Living Matter

Current Focus
- Swimming dynamics of micro- to mesoscale organisms
- Biomechanics of living materials, such as tiny plant roots and immune cells
- Wetting and capillary phenomena
Group members
Group Leader: Prof. Matilda Backholm
Click these links for my contact details and full researcher profile. My public CV is attached below.
Short bio
- Tenure-track Assistant Professor (2022–), Dept. of Applied Physics, Aalto University.
- Postdoc(2015–2017) and Academy of Finland postdoc (2017–2022), Aalto University.
- PhD in Physics, McMaster University, Canada (2015).
- MSc in Nanoscience, Aarhus University, Denmark (2011).
- BSc in Physics, University of Helsinki, Finland (2009).
Grants and awards (selection)
- ERC StG (2023), Research Council of Finland Research Fellowship (2023), grant from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (2023), the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters Väisälä Starting Grant (2023), Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher (2017).
- Hannu Koskinen’s best presentation award at the Finnish Physics Days (2019), the Ruth and Nils-Erik Stenbäck Prize for career accomplishments in science (2017), the McMaster University School of Graduate Studies International Excellence Award (2012 and 2014).
Identifiers: ORCID, WoS, Google scholar
Research Highlights
- Long-term stability of aerophilic metallic surfaces underwater
A. B. Tesler, S. Kolle, L. H. Prado, I. Thievessen, D. Böhringer, M. Backholm, B. Karunakaran, H. A. Nurmi, M. Latikka, L. Fischer, S. Stafslien, Z. M. Cenev, J. V. I. Timonen, M. Bruns, A. Mazare, U. Lohbauer, S. Virtanen, B. Fabry, P. Schmuki, R. H. A. Ras, J. Aizenberg, and W. H. Goldmann
Nature Materials (2023). - Water droplet friction and rolling dynamics on superhydrophobic surfaces
M. Backholm*, D. Molpeceres, M. Vuckovac, H. Nurmi, M. Hokkanen, V. Jokinen, J.V.I. Timonen, and R.H.A. Ras
Communications Materials 1, 64(2020). - Viscosity-enhanced droplet motion in sealed superhydrophobic capillaries
M. Vuckovac, M. Backholm, J.V.I. Timonen, and R.H.A. Ras
Science Advances 6, eaba5197 (2020).
[Highlighted by 12 news outlets, such as Physics Today and Physics World.] - Micropipette force sensors for in vivo force measurements on single cells and multicellular microorganisms
M. Backholm*, and O. Bäumchen
Nature Protocols 14, 594–615 (2019).
[Highlighted by 10 news outlets, including Science Daily, Phys.org, EurekAlert, ScienMag, TodayChan, and Göttinger Tageblatt] - Tangling of tethered swimmers: Interactions between two nematodes
M. Backholm, R. D. Schulman, W. S. Ryu, and K. Dalnoki-Veress
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 138101 (2014).
[Editor's Suggestion, Highlighted by PRL Editorial] - Viscoelastic properties of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a self-similar, shear-thinning worm
M. Backholm, W. S. Ryu, and K. Dalnoki-Veress
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (PNAS) 110, 4528-4533 (2013).
News
Tiny organisms, big discoveries: How swarming shrimp could influence a new wave of ‘mesorobotics’
Aalto researcher aims to understand the complex movement of brine shrimp—a gateway to physics on an unfamiliar scale

Funding granted for research into physics of microscopic plant roots
The aim is to create a new micromechanical tool to better understand how root mechanics arise from cells and how living materials like plant roots adapt to external stresses

Professor Matilda Backholm: Between the micro and the macro
Driven by curiosity, new Department of Applied Physics professor Matilda Backholm studies the physics of the mesoscale.

In September, 15 new Academy Researcher Fellows will start at Aalto
The Academy of Finland has granted Aalto University funding for 15 Academy Research Fellowships

When honey flows faster than water
Physicists surprised to find that in specially coated tubes, the more viscous a liquid is, the faster it flows

Measuring forces of living cells and microorganisms
Force sensors to study living cells and microorganisms with extraordinary precision

All publications
Probing surface wetting across multiple force, length and time scales
Force-Based Wetting Characterization of Stochastic Superhydrophobic Coatings at Nanonewton Sensitivity
Water droplet friction and rolling dynamics on superhydrophobic surfaces
Ferrofluid Microdroplet Splitting for Population-Based Microfluidics and Interfacial Tensiometry
Viscosity-enhanced droplet motion in sealed superhydrophobic capillaries
Micropipette force sensors for in vivo force measurements on single cells and multicellular microorganisms
Designed inorganic porous nanovector with controlled release and MRI features for safe administration of doxorubicin
Wetting of ferrofluids
Absence of single critical dose for the amorphization of quartz under ion irradiation
Oscillating Ferrofluid Droplet Microrheology of Liquid-Immersed Sessile Droplets
Slippery and never wet
Partitioning of caffeine in lipid bilayers reduces membrane fluidity and increases membrane thickness
Cross-Linked Hydrogels Formed through Diels-Alder Coupling of Furan- and Maleimide-Modified Poly(methyl vinyl ether-alt-maleic acid)
Amyloid-beta(25-35) peptides aggregate into cross-beta sheets in unsaturated anionic lipid membranes at high peptide concentrations
The effects of viscosity on the undulatory swimming dynamics of C. elegans
The nematode C. elegans as a complex viscoelastic fluid
Capillary levelling of a cylindrical hole in a viscous film
Tangling of Tethered Swimmers: Interactions between Two Nematodes
Direct Measurements of Drag Forces in C. elegans Crawling Locomotion
Dynamic force patterns of an undulatory microswimmer
Undulatory microswimming near solid boundaries
Roughness scaling in titanium thin films: A three-dimensional molecular dynamics study of rotational and static glancing angle deposition
Viscoelastic properties of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a self-similar, shear-thinning worm
Relaxation and intermediate asymptotics of a rectangular trench in a viscous film
Roughness of glancing angle deposited titanium thin films: an experimental and computational study
Amorphization of alpha-quartz and comparative study of defects in amorphized quartz and Si nanocrystals embedded in amorphous silica
- Published:
- Updated: