Physicist-chemist emphasizing convergence

Talking about the awards, Director Granick said, “It is not common to get these awards, one in physics and one in chemistry. But that is the interdisciplinary work that we specialize in. We are curious about the whole world. If you open your eyes, you don’t see a separation between different disciplines, so it makes sense to work in different fields.” He studied sociology as an undergraduate, but changed his research field to chemistry as he thought that the way to do science is rather defined. When he became a professor, he started working in many different fields. He believes that he would have had to say no to too many problems that could be interesting if he had wanted to just work on one thing.
This philosophy is also reflected in the direction of his Center, for it conducts research on not a single particular field but various fields related to our daily lives. In fact, soft matter is about the physics of daily life, about discovering the underlying simplicities in daily life, complex though it is.
When Director Granick was asked to explain his research field, he said, “To me it is whatever is interesting. If something is interesting, we should study it.” He added, “It occurred to me that in the 21st century we should study not only inanimate matter (soft matter such as polymer, water, etc.) but also life. I do not want to compete with biologists, but still, we should try to make a bridge between natural science and biological science.” For instance, juice is a liquid with floating matter. In order to study how to thoroughly mix the solute and solvent of the juice, polymer science and colloid science should be related. “It is daily life,” Director Granick added. “We want to understand the world we see around us. There are so many things in this world that no one understands very well. We want to contribute to the world by attempting to improve this understanding. We don’t have a rigid program; rather we are following discovery type of research. But we know from experience that when scientists understand daily life better, there are technologies that can be improved as a consequence.”
Director Granick has placed a special emphasis on research that transcends the scope of a single discipline. His Center also takes a highly interdisciplinary approach. “To understand it completely, we have to use all disciplines,” he said. He tries to avoid questions that many others have already worked on. He believes that it is important to choose unexplored problems where his research can make a difference. In other words, he does interdisciplinary research because he can find new things and thus improve the world.
The Center regards recruitment of talented people as the most important necessity for interdisciplinary research. Director Granick said he works very hard to find senior scientists and group leaders who are smarter than he and also have different backgrounds and the personality to talk to each other. He believes that when smart people who know different things have debates and explain their ideas, they will formulate new and interesting questions.
“I think the best recipe to be creative is don’t tell people what to do. Just find good people and let them figure out what they should do.
This is what very special about IBS.” He also said, “Korea invests in long-term questions, not just short-term, engineering solutions. And the country is very wise in having such a big ambition these days especially when other countries are becoming less ambitious.”

Molecules in a cell have intelligence?

a. Trajectories of endosomes in live cells. Cargo is transported along microtubules dragged by molecular motors.
b. Microtubules extend in multiple directions and cross paths to form networks. Multiple motors can change transport directionality by binding simultaneously to work as a team.
c. A representative trajectory with runs, turns and flights.
© Kejia Chen et al. / Nature Materials

The Center recently released an interesting finding on the movement of matter in cells. To be specific, it found a movement pattern called “Lévy walk,” through which molecular matter, which lacks intelligence, efficiently searches and moves toward a destination as if having intelligence. This finding was published on Nature Materials on March 30th.
Scientists have long studied how a cell moves matter to a target destination. This is like knowing how a mail carrier delivers mail to a destination. Research in the past concentrated on how the delivery vehicle operated, while little research was conducted to understand the road map through which the mail reached the desired destination. The Center grew interested in the delicate mechanism by which matter in a cell could be delivered to its final destination. The Lévy walk is a term coined after the French mathematician Paul Lévy. When finding food, animals such as honey bees, jelly fish, sharks, or human beings move within a region changing directions irregularly and frequently but sometimes going a long distance. Such random behavior patterns or phenomena are called Lévy walk. This research is significant in that the Lévy walk is found in movements of molecular matter that does not have intelligence or memory while the premise of the pattern revealed thus far was the intelligence of animals. The Center paid attention to the movements of molecular motors that transport matter in a cell. Molecular motors are proteins that control the various operations (cell division, intracellular transport, cell movement, etc.) required to maintain the function of a cell. They deliver matter like ions, sugar, and amino acids to a particular place through microtubules stretched like a road network within a cell. Microtubules, a kind of protein fiber in the shape of a hollow cylinder, keep the cytoskeleton consistent and are involved in cell migration.
Researchers at the Center observed the movements of the “cargo,” endosomes in a living cell, dragged by molecular motors and found that the motors showed a pattern in which they would randomly and cautiously look around but occasionally move a long distance.
It was found that this Lévy walk was caused by a tendency in the direction of movement. In other words, the direction frequently changes when searching and moving within a close area while there is a tendency to keep moving toward a goal if the goal is in a remote place.
Talking about the functional advantages of the Lévy walk, Director Granick said, “I was surprised and charmed to learn that molecular motors don’t have to run on gasoline or electricity.” The Lévy walk is a far more efficient way for cells to find places they need to go as it allows the quick and random searching until cells find the right place than could be done by the slower Brownian motion. He explains how the Lévy walk is different from Brownian motion: Brownian motion is like when you put some milk very carefully into coffee and don’t stir it. You will see the milk mix very slowly. If we stir, it mixes much faster. That is the Lévy walk and it is one way that nature has discovered to stir the contents of our cells.
The “Lévy walk” research was supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) and it is also the result of collaborative work with researchers of the University of Illinois. The research began in an interesting way. Director Granick said, “I did not work on cells until I met an excellent Illinois university student, Bo Wang (2nd author) who is now a Stanford University professor with his own laboratory. To find a way to interest him so he would work with me, we began looking inside living cells. That led to the paper.” He said the paper simply shows how interdisciplinary research works. “Bo Wang worked very closely with the first author, who is expert in statistics and mathematical analysis modeling, to make the final paper. It was imperative to have them work together. One discipline could not have done it.”

Fresh stimulation to the scientific community in Korea

Researchers from around the world are working at the Center for Soft and Living Matter. Director Granick hopes that talented people with various backgrounds will join the Center

The Center expects to continue interdisciplinary research as scientists with various backgrounds continue joining. According to Director Granick, Professor Amblard from a renowned lab in Paris, theoretical physicist Dr. Tlusty from the Princeton Institute of Advanced Study in the U.S., Dr. Grzybowski from Northwestern University in the U.S., and Professor Yoonkyoung Cho of UNIST have newly joined the Center. Professor Amblard majored in mathematics, biology, and physics; Dr. Grzybowski majored in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology; and Professor Cho is a nanomedicine expert who has 10 years of experience of DNA chip R&D at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.
Director Granick said, “These smart people will decide which direction our Center’s research will go in the future,” and stressed, “It is not I but we, our scientists who decide the direction.” His Center will also work on biologically inspired research. For example, blinking our eyes is a way to lubricate our eyes. Water seems so simple, but we depend on it in a way we do not fully understand.
His Center is building state-of-the-art research facilities such as imaging facilities and NMR. Director Granick emphasizes that it is important to use the technology of the 21st century and bring it to Korea to advance research. He said he used a number of research devices to see everything that happens inside cells. Talking about research methods using many research devices, he said it took two years to find florescent molecules that cells like to eat.
Director Granick said, “I love IBS’s ambition to be different from what others are doing, UNIST’s full support, IBS researchers’ creativity and hard work, great research facilities, and openness to welcome Westerners who still do not speak Korean well.” He hopes that his Center will promote more international collaboration with Japan, India, and China as well as U.S. and Europe. He has also previously worked as a professor in China and France.
Talking about the ultimate goal of the Center, Director Granick said, “No one person’s achievements last very long. The only longevity is students. Though one of my mentors won the Nobel prize, I have noticed that people forgot his name some time afterward. But he continues to have influence through me and his other students. I aspire to do so through my researchers here at this Center.” He added, “If we are successful, we will influence the agenda of other scientists. Korean science shows to the world that here is an important problem and we need to work on it to improve the world.”