This book will be written with all these audiences in mind - touching equally on each of these unique perspectives and goals. The topics discussed will be grounded in physics, but at a level accessible to researchers in other fields and consequently will discuss relevance and applicability to cellular biology and materials science.

Key Features

• 1. Detailed protocols for creating and tuning biopolymer networks, including video protocols.
• 1. Description of methods for measuring mechanics, structure, and dynamics of biopolymer networks with a focus on optical tweezers micro rheology and differential dynamic microscopy (two valuable techniques that are not widely used due to lack of understanding)
• 1. Freeware Python code for data analysis (available through GitHub repositories)
• 1. Discussion of networks of topologically-novel polymer networks - the underlying physics, how to create, and open questions
• 1. Discussion of biopolymer networks as active matter - the frontier of soft matter and materials science research.
• 1. Written to be highly interdisciplinary, suitable for relevant audiences in physics, biophysics, biology, chemistry, engineering, materials science