Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39880931›Full record

ArticleNature materials2025

Dynamic flow control through active matter programming language.

Fan Yang, Shichen Liu, Heun Jin Lee, Rob Phillips, Matt Thomson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature materials, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Motor-driven microtubule diffusion in a photobleached dynamical coordinate system.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Design rules for controlling active topological defects.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Fan Yang *Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. fy2@caltech.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2248-2026
Shichen Liu *Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Heun Jin LeeDepartment of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Rob PhillipsDivision of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Matt ThomsonDivision of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. mthomson@caltech.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1021-1234

Funding

The Principles of Regulatory, Conformational and Evolutionary AdaptationR35GM118043 · NIGMS · CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · PI ROB PHILLIPS · 2016 to 2026
$7.9M
NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM118043
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Cells use 'active' energy-consuming motor and filament protein networks to control micrometre-scale transport and fluid flows. Biological active materials could be used in dynamically programmable devices that achieve spatial and temporal resolution that exceeds current microfluidic technologies. However, reconstituted motor-microtubule systems generate chaotic flows and cannot be directly harnessed for engineering applications. Here we develop a light-controlled programming strategy for biological active matter to construct micrometre-scale fluid flow fields for transport, separation and mixing. We circumvent nonlinear dynamic effects within the active fluids by limiting hydrodynamic interactions between contracting motor-filament networks patterned with light. Using a predictive model, we design and apply flow fields to accomplish canonical microfluidic tasks such as transporting and separating cell clusters, probing the extensional rheology of polymers and giant lipid vesicles and generating mixing flows at low Reynolds numbers. Our findings provide a framework for programming dynamic flows and demonstrate the potential of active matter systems as an engineering technology.

Indexed as

MicrofluidicsProgramming LanguagesHydrodynamics

Identifiers

PMID39880931
PMCPMC11961363

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.