First Programming Language for biological Active Material at subcellular level

Amazing stuff!

"Now, powered by insights from computational theory, the team has developed the first "programming language" for active matter, enabling researchers to conduct precise operations in tiny volumes of fluid on the cellular level. The method has major applications in nanotechnology and for studying cell interactions. ...

Cellular skeletons, or cytoskeletons, are shapeshifting networks of tiny protein filaments that enable cells to propel themselves, carry cargo, and divide. The "bones" of the cytoskeleton are thin, tube-like filaments called microtubules that can form together into three-dimensional scaffolds.  ... Along with motor proteins that power movement, these incredibly small structures combine to propel the relatively large cell ...

"Active matter has been a potential new material or resource for bioengineering but has, until this point, been impossible to control," ... "Using theoretical and computational modeling, ... utilized principles of linear superposition—which only hold in specific size regimes—to develop the first programming language for active matter. ... theoretical insight enabled the development of the programming framework." ..."

From the abstract:

"Cells use ‘active’ energy-consuming motor and filament protein networks to control micrometre-scale transport and fluid flows.

Biological active materials could be used in dynamically programmable devices that achieve spatial and temporal resolution that exceeds current microfluidic technologies.

However, reconstituted motor–microtubule systems generate chaotic flows and cannot be directly harnessed for engineering applications.

Here we develop a light-controlled programming strategy for biological active matter to construct micrometre-scale fluid flow fields for transport, separation and mixing.

We circumvent nonlinear dynamic effects within the active fluids by limiting hydrodynamic interactions between contracting motor–filament networks patterned with light.

Using a predictive model, we design and apply flow fields to accomplish canonical microfluidic tasks such as transporting and separating cell clusters, probing the extensional rheology of polymers and giant lipid vesicles and generating mixing flows at low Reynolds numbers.

Our findings provide a framework for programming dynamic flows and demonstrate the potential of active matter systems as an engineering technology."

First Programming Language for Active Material - www.caltech.edu "In 2019, Caltech researchers demonstrated a new method to use light to control active matter—a kind of material made up of individual energy-consuming pieces that act as a whole to create mechanical motion. The process works similarly to how many individual birds form a swarm that seems to move as a whole. In the research, the team focused on active matter in the form of millimeter-sized protein filaments that normally make up a cell's skeleton, or "cytoskeleton.""

Dynamic flow control through active matter programming language (open access)

Fig. 1: Linear superposition quantitatively predicts fluid flow fields induced by optically controlled active matter.