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Theoretical physicists working at a blackboard collaboration pod in the Beecroft building.

Professor Julia Yeomans

Professor of Physics, Head of the Rudolf Peierls Centre

Research theme

  • Biological physics

Sub department

  • Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics

Research groups

  • Condensed Matter Theory
Julia.Yeomans@physics.ox.ac.uk
Telephone: 01865 (2)76884 (college),01865 (2)73992
Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, room 70.10
www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/people/JuliaYeomans
  • About
  • Publications

Activity-driven tissue alignment in proliferating spheroids.

Soft Matter (2023)

Authors:

Liam J Ruske, Julia M Yeomans

Abstract:

We extend the continuum theory of active nematic fluids to study cell flows and tissue dynamics inside multicellular spheroids, spherical, self-assembled aggregates of cells that are widely used as model systems to study tumour dynamics. Cells near the surface of spheroids have better access to nutrients and therefore proliferate more rapidly than those in the resource-depleted core. Using both analytical arguments and three-dimensional simulations, we find that the proliferation gradients result in flows and in gradients of activity both of which can align the orientation axis of cells inside the aggregates. Depending on environmental conditions and the intrinsic tissue properties, we identify three distinct alignment regimes: spheroids in which all the cells align either radially or tangentially to the surface throughout the aggregate and spheroids with angular cell orientation close to the surface and radial alignment in the core. The continuum description of tissue dynamics inside spheroids not only allows us to infer dynamic cell parameters from experimentally measured cell alignment profiles, but more generally motivates novel mechanisms for controlling the alignment of cells within aggregates which has been shown to influence the mechanical properties and invasive capabilities of tumors.
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Publisher Correction: Fifty years of ‘More is different’

Nature Reviews Physics Springer Nature 4 (2022)

Authors:

Steven Strogatz, Sara Walker, Julia M Yeomans, Corina Tarnita, Elsa Arcaute, Manlio De Domenico, Oriol Artime, Kwang-Il Goh

Abstract:

In the version of the article initially published, the declaration of no competing interests was missing, and has now been inserted in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.
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Activity gradients in two- and three-dimensional active nematics

Soft Matter Royal Society of Chemistry 18 (2022) 5654-5661

Authors:

Liam J Ruske, Julia M Yeomans

Abstract:

We numerically investigate how spatial variations of extensile or contractile active stress affect bulk active nematic systems in two and three dimensions. In the absence of defects, activity gradients drive flows which re-orient the nematic director field and thus act as an effective anchoring force. At high activity, defects are created and the system transitions into active turbulence, a chaotic flow state characterized by strong vorticity. We find that in two-dimensional (2D) systems active torques robustly align +1/2 defects parallel to activity gradients, with defect heads pointing towards contractile regions. In three-dimensional (3D) active nematics disclination lines preferentially lie in the plane perpendicular to activity gradients due to active torques acting on line segments. The average orientation of the defect structures in the plane perpendicular to the line tangent depends on the defect type, where wedge-like +1/2 defects align parallel to activity gradients, while twist defects are aligned anti-parallel. Understanding the response of active nematic fluids to activity gradients is an important step towards applying physical theories to biology, where spatial variations of active stress impact morphogenetic processes in developing embryos and affect flows and deformations in growing cell aggregates, such as tumours.
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Fifty years of ‘More is different’

Nature Reviews Physics Springer Nature 4:8 (2022) 508-510

Authors:

Steven Strogatz, Sara Walker, Julia M Yeomans, Corina Tarnita, Elsa Arcaute, Manlio De Domenico, Oriol Artime, Kwang-Il Goh

Abstract:

August 1972 saw the publication of Philip Anderson’s essay ‘More is different’. In it, he crystallized the idea of emergence, arguing that “at each level of complexity entirely new properties appear” — that is, although, for example, chemistry is subject to the laws of physics, we cannot infer the field of chemistry from our knowledge of physics. Fifty years on from this landmark publication, eight scientists describe the most interesting phenomena that emerge in their fields.
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Self-sustained oscillations of active viscoelastic matter

Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical IOP Publishing 55:27 (2022) 275601

Authors:

Emmanuel LCVIM Plan, Huong Le Thi, Julia M Yeomans, Amin Doostmohammadi

Abstract:

Models of active nematics in biological systems normally require complexity arising from the hydrodynamics involved at the microscopic level as well as the viscoelastic nature of the system. Here we show that a minimal, space-independent, model based on the temporal alignment of active and polymeric particles provides an avenue to predict and study their coupled dynamics within the framework of dynamical systems. In particular, we examine, using analytical and numerical methods, how such a simple model can display self-sustained oscillations in an activity-driven viscoelastic shear flow.
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