Abstract

Biological interfaces organise animal life at various scales. Cell organelles or in the cell envelop, lipid membranes and cortical layers determine the mechanical properties and provide structural integrity, but at the same time are required to be malleable to drive or accommodate dramatic remodelling events. Mechanically, these interfaces exhibit features of solids and of fluids, are chemically responsive, and can generate active forces. Mathematically, they can be modelled using partial differential equations on time-evolving surfaces. In this talk I will present our efforts to develop a transparent modelling framework and numerical methods for the chemo-elasto-hydrodynamics of such systems, with applications to dynamical shape transformations of lipid bilayers and thin active fluids.