Directional Motion of Soft Colloids: Fundamentals to Application

The Tappan Zee Local Section of AIChE is proud to present a talk from Dr. Ambika Somasundar of Manhattan University on colloids and soft matter. Please join us to learn more about her work in this area, followed by networking with area students and professionals in the chemical sciences.  Pizza and beverages will be provided. 

Directional motion is crucial for the survival of living systems. It enables cells to move towards food, away from toxins, coordinate collective behavior and transport cargo. In this talk, Dr. Somasundar aims to answer the research question: How can we steer soft colloids and protocells directionally in a controlled manner? In doing so, she will examine and discuss the various potential mechanisms of transport of colloids and discuss solute-phospholipid interactions based chemotaxis as a potentially new and previously unrecognized mechanism of transport of biological colloids. Then, she will show how one of the transport mechanisms can be harnessed to transport particles into a biofilm as a starting point or potential method to manage and eradicate biofilms.

Please register for the meeting in advance.