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Ricard Alert
The Physics of Living Matter
PUBLICATIONS
Discontinuous Transition to Active Nematic Turbulence
Malcolm Hillebrand and Ricard Alert
arXiv (2025)
Active Screws: Emergent Active Chiral Nematics of Spinning Self-Propelled Rods
Debarghya Banerjee and Ricard Alert
arXiv (2024)
Dynamical arrest in active nematic turbulence
Ido Lavi, Ricard Alert, Jean-François Joanny, and Jaume Casademunt
arXiv (2024)
Buckling by disordered growth
Rahul G. Ramachandran, Ricard Alert, and Pierre A. Haas
Phys. Rev. E 110, 054405 (2024)
Capillary interactions drive the self-organization of bacterial colonies
Matthew E. Black*, Chenyi Fei*, Ricard Alert, Ned S. Wingreen, and Joshua W. Shaevitz
bioRxiv (2024)
Nonlinear spontaneous flow instability in active nematics
Ido Lavi, Ricard Alert, Jean-François Joanny, and Jaume Casademunt
arXiv (2024)
Flocking by Turning Away
Suchismita Das, Matteo Ciarchi, Ziqi Zhou, Jing Yan, Jie Zhang, and Ricard Alert
Phys. Rev. X 14, 031008 (2024)
Optogenetic generation of leader cells reveals a force-velocity relation for collective cell migration
Leone Rossetti, Steffen Grosser, Juan Francisco Abenza, Léo Valon, Pere Roca-Cusachs, Ricard Alert, and Xavier Trepat
Nat. Phys. 20, 1659 (2024)
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Local polar order controls mechanical stress and triggers layer formation in Myxococcus xanthus colonies
Endao Han, Chenyi Fei, Ricard Alert, Katherine Copenhagen, Matthias D. Koch, Ned S. Wingreen, and Joshua W. Shaevitz
Nat. Commun. 16, 952 (2025)
Frictiotaxis underlies focal adhesion-independent durotaxis
Adam Shellard*, Kai Weißenbruch*, Peter A.E. Hampshire*, Namid R. Stillman, Christina Dix, Richard Thorogate, Albane Imbert, Guillaume Charras, Ricard Alert, and Roberto Mayor
Nat. Commun. 16, 8311 (2025)
World View: How to bridge the gap between theory and experiments in biological physics
Xavier Trepat and Ricard Alert
Nat. Phys. 19, 1738 (2023)
Stiffness-dependent active wetting enables optimal collective cell durotaxis
Macià-Esteve Pallarès*, Irina Pi-Jaumà*, Isabela Corina Fortunato, Valeria Grazu, Manuel Gómez-González, Pere Roca-Cusachs, Jesus M. de la Fuente, Ricard Alert, Raimon Sunyer, Jaume Casademunt, and Xavier Trepat
*Equal contributions
Nat. Phys. 19, 279 (2023)
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Curvature induces active velocity waves in rotating spherical tissues
Tom Brandstätter*, David B. Brückner*, Yu Long Han, Ricard Alert, Ming Guo, and Chase P. Broedersz
*Equal contributions
Nat. Commun. 14, 1643 (2023)
Cellular Sensing Governs the Stability of Chemotactic Fronts
Ricard Alert, Alejandro Martínez-Calvo, and Sujit S. Datta
Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 148101 (2022)
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Collective durotaxis of cohesive cell clusters on a stiffness gradient
Irina Pi-Jaumà, Ricard Alert, and Jaume Casademunt
Eur. Phys. J. E 45, 7 (2022)
Self-assembly of tessellated tissue sheets by expansion and collision
Matthew A. Heinrich*, Ricard Alert*, Abraham E. Wolf*, Andrej Košmrlj, and Daniel J. Cohen
*Equal contributions
Nat. Commun. 13, 4026 (2022)
Active Turbulence
Ricard Alert, Jaume Casademunt, and Jean-François Joanny
Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 13, 143 (2022)
Morphogenesis and cell ordering in confined bacterial biofilms
Qiuting Zhang, Jian Li, Japinder Nijjer, Haoran Lu, Mrityunjay Kothari, Ricard Alert, Tal Cohen, and Jing Yan
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2107107118 (2021)
Scaling Regimes of Active Turbulence with External Dissipation
Berta Martínez-Prat*, Ricard Alert*, Fanlong Meng, Jordi Ignés-Mullol, Jean-François Joanny, Jaume Casademunt, Ramin Golestanian, and Francesc Sagués
*Equal contributions
Phys. Rev. X 11, 031065 (2021)
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Chemotactic smoothing of collective migration
Tapomoy Bhattacharjee*, Daniel B. Amchin*, Ricard Alert*, Jenna A. Ott, and Sujit S. Datta
*Equal contributions
eLife 11, e71226 (2022)
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Active phase separation by turning towards regions of higher density
Jie Zhang*, Ricard Alert*, Jing Yan, Ned S. Wingreen, and Steve Granick
*Equal contributions
Nat. Phys. 17, 961 (2021)
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Size-dependent patterns of cell proliferation and migration in freely-expanding epithelia
Matthew A. Heinrich, Ricard Alert, Julienne M. LaChance, Tom J. Zajdel, Andrej Košmrlj, and Daniel J. Cohen
eLife 9, e58945 (2020)
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Topological defects promote layer formation in Myxococcus xanthus colonies
Katherine Copenhagen*, Ricard Alert*, Ned S. Wingreen, and Joshua W. Shaevitz
*Equal contributions
Nat. Phys. 17, 211 (2021)
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Nonuniform growth and surface friction determine bacterial biofilm morphology on soft substrates
Chenyi Fei, Sheng Mao, Jing Yan, Ricard Alert, Howard A. Stone, Bonnie L. Bassler, Ned S. Wingreen, and Andrej Košmrlj
Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 7622 (2020)
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Universal scaling of active nematic turbulence
Ricard Alert, Jean-François Joanny, and Jaume Casademunt
Nat. Phys. 16, 682 (2020)
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University of Barcelona Research News
SINC Agency (Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas)
Physical Models of Collective Cell Migration
Ricard Alert and Xavier Trepat
Annu. Rev. Condens. Matt. Phys. 11, 77 (2020)
Active Fingering Instability in Tissue Spreading
Ricard Alert, Carles Blanch-Mercader, and Jaume Casademunt
Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 088104 (2019)
Role of Substrate Stiffness in Tissue Spreading: Wetting Transition and Tissue Durotaxis
Ricard Alert and Jaume Casademunt
Langmuir 35, 7571 (2019)
Active wetting of epithelial tissues
Carlos Pérez-González*, Ricard Alert*, Carles Blanch-Mercader, Manuel Gómez-González, Tomasz Kolodziej, Elsa Bazellieres, Jaume Casademunt, and Xavier Trepat
*Equal contributions
Nat. Phys. 15, 79 (2019)
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Mixed-order phase transition in a colloidal crystal
Ricard Alert, Pietro Tierno, and Jaume Casademunt
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 114, 12906 (2017)
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Fluidization and Active Thinning by Molecular Kinetics in Active Gels
David Oriola*, Ricard Alert*, and Jaume Casademunt
*Equal contributions
Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 088002 (2017)
Emergent structures and dynamics of cell colonies by contact inhibition of locomotion
Bart Smeets, Ricard Alert, Jiri Pešek, Ignacio Pagonabarraga, Herman Ramon, and Romaric Vincent
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 113, 14621 (2016)
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Research News of the University of Barcelona
SINC Agency (Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas)
Formation of metastable phases by spinodal decomposition
Ricard Alert, Pietro Tierno, and Jaume Casademunt
Nat. Commun. 7, 13067 (2016)
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Bleb Nucleation through Membrane Peeling
Ricard Alert and Jaume Casademunt
Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 068101 (2016)
Model for Probing Membrane-Cortex Adhesion by Micropipette Aspiration and Fluctuation Spectroscopy
Ricard Alert, Jaume Casademunt, Jan Brugués, and Pierre Sens
Biophys. J. 108, 1878 (2015)
Landscape-Inversion Phase Transition in Dipolar Colloids: Tuning the Structure and Dynamics of 2d Crystals
Ricard Alert, Jaume Casademunt, and Pietro Tierno
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 198301 (2014)
Editors' suggestion
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Materials 360 by the Materials Research Society
Research News of the University of Barcelona
SINC Agency (Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas)
La Caixa foundation (PhD fellows)
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