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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Materials Science & Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Wang, Bo

Contributors dc:contributor

• Granick, Steve
• Schweizer, Kenneth S.
• Cheng, Jianjun
• Brieher, William M.

• Imaging
• Statistical Mechanics
• Diffusion
• Active Transport
• Polymers
• Complex Fluids
• Living Cells

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 Bo Wang

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

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

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/26306