Networks

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. We are interested in understanding the principles behind the function and development of vascular systems, like the one in our body.

When it works well, we hardly notice it is there, but when our circulatory system fails to do its job, disease quickly ensues. We know a lot about how the circulatory system functions at the level of an individual vessel, but we know very little what happens when vessels connect in complicated ways, to build the hierarchical network that is our vasculature. Our research focuses in understanding these collective effects and in what ways the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We use physics to gain insight on how vascular systems in plants and animals operate and think of new ways to control them.

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