Biomimetism

The word "biomimicry" comes from the ancient Greek: bios (bios), life, and mimesis, imitation.

This term designates the study of extra- and intracellular biological phenomena by using in vitro experimental techniques aiming to reproduce, i.e. to "imitate", qualitatively and quantitatively the aspects characterizing these phenomena.

The biomimetic method approaches biological complexity "by subtraction": by reassembling minimal systems (with a small number of parameters) under highly controlled conditions in abottom-up approach; by identifying the essential quantities; and by controlling the system parameters.

This course is not intended to be an exhaustive, canonized presentation of biomimicry, but rather to give students a broad perspective of this continually developing field of research. This pedagogical goal will be pursued through the reasoned reading of research articles and the presentation of some of the cutting-edge biomimetic techniques by the researchers who use them.

• To provide students with a broad perspective of the most widely used techniques and topics of biomimetic investigation in the study of extra- and intracellular processes (see syllabus).
• Studies of the founding articles of modern biomimetic approaches.
• Develop skills in reading and analyzing scientific articles in the biophysical field, especially biomimetics. To encourage good practices in the study of scientific bibliography.

• Biological Physics

Recommended Prerequisites:

• Fluid mechanics/hydrodynamics
• Statistical Physics
• Surfaces, Interfaces, Colloids

Microscopies and Spectroscopies

This course focuses on the study of scientific literature and the presentation, in seminar form, of certain aspects of biomimetic research. For this reason, its program may vary from year to year. Some of the topics already covered in the past are:

• Dynamics, assembly and self-organization of microtubules and motors in vitro.
• Artificial listeria : actin-based motility dynamics.
• Formation of membrane nanotube arrays by the action of motor proteins on an underlying microtubule array.
• Membrane nanotubes and protein-membrane interaction.
• Mechanics of the cytoskeleton / cell motility: cilia and flagella.
• Developmental biology and cell mechanics.
• Biomimetic tissue flows.