Cargo Transport by Schooling Microswimmers: from artificial to biological swimmers.

Through their motion, microswimmers entrain the fluid around them, allowing small surrounding objects like particles to get pushed or pulled along. We have developed a Brinkman squirmer model to match the experimental entrainment of self-propelling droplets to simulate schooling microswimmers and predicted that collective entrainment greatly enhances the cargo transport capabilities of microswimmers compared to a single microswimmer. To investigate the biological consequences of collective transport further, we turn to Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, a unicellular algae that perform phototaxis. We present our experimental setup to explore the transport of tracer particles by biased biological swimmers in microfluidic chambers. We expect our study on collective entrainment to have applications for particle transport, oxygen redistribution, and food intake.