Recently Prof Hirst authored a News and Views in Nature focussed on two exciting articles about the cell epithelium as active matter.
“Evidence has been found that a biological tissue might behave like a liquid crystal. Even more remarkably, topological defects in this liquid-crystal system seem to influence cell behaviour. A materials physicist and a biologist discuss what the findings mean for researchers in their fields”.
Read the full article here
Biological physics: Liquid crystals in living tissue