Category Archives: Awards

The 2018 PhD Prize of the French Chapter of Interpore goes to Eve-Agnès Fiorentino

By PoreLab18 October, 2018Awards

Congratulations to Eve-Agnès Fiorentino! She was awarded the 2018 PhD Prize of the French Chapter of Interpore.Eve-Agnès did her PhD in Strasbourg (Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg) with Renaud Toussaint and Laurence Jouniaux, in collaboration with the PoreLab team (in particular for the work with Marcel Moura). Professor Eirik Flekkøy from UiO was a

Interpore – PoreLab Award for Young Researchers

By PoreLab29 September, 2017Awards, Research

The International Society for Porous Media, InterPore, on behalf of PoreLab, a center of excellence jointly formed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Oslo, announces a Young Researcher Award in recognition of outstanding contributions in the field of porous media from a fundamental point of view. The research

Dr. Øivind Wilhelmsen wins two prestigious awards

By PoreLab7 June, 2017Awardsequilibrium, nonequilibrium, thermodynamics

Dr. Øivind Wilhelmsen wins the 2017 EFCE Excellence Award in Thermodynamics and Transport Properties

Our guest, Dr. Erika Eiser, Reader in Soft Matter Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge will give a presentation on “Microrheology of DNA hydrogels” on October the 22nd at PoreLab premises (PTS2, 2nd floor), starting at 13:15. Welcome!

Abstract. The specificity of DNA-hybridization allows us to form multi-valent nanostars similar to molecules with a given valency. However, different to regular molecules we can assign to each arm in the DNA-nanostar a given binding strength by varying the length and sequence of the single-stranded DNA terminating the arms. Such specificity has been used to self-assemble short DNA oligomers into 2D and 3D origamis with prescribed nanostructures. Here I will introduce Y-shaped DNA nanostars that can self-assemble into a continuous, viscoelastic hydrogel. Using Diffusing-Wave Spectroscopy (DWS), we were able to monitor the change of the viscoelastic modulus G*(w) of our solution of Y-shaped DNA nanostars goes from a completely fluid to predominantly elastic system over a wide range of frequencies and function of temperature [1,2]. Our micro- rheological measurements reveal that these hydrogels behave like transient networks made of flexible polymers, when building in some flexible linkers. But differently to most (bio)polymeric networks we can form and melt our DNA hydrogels reversibly by cooling or heating the systems. Moreover, by changing the strength of the sticky overhangs of the Y-shapes we can control the temperature at which the liquid to gel transitions occurs. Finally, our measurements allow us to associate the melting temperature at which this transition occurs as the system’s percolation transition.

[1] Z. Xing et al. ‘Microrheology of DNA hydrogels’, PNAS 115, no. 32 (2018),

[2] I. Stoev et al. ‘Single-Beam Optical Tweezers for the Passive Microrheology of Complex Fluids’ SPIE proceedings, paper 10723-91 (2018)