Alexis Darras

Macroscopic Haemophysics: physics tools for biomedical insights

Blood handling in biomedical contexts often involves manipulating samples under stasis, where only gravitational and inertial forces are at play. Two key processes, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and cell separation in density gradients, are widely used in clinical diagnostics, yet their underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Recent research in fluid mechanics and colloidal science has provided new explanations for these phenomena, revealing how collective cell behavior, buoyancy-driven self-assembly, and intercellular interactions influence observable outcomes. These insights offer access to previously overlooked information on red blood cell properties, including pathological deformations, with potential implications for diagnostic precision and biomaterial characterization. This seminar will present these findings and discuss their relevance to clinical and biophysical applications.