Frederick C. MacKintosh

About

Frederick C. MacKintosh is the Abercrombie Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, as well as a Professor of Chemistry and Physics and Astronomy at Rice University. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Princeton University in 1989 and holds a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Washington. His academic career includes positions at the University of Michigan’s Physics Department, where he served as an Assistant and then Associate Professor, and a professorship at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, where he was a Professor of Theoretical Physics. Dr. MacKintosh's research focuses on the fundamental material properties of biological and soft matter networks. His key achievements include the development of models of elasticity and dynamics of biopolymer gels, as well as combined experimental and theoretical advances in micro rheology, non-equilibrium motor-activated gels, and active diffusion in cells. He has also contributed to the understanding of affine to non-affine transitions and critical behavior in fiber networks.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Composite material
• Physics
• Genetics
• Biophysics
• Cell biology
• Condensed matter physics
• Biology

Selected publications

• Unique Role of Vimentin Networks in Compression Stiffening of Cells and Protection of Nuclei from Compressive Stress

  Nano Letters · 2022 · 67 citations

  In this work, we investigate whether stiffening in compression is a feature of single cells and whether the intracellular polymer networks that comprise the cytoskeleton (all of which stiffen with increasing shear strain) stiffen or soften when subjected to compressive strains. We find that individual cells, such as fibroblasts, stiffen at physiologically relevant compressive strains, but genetic ablation of vimentin diminishes this effect. Further, we show that unlike networks of purified F-act…

  DOI

• Compression stiffening of fibrous networks with stiff inclusions

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 61 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Tissues commonly consist of cells embedded within a fibrous biopolymer network. Whereas cell-free reconstituted biopolymer networks typically soften under applied uniaxial compression, various tissues, including liver, brain, and fat, have been observed to instead stiffen when compressed. The mechanism for this compression-stiffening effect is not yet clear. Here, we demonstrate that when a material composed of stiff inclusions embedded in a fibrous network is compressed, heterogeneous rearrange…

  DOI

• Nonaffine Deformation of Semiflexible Polymer and Fiber Networks

  Physical Review Letters · 2023-02-24 · 22 citations

  articleSenior author

  Networks of semiflexible or stiff polymers such as most biopolymers are known to deform inhomogeneously when sheared. The effects of such nonaffine deformation have been shown to be much stronger than for flexible polymers. To date, our understanding of nonaffinity in such systems is limited to simulations or specific 2D models of athermal fibers. Here, we present an effective medium theory for nonaffine deformation of semiflexible polymer and fiber networks, which is general to both 2D and 3D a…

  PublisherDOI

• Temporally Correlated Active Forces Drive Segregation and Enhanced Dynamics in Chromosome Polymers

  PRX Life · 2024-07-23 · 20 citations

  articleOpen access

  Understanding the mechanisms governing the structure and dynamics of flexible polymers like chromosomes, especially the signatures of motor-driven active processes, is of great interest in genome biology. We study chromosomes as a coarse-grained polymer model where microscopic motor activity is captured via an additive temporally persistent noise. The active steady state is characterized by two parameters: active force, controlling the persistent-noise amplitude, and correlation time, the decay…

  PublisherDOI

• Strain-Controlled Critical Slowing Down in the Rheology of Disordered Networks

  Physical Review Letters · 2023-10-25 · 11 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Networks and dense suspensions frequently reside near a boundary between soft (or fluidlike) and rigid (or solidlike) regimes. Transitions between these regimes can be driven by changes in structure, density, or applied stress or strain. In general, near the onset or loss of rigidity in these systems, dissipation-limiting heterogeneous nonaffine rearrangements dominate the macroscopic viscoelastic response, giving rise to diverging relaxation times and power-law rheology. Here, we describe a sim…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Mechanical Phase Transitions and Critical Fluctuations in Fiber Networks

  NSF · $537k · 2022–2026

• Mechanical phase transitions and the rheology of stiff polymers

  NSF · $464k · 2018–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Christoph F. Schmidt

  Duke University

  124 shared

• Jordan L. Shivers

  University of Chicago

  71 shared

• Chase P. Broedersz

  Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

  70 shared

• Gijsje H. Koenderink

  Delft University of Technology

  67 shared

• Abhinav Sharma

  University of Augsburg

  63 shared

• Tomer Markovich

  56 shared

• Sadjad Arzash

  Syracuse University

  49 shared

• Alex J. Levine

  41 shared

Labs

• Frederick C. MacKintosh LabPI

Education

• PhD, Physics

  Princeton University

Similar researchers at Rice University

• Menachem Elimelechh-209
• Pulickel Ajayanh-204
• Pedro Alvarezh-117