Morphing and shape control in biological and bio-inspired motility

In recent years we have studied a number of problems related to shape control and motility in biological systems, with the aim of distilling lessons useful for the design of bio-inspired devices.
This has required the use of tools from theoretical/computational mechanics of solids and fluids, physical experiments and observations at the microscope in the case of unicellular swimmers, manufacturing of prototypes.
We will review some of the instructive lessons that have emerged from this research line, with special emphasis on unicellular swimmers.