About his PhD project

During their development from egg cell to adult, multi-cellular organisms acquire intricate shapes and patterns robustly and in a completely self-organized manner. One of the fundamental processes allowing this is the oriented deformation of involved tissues. From a physical perspective, oriented tissue deformation is possible because living tissues are active materials, i.e. materials that locally transform chemical energy into mechanical energy. However, general physical theories for active materials predict instabilities in oriented deformation processes. Thus, one key question relevant for the development of any animal is: How are such instabilities prevented (or even harnessed) in biological tissues?