Sector of Biological and Soft Systems (BSS)
The 21st Century promises a major expansion at the interface of physics with the biological sciences and nanotechnology. These are areas which fall outside the conventional boundaries of the scientific disciplines of Chemistry, Physics and Biology, requiring a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach. The Biological and Soft Systems Sector of the Cavendish Laboratory (BSS), formed in 2004, is pursuing such multidisciplinary research. Using techniques and inspirations from classical polymer physics, soft matter physics and the physics of condensed matter, we build on this foundation with exciting progress in protein folding, biomaterials, cell biophysics and nanoscience, using theoretical, computational, and experimental methods. The BSS Sector is ideally placed, with the right expertise, to be a major player in these exciting new areas of science.
BSS is also a significant part of the Physics of Medicine initiative, and much of our research activity now takes place within the new Centre for the Physics of Medicine.
Our Key Strengths are:
News
25 September 2014
Best "Physics at Work" exhibit prize Once again, the BSS exhibit prepared for "Physics at Work" (the annual outreach event for schoolchildren) has been voted as the best in the department! Congratulations and well done to everyone who put their effort and time into this, and a special thanks to Lorenzo Di Michele for coordinating it all. Pietro.
Recent Publications
- Auxetic nuclei in embryonic stem cells exiting pluripotency, S. Pagliara, K. Franze, C. R. McClain, G. W. Wylde, C. L. Fisher, R. J. M. Franklin, A. J. Kabla, U. F. Keyser, and K. J. Chalut, Nature Materials 13 638
- The indole pulse: a new perspective on indole signalling in escherichia coli, H. Gaimster, J. Cama, S. Hernandez-Ainsa, U. F. Keyser, and D. K. Summers, PLoS ONE 9 e93168
- DNA origami based assembly of gold nanoparticle dimers for surface-enhanced Raman scattering, V.V. Thacker, L. O. Hermann, D. O. Sigle, T. Zhang, J. J. Baumberg, and U. F. Keyser, Nature communications 5 3448
- Influence of internal viscoelastic modes on the Brownian motion of a lambda-DNA coated colloid., T. Yanagishima, N. Laohakunakorn, U. F. Keyser, E. Eiser, and H. Tanaka, Soft Matter 10 1738
- All sector publications...
- Intranet Links
- Information for Staff and Students
- Computing
- Related institutions and initiatives
- Cavendish Laboratory
- Electron Microscopy Suite
- Cambridge Nanoscience Centre
- Physics of Medicine