DTU ACTIVE : Key Goals

 

ACTIVE aims at training 14 PhD students in the emerging field of active systems, i.e. systems subjected to nonequilibrium driving forces keeping them away from thermodynamic equilibrium. This relatively new field is rapidly growing in importance and has enormous implications for the understanding of living systems, which represent by far the most complex class of active systems. A particular focus will be on the multiscale organisation of primary metabolism as the essential mechanism to keep living systems out of equilibrium. The links between intramolecular energy transfers, enzyme activity and nutrient exchanges will be analyzed from the perspective of active interactions at the molecular, cellular and population level. The integration of these complementary approaches will lay out more general strategies to study active interactions in mesoscopic systems and provide new insights into the nonequilibrium organisation of life.

ACTIVE will bring together 9 internationally leading research groups in Biology, Physics and Engineering at the University of Luxembourg. The PhD students will have the unique opportunity to work in multidisciplinary and collaborative environment that brings together theory with analytical and computational approaches of active living matter and cutting-edge experiments from life science across various scales (molecular, cellular and population level).

 

ACTIVE will be framed within the broader Complex Living Systems initiative at the University of Luxembourg that aims at joining forces at the interface between Physics and Biology to quantitatively reveal the mechanisms at work in living systems. This initiative perfectly coincides with the national priority research areas, where ACTIVE will further facilitate this successful development and train the next generation of scientists needed for this newly emerging innovative and interdisciplinary research field.