Seeing nature through a molecular engineer’s eye
Researchers have long studied the mechanism that causes blood to form clots in response to a wound, but new aspects came to light once MIT’s Alfredo Alexander-Katz began looking into the complex, dynamic process. It turns out that when blood suddenly begins to flow more rapidly, as it does when tissue is cut, this disrupts a delicate balance between molecules that lead to clotting and others that prevent it. Clotting is thus a carefully choreographed mechanism that depends on both the hydrodynamics of the flow and the biochemistry of the molecules, and the interactions between the two. This kind of discipline-straddling work has been a hallmark of Alexander-Katz’s research. Working at the interface between the physics of dynamical processes and the chemistry and biology of natural systems, he and his students keep finding entirely new phenomena, including some that occur in plain sight. Observing nature and learning from it comes naturally to him....