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+34 946 567 842
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+34 946 567 842
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fbalboa@bcamath.org
Information of interest
- Orcid: 0000-0003-0130-3532
My research focuses on numerical methods for fluid dynamics and Brownian motion. At the BCAM I develop schemes for Brownian dynamics with hydrodynamic interactions
and I use these methods to disentangle the role of microswimmers, hydrodynamic interactions and Brownian motion in the formation of the so-called marine snow. I come to the BCAM after completing my Ph.D. at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and after stays at the Courant Institute and the Flatiron Institute in New York. I'm supported by the generous la Caixa Postdoctoral Junior Leader program.
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Computational modeling of passive transport of functionalized nanoparticles
Moreno-Chaparro, D.; Moreno, N.
; Balboa, F.; Ellero, M. (2023-03-14)
Functionalized nanoparticles (NPs) are complex objects present in a variety of systems ranging from synthetic grafted nanoparticles to viruses. The morphology and number of the decorating groups can vary widely between ...
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A simple catch: Fluctuations enable hydrodynamic trapping of microrollers by obstacles
van der Wee, E. B.; Blackwell, B. C.; Sokolov, A.; Balboa, F.; Katz, I. T.; Delmotte, B.; Driscoll, M. M. (2023-03-10)
It is known that obstacles can hydrodynamically trap bacteria and synthetic microswimmers in orbits, where the trapping time heavily depends on the swimmer flow field and noise is needed to escape the trap. Here, we use ...
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Mapping flagellated swimmers to surface-slip driven swimmers.
Gidituri, H.; Kabacaoglu, G.; Ellero, M.; Balboa, F. (2023)
Flagellated microswimmers are ubiquitous in natural habitats. Understanding the hydrodynamic behavior of these cells is of paramount interest, owing to their applications in bio-medical engineering and disease spreading. ...
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Swimming Efficiently by Wrapping
Ellero, M.; Balboa, F.; Gidituri, H. (2023)
Single flagellated bacteria are ubiquitous in nature. They exhibit various swimming modes using their flagella to explore complex surroundings such as soil and porous polymer networks. Some single-flagellated bacteria ...
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Hydrodynamics of spike proteins dictate a transport-affinity competition for SARS-CoV-2 and other enveloped viruses
Moreno, N.; Moreno-Chaparro, D.; Balboa, F.; Ellero, M. (2022-12-01)
Many viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2 or Influenza, possess envelopes decorated with surface proteins (a.k.a. spikes). Depending on the virus type, a large variability is present in the surface-proteins number, morphology and ...
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A numerical method for suspensions of articulated bodies in viscous flows
Balboa, F.; Delmotte, B. (2022-09-01)
An articulated body is defined as a finite number of rigid bodies connected by a set of arbitrary constraints that limit the relative motion between pairs of bodies. Such a general definition encompasses a wide variety of ...
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Metallic microswimmers driven up the wall by gravity
Brosseau, Quentin; Balboa, F.; Lushi, Enkeleida; Wu, Yang; Ristroph, Leif; Ward, Michael D.; Shelley, Michael J.; Zhang, Jun (2021-07-21)
Experiments on autophoretic bimetallic nanorods propelling within a fuel of hydrogen peroxide show that tail-heavy swimmers preferentially orient upwards and ascend along inclined planes. We show that such gravitaxis is ...
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Motile dislocations knead odd crystals into whorls
Bililign, E. S.; Balboa, F.; Ganan, Y. A.; Poncet, A.; Soni, V.; Magkiriadou, S.; Shelley, M.J.; Bartolo, D.; Irvine, W.T.M. (2021-01-01)
The competition between thermal fluctuations and potential forces governs the stability of matter in equilibrium, in particular the proliferation and annihilation of topological defects. However, driving matter out of ...