iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

New review from our lab in npj Biological Physics and Mechanics: how fiber network models link filament-scale physics to rigidity, nonlinear elasticity, and force transmission in cells and tissues, and what comes next. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

nature.com

Network models of cytoskeletal and extracellular matrix mechanics - npj Biological Physics and Mechanics

npj Biological Physics and Mechanics - Network models of cytoskeletal and extracellular matrix mechanics

070

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I gave the Pagels Public Lecture at the Aspen Center for Physics this Wednesday, and the recording is now on YouTube: why your knee cartilage doesn't wear out, until it does. Hemingway, phase transitions, and the physics of a remarkable tissue. www.youtube.com/watch?v=io8P...

youtube.com

Why Your Knees Don’t Wear Out (Until They Do)

YouTube video by Aspen Physics

063

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Also wanted to share this new preprint from the Marshall Lab www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... with @wallaceucsf.bsky.social and his recently graduated PhD student Ulises Diaz, that I had a lot of fun collaborating on starting during my sabbatical there a few years ago.

biorxiv.org

Sol-gel Transition Drives Hyper-fast Mixing in a Giant Cell

The cytoplasm is a crowded and dynamic fluid within which cellular building blocks such as mRNA, proteins, or organelles undergo transport and mixing. Although small things like proteins can eventuall...

260

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Last week was a good week for collaborative paper submissions that I have loved being a part of. Check out this bioRxiv preprint with the Labs of Nuris Figueroa and Frank Vernerey at CU Boulder on Stress induced mechanical memory in respiratory mucus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

Stress-Induced Mechanical Memory in Respiratory Mucus: Anisotropy, Network Reorganization, and Directional Transport

Mucus transport is essential for lung health, as ciliated cells constantly propel mucus outward to clear bacteria, viruses, and particles. This defense relies on a material that must be elastic enough...

041

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

It was so much fun co-chairing this workshop!! Plus #NITMB is a wonderful place to do and discuss science at the intersection of Biology & Math/Physics/Engr.

041

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

This past week, @wallaceucsf.bsky.social and I co-organized "Expanding the Palette of Mathematics in Biology" workshop at the @nitmb.bsky.social -- an experiment in interdisciplinary Math + Bio engagement and ideation beyond traditional approaches. www.nitmb.org/expanding-pa...

nitmb.org

Expanding the Palette of Mathematics in Biology

2112

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

I’m deeply honored and humbled to have been elected to the APS Division of Biological Physics (DBIO) Chair Line. DBIO has been my chosen family and professional home for many years, and I’m grateful and excited for the opportunity to serve our wonderfully thoughtful, vibrant community in this role!

1120

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Looking forward to hosting the awesome @haicenbiophy.bsky.social at this Friday's BPPB seminars for an exciting talk!! If you'd like to attend but don't have the zoom details, DM me.

001

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

Dear colleagues, if you are at the Cell Bio 2025, come check out posters by Sam Silliman (board B347) and Ulises Diaz (board B359)-- presenting work with @wallaceucsf.bsky.social and me -- in the Physical Properties of the Cytoplasm session in Exhibit Hall DE today from 2-3.45 pm.

050

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Super excited for today's BPPB seminar... happening now!

010

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

It was such a pleasure hosting Anne Meyer from UR for today’s Physics Colloquium. Her talk was fantastic, and I learned so much. The Q&A that followed—including the many thoughtful questions from students —was great too. Anne and me chatting over ginger tea afterwards + the talk announcement

030

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Dear biophysics friends — the APS DBIO elections are now open! If you are a member, check for an email from directvote.net with the ballot. Please take a moment to vote — our community thrives when we show up. Candidate statements and bios are on the ballot (and I’m on it for Vice Chair).

052

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

This weekend was peak fall at Letchworth State Park, and the weather couldn’t have been better on Sunday — perfect for our annual Lab (+ friends) hike.

080

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Excited to be hosting the BPPB seminar tomorrow after a while (last semester I was teaching during seminar hour). Looking forward to a stimulating talk by Gautam Reddy (Princeton University) on the physics of learning. Hope to see some of you there

031

Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

NSF-Simons NITMB @nitmb.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Are you a mathematician or biologist interested in exploring the potential of mathematical biology? Join us for our upcoming workshop, Expanding the Palette of Mathematics in Biology! Application 🔗 in reply ⬇️

193

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Last night we celebrated my postdoc mentee Jonathan’s send-off! 🎉 An amazing colleague and friend to our lab, his research in the Lab spanned cartilage mechanics, cytoskeletal composites & rigidity transitions, with papers in Science Advances, PNAS Nexus, Soft Matter, Phys Rev Res. We will miss him!

060

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Just back from the 2025 Soft Matter GRC = soft matter summer camp. Talks, discussions & power hour were 🔥! Huge congrats and thanks to Jenny Ross & Meredith Betterton for co-chairing and making it a big success. In 2 yrs I’ll co-chair w/ Eric Dufresne — can't wait! Photo: with GRC and GRS chairs

0161

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Super excited about this new grant from the NSF–Simons NITMB with Wallace Marshall (UCSF)! Our project will use tools from abstract algebra and graph theory to model how mitochondrial networks form, reorganize, and function. #MathBio #Mitochondria #AbstractAlgebra #NITMB #InterdisciplinaryResearch

171

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Low key lab dinner last night to celebrate Keegan’s successful MS thesis defense and Youssof’s successuful PhD 2nd year presentation. Action shots from Youssof’s talk earlier in the day.

050

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

My Physics MS mentee Keegan Tonry defended their thesis today with a clear, thorough talk on spatiotemporal restructuring in active cytoskeletal composites. It’s been great to see them grow and thrive as a researcher and bring this work to fruition. Congrats, Keegan!

030

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

At the Hactive Matter 2025 Workshop (Hackathon) at UCSB, with my collaborators Rae Robertson-Anderson, Megan Valentine, Ryan McGorty and student/postdoc participants

040

Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

BPPB Seminar Series @bppbseminar.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Please join BPPB on Friday July 18 at 11 US Eastern time for talks by Lailai Zhu (Endowing Intelligence in Bionic Active Particles) and Sohan Kale (Mapping Cellular Tractions on Nanonets). For more information and to join our email list, please visit sites.google.com/view/bppb-se....

041

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Just wrapped up 5 intense days at an NIH Innovation Lab on synthetic biology + cancer initiation. Hadn’t been in one in 4 years, forgot how stimulating they can be. Nothing like the thrill of bold, cross-disciplinary ideas with scientists you’ve just met—who may well become your new collaborators

030

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

I’ve recently stepped into the role of Director of our Physics PhD program. Colleagues who’ve served as PhD Program Directors or DGS — I’d love your thoughts on what worked, what didn’t, and what you wish you’d known starting out. Comment, email, or tell me next time we talk (in person or on Zoom).

040

Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

rparthasarathy.bsky.social @rparthasarathy.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

I put together a rough presentation on how US science funding works, for my & neighboring research groups, mainly aimed at grad students. Lots of neat graphs! (Each could be a story of its own...) Quiz questions! I pasted it into a blog post: eighteenthelephant.com/2025/06/11/a...

eighteenthelephant.com

An Informal Overview of US Science Funding

How does public funding for science work in the United States? How much money is there? Who gets it, and how? How much does a graduate student cost? Even normally, science funding is a rich topic w…

042

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Envious that colleagues at the TSRC workshop “Self-assembly in non-equilibrium systems” are hiking Bridal Veil Falls—but with my talk this afternoon, I stayed back to edit slides, + make a Broader Impacts highlight for NSF. I did hike Sunday, so just missing the “talking science while hiking” part!

050

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

End-of-semester Das Lab dinner tonight. I asked what we should toast to, and one of my mentees said, ‘To science.’ Couldn’t have picked a better one."

040

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Had a great time speaking at @RITOsher about our work on cartilage shear mechanics and better models for insight into osteoarthritis. Packed room, lots of thoughtful questions, great conversations— thank you organizers and the NSF. Couldn't have done it #WithoutNSF. www.rit.edu/osher/events...

rit.edu

Pfaudler Lecture Series: RIT's Role in a Better Model to Diagnose and Treat Osteoarthritis | Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Register to attend: https://forms.gle/sTNkvZNgHP6YrxK89Presented by Moumita Das, Associate Professor, RIT School of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science

000

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Some very happy lab news from this past week— Sam has accepted an offer to join the Physics PhD program at Princeton this fall, and Luke will be heading to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for a summer REU in Physics. I’m super proud of and excited for them both! 🎉🎆

060

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Physics and AST spring semester picnic -- collective excitations at low T :)

040

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Super happy for this new paper from a collaboration with Itai Cohen, Jim Sethna, and Bulbul Chakraborty that just came out in Soft Matter. The first author, William Wang, was an undergrad at Cornell (now CS PhD student at Stanford) when he did the work and an absolute joy to discuss and work with.

pubs.rsc.org

Rigidity transitions in anisotropic networks: a crossover scaling analysis

We study how the rigidity transition in a triangular lattice changes as a function of anisotropy by preferentially filling bonds on the lattice in one direction. We discover that the onset of rigidity...

0212

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

So happy and excited to see this work out! …. and to be a part of this cool story. This was a wonderful collaboration with Sophie Dumont, and her mentees Miquel Rosas-Salvans and Caleb Rux, which started when Miquel came to a seminar I gave at UCSF last year. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

SKAP binding to microtubules reduces friction at the kinetochore-microtubule interface and increases attachment stability under force

The kinetochore links chromosomes to spindle microtubules to drive chromosome segregation at cell division. We recently uncovered that the kinetochore…

010

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Das Lab action shots from days 4 and 5 at the #APSSummit25. I (invited) and Keegan spoke in the Biological Active Matter IV session, Jonathan in the Non-Equilibrium Self Assembly and Self Organization II session, and Sam in the Macromolecular Assembly in Cells III: Agency session.

050

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Das Lab action shots from days 1 and 2 at the #APSSummit25. Aravind giving his talk yesterday; Alberto and Soumik giving their talks today; me, Alberto, and Keegan grabbing a quick lunch at the food trucks between sessions (my lunch consisted of churros and boba tea 🙂)

010

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Those of you @ the #APSSummit25 in Anaheim this week, please come check out talks by my mentees and me below. They are all at the Hilton.

171

Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

BPPB Seminar Series @bppbseminar.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Please join us Fri Feb 28 for exciting talks by Clarice Aiello @claricedaiello.bsky.social (Weak magnetic field effects in biology are measurable—accelerated Xenopus embryogenesis in the absence of the geomagnetic field) & Boris Veytsman (Motion of Influenza A virus: The role of irreversibility).

111

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

2/2 With Hao Shi ('13), one of our standout undergraduates (and an informal mentee of mine), who was visiting RIT yesterday to receive an RIT Emerging Leader award! Photos include our provost in an unexpected photobomb and some of my current mentees who joined to celebrate Hao's felicitation :)

040

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

1/2 For a few hours, I set aside all worries to celebrate the achievements of my incredible mentees! With Sam Silliman who has been accepted into several of his top-choice Physics PhD programs (Princeton, UCLA, UT Austin, and Georgia tech), and one of Sam's other mentors.

050

Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

BPPB Seminar Series @bppbseminar.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Please join BPPB Fri Feb 21, for talks by Jingyu Zhang (Long-range genomic loci stochastically assemble into combinatorial forms of chromosome skeleton) & Amaresh Sahu (Geometry and dynamics of drawing tethers from flat lipid membranes). For more info see sites.google.com/view/bppb-se... #biophysics

021

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

2/2 For Capstone Prep, right now I am hosting my colleagues for 5 minute research talks. Plus the class is reading and presenting, in small teams, chapters from this National Academies report about what it means to be a scientist and a researcher nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/1219...

nap.nationalacademies.org

On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research: Third Edition

Read online, download a free PDF, or order a copy in print or as an eBook.

030

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

1/2 This semester, in addition to grad Statistical Mechanics, I am also teaching undergrad Capstone Preparation (which is a new prep for me). For grad Stat Mech, I am once I am using Jim Sethna's Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity which is a great book sethna.lassp.cornell.edu/StatMech/

sethna.lassp.cornell.edu

Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity

0100

Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

BPPB Seminar Series @bppbseminar.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Please join BPPB on Friday January 31 for exciting talks by Tapomoy Bhattacharjee (Physical confinement selectively favours bacterial growth based on cell shape) and Raffaella De Vita (The Vagina Dialogues: Breaking Taboos with Biomechanics). #biophysics

123

Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

BPPB Seminar Series @bppbseminar.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

We have a rotating group of volunteer organizers from the research community. Many of the talks from this series are available on our YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/@bppbseminar...

youtube.com

BPPB Seminar

121

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Excited to welcome two new undergraduate members, Tristan Khiar and Aeden Amatulli, to the Das Lab this semester! Here's a throwback to our Lab dinner last semester—looking forward to many more moments like this!

030

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Happy to be on BlueSky! For my first post, I am excited to share a new collaborative paper combining experiments and simulations, where we used circadian clock proteins to engineer biomaterials with time-programmed self-assembly and disassembly www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Programming scheduled self-assembly of circadian materials - Nature Communications

Harnessing biomolecular systems to endow synthetic materials with life-like properties is a significant challenge. Here, the authors use the biomolecular KaiABC circadian clock proteins to control aut...

0609