Modeling of heterogeneous materials and media is a problem of fundamental importance to
a wide class of phenomena and systems, ranging from condensed matter physics, soft …

The microcirculation is an extensive network of microvessels that distributes blood flow
throughout living tissues. Reynolds numbers are much less than 1, and the equations of …

The main obstacle in retrieving quantitative phase with high sensitivity is posed by the phase
noise due to mechanical vibrations and air fluctuations that typically affect any …

The mechanical behavior of living cells is studied with micropipette suction in which the
surface of a cell is aspirated into a small glass tube while tracking the leading edge of its …

Red blood cells, or erythrocytes, are seen to flicker under optical microscopy, a
phenomenon initially described as thermal fluctuations of the cell membrane. But recent …

Red blood cells (RBCs) have highly deformable viscoelastic membranes exhibiting complex
rheological response and rich hydrodynamic behavior governed by special elastic and …

When a dielectric object is placed between two opposed, nonfocused laser beams, the total
force acting on the object is zero but the surface forces are additive, thus leading to a …

Cell differentiation in embryogenesis involves extensive changes in gene expression
structural reorganization within the nucleus, including chromatin condensation and …

The simplest cell-like structure, the lipid bilayer vesicle, can respond to mechanical
deformation by elastic membrane dilation/thinning and curvature changes. When a protein is …

Parasitization by malaria-inducing Plasmodium falciparum leads to structural, biochemical,
and mechanical modifications to the host red blood cells (RBCs). To study these …