PoL PhD and Postdoc Seminar

Date

Feb 11, 2026

Time

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Series

Physics of Life Seminar

Language

en

Main Topic

Physik

Description

The PoL PhD and Postdoc seminar is a meeting where PoL early career scientists present their research to their peers. All are welcome! 

The seminar consists of two short talks by PhD students or Postdocs, each followed by a discussion in which speaker and attendants can exchange ideas, engage in scientific discussions and network with their fellow young scientists.

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The talks:

• Adam Lamson (Brugués Group) – Modeling large cytoskeletal structures reveals how unstable systems robustly organize embryonic cytoplasm

Embryos reliably partition their cytoplasm into cells using large cytoskeletal structures. Yet the very structures responsible for this process harbor an intrinsic organizational instability. To uncover the rules governing this instability, we developed continuum and high-performance agent-based simulations that reproduce the experimental microtubule density profiles observed in large cytoskeletal structures. By fitting these profiles, we extracted otherwise inaccessible microscopic and phenomenological parameters, identifying a competition between microtubule orientation-dependent inhibition, autocatalytic nucleation, and nucleation from organizing centers. These parameters determine whether a structure is unstable and how long the instability takes to grow. Strikingly, some organisms rely on inherently unstable conditions to efficiently sense the geometry of their space. However, it appears cells tame this innate volatility by having a cell cycle is faster than instability growth. Together, our results show that the interplay between physical instabilities and biological clocks underlies strategies for rapid and robust spatial organization of biological structures.

• Harsharan Kaur (Adams Group) – Molecular Insights into the Water Structure at Oxide Interfaces

Solid-liquid interfaces exist in many biological and environmental systems, where the interfacial water structure and surface chemistry critically influences the reactivity. Despite its importance, extracting the molecular-level insight into water organization at such interfaces under realistic conditions remains a major challenge. Amongst different oxide materials, iron oxides are ubiquitous in nature and widely applied in technological applications, biological contexts, and catalytic processes. Magnetite (Fe₃O₄) is particularly interesting due to its mixed oxidation state, electronic conductivity, and relevance in redox chemistry. On contact with water especially with pH-variant aqueous media, the Fe3O4 surface tend to protonate or deprotonate resulting in the modulation of its surface charge and interfacial structure – a process conceptually analogous to pH-dependent behavior at biological membranes and protein surfaces.

In my talk, I will discuss how water molecules arrange and orient at the magnetite–water interface as a function of pH, using interface-specific vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy. Due to its selection rule, a vibrational spectrum of only the interfacial species is obtained in case of centrosymmetric, making it well suited to studying realistic, life-relevant environments. The results reveal pH-dependent changes in hydrogen-bonding strength, water orientation, and the emergence of surface Fe–OH species under alkaline conditions. By comparing magnetite to hematite (Fe₂O₃), we identify how oxidation state and surface chemistry shape interfacial water structure. These findings provide a molecular-level picture of how water may mediate interactions at complex hydrated interfaces.

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For those who cannot join on site, a Zoom option will be available:

https://tu-dresden.zoom-x.de/j/63359118163?pwd=XNnQgKbbSzWItRfok1GxvDHeVaIS9E.1
Meeting ID: 633 5911 8163
Passcode: @T206x=%

Links

• See this event on the Physics of Life website

Last modified: Feb 11, 2026, 7:39:07 AM