Martin A. Fisher School of Physics

Seth Fraden

Professor of Physics

Degree

PhD, Brandeis University, 1987

Research

Our group studies a broad range of topics in Soft Matter. We utilize a variety of methods and approaches covering experiment, theory and simulation. Our research interests lie squarely in the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology and materials science. Our lab is interdisciplinary, but we are also involved in several multi-investigator projects. Current areas of interest are active matter, coupled non-linear chemical oscillators, protein crystallization, microfluidics, colloidal liquid crystals, DNA - colloid self-assembly and DNA origami.

Group Website

Recent PhD Students

Zahra Zarei (2023)

Ian Hunter (2021)

Maria Eleni Moustaka (2021)

James Sheehy (2021)

Ali Aghvami (2020)

Camille Girabawe (2017) “Synchronization In Pairs of Chemical Oscillators”
Present position: Analyst, Data Analytics. Boston, MA

Achini Opathalage (2016) “X-ray Transparent Microfluidics for Protein Crystallization and Biomeneralization”
Present Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

Nate Tompkins (2015) “Synchronization Dynamics of Coupled Chemical Oscillators”
Present Position: Assistant Director of Education, Outreach and Diversity, MRSEC

Ning Li (2015) “Nonlinear Chemical Dynamics and Synchronization”
Present Position: Research Scientist, GNS Healthcare, Cambridge, MA

"Microfluidic Tools to Investigate Protein Crystallization"
Michael Heymann (2014).
Present position: Postdoc, Max Planck Institut for Biochemistry, Germany

Rafael A. Cabanas (2014)
Present Position: Assistant Professor, Bunker Hill Community College

Sathish Akella (2014) “Characterizing Protein Crystal Nucleation”
Present Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Okinawa Inste of Technology, Japan

Šeila Selimović (2010) “Microfluidics for Protein Crystallization and Mapping Phase Diagrams of Aqueous Solutions”
Present Position: AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in Washington, DC, working on science diplomacy issues relating to energy security and sustainability.

Sample of Recent Publications

2018

• “Dynamics of an active nematic under topologically incommensurate confinement”
  Michael M. Norton, Arvind Baskaran, Achini Opathalage, Blake Langeslay, Seth Fraden, Aparna Baskaran and Michael Hagan
  Physical Review E 97, 012702 (2018)
  Supplementary movies”

• “Engineering reaction–diffusion networks with properties of neural tissue”
  Thomas Litschel, Michael M. Norton, Vardges Tserunyan and Seth Fraden
  Lab on a Chip 18, 714 - 722, (2018)
  Supplemental files & movies. DOI: 10.1039/c7lc01187c

2017

• “Transition from turbulent to coherent flows in confined three-dimensional active fluids”
  Kun-Ta Wu, Jean Bernard Hishamunda, Daniel T. N. Chen, Stephen J. DeCamp, Ya-Wen Chang, Alberto Fernández-Nieves, Seth Fraden, Zvonimir Dogic
  Science, eaal1979 (2017); DOI: 10.1126/science.aal1979
  Perspective, Supplemental Materials: Supplement, Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4, Video 5, Video 6, Video 7, Video 8.

• “Rapid prototyping of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) microfluidic devices ”
  S. Ali Aghvami, Achini Opathalage, Z.K. Zhang, Markus Ludwig, Michael Heymann, Michael Norton, Niya Wilkins, Seth Fraden
  Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 247 (2017) 940-949; DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2017.03.023
  Supplemental Materials: Supplement, Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4, Video 5, Video 6, Video 7, Store then create Autocad, Al Mold Layer 1 Solidworks, Al Mold Layer 2 Solidworks, Cover Solidworks, Mold for Ferrule Solidworks.

2016

• “An image-driven drop-on-demand system”
  C. Girabawe, S. Fraden
  Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 238 (2017) 532-539; DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2016.07.065
  Supplemental Materials: Supplement, Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4”

• “Configurable NOR gate arrays from Belousov-Zhabotinsky micro-droplets”
  A.L. Wang, J.M. Gold, N. Tompkins, M. Heymann, K.I. Harrington, S. Fraden
  The European Physical Journal Special Topics 225 (1),211-227 (2016); DOI: 10.1140/epjst/e2016-02622-y
  Supplemental Materials: Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4, Video 5, Matlab Code

• “An inexpensive programmable illumination microscope with active feedback”
  Nathan Tompkins and Seth Fraden
  American Journal of Physics 84, 150 (2016); DOI: 10.1119/1.4935806

2015

• “ATP Consumption of Eukaryotic Flagella Measured at a Single-Cell Level”
  Daniel T. N. Chen, Michael Heymann, Seth Fraden, Daniela Nicastro, and Zvonimir Dogic
  Biophysical Journal 109, 2562-2573 (2015)
  DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2015.11.003

• “Low-Z polymer sample supports for fixed-target serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography”
  G. K. Feld, M. Heymann, W. H. Benner, T. Pardini, C.-J. Tsai, S. Boutet, M. A. Coleman, M. S. Hunter, X. Li, M. Messerschmidt, A. Opthalage, B. Pedrini, G. J. Williams, B. A. Krantz, S. Fraden, S. Hau-Riege, J. E. Evans, B. W. Segelke and M. Frank
  J. Appl. Cryst. 48, 1-8 (2015); DOI 10.1107/S16005767150104933

• “Creation and perturbation of planar networks of chemical oscillators”
  Nathan Tompkins, Matthew Carl Cambria, Adam L. Wang, Michael Heymann, and Seth Fraden
  Chaos 25, 064611 (2015); DOI: 10.1063/1.4922056, Supplement and Video Captions”
  Supplemental Videos: SV1a, SV1d, SV1g, SV1j, SV3a, SV3c, SV4a, SV4b, SV4c, SV4d, SV6a, SV6b, SV6d, SVS1a (PDMS Mold Fabrication), SVS1b (Plastic Master Fabrication), SVS1c (Thin PDMS Device Fabrication), SVS2 (Clamping Procedure)”

• “Tunable diffusive lateral inhibition in chemical cells”
  Ning Li, Nathan Tompkins, Hector Gonzalez-Ochoa and Seth Fraden
  Eur. Phys. J. E 38, 18 (2015); DOI 10.1140/epje/i2015-15018-3

• “A simple and inexpensive device to remove edge beads”
  Markus Ludwig and Seth Fraden
  Chips and Tips, 2015.
  Pdf of blog post. Folder with post, AutoCAD file, movies.”

• “DNA driven self-assembly of micron-sized rods using DNA-grafted bacteriophage fd virions”
  R. R. Unwin, R. A. Cabanas, T. Yanagishima, T. R. Blower, H. Takahashi, G. P. C. Salmond, J. M. Edwardson, S. Fraden and E. Eiser
  Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17, 8194-8202 (2015); Supplement; Movie. DOI: 10.1039/c4cp05405a
  

2014

• “Emulsion-Based Technique To Measure Protein Crystal Nucleation Rates of Lysozyme”
  Sathish V. Akella, Aaron Mowitz, Michael Heymann, and Seth Fraden
  Crystal Growth & Design 14, 4487-4509 (2014); Movies:DOI: 10.1021/cg500562r

• “Cross polarization compatible dialysis chip,”
  Micha Kornreich, Michael Heymann, Seth Fraden and Roy Beck
  Lab on a Chip 14, 3700-3704 (2014); DOI: 10.1039/c4lc00600c

• “Room-temperature serial crystallography using a kinetically optimized microfluidic device for protein crystallization and on-chip X-ray diffraction”
  Michael Heymann, Achini Opthalage, Jennifer L. Wierman, Sathish Akella, Doletha M. E. Szebenyi, Sol M. Gruner and Seth Fraden
  IUCrJ (2014). 1, 349–360; doi:10.1107/S2052252514016960

• “Giant Volume Change of Active Gels under Continuous Flow”
  Ye Zhang, Ning Zhou, Ning Li, Megan Sun, Dongshin Kim, Seth Fraden, Irving R. Epstein, and Bing Xu
  JACS (2014); dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja503665t
  Supplement; movie S1, oscillating gel annulus; movie S2, oscillating gel array.

• “Combined excitatory and inhibitory coupling in a 1D array of Belousov- Zhabotinsky droplets”
  N. Li, J. Delgado, H. O. González-Ochoa, I. R. Epstein and S. Fraden
  Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 16, 10965-10978 (2014); DOI:10.1039/C4CP00957F

• “Testing Turing's Theory of Morphogenesis in Chemical Cells”
  Nathan Tompkins, Ning Li, Camille Girabawe, Michael Heymann, G. Bard Ermentrout, Irving R. Epstein, and Seth Fraden
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, 4397–4402 (2014);
  DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1322005111. Supporting information:
  SI.pdf, SM01.mov, SM02.mov, SM03.mov, SM04.mov, SM05.mov, SM06.mov, SM07.mov

• “Controlling uniformity of photopolymerized microscopic hydrogels”
  Sukho Park, Dongshin Kim, Seong Young Ko, Jong-Oh Park, Sathish Akella, Bing Xu, Ye Zhang and Seth Fraden
  Lab on a Chip, 14 (9), 1551 - 1563 (2014); DOI: 10.1039/c4lc00158c
  Supporting information; Movie S1, Movie S2.