Soft matter and biological physics: The Safran group focuses on theoretical studies of the structure, phase behavior and dynamics of biological cells and their relation to the soft matter, physical properties of membranes, macromolecules, and colloids, using the approaches of coarse-grained, statistical thermodynamics and dynamics. Through our interactions with experimental groups, the theory is applied to problems such as: cell volume determination, phase separation and chromatin organization at the nuclear scale, and spontaneous oscillations of cardiomyocytes.
