformable membrane. They are subjected to large deformations by the external flow, which leads to strongly coupled fluid-structure interactions that are highly non-linear. Capsules/vesicles/cells thus also provide fascinating fundamental problems in continuum mechanics, besides having numerous practical applications, which are crucial to investigate and optimize.
The objective of the symposium is to bring together theoreticians and experimentalists who work on the mechanics, physics and biology of capsules/vesicles/cells. The proposed symposium will provide the opportunity to make an overview of recent experimental developments (e.g. using microfluidics and microrheology), confront the various modeling approaches and establish a strong scientific community on the topic. Many scientific issues indeed remain open:
- How pertinent are the simplifying assumptions that are included in the latest numerical models?
- What are currently the best models to describe the physical properties of biological cells, such as the Red Blood Cell?
- Which reduced-order models and artificial intelligence techniques are relevant to predict the fluid-particle interactions with precision and help decrease the computational cost?
- Which microfluidic and microrheologic techniques are now available to characterize the mechanical properties of the capsule/vesicle/cell membrane?
- How does the fabrication process influence the physical and mechanical properties of artificial capsule or vesicle?
- How to optimize the payload of the particle and the resistance capacity of the membrane?
- Which new applications in the fields of biotechnologies, diagnostics, pharmacology …?
Prof. Dominique Barthès-Biesel
(@Nicolas Gôtz)
The symposium will be the occasion to give a tribute to Prof Barthès-Biesel, who pioneered research on capsule mechanics. We will look back at the milestones achieved over the 5 decades of her career and establish some guidelines for future research.
