Fields, Forces, and Flows in Biological Systems
Molecular diffusion, diffusion-reaction, conduction, convection in biological systems; fields in heterogeneous media; electrical double layers; Maxwell stress tensor, electrical forces in physiological systems. Fluid and solid continua: equations of motion useful for porous, hydrated biological tissues. Case studies of membrane transport, electrode interfaces, electrical, mechanical, and chemical transduction in tissues, convective-diffusion/reaction, electrophoretic, electroosmotic flows in tissues/MEMs, and ECG. Electromechanical and physicochemical interactions in cells and biomaterials; musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and other biological and clinical examples. Prior undergraduate coursework in transport recommended.
Fall 2015
Topics
- Course introduction, overview, and objectives
- Introduction to random processes; Boltzmann distribution and statistical thermodynamics
- Diffusion as a random walk; Stokes-Einstein relation for diffusion coefficient
- Constitutive equations for diffusion (Fick’s Laws); Conservation of mass for a control volume; Differential form; Steady diffusion (1D); Boundary conditions
- Diffusion and reaction; Reaction rates, order, molecularity and mechanisms; Scaling and the Damköhler number; Solution procedures
- Examples of diffusion-reaction: Diffusion of a ligand through tissue with cell receptor-ligand interactions; Diffusion-reaction kinetics
- Case study: IGF-1 diffusion-reaction within tissues and cell seeded scaffolds; binding to IGF binding proteins & cell surface receptors; experimental methods
- E-fields and transport; Maxwell’s equations
- Define electrical potential; conservation of charge; Electro-quasistatics
- Laplacian solutions via Separation of Variables; Electric field boundary conditions; Ohmic transport; Charge Relaxation; Electrical migration vs. chemical diffusive fluxes
- Electrochemical coupling; Electrical double layers; Poisson–Boltzmann Equation
- Donnan equilibrium in tissues, gels, polyelectrolyte networks
- Charge group ionization & electro-diffusion-reaction in molecular networks
- Case study: Charged protein transport in charged tissues & gels; Donnan partitioning, diffusion-reaction in extracellular matrix; experimental methods
- Conservation of mass and momentum in fluids; convective solute transfer
- Viscous stress-strain rate relations; Navier–Stokes equations
- Low Reynolds number flows; Stokes equation; Scaling and dimensional analysis
- Newtonian, fully developed low Reynolds number flows
- Diffusion and convection; The Peclet number; Convection-diffusion-reaction and boundary layers
- Concentration boundary layers: Fully-developed flow and transport
- Capillary electroosmosis: Theory and experiments
- MEMs, microfluidics + electrokinetics, cells and hydrogels; (with guest lecture)
- Electrophoresis, chromatography and extracellular matrix biochemistry
- DLVO theory: Double layer repulsion and molecular interactions (proteins, DNA, GAGs)
- Porous media flows: Extracellular and intracellular
- Cell / molecular electrokinetics; review of term paper project
Readings
- Reading assignments are from the required course textbook:
- Chapter 1: Chemical Transport in Electrolyte Media
- Chapter 2: Electric Fields and Flows in Electrolyte Media
- Chapter 3: Electrochemical Coupling and Transport
- Chapter 5: Newtonian Fluid Mechanics
- Chapter 7: Rheology of Biological Tissues and Polymeric Biomaterials
- Chapter 6: Electrokinetics: MEMS, NEMS, and Nanoporous Biological Tissues
- Truskey, George A., Fan Yuan, and David F. Katz. Transport Phenomena in Biological Bystems . Pearson, 2009. ISBN: 9780131569881.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as 2.795[J] , 6.4832J, 10.539[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2015
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.