This research project focuses on developing and analyzing novel mathematical models of chromosome arrangement and segregation in bacterial cells, using data from Caulobacter crescentus bacterium. A diverse set of biological problems will be explored, including chromosome movement mediated by dynamic polymer interactions, chromosome architecture and packaging strategies inside the three dimensional space of the cell, self-organization patterns of bacterial cytoskeleton filaments, and filamentous structure dynamics and reshaping of the DNA. We will use mathematical models to develop novel descriptions of these biological processes. A variety of mathematical modeling approaches will be used, including stochastic ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, dynamical system analysis and geometrical variational principles. Model simulation and analysis will be used to advance our understanding of these processes.
Bacteria dominate the earth's biomass, so the study of bacterial cell biology reaches every aspect of life, including the medical, agricultural and ecological realms. The life cycle of bacteria is crucially dependent on the proper progression of cell division, however, because these processes occur at the nano-scale level, the current understanding of how forces and biochemical reactions are coupled to control division is limited. The approach taken here, using modern applied mathematical tools to examine bacterial cell division dynamics, will result in an improved understanding of how bacterial cells precisely and robustly organize and segregate their chromosome copies during division, while pushing forward the use of mathematics to study biological problems more generally. This quantitative approach will improve our understanding of essential cell processes and also aid in the discovery of novel applications of bacterial processes that can help sustain and improve our quality of life.
