Using mathematical models to understand how individual contractile cells give rise to the movement of muscular tissues
The efficiencies and elegance of biological processes are becoming increasingly appreciated in engineering communities, and engineering brings quantitative tools to the analysis of complex biological processes. However, at the intersection of the biological sciences and engineering are conceptual gaps that prevent efficient integration experimental observations made at a wide range of length and time scales and across disciplines. This project seeks to use engineering, molecular biology, and computational approaches to quantitatively couple intracellular processes such as gene expression to physiological outputs such as force generation. Cardiac and skeletal muscle tissues will be used as a model biological system, and training will be completed in the laboratories of a molecular biologist and chemical engineer. Results from this project may be broadly applied to analyzing a variety of hierarchical biological systems in a multiscaled manner.
Training goals include developing expertise in molecular biology approaches as well as biomaterials synthesis techniques. Broader impacts include simulations that make complex biological systems more accessible to K-16 audiences. Research in molecular biology often provides detailed descriptions of what happens inside of cells; however, these studies are often performed in cell culture without integrating the larger system such as tissues and organs. For example, "how do genetic differences between people affect the way they build muscle or how fast they can run?" This project seeks to answer questions like this by building simulations that numerically relate what happens inside the nucleus of individual muscle cells to the contractile function of whole tissues. These simulations will help students integrate ideas from various life science disciplines.
