Flows, self-organization, and transport in living cells

This paper briefly reprises, with added commentary, a talk I gave on transport and flows within living cells at an APS-DFD meeting. Directed transport is especially important in large cells, such as eggs where developmental factors need to be properly localized, and early embryos whose organelles and genetic material must be properly positioned before cell division. I discuss two cases - a nematode single-cell embryo and a fruit fly egg cell - where advances in mathematical modeling and large-scale simulation of fluid-structure interactions have helped us understand fundamental mechanisms of force transduction and self-organization within the cell.