Abstract

Living systems, like cells, the cytoskeletal networks that actuate them, and the tissues that they form exhibit complex behavior, that arises from internal energy consumption and collective interactions far from equilibrium. Their non-living analogs, like suspensions of artificial micro swimmers, and swarms of micro robots offer conceptually elegant and engineered alternatives for understanding this physics, and its applications. Overall, recent years have witnessed remarkable progress in understanding the physical principles that govern organization and dynamics in soft and living matter systems [1-6]. This mini-colloquium will bring together experimental, theoretical, and computational researchers to explore emergent phenomena in soft and living matter systems. Topics will span the collective dynamics of cytoskeletal filaments, self-assembling biomolecules, synthetic soft stimuli-responsive systems, active colloids, active and topological polymers, swimmers, and polymer networks. Emphasis will be on how complex behavior emerges from simple components under non-equilibrium conditions. Contributions from both biological and synthetic soft matter communities will foster cross-disciplinary dialogue and highlight common mechanisms underlying self-organization, pattern formation, and dynamic functionality in living and lifelike systems. The goal is to highlight cross-disciplinary advances, compare mechanisms across scales, and identify future directions where bio-inspired or biomimetic strategies intersect with non-equilibrium physics.

REFERENCES

[1] Cates, M. E., & Tailleur, J. (2015). Motility-induced phase separation. Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys., 6(1), 219-244.
[2] Sinha, S. (2024). Soft and living matter: a perspective. The European Physical Journal Special Topics, 233(21), 3173-3183.
[3] Chan, B., & Rubinstein, M. (2024). Activity-driven chromatin organization during interphase: Compaction, segregation, and entanglement suppression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(21), e2401494121.
[4] Camerin, F., Polimeni, M., Stradner, A., Zaccarelli, E., & Schurtenberger, P. (2025). Electrostatics and viscosity are strongly linked in concentrated antibody solutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(40), e2425974122.
[5] Mertz, D., Sandre, O., & Begin-Colin, S. (2017). Drug releasing nanoplatforms activated by alternating magnetic fields. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-General Subjects, 1861(6), 1617-1641.
[6] Needleman, D., Dogic, Z. Active matter at the interface between materials science and cell biology. Nat Rev Mater, 17048 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2017.48
[7] Fürthauer, S., Shelley, M. J., How Cross-Link Numbers Shape the Large-Scale Physics of Cytoskeletal Materials, Ann Rev Cond Matt Phys 13, 365-384 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-052521-093943 (2022) 

Organizers

Name	Affiliation
Emanuela Bianchi	TU Wien
Sebastian Fürthauer	TU Wien
Roberto Cerbino	University of Vienna
Christoph Dellago	University of Vienna
Sofia Kantorovich	University of Vienna
Christos Likos	University of Vienna