EXC 2068:  Physics of Life - The Dynamic Organization of Living Matter (PoL)

• Subject Area: Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Complex Systems, Soft and Fluid Matter, Biological Physics
• Term: since 2019
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390729961

Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrödinger in his famous book 'What is Life?', posed the following question: "How can the events that take place in space and time and within a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?" Although there has been a growing interest in answering Schrödinger’s question, his vision that the physical principles underlying the spatiotemporal organization of life will form an 'integral part' of biology has not yet been achieved. Indeed, our insights into the mechanics and statistics of living matter, from molecules to cells to tissues, as well as the principles of dynamic self-organization in living systems, remain far behind our understanding of how collections of dead particles are organized. The central aim of our Cluster of Excellence application 'Physics of Life' is to identify principles that govern the dynamic organization of living matter. The time is ripe for a renewed effort to 'unite physics and biology'. Recent advances in cellular biochemistry, genomics and microscopy have promoted a systems approach to biology, and this has attracted a new generation of physicists to biology who seek to explore how physics can contribute to the understanding of life at the scales of molecules, cells and tissues. The research campus in Dresden has been at the forefront of these developments by building successful bridges between the biology and physics research camps. Our Cluster of Excellence application ’Physics of Life’ takes advantage of our unique position. We have selected a synergistic group of researchers from physics, biology and computer science to identify and characterize generic physical concepts and principles that underlie the organization of living matter. We seek to understand living matter as a self-organizing and active form of soft condensed matter. Its exploration will reveal original and new physics, but our focus is to understand dynamic biological self-organization and the mechanisms that determine size and shape of cells and tissues in space and time. We intend to identify and bridge these physical principles of organization across scales. Our achievement will be to understand living systems as physical systems where spatiotemporal structure emerges robustly through energy and matter flows. These insights will allow us to modify, control and re-engineer cells and tissues to form living systems with new properties and behaviors. We will pursue Schrödinger’s vision to identify the 'laws of physics' that underlie the dynamic organization of life from molecules to cells and tissues. This will broaden the scope of non-equilibrium physics and the physics of living matter, and will unravel new paradigms for understanding life. The combined advances in physics and biology are indispensable for reaching a deep understanding of the living state of matter, and we expect the associated insights to help humankind to bring solutions to some of the world’s most pressing bioengineering and health issues.

• DFG Programme: Clusters of Excellence (ExStra)
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Dresden
• Participating Institution: Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR); Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V. (IPF); Max Bergmann Zentrum für Biomaterialien; Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme; Max-Planck-Institut für molekulare Zellbiologie und Genetik (MPI-CBG); Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Zellbiologie und Genetik; Zentrum für Systembiologie Dresden (CSBD)
• Spokespersons: Professor Dr. Otger Campas, since 12/2021; Professorin Dr. Suzanne Eaton, until 7/2019 (†); Professor Dr. Stephan Wolfgang Grill, until 12/2021; Professor Dr. Helmut Schiessel, since 12/2021
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Michael Brand; Professor Dr. Jan Brugués, Ph.D.; Professor Dr.-Ing. Raimund Dachselt; Professor Dr. Christian Dahmann; Professor Dr. Stefan Diez; Professorin Dr. Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich; Professor Dr. Benjamin M. Friedrich; Professor Dr. Jochen Guck; Professor Dr. Anthony A. Hyman; Professor Dr. Frank Jülicher; Professorin Dr. Elisabeth Knust; Professor Dr. Nils Kröger; Professor Dr. Eugene Myers, Ph.D.; Dr. Gaia Pigino; Professor Dr. Ivo Sbalzarini; Professor Dr. Michael Schlierf; Professor Dr. Jens-Uwe Sommer; Professor Dr. Adrian Francis Stewart; Tsing-Young Dora Tang, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Marc Timme, Ph.D.; Dr. Agnes Toth-Petroczy, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Carsten Werner; Professor Dr. Marino Zerial, Ph.D.