Silke Henkes
Leiden, NL
Matthias Merkel
Marseille, FR
Marko Popović
Dresden, DE
Phases of Collective Cellular Behavior: Rheology, Order & Feedback
International Workshop
5 - 9 October 2026
The intersection of biology and physics is revealing profound questions about how living systems—operating far from equilibrium—organize, move, and develop. Active matter physics, merging non-equilibrium mechanics, soft matter, and hydrodynamics, seeks to explain how collective cellular behavior gives rise to development and regeneration in organisms.
This workshop explores three themes:
- Phases of active matter in cellular systems.
- Rheology of living tissues, linking cellular activity to viscoelasticity in processes like morphogenesis and cancer.
- Mechano-chemical feedback driving self-organization and robust pattern formation.
The goal is to bridge experimental and theoretical approaches for a unified framework of collective cellular function.
Topics include
- Active matter
- Collective cell behavior
- Tissue mechanics
- Mechano-chemical feedback
- Out-of-equilibrium systems
- Phase transitions in living systems
- Jamming and unjamming
- Morphogenesis
- Self-organization
- Pattern formation
- Hydrodynamics of active systems
Confirmed invited speakers
Fridtjof Brauns (DE)
Otger Campàs (DE)
Guillaume Charras (UK)
Hélène Delanoë-Ayari (FR)
Amin Doostmohammadi (DK)
Natalie Dye (SG)
Yoël Forterre (FR)
François Graner (FR)
Edouard Hannezo (AT)
Kinneret Keren (IL)
Sangwoo Kim (CH)
Matej Krajnc (SI)
Léa-Laetitia Pontani (FR)
Jan Rozman (SI)
Jean-François Rupprecht (FR)
Guillaume Salbreux (CH)
Rastko Sknepnek (UK)
Peter Sollich (DE)
Sham Tlili (FR)
Xavier Trepat (ES)
