Professor Losert’s research aims to uncover the behavior of complex materials such as sand and the scaffolding that gives cells in our body mechanical strength. These materials exhibit surprising properties. Sand can support our weight when we stand on a sand dune, yet flow reliably enough to be used as a timer. The cell scaffolding can change dynamically and generate forces that allow a cell to move, for example to close a wound or to spread metastatic cancer. Better understanding of the properties of these materials promises to give us more reliable rock avalanche hazard prediction, better control over wound healing, and new approaches to control spreading of cancerous cells.

Planned experimental projects that will involve undergraduate student researchers include:

• Testing a new model of how granular matter mixes. The project involves improving a granular flow system and instrumenting it, high speed imaging of flows, particle tracking, and analysis of particle tracks.
• Response of soft materials to holographic optical tweezer forcing. The student will test how various soft and biomaterials recover from laser tweezer forcing. The mechanical properties and deformation of soft matter is a key aspect of cell motility, and our study aims to elucidate generic properties of driven soft matter
• Response of cells to nanoparticles. In this project the response of model cell systems to a range of nanoparticles will be studied using confocal imaging, optical forcing, and biochemical techniques.

Additional information about this research can be found at http://www.ireap.umd.edu/losertlab and by contacting Professor Losert at (301)405-0629 or wlosert@umd.edu.