The observed swimming behavior of a motile microorganism is the result of a complex interplay between mechanisms of internal force
generation,
passive elastic properties of its structure, and a
surrounding viscous fluid. Recent
successes in the modeling of these coupled systems, with applications from ciliary beating to spirochete motility, will be presented. Our modeling approach thus far has been to choose input parameters such as stiffness constants, rate constants and fluid viscosities, solve the equations of motion, and then observe the resulting behavior. Alternatively, can we use ideas from 'inverse problems methodology' to identify those parameters that result in a given swimming motion?
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