PDE Problems in Thin Filament Hydrodynamics

Prof. Laurel Ohm
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Many fundamental biophysical processes, from cell division to cellular motility, involve dynamics of thin structures immersed in a very viscous fluid. Various popular models have been developed to describe this fluid-structure interaction mathematically, but much of our understanding of these models is at the level of numerics and formal asymptotics. Here we will discuss some of the interesting issues that arise in developing the PDE theory of thin filament hydrodynamics, as well as the insights this analysis perspective can shed on the underlying biophysics.