University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Statistical imaging of transport in complex fluids: a journey from entangled polymers to living cells

Wang, Bo

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Wang_Bo.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/26306

Description

Title
Statistical imaging of transport in complex fluids: a journey from entangled polymers to living cells
Author(s)
Wang, Bo
Issue Date
2011-08-26T15:22:16Z
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Granick, Steve
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Granick, Steve
Committee Member(s)
  • Schweizer, Kenneth S.
  • Cheng, Jianjun
  • Brieher, William M.
Department of Study
Materials Science & Engineerng
Discipline
Materials Science & Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Date of Ingest
2011-08-26T15:22:16Z
Keyword(s)
  • Imaging
  • Statistical Mechanics
  • Diffusion
  • Active Transport
  • Polymers
  • Complex Fluids
  • Living Cells
Abstract
Combining advanced fluorescence imaging, single particle tracking, and quantitative analysis in the framework of statistical mechanics, we studied several transport phenomena in complex fluids with nanometer and millisecond resolution. On the list are diffusion of nanoparticles and vesicles in crowded environments, reptational motion of polymers in entangled semidilute solutions, and active endosome transport along microtubules in living cells. We started from individual trajectories, and then converged statistically to aggregate properties of interests, with special emphasis on the fluctuations buried under the classic mean-field descriptions. The unified scientific theme behind these diversified subjects is to examine, with experiments designed as direct as possible, the commonly believed fundamental assumptions in those fields, such as Gaussian displacements in Fickian diffusion, harmonic confining potential of virtual tubes in polymer entanglements, and bidirectional motion of active intra-cellular transport. This series of efforts led us to discoveries of new phenomena, mechanisms, and concepts. This route, we termed as “statistical imaging”, is expected to be widely useful at studying dynamic processes, especially in those emerging fields at the overlap of physics and biology.
Graduation Semester
2011-08
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26306
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2011 Bo Wang

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