Davide Marenduzzo

Davide works within the fields of biological physics and soft condensed matter physics.

In biological physics, he is interested in modelling DNA at several levels of complexity, either within bacteria or in eukaryotes, where it is associated with histones to form chromatin, and, at a larger scale, chromosomes. Davide is currently actively researching the spatial organisation of chromosomes, the self-assembly of chromatin fibers and their higher order organisation, and the physics of DNA organisation in bacteria. For all these projects he is using large scale computer simulations, and collaborates with experimentalists in Edinburgh, UK and Europe. Their methods are Brownian dynamics simulations, and they are also working to incorporate hydrodynamic interactions in our molecular dynamics calculations. Davide also has an ongoing interest in modelling cell motility and cytoskeletal dynamics, and the physics of self-propelled particles and active matter. For most of the projects he also has collaborators within physics.

In soft matter, he is interested in liquid crystals and related materials. He is currently working with M. E. Cates, K. Stratford and O. Henrich to develop large scale simulation methods to study emulsions (droplets of water in liquid crystals, or of liquid crystals in water), as well as colloid-liquid crystal composites (also with experimentalists in the group, P. S. Clegg, T. A. Wood, A. C. Pawsey and W. C. K. Poon among others). Projects of interest address the phase beheviour, hydrodynamics, rheology and electric-field switching of these liquid crystal based materials.