BIO

Anne Bernheim is Professor of Chemical Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a BSc in chemical engineering from Technion, an MSc in soft-matter physics from Bordeaux, and a PhD from Technion (with Ishi Talmon), followed by postdoctoral work with Cécile Sykes and Jacques Prost at Institut Curie. Bernheim creates biomimetic model systems to reveal how cytoskeletal active forces sculpt cell and tissue shapes across scales, integrating experiments with modelling.

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Abstract

Living systems from individual cells to entire tissues adopt diverse curved shapes, appearing on many length scales and commonly driven by internal forces generated by molecular motors in the cell cytoskeleton, a self-remodelling active bioGel. Yet, how these internal forces generate specific 3D shapes remains unclear. Here, we present a class of self-designed biogels with shape memory properties that mimic cytoskeletal automorphing behaviour. These active materials autonomously develop internal force gradients that drive spontaneous curvature and surface instabilities. We uncover a set of geometric selection rules that determine the emergent morphologies. Our findings illuminate general principles underlying shape evolution in bioactive matter, suggesting universal strategies for programmable morphogenesis in both synthetic and biological contexts.