Antoine ALLARD

Research

My main line of research at the Physics/Biology interface focuses on understanding how microscopic organisms adapt their properties under environment constrained (mechanical and/or light).

On-going work

Ahmad Badr got a PhD fellowship to initiate the study of photoresponses in confined micro-alga. Contact us to know more about it.

A microalga journey, navigating from pool to pool. Credit: Marco Polin

Last publications

Role of Hydrodynamics in the Synchronization of Chlamydomonas Flagella

While hydrodynamic coupling has long been considered essential for synchronization of eukaryotic flagella, recent experiments on the unicel

lular biflagellate model organism Chlamydomonas demonstrate that -at the single cell level- intracellular mechanical

 coupling is necessary for coordination. It

 is therefore unclear what role, if any, hydrodynamic forces actually play in the synchronization of multiple flagella within individual cells, arguably the building block of large scale coordination. Here we address this quest

ion experimentally by transiently blocking hydrodynamic coupling between the two flagella of single Chlamydomonas. Our results reveal that in wild type cells intracellularly mediated forces are necessary and sufficient for flagellar synchronization, with hydrodynamic coupling causing minimal changes in flagellar dynamics. However, fluid-mediated ciliary coupling is responsible for the extended periods of anti-phase synchronization observed in a mutant with weaker intracellular coupling. At the single-cell level, therefore, flagellar coordination depends on a subtle balance between intracellular and extracellular forces.

Authors: Antoine Allard, Krish Desai, Marco Polin and Luc Zorilla.

Enhanced dispersion of active microswimmers in confined flows

This study introduces a unified approach combining microfluidics, Langevin simulations, and statistical analysis to examine how Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, an active swimming microalgae, disperses in confined flows. The findings extend classical Taylor–Aris dispersion theory—originally for passive Brownian particles—

to active swimmers, revealing a transition from ballistic to diffusive behaviors influenced by the flow. Shear flows are shown to impact the swimmers’ dynamics nonlinearly, enhancing spreading in complex ways. These results provide critical insight into microswimmers’ behavior in fluid environments, relevant to both artificial and natural settings. The 

work has broader implications for microbial ecology, suggesting ways to understand processes like biofilm formation, nutrient transport, and pathogen dispersal in ecosystems where fluid dynamics shape microorganism movement and interactions.

Authors: Antoine Allard, Yacine Amarouchene, Ahmad Badr, Guirec de Tournemire, Juliette Lacherez, Marc Lagoin and Thomas Salez.

CellMAP: an open source software for Cell Mapping

The Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging modes relying on force curves yield nanometer-scaled maps of living cells’ morphology and viscoelastic properties. Although AFM manufacturers offer software tools for analyzing cells individually, there is a growing need for fast and accessible tools to compile data from multiple cells into a single dataset, which is lacking within the numerous open-source tools currently available. To address this, we present CellMAP, a user-friendly software tool that streamlines the batch-processing of AFM-derived topography and elasticity maps of living cells, specifically those generated by a JPK-Bruker Nanowizard AFM. Our analysis pipeline starts with data treatment, such as leveling and filtering. Then, it allows measurement of the cell surface, volume, and elasticity distributions, mechanical and geometrical parameters crucial for characterizing cell behavior. CellMAP can also generate a composite cell from a set of standardized cells (e.g., cells constrained by micro-patterns) that reflects the entire population’s behavior.

Authors: Antoine Allard, Clément Campillo, Raphaël Crépin, Guillaume Lamour, Maxime Liboz, Olek Maciejak, Michel Malo and Sid Labdi.

Microbial narrow-escape

Assessing cancer cell characteristics

Revealing the mechanical secrets of cancer cells is crucial for understanding disease progression and developing effective diagnostics. This study employs Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to investigate the mechanical properties of breast cancer cell lines, ranging from non-metastatic to highly metastatic stages. To enhance reliability, we standardize AFM measurements using micropatterned substrates, reducing variability within and between cell populations. This comprehensive approach not only advances our understanding of cancer cell mechanics but also highlights the significance of standardized AFM techniques for robust and high-throughput mechanical mapping in cancer research.

Authors: Antoine Allard, Clément Campillo, Sid Labdi, Guillaume Lamour, Gaelle Letort, Maxime Liboz, Michel Malo, Juan Pelta and Bénédicte Thiébot.

Members

Activities

• Since January 2026, L1PC co-responsable
• Organizer of Chlamyting, the Chlamydomonas Biophysical Meeting, May 17th 2024, Bordeaux
• Organiser of BioPhy Journal Club
• Since September 2023: Communication – Physics Department
• Since March 2023: Equality-Parity referent for CNRS and referent for societal and environmental transitions for University of Bordeaux

Curriculum vitae

Here: Curriculum Vitae (sept. 2023).

I obtained a PhD in Physics from Université Paris-Saclay, studying on the role of actin cytoskeleton on lipid membrane nanotubes. This work was developed in collaboration with Clément Campillo in Laboratoire Analyse, Modélisation, Matériaux pour la Biologie et l’Environnement (LAMBE), in Évry and with Cécile Sykes in Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Curie (PCC), Curie Institute, in Paris. This work is freely available online.

For this work, I have been awarded two PhD prices:

• C’Nano 2020 in the Interdisciplinary category (here)
• Groupe d’Études des Membranes (GEM 2021)

I then joined Marco Polin‘s group at the Physics Department at University of Warwick, in England, where I worked on understanding how the model swimming organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a biflagellated microalgae, responds to light stimulus.