Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 28, 2025

Forming, Confining, and Observing Microtubule-Based Active Nematics
Published on: January 13, 2023
Three-Dimensional Chiral Morphogenesis of Active Fluids
Zhong-Yi Li1, Yun-Ping Chen1, Hao-Yu Liu1
1Institute of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering, Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Abstract:
Chirality is an essential nature of biological systems. However, it remains obscure how the handedness at the microscale is translated into chiral morphogenesis at the tissue level. Here, we investigate three-dimensional (3D) tissue morphogenesis using an active fluid theory invoking chirality. We show that the coordination of achiral and chiral stresses, arising from microscopic interactions and energy input of individual cells, can engender the self-organization of 3D papillary and helical structures. The achiral active stress drives the nucleation of asterlike topological defects, which initiate 3D out-of-plane budding, followed by rodlike elongation. The chiral active stress excites vortexlike topological defects, which favor the tip spheroidization and twisting of the elongated rod. These results unravel the chiral morphogenesis observed in our experiments of 3D organoids generated by human embryonic stem cells.
Related Concept Videos
Fischer Projections
Chirality in Nature
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Prochirality

