From the animal blood circulatory systems to the plant xylem and phloem, distribution networks deliver load and remove waste, while adapting to competing evolutionary pressures that require them to be cheap to build, yet robust and efficient in delivering the flow.
My group and I seek to uncover the physical principles behind the function and development of these complex biological flow systems. We want to understand how the connectivity and hierarchical nature of the networks lead to new emergent properties that could not have been predicted by detailed knowledge of the performance and behavior of an individual link.
MRFN.org is supported by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation. Image in the header is courtesy of CRISP MRSEC.
